Hypnosis -- or hypnotherapy -- helps an individual relax, concentrate, and focus attention to achieve a heightened state of awareness that is sometimes called a trance. With the help of a trained therapist -- the individual can focus on specific thoughts that can help shift perspectives, shed light on new concepts, and demolish old mindsets to make room for new thoughts; and thus, new results. "Hypnosis is usually considered an aid to psychotherapy (counseling or therapy), because the hypnotic state allows people to explore painful thoughts, feelings, and memories they might have hidden from their conscious minds. In addition, hypnosis enables people to perceive some things differently, such as blocking an awareness of pain. Hypnosis can be used in two ways, as suggestion therapy or for patient analysis. Suggestion therapy: The hypnotic state makes the person better able to respond to suggestions. Therefore, hypnotherapy can help some people change certain behaviors, such as stopping smoking or nail biting. It can also help people change perceptions and sensations, and is particularly useful in treating pain. Analysis: This approach uses the relaxed state to explore a possible psychological root cause of a disorder or symptom, such as a traumatic past event that a person has hidden in their unconscious memory. Once the trauma is revealed, it can be addressed in psychotherapy." -WebMd

Do you have a habit that you want to get rid of but it is as if there is a part of you that keeps going back to the same thing again and again? Your subconscious is that part of you driving that behavior, but if your unaware of that signal coming up from your body, then how are you going to change it? We use hypnosis to connect to the subconscious, become aware of our emotions, become aware of our memories that began those emotions, and then we can use the state of hypnosis to program in new behaviors. "The hypnotic state allows a person to be more open to discussion and suggestion. It can improve the success of other treatments for many conditions, including: Phobias, fears, and anxiety Sleep disorders Depression Stress Post-trauma anxiety Grief and loss Hypnosis also might be used to help with pain control and to overcome habits, such as smoking or overeating. It also might be helpful for people whose symptoms are severe or who need crisis management." -WebMD

The subconscious consists of our emotions, our imaginations, and our memories. In essence it is our body. When we think to move our hand we send a signal down our central nervous system and that signal allows our hand to move, but when our body sends a signal to our mind that signal is much of the time not broadcast to our conscious, therefore it is subconscious. Those signals create strong emotion and drive our behavior. "Most of the problems that affect human beings are “unconscious”, and, unfortunately it is difficult to control unconscious behaviour through conscious effort alone, even if we want to. The conscious and unconscious (subsconscious) minds have two completely different functions. While the conscious mind is the rational part and is the seat of our wishes, desires and aspirations, the unconscious/subconscious mind is full of wanted and unwanted programs from early life until now, that play over and over again automatically. The subconscious mind represents programming developed from our life experiences since childhood, what we have learned, as well as other people’s experiences, and input from sources such as family, teachers, friends, and the media. Habits kick in and we can easily believe we are limited and victims of circumstance that can’t change. The solution, then, is to have the conscious and subconscious mind more in coherence. Hypnosis is about direct communication with the subconscious mind with the client’s permission, and implementing special strategies. It is a very powerful tool in making positive changes in destructive patterns and beliefs at the subconscious level, that will suit the needs and wishes and therefore be accepted by the conscious mind, with the old ways of behaving no longer applying." -Dr. Jan Philamon