Hypnosis Series: My Personal Experience

As I felt the water flow over my body, I trembled and breathed deeply. I focused on letting go of all the tension in my body. I inhaled the smells of the eucalyptus candle and epsom salts. My mind was drawn in by the voice on the recording, my body felt like it was floating, and my brain felt calm but laser focused on the experience I was having.

A tear trickled down my face.

The experience was having a candle-lit bath by myself in the evening after a long day of working and psychotherapy. The part that made this experience much different than any I had before was that I was tranced. And the tear? The tear was a sign of joy and release, the sign of finding a safe place to just be and exist free from the impact and demands of my external world.

Hypnosis

Let me start by saying that relaxation and a sense of peace is not something that I find easily. I would even go so far as to say that finding this mental state on my own is borderline, if not is, impossible.

I have always been riddled with anxiety and fear. A fear of everything going on around me. But also a fear of everything going on inside my own mind. The feeling of fear has been a way of life for me, an existence of living always on the edge of danger, always needing to be prepared for whatever unexpected misfortune or harm could or would come my way next.

What is hypnosis?

When induced into hypnosis, our brain waves enter into theta brain wave frequency, the frequency that’s just above sleep. This brain wave frequency is used to help bypass parts of the mind and brain that are resistant to change.

There are changes in 3 parts of the brain during hypnosis that allows you to focus purely on what is happening without outside thoughts and disconnects the connection between action and awareness of action in the body while hypnotized. This helps you respond to the clinician and their suggestions without using mental resources to be self-conscious of the activity or your thoughts.

Contrary to some belief, hypnosis is not a form of mind control. The therapist is working directly with your unconscious mind, bypassing your conscious mind, but your unconscious mind is still aware and alert to keeping you safe.

What has been the most unexpected result of using hypnosis?

Using hypnosis was not something I had ever considered doing until my therapist brought it up to me. So, I went in with not a lot of expectation (or hope) that this would actually help or work.

With that being said, I’ve had a lot of surprises come through the use of hypnosis.

The most impactful and the biggest has been how much hypnosis has helped me build more trust and confidence with my therapist.

The road to building trust with my therapist has been a long, hard, tear filled, painful road. When I say I trust him, I say that as someone who has trusted really no one else in my life before. It’s meaningful and strong.

However, hypnosis has allowed me to build something even deeper with him.

It’s really hard to put into words, but allowing yourself to enter into a trance state with another person is very intimate. Your mind and body have to be open to the experience and you have to trust that they are leading you somewhere positive and comfortable, a place where you feel safe to explore the deeper parts of your mind and your life.

Every time I’ve experienced trance, I’ve felt my trust with my therapist grow stronger.

These changes in trust were also evident in my sessions with him.

Before hypnosis, I would have experiences in therapy where my emotions would be too heightened and it would take a lot of work between both of us to bring the anxiety and fear back down to a manageable level. I sometimes left therapy feeling overwhelmed and overtaken by my emotions and the work we had done.

Using hypnosis, my therapist has been able to calm me down in a way that has let me release the emotions and tensions I have build up during a session calmly. I have been leaving hard appointments feeling more uplifted and supported, even when the session didn’t necessarily go as planned. It has helped ease tension and anxiety not only during my appointments, but usually long into the rest of my days as well.

I feel an acceptance and peace with hypnosis that I had really struggled to find before.

How is hypnosis used in my psychotherapy sessions?

Hypnosis is used in a few different ways during my therapy sessions.

Like explained above, hypnosis is often used as a way to bring me down from emotions that have become too heightened. When I’m at a risk of dissociating or having trouble making sense of the session, my therapist usually does the induction into hypnosis. So far, every time it has allowed me the needed support to calm down and find stability again. Not falling into these bottomless pits of despair have helped me get a lot more out of my therapy sessions both during the sessions and the time afterwards when I’m reflecting on how a specific session went.

Another way it’s used is to help me wrap my mind around complex topics or topics that are difficult for me to discuss because of dissociation. Using hypnosis, my doctor is able to access a part of my mind that is more accepting and more flexible, he’s able to introduce concepts and ideas that my conscious mind will likely have more resistance too. This has given me more success with complex or hard topics. Previously, I would learn new concepts or new ideas and thoughts but find it really difficult to implement those concepts into my daily life. Hypnosis has allowed me to develop a lot of these complex thoughts and ideas into my daily life without much effort on my part. Although I still must be aware and open to these changes, they seem to flow from the therapy session into my daily life with a lot more ease and a lot more naturally than they did in the past.

My psychiatrist and I have also used hypnosis for him to open up communication and dialogue with my alter personalities. He’s been able to draw out the personality or alter he is trying to communicate with and speak to them when I’m hypnotized. These experiences have been interesting as I haven’t had access to the memories from him doing this, so he’s recorded some of the sessions for me to use to get closer to my alters and understand them better.

I strongly suggest only using hypnosis with alter personalities with a therapist who is experienced and who you have already established a significant level of trust with.

What does being hypnotized feel like?

In my experience, entering into a hypnotic trance state has been one of the most calming experiences of my life.

When I’m in trance, physically, my body feels like I’m floating with a tension-less body. My head feels light and clear.

When I’m in trace, mentally, I feel like all my worries and fears have fallen to the side. I know they are still there but they are less bothersome and not my primary focus. My mind feels more expansive and connected to everything outside the trance, but still remains laser-focused on the situation and words of my therapist. Everything feels like it flows through my body with little to no resistance, ideas have more depth, and my ability to understand and reflect is heightened.

The experience of trance is one I think everyone should have the chance to experience, but especially those with trauma. It has opened my life up to a deepness, a calmness, and an ease that I wasn’t aware I could live with.

If you have enjoyed this blog post on hypnosis and trance, you’re going to love my upcoming posts on the different types of hypnosis, the research behind hypnosis, and how to decide if hypnosis is right for you!

Note: If you are someone who has a history of trauma and dissociation, I strongly recommend only doing hypnosis with a trained professional who you have already established a significant level of trust with. Hypnosis can feel eerily similar to dissociation and it’s important that your therapist have the right tools available to them to help guide you into hypnosis in a safe and comfortable way.