What is creative visualization? Is it the same as hypnosis or is there a difference?
Jon Rhodes
Creative visualisation is using your imagination to visualise the fulfilment of a particular goal. Once a goal is visualised vividly enough, the subconscious mind will strive to achieve this goal by influencing the decisions and choices that you make. Creative visualisation is one technique amongst many that hypnotherapists use for therapeutic purposes. In the 1920’s Napoleon Hill advocated the use of this technique to attract wealth – literally by visualising already having it. This technique is still advocated by many self help authors, and it forms the basis for the ‘law of attraction’, and a major part of Rhonda Byrne’s bestselling book and film ‘The Secret’.
Are there any situations or reasons why someone shouldn’t be hypnotized?
People who do not want to be hypnotized should not treated. Sometimes a person may be pushed too much by a well meaning friend or family member to undergo a particular therapy. The problem is that if they don’t want to be treated, then their minds can easily reject all the suggestions that are given. You can only treat someone who wants to be treated. Any attempt to force it is a waste of everyone’s time. So if for example someone came to me for smoking cessation because their wife made them, I would probably turn them away and ask them to return if or when they decided for themselves that they wanted this treatment.
It is commonly thought that hypnotherapists should not treat people who are suffering from mental illnesses. However there is no research or indeed adequate explanations ever given as to why this is the case. This old ‘sacred cow’ seems to be slowly eroding, and more and more therapists are beginning to treat patients who suffer from various mental illnesses, particularly depression. As far as I am aware, no problems have been reported.
I would however stop at treating people for serious traumatic problems, such as sexual abuse. This is because I believe it takes special specific training for a therapist to deal with such matters, and any therapy given without adequate training may be ineffective and a waste of everyone’s time, and could even risk further traumatising the patient.
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Do you teach workshops on hypnosis or self hypnosis?
I have in the past, but haven’t done for some time. I often teach some of my patients self hypnosis at the end of a course of treatment, so that they can better look after themselves without being too dependant on a therapist.
Are there any questions I can ask a hypnotherapist to make sure they are competent and qualified?
Probably the best thing you can ask them is where they were trained. If in doubt you can even ask to see their qualifications. It is also a good idea to check the validity of their training. You could do an internet search on the body or school that taught them to make sure they are known and credible. As a general rule, I would personally avoid hypnotherapists that trained purely on distance learning courses. A competent and well trained hypnotherapist should learn both theory and practically, which can only really be done in live learning situations.
Why do some hypnotists use a swinging watch or pendulum?
Not that many hypnotherapists use swinging watches but some still do. The reason is to gain eye fatigue, so that the subject will comfortably close their eyes, and feel relaxed very quickly as they will not want to open their eyes. Hypnotherapists these days tend to use different methods to achieve the same thing, such as asking a subject to stare at a moving spiral or a spot on the ceiling. Some hypnotherapists and particularly stage hypnotists still use a swinging watch in order to fulfil the expectation of the subject, as people sometimes expect this, and may feel that they cannot be hypnotized without it.
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