It is very difficult to heal something that we cannot see. If a child falls and hurts their knee, what is the first thing that the child and the caregiver do? Look at the knee. Assessing the damage leads to the next step of cleaning a wound, putting a plaster on it, or doing whatever is necessary in the moment – doing whatever the knee calls for. We wouldn’t, however, go sticking a plaster on any old spot on the child’s leg and we wouldn’t be taking wild guesses as to whether the area that is hurt is bleeding or not.
Our internal wounds are really not that different. It is just that our internal wounds are more abstract and harder to find. Our minds are made up of the conscious and the subconscious. We are unconscious of most of what lies within the subconscious mind. It is quite simply, below the surface. However, our subconscious mind is like computer software that gets programmed from the very moment that we are born. It is a blueprint of our life’s experiences to date. Within it, there lives patterning, perceptions, likes, dislikes, fears, phobias, desires, addictions… the list goes on and on. And the subconscious mind and all of its ingredients makes up most of the mind (90 – 95% of it). So you might think that rummaging around for a wound in there would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Absolutely, that is true – if you are trying to navigate using your conscious mind and conscious thought. Indeed – good luck with that!
This is where hypnosis comes in. Hypnosis is simply a means by which a person can be relaxed enough to let the conscious, controlling mind drift away for a while, so that we can actually tap into and listen to the subconscious mind and what it has to say. When a person is in a state of hypnosis, they are simply experiencing a brainwave that is in the Alpha to Theta range. This allows for the door to the subconscious mind to be opened up a little wider, so that we can uncover valuable information. This state is not something strange or scary. It is a trance state and you are in a trance state when you are engrossed in watching something on the television, or when you are daydreaming or when you are about to fall asleep. It is a very natural state to be in.
Often what we experience in life are symptoms of a wound, but we don’t necessarily know what the wound is. A symptom of a wound could be low self-esteem or constant negative self-talk, anxiety, feelings of guilt and shame, not feeling good or worthy enough for what you desire, an addiction, reactive and impulsive behaviours, anger issues and many, many more. During hypnosis, we can ask the mind to show us what a symptom is related to and in doing so, we can start to locate a wound. Wounds are like people, they want to be seen and understood. They want to be cleaned and tended to and nourished back to health and wholeness. Hypnosis allows us to shine a light on a wound, so that we can help ourselves return to feeling worthy and calm. It also allows for clarity. It gives us the opportunity to get to know ourselves a little bit more. It drowns out the external world, just for a little while, so that we can actually sit down with our internal world; sit down with ourselves.
Hypnotherapy allows for a re-discovering of self. We spend so much time, emotion and energy trying to figure other people out and understand why they do the things they do, but often we forget about the person right under our nose. Those who experience hypnotherapy are provided the opportunity to uncover valuable information. Not only that, but it allows us to insert more beneficial, healthier, more loving ways of thinking, feeling and behaving into our subconscious programming, And the beauty of doing this, is that we get to CHOOSE what that new programming, that new outcome and that new feeling can be.
Hi, my name is Caroline Lenehan. If you would like to know more about my services, please reach out through my page here:
