Have you tried hypnosis before? NO, then let me tell you a little about hypnosis and what you can expect to experience, just to put your mind at rest and help you get the most from this amazingly powerful form of help.

At first, there are many misunderstandings about hypnosis and I will bring up some of the most common misunderstandings. The most frequent misunderstanding is that hypnosis would be some kind of sleep. You will not sleep during the sessions. Even though the word "hypnosis" comes from the Greek word "hypnos" which means sleep - you will not be sleeping. You may be aware of everything I say during the session and that's OK because you are still in hypnosis. In some instances you may be able to respond, and in some cases I may wish for you to provide me with predetermined signals, or a verbal response. Yet, again, I stress that even though you may be aware of everything you say during the session, you can be assured that you are under hypnosis.

If you do completely relax and fall asleep during the session it isn't a problem. You are in a safe place and will not miss anything from the session. And there is no need to worry about not waking up. This cannot happen. Less than 10% of the population achieves such a deep trance state that they disassociate or "black out" like they do when they receive anaesthesia. Such people are called "somnambulists" and they do not consciously remember what happens during hypnosis unless the hypnotist suggests that they will. However, even these people will wake up at the end of a session.Your hearing acts like a surveillance camera, which stays alert to protect both you and your offspring. Just think of when a mother is "asleep" and hears her baby cry, she wakes up immediately. If someone breaks into your home while you are "asleep," you will be alerted as soon as you hear a noise. Your hearing is "on" 24/7, taking in information and recording it. In hypnosis, we use this to your advantage, so even if you fall "asleep" during the session, your brain is still recording all of the information in your subconscious mind.

The history of hypnosis is fascinating, but very long and detailed, so allow me to give you the basic version so you can appreciate where hypnosis came from and why hypnosis is so successful, beneficial and safe for us to use.

Hypnosis is at least more than 6,000 years old, and some say it could be older. The Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Indians, Chinese, Persians and Sumerians all studied hypnosis and altered states of consciousness. Between the 9th and 14th centuries a deep understanding of human psychology was achieved and therapeutic processes such as analysis, altered states of consciousness and hypnosis were used to alleviate emotional distress and suffering. This came before psychotherapy and hypnotherapy as we know them today. From the 15th and 16th centuries onwards physicians across the world developed and refined the concept of hypnosis and its uses.

In the 18th century the most influential figure in the development of hypnosis was an Austrian physician called Dr Frantz Anton Mesmer. Mesmer used magnets and metal hypnosis for anxiety to perform "passes" over the patient to remove "blockages" (i.e.: the causes of diseases) in the magnetic forces in the body and to induce a trance-like state. Mesmer soon achieved equally successful results by passing his hands over the patient, and he named this method "animal magnetism". Sadly because his healing sessions were so theatrical and held in front of the public and medical practitioners, his work was ridiculed and his tangible results ignored. However his name survived and entered our vocabulary as the verb "mesmerise".