Dealing with Hypnotherapy

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Some people, in an effort to help themselves sort out their problems, turn to a hypnotherapist. These problems range from trying to break an addiction, such as smoking, to trying to slim by receiving help in controlling the appetite, from trying to increase one's level of confidence, to trying not to be so self-conscious, or to trying to help solve some emotional problems.

We will see later in this section how hypnotherapy can be used in several ways, such as helping people to stop smoking. Hypnosis can, however, be used specifically to get us to be more in touch with ourselves. Sometimes called hypnoanalysis in this context, it was used by Freud before he went on to practise psychoanalysis.

By means of hypnotic suggestion, the person seeking help through hypnosis can move backwards in time, in a kind of regression, and relive memories that would not be recoverable by ordinary memory or an act of will. This can add to our self-knowledge in a similar way to psychoanalysis.

However, many people prefer psychoanalysis or psychotherapy to hypnoanalysis since they feel that they are more in control, although this might not be the case. There is sometimes a vague feeling among people in general that to undergo hypnosis is to put oneself entirely in someone else's power, although this is not in fact true.

There is another way that hypnosis can help us on our journey of self-discovery. If cure by hypnosis is effective in cases of addiction, it helps to put the addict back in charge of his or her life instead of being under the control of the addictive substance. Addiction often results in alienation from one's self. By the same token, breaking free from addiction frees the self and is instrumental in allowing former addicts to get to know their real selves.