Psychologist and clinical hypnotherapist
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: UK
Posts: 839
Psychologist and clinical hypnotherapist
My husband has asked me to see this person as he feels it may help me. He's paid for me to go for 4 sessions initially.
For anxiety not drinking.
Has anyone else been to this sort of therapy and has it helped?
For anxiety not drinking.
Has anyone else been to this sort of therapy and has it helped?
Member
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: US
Posts: 5,095
Hypnotism is such a trip. I have personally never done it. But at a work conference years ago I watched a guy hypnotize about 20 people on stage. He had them thinking they were on roller coasters and racing cars. It was unreal. And he implanted post hypnotic suggestions so throughout the evening he would trigger them to jump up and say some random thing like "blue light special at kmart". The person standing there stunned that they just shouted it out. I was blown away.
So that was a long way of saying if the person knows what they are doing I would imagine it could be a powerful tool.
So that was a long way of saying if the person knows what they are doing I would imagine it could be a powerful tool.
Member
Join Date: Nov 2018
Posts: 5,169
Went to counseling during college for 2 years. I received hypnotherapy once from a different counselor, but nothing dramatic happened there. But the two years of counseling (free college perk) was a huge help. I wouldn't expect much from 4 sessions, but it will probably make you feel better if you're serious. The big insights for me came farther down the road in counseling. The first sessions just seem to set the stage. In my case, anxiety attacks preceded the insights, which were always surprisingly delightful once acknowledged. The anxiety is another story of course. Since you are already at the anxiety stage, you may be close to finding out why it's there. But this is pure speculation on how it will work for you. I can say with some confidence, that what you will discover will be a surprise.
Think about it. Things that surprise are things you don't expect. That's why they surprise you. If you weren't suppressing these things, you would already know them. I often wondered after a delightful surprise insight, why was the anxiety so scary? There was nothing about the surprise that warranted such an unnerving early reaction. Fear of the unknown maybe?
Have a good time and enjoy it. It's fun in a roller coaster sort of way. It also takes some work on your part. I kept a journal during the whole time. I would write down my hour to hour feelings and speculate where they were coming from. Most of the things I wrote down pointed to something to come, although I wouldn't realize they were pointing at anything while writing them down.
Much of it just seemed like random streaming of consciousness. Sometimes it seemed absurd, but would come together at later time. Some of it was just useless dead ends. But a glimmer of a feeling usually connected to something yet to come. Don't hold back even if it seems absurd. The counselor will understand, and they are very good at not laughing at the most ridiculous things that pass through your brain. This is serious business to them.
But my counselor and I did laugh a lot together. It became an unusually close friendship. I was respected throughout the whole experience.
Oh, and don't think your cured after the first insight. It's only the beginning. But it's different for everyone, so I'll stop here.
Think about it. Things that surprise are things you don't expect. That's why they surprise you. If you weren't suppressing these things, you would already know them. I often wondered after a delightful surprise insight, why was the anxiety so scary? There was nothing about the surprise that warranted such an unnerving early reaction. Fear of the unknown maybe?
Have a good time and enjoy it. It's fun in a roller coaster sort of way. It also takes some work on your part. I kept a journal during the whole time. I would write down my hour to hour feelings and speculate where they were coming from. Most of the things I wrote down pointed to something to come, although I wouldn't realize they were pointing at anything while writing them down.
Much of it just seemed like random streaming of consciousness. Sometimes it seemed absurd, but would come together at later time. Some of it was just useless dead ends. But a glimmer of a feeling usually connected to something yet to come. Don't hold back even if it seems absurd. The counselor will understand, and they are very good at not laughing at the most ridiculous things that pass through your brain. This is serious business to them.
But my counselor and I did laugh a lot together. It became an unusually close friendship. I was respected throughout the whole experience.
Oh, and don't think your cured after the first insight. It's only the beginning. But it's different for everyone, so I'll stop here.
Currently Active Users Viewing this Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
