Andre offers Hypnotic Visualization under the slogan, “Manifesting your desires … Into reality.” A professional hypnotherapist, he works with clients on behaviour modification, especially bad habits and addictions, but also dealing with fears and phobias. His emphasis is on what is holistic and healing and on the fostering of good relationships, especially with yourself.
People often ask, “What is the difference between hypnotism and hypnotherapy?” The answer is. “Nothing at all.” A stage performer and a therapist will use exactly the same techniques, but apply them for a difference purpose.
What hypnotism does is turn off your critical thinking – that insidious inner voice that says you can’t succeed, or you won’t get better. In a state almost of suspended animation, you remain aware, relaxed and receptive to suggestion. Now your conscious mind has been put to sleep, your subconscious mind is open to suggestion, and you can begin to work with the hypnotherapist to achieve that change in your behaviour that you have determined upon.
Your conscious decision, whatever it is – lose weight, stop smoking – is the primary impetus for such change. With your willing consent, a different pattern of behaviour can be reinforced by the power of your own subconscious.
The blocks that prevent us from doing what is good for us are emotionally based. There’s the inner child who has never grown up, or been fully acknowledged by the adult self. There are the fears we repress, and the doubts we don’t express. Whatever has been suppressed and given power through silence and unknowing still has the power to harm or hurt.
Some hypnotherapists seem to claim that through regression therapy, hypnotism can offer a quick-fix solution. Remove this block, identify that trauma, and beneficial progress towards the desired goal will flow, unimpeded.
André says it is not quite as simple as that, but can be done. He will take you back in time until you find when and how that block was created – what circumstance, what words and acts. Once you understand how that block occurred, you can defuse its power, choosing to replace the message it has been sending out for weeks, months, years with a better suggestion.
Regression is not only into your own immediate past and personal history. Subjects have been successfully regressed into past lives. If you believe in reincarnation, it makes sense to consider that you might be carrying some sin or suffering forward into the new beginning. Regression can allow for a psychical as well as a physical rebirth. Don’t be surprised, however, if you discover you were not an Egyptian princess, but merely her handmaiden. In the circle of life no one is ordinary and fantasy must always give way to fact.
Hypnotism is a technique that anyone can learn, and it is a co-operative enterprise between subject and guide at all levels. You go into a state of hypnosis because you have agreed to do so, but you cannot be forced to do anything that is contrary to your own good sense or inner conviction. That is because the ‘real you’ is in your subconscious, and that remains alert throughout the process. If it did not, how could you receive the benefit of the hypnotist’s suggestions as a precursor to change?
André considers that what is most important in an effective outcome is that you took that first and most significant step towards change out of love and care for yourself. Hypnotherapy can be an enduring gift from you to you – helping you to become the person you were meant to be. A person more effective than at present.
Hypnotherapy had had a bad press concerning ‘false memory syndrome’ – where the subject came to believe that something bad had happened in childhood, and to accuse a parent or other person of doing it to them. This is wrong use of the power of suggestion, and happens only at the hands of a poorly-trained hypnotherapist who is asking directed rather than open-ended questions. Memory of itself is an unreliable tool, and to get to the real answers about what happened ‘back then’, the subject must be allowed to re-experience it without the imposition of the practitioner’s interpretations.
Hypnotism and hypnotherapy, says André, should be used simply as a key to unlocking the past - a key that has been entrusted to you and must be used only with the owner’s permission. A trained hypnotherapist will never force open the doors to your subconscious and the past. To do so is to give access to what is mad, bad and dangerous to know.
If a memory is recovered that is disturbing, then post-hypnosis the subject and therapist should examine it together, testing the memory against what is feasible and logical. In the hands of a properly-trained hypnotherapist with professional standard of behaviour and a code of ethics, such a process, properly undertaken, can only illuminate your life. Hypnosis can help you to understand yourself better; to let go of a harmful past, and to move forward into a brighter, better future.
André’s main regret is that people tend to use hypnotherapy as a last resort. By this he means that if they came forward earlier for help, they have saved themselves years of struggle. Some of the problems would be less serious if dealt with earlier, when the patterns and blocks are more susceptible to change and removal. He says, “Emotion seems to be stronger than logic when it comes to taking care of ourselves. For example, we know smoking and over-eating and drug abuse aren’t good for us, and yet we continue to do them. Hypnotism helps us to understand why, and to let go of the need to continue like this.”
Can hypnotism help with a physical condition? Well, all illnesses have a psycho-somatic element, in that mind and body are inextricably linked. Help the mind to cope, and you are helping the body to heal. Even where an illness is terminal, hypnotism can help dispel the underlying fears we hold about death and dying.
The Viennese philosopher Wittgenstein said, “The man who has not accepted death has not accepted life.” In embracing death positively, we can learn to live more fully. We are all going to die; and we have no choice as to when and how. Hypnotism can help us accept the inevitable and to embrace it positively.
Mainly, however, hypnotism is used to dispel fears and phobias, and to lessen the adverse effects of everyday stress and strain. We all have an inner power we can tap into under guidance, and a powerful imagination to help us visually create the goals we are aiming for. Once that is fixed in our subconscious, we have a path we can follow step by step until we reach that desired objective.
André usually works with a client over 1-5 sessions, and finds them responsive from the start. He usually teaches them self-hypnotic techniques to continue the good work after they have left his care. He says, “At the end of the day, hypnotherapy is there as a proven means of benefiting anyone in any situation who has set their mind working towards a solution. I am here simply as a guide on that journey of discovery and change. We do it together, so that they can continue to do it alone.”
What to look for in a hypnotherapist
- Ask around for ‘word of mouth’ or personal recommendations.
- Book an initial interview to ask questions that are important to you.
- Don’t proceed unless you are confident you can work together.
- Take note of the practitioner’s personal image, attitude and presentation.
- Be clear about what you want. Your own motivation is the most important factor.
Three preconditions for success in hypnotherapy:
- It is important the client acknowledges what the problem is and commits to address it. Think about this before you make your first appointment, and discuss it with the hypnotherapist.
- It is useful if the client realized that they aren’t reaching their full potential in some specific area, or that they are stuck somewhere on the road to where they want to be. Knowing there is a block is a help in discovering what that block is and working to remove it.
- It is helpful if the client understand that sometimes we need to remember what it is we want to achieve, or redefine our purposes. This is the basis of good motivation in securing the kind of significant change that hypnotherapy is suited to secure.
