By Christine DuRoss, Certified Hypnotherapist

Understanding the conscious and subconscious mind

We all have a conscious and subconscious mind. The conscious mind is the logical, thinking, goal-setting brain and consists of your persona and willpower. It’s the part of you that applies logic, actively thinks, and analyzes. The subconscious is the realm of beliefs, habits, memories, emotions, and where we have access to our deepest wisdom. It’s also where the body’s automatic actions exist, including the natural healing process and all the functions of our organs, cells, hormones, etc. Everything about ourselves that is outside of our conscious awareness exists within this subconscious space, and while they are understood as different parts of our awareness, the conscious mind and subconscious mind affect each other. 

Have you ever found yourself trying to make a change to a habit, and then found yourself in a moment of stress or lost in thought, doing the exact thing you told yourself you wouldn’t do anymore? This is an example of the subconscious mind at play. The subconscious is running the show 95% of the time; anytime you’re in a habitual way of being, on autopilot, daydreaming, or even resting. When we tell ourselves we’re going to change, we’re doing so from our conscious mind. If you set a goal for yourself and find you can work towards it without resistance, then it’s likely that goal is aligned with your subconscious beliefs and self-concept. However, you may have found that it feels like an uphill battle with yourself to stop doing or being a certain way and that’s an indication that there is a subconscious process affecting you. The most effective way to truly address this is by going to the source - the subconscious.

In the subconscious, we hold everything we learned since early childhood about how to get our needs met, be accepted, and be protected. This means that there are beliefs we carry about ourselves and the world that we decided were true when we were between the ages of 0 and 7 years old.  Sometimes, these early beliefs and ways of being continue to serve us throughout our lives. However, most of us have “truths” we believe - things we decided when we were young - that simply don’t hold up when we examine them as an adult. It makes sense, then, to intentionally update such old beliefs or ways of being so that they reflect the learnings, wisdom, and perspective you have now and this is one of the ways that hypnotherapy is used. 

It’s empowering to realize that your subconscious mind’s intention for you is always positive, even when the way that it might play out in your life is undesired or even seems counterintuitively harmful. Using hypnotherapy, we can work with those parts of ourselves with good intentions but unwanted pathways, and adopt more helpful and desirable ways of being. 

Case Example

I have many examples from my practice of clients who came with a problem that was linked to something that was ultimately protective in their subconscious, but unwanted in their daily life. For example, a 60 year old client had been pulling out her hair since she was 5 years old. Since the age of 5, she would pull out her hair when she was upset but eventually, she also began to do it when she was lost in thought, bored, driving … it became pervasive. She felt embarrassed and ashamed, because she didn’t feel in control of herself and sometimes people would notice and actually ask her “why are you pulling out your hair?!” She had tried everything to stop herself, without success. She had a general sense of knowing that the behaviour was related to her childhood, but the actual reason was outside her awareness. Interestingly, this client had blocked most memories and when we began working together, told me that she couldn’t remember anything from her childhood. Together using hypnotherapy, we were able to understand that because of a traumatic situation her family was dealing with, she had felt that it wasn’t okay to cry or need anything from her parents. She began pulling her hair to stop herself from crying or seeking her parents’ attention. As a 5 year old child, she has interpreted that her parents couldn’t handle having to deal with her on top of everything else they were going through. The belief that was created at that time and that drove the behaviour of pulling her hair was “I’m not important.” Through hypnotherapy, we were able to work through the root cause of her suffering and maladaptive coping, change her relationship to what happened, and release the hair-pulling behaviour completely. She has reached out intermittently since our last session to show me her hair progress - it’s been growing out over the last 7 months and she’s so proud and finally feels a sense of mental and emotional freedom. 

What is hypnotherapy? 

Hypnotherapy is a therapy process that works directly with the subconscious mind. Hypnotherapy involves using positive internal resources, memories, emotions, imagination, deep relaxation, repetition and suggestions meant to serve and support the client to make changes according to their goals. Hypnosis provides active minds a chance to rest and the nervous system an opportunity to shift into the healing parasympathetic state. Using hypnosis allows us to get to the root cause of a problematic belief or behaviour at the subconscious level, to create transformational healing and change. This is because in a state of openness and receptivity, the subconscious is able to accept direction to change. This can mean shifting an outdated belief, letting go of a pattern that used to serve you but no longer does, or installing new strategies that are most aligned with your true self, your goals and what it is that you want for your life. The therapeutic use of hypnosis is by its very nature person-centred as it is guided through an understanding of the individualʼs phenomenological world, as it is in the present, has been in the past, and how they would like it to be. Hypnotherapy is especially notable because it can be used with such a variety of issues, and is incredibly effective. 

My hypnotherapy clients have released issues including anxiety; feeling triggered or stuck in patterns in relationships; lack of confidence and performance anxiety in their careers; fears and phobias (needles, enclosed spaces, flying, etc); low mood; feeling “off” and disconnected from themselves; emotional eating and difficulty releasing excess weight; grief; fatigue; self-harm; limiting beliefs; and health symptoms that don’t seem to have a logical cause. 

Misconceptions and myths about hypnosis 

Stage hypnosis, movies and television shows that show hypnosis for entertainment or dramatic effect have created some misconceptions about what hypnotherapy entails. Often, new clients will ask me what to expect and seek clarification about what it means to go into hypnosis. Here are some important things to know about hypnotherapy and the use of hypnosis in sessions:

Myth “I won’t be in control of what I say or do in hypnosis”

Truth: You always retain your personal power to choose what to share and do. Even in a deeply relaxed state like hypnosis, clients can decide what they wish to share and what they would like to keep private. 

Myth “I can get stuck in hypnosis”

Truth: Hypnosis is a natural state of deep relaxation. It can be helpful to understand what is happening in the brain when you go into hypnosis. In terms of brainwaves, we are moving from the alert and awake state of beta through the calm, deeply focused state of alpha and into theta where your subconscious mind opens up and you feel deeply relaxed. Naturally, we pass through theta on our way to sleep each night, and again as we are waking up in the morning. You know that dreamy state, when you’re not asleep but not fully awake in the morning? This is what being in theta feels like. Just like you cannot get stuck asleep or awake, you cannot get stuck in the natural state of hypnosis. 

Myth “Not everyone can go into hypnosis”

Truth: Just like everyone goes to sleep and moves into that theta brainwave state, everyone is capable of accessing that state through hypnosis. Hypnotherapy is a collaborative process. I ask my clients’ permission to take them into hypnosis, and they are intentionally choosing to allow me to guide them. It takes participation and willingness to engage in hypnotherapy, but those who are willing to engage in the process will experience it. 

Myth “Hypnosis is the same as sleep”

Truth: From the outside, a person may look like they are sleeping but actually, trance is a heightened state of internal focus. You remain awake throughout the session.

Myth: “The subconscious mind isn’t changeable”

Truth: This couldn’t be farther from the truth! The subconscious mind is malleable and is open to change. Ultimately, your subconscious is working to protect you and ensure your needs are met. When the way your subconscious is trying to serve you isn’t working for you, you can intentionally shift it. This is what we do together using hypnotherapy. 

Myth: “Hypnosis won’t work for me”

Truth: Hypnotherapy is incredibly powerful for making the changes you want to make, and there are decades of research to support its efficacy. One study compared hypnotherapy to other forms of therapy, and found that within just 6 sessions, clients experienced a 93% improvement compared to just 38% for psychoanalysis. Hypnotherapy has been shown to increase happiness, improve emotional control, and positively impact feelings regarding the past, present and future.

What can I expect? 

Your first session will be 90 minutes and this will involve a thorough assessment of the issue you want to address, how it presents in your life, and what it is that you want to achieve in therapy. I create unique treatment plans for each client following our initial assessment, though your experience between sessions will also serve to guide me based on what change has taken place and if elements of the problem might still be present. Subsequent sessions will be 60-75 minutes, involving an initial check-in, followed by hypnotherapy. At the end of the session, we'll review any recommendations I have for you to do between sessions, which may include listening to recorded segments of the session. Your hypnotherapy program will be unique to you, customized according to your unique needs. 

I invite you to book a free 15 minute consultation with me, so we can discuss how I may be able to help you using hypnotherapy. 

References

1.  Duff, S.C. & Nightingale, D. J, (2005). The efficacy of hypnosis in changing the quality of life in patients with dementia: A pilot-study evaluation. European Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 6(2) 20-29.

2. Barrios, Alfred A. (1969). “Hypnotherapy: A Reappraisal” in Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice. https://storage.googleapis.com/wzukusers/user-34855969/documents/5cf52fbc11048UHV5eGF/Hypnotherapy%20-%20A%20Reappraisal,%20By%20Alfred%20A%20Barrios%20PhD.pdf

3.  Ruysschaert, Nicole. (2014). “The Use of Hypnosis in Therapy to Increase Happiness.” American Journal Of Clinical Hypnosis Vol. 56(3).