That question, ‘Can you make me…?’ is probably the number one question people have for hypnotherapists, in various guises.
“Can you make me quit smoking?”
“Can you make me stop eating chocolate?”
“Or the slight twist on this question, the perennial favourite, ‘Are you going to make me cluck like a chicken?”
The feeling, amplified by many years of TV tropes and stage hypnosis acts, is that a hypnotherapist will somehow get into your mind and force some kind of change.
But this isn’t how it works. I’ve mentioned before that hypnosis is not mind control. It is a collaborative process where we work together. And although aspects of hypnosis can feel ‘non volitional’, as if something has just happened, this isn’t because your free-will has been overturned; instead, it means your free will has come back to you.
If you’re a smoker, you have no choice but to smoke. If you’re an alcoholic, you have no choice but to drink. This sounds counter intuitive. After all you have free will, you could stop anytime. And obviously that’s theoretically true. But then why don’t you? The reality is your habits control you far more effectively than the deepest hypnotic trance.
So my job isn’t to make you do anything. Because You’re already being made to do things. My job is to open up the field of possibilities so that you have the option to choose something different. To choose not to smoke. To choose not to drink.
If you’d like to learn more, contact me here, or make an appointment directly with Integrative Health Solutions in Belair.
