From the time we are born until we reach the age of about six years old our brain waves are mostly in a theta or dreamlike state where we cannot differentiate between fantasy and reality.

While in this impressionable theta state we absorb the influences from our environment – our parents, teachers, siblings and virtually anyone we come into contact with including the television – directly into our subconscious mind. Since we tend to spend the majority of time with our parents we grow up to display many of their traits: good, bad, and everything in between.

Once we reach the age of six our waking brainwaves shift out of theta and into a mix of  alpha and beta states.  The more dominant alpha state is associated with automatic functions such as driving a car or cooking a familiar recipe.  We tap our beta state during bouts of true creativity and active learning.  Theta continues as a sleep-based brain state, accessed during waking times only when completely relaxed, such as when watching television.  Thus, as we mature our subconscious mind becomes cemented, and no amount of conscious effort will enable us to change the pre-programmed patterns laid down while we are in the continuous theta state of impressionable youth.

The subconscious mind is far more powerful than the conscious mind, so mere ‘positive thinking’ or ‘willpower’ will never over-ride our hard-wired subconscious patterns.  Hypnotherapy works by accessing the theta state directly to rewrite the hard drive that is our subconscious.  Accomplishing this direct access to the subconscious mind is usually very relaxing and enjoyable as long as you feel comfortable with your therapist. Hypnosis is that simple, and it really does work.

For those of you that can’t bear to part with all of your gnawing anxieties and vices – why not keep the habits you can’t live without such as smoking and drinking, and use hypnotherapy to become a thinner, happier, smoking drinker 😉

Hypnotherapy can be used for virtually anything our subconscious mind controls. In my practice I prefer to focus on being healthy naturally. It is true that everybody does not respond to hypnosis the same way, some people find they react very quickly to a single session while others need weekly sessions to see lasting results. I leave that up to the individual to decide since I strongly believe we know ourselves best.

Advertisement