I wanted to share a resource with you for hypnosis, and I invited Catriona of the Hypnotherapy Directory to write a guest article today:

When people think of hypnosis, they often think of “stage hypnosis.”  The usual cliché is someone from the audience being put ‘under’ and then clucking like a chicken.

However, hypnotherapy is also a highly effective form of alternative therapy for issues such as stress, depression and phobias.

Hypnosis works by addressing your sub-conscious rather than conscious mind, using ideas and suggestions to help alter your thought patterns and ways of thinking.  In order to do this, you need to be in a state of deep relaxation, which can be likened to a deep daydream.  When in this state, your mind is more receptive to new ideas, which makes change easier and gives you better access to your inner potential.

Hypnotherapy can be used to treat a wide range of problems, both physical and mental.  Sufferers of conditions such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome and insomnia have found hypnotherapy beneficial.  Mental health problems such as depression, eating disorders, and low self-esteem can also be helped, as changing habits, thoughts and ways of thinking can eradicate the behavioural patterns that lead to these problems.

In theory, hypnotherapy can help with almost anything as long as it is connected to particular thoughts or behavioural patterns.  In the case of dealing with pain, hypnotherapy may help you to think about overcoming the pain, and to imagine ways of coping with pain that make it less consuming and unbearable.

It’s important that you’re comfortable with your hypnotherapist, which is why finding the right one is so important.  This is where the Hypnotherapy Directory can be helpful.  This directory was set up to provide a simple, easy, and undaunting way to connect people that need help with the people that provide it.  A comprehensive searching tool, the site allows zipcode, town and country searches of the whole of the UK, and produces a list of hypnotherapists registered in this area.  All hypnotherapists have a profile, listing a bit about themselves, their approaches, what areas they deal with, and their training, qualifications, experience and fees.

The site has also become a huge information bank – there are articles written by hypnotherapists, as well as comprehensive information on all kinds of distress – from depression to eating disorders to phobias, to help people identify their problems and become informed, not scared.

So forget clucking like a chicken…  hypnotherapy could be just the answer you’re looking for.

Thanks to Catriona at the Hypnotherapy Directory for sharing this information.  Even if you don’t use the site as a directory, there is a lot of great general information there, too.  (As a disclaimer, the Hypnotherapy Directory is not affiliated with How to Cope with Pain, and I don’t specifically endorse any therapist in the directory.)

Other articles about hypnosis you might enjoy:

• More Effect From Suggestions With Hypnosis?
• Can Hypnosis Help Chronic Pain?

Grand Rounds, a medical-blog carnival, is at Medic 999 this week.