| As a psycotherapist who uses hypnosis and | | | | have tried to think it away; to conquer it with logic, |
| hypnotherapy, I must admit that it sometimes feels as | | | | telling themselves to 'stop being silly'. Yet nothing has |
| if I have two quite different, seperate individuals in the | | | | worked. This seldom surprises me. In any battle |
| chair at the same time The two certainly are related | | | | between feelings and logic, the feelings will almost |
| and they seem to know quite a bit about each other. | | | | always win. We might fully understand that something |
| They seem to have passed through some very similar | | | | is 'silly', but understanding that something is silly and |
| experiences. But they simply don't seem to | | | | letting it go are two very different things. This is simply |
| communicate well with each other. One person is | | | | because the true power of the human mind does not |
| entirely rational and logical; they analyze and compare, | | | | really lie in the conscious logical part, but in the |
| measure and debate. Whenever I talk with these | | | | subconscious feeling part. Usually the subconscious |
| people I make quite sure that I use the language of | | | | mind is working in a certain way because of an |
| logic. The other person in the chair is remarkably | | | | experience or series of experiences that happened in |
| different. They care nothing for logic. They make | | | | the past. The actual experience itself is in fact far less |
| absolutely no demand that things be rational. They feel | | | | important than what the mind did with that experience; |
| and they function on an emotional, rather than a | | | | how it was processed and perceived - or |
| cerebral level. I make quite certain that I use the | | | | misperceived. Based on past perception - often the |
| language of imagination when I speak with these | | | | perception of the child - a belief was born and this |
| people. Of course, I don't actually have two different | | | | belief became firmly implanted in the subconscious |
| people in my therapy chair, but it can certainly feel as if | | | | mind, working as a piece of software might work in |
| I do. That first person, analytical and logical, is simply the | | | | some powerful bio-computer. And if that perception |
| conscious mind, while the other feeling person is the | | | | was faulty, then it produced a belief that grew |
| subconscious mind. Both are useful, indeed essential | | | | stronger and stronger, until it began generating and |
| parts of the self, yet their nature is quite different. And | | | | driving uncomfortable feelings such as fear, anxiety, |
| often they can be at odds with each other. In order to | | | | apprehension, worry, depression and low self-esteem. |
| better understand this it is useful to understand | | | | The difficulty is that no matter how hard we try, no |
| something of the way in which our minds work. You | | | | amount of will power is able to diffuse and get rid of it. |
| see, the conscious mind is that part of us that reasons. | | | | The good news is that with hypnosis and hypno |
| It is basically who we think we are. It is the home of will | | | | psychotherapy, we can reach into the subconscious |
| power and of conscious decision making. However, it | | | | part of the mind, talking to it in its own language. |
| is the subconscious mind that is the part of us which | | | | Because the subconscious mind forgets nothing, we |
| experiences emotions. It is basically who we feel we | | | | can uncover the source of the difficult feelings - the |
| are. It is the repository of our habits and our beliefs. | | | | misperception and the faulty belief - and we can |
| We also have a third part, and that is the unconscious | | | | realign it and re-educate it, thereby neutralising its |
| mind. This is the part of us that is responsible for the | | | | power to disturb. Moreover, because hypnosis works |
| smooth running of all those processes that we simply | | | | hand in glove with the autonomous nervous system, |
| take for granted - our breathing and heart beat, the | | | | we can even help it to work optimally, speeding up |
| regulation of our body temperature, the functioning of | | | | healing, bolstering the immune system, and even |
| our autonomic nervous system. It's what keeps things | | | | managing pain. If you sometimes feel as if there are |
| going when we sleep and when we are awake, | | | | two parts of you, and that they are at odds with each |
| without our ever really having to think about it or give it | | | | other then in many ways you are right. Knowing this, |
| instructions. When clients visit me, it's most often | | | | you are in an excellent position to help both parts |
| because they have been having real problems with | | | | function in the very best of ways. Through expertly |
| the way they have been feeling. Usually, they've done | | | | delivered hypnosis and hypnotherapy - or through |
| everthing they could possibly think of in order to feel | | | | regular self-hypnosis - you can once more feel whole |
| better. They have tried to deny the problem, use | | | | and at one with yourself and your world. |
| will-power in an attempt to make it go away. They | | | | |