At the stage of my 30 something years in therapy, the closer we got to core feelings of rage and fear the more brain found it necessary for me to distract. She made sure most of my session time was taken up by my today issues. I remembered those issues as not being important enough to warrant a full session, but off brain went on her multiple tangents that had nothing to do with therapy.

T was a wake up to brains avoidant tactics and suggested I try hypnotherapy as a way to focus my thoughts in on my family. Up until that time I had always marveled at how brave brain was to cope with the nasty side of therapy. By then, most of my defences has been broken down which made emotion more accessible, but brain wasn’t having a bar of it. She poured on distraction as a means to keep me safe from intense feelings of rage and fear.

Despite the weeks warning prior to my first hypno I felt afraid. And during it, I found myself keeping a half an eye on the therapist every ten minutes. I didn’t like what little control I had taken away to go into some kind of off beat La La land. I went along with it though and giggled my way through my first hypno.


When I became more comfortable with the procedure, and after testing I was still in control by opening my eyes at will, it began to work. I did focus on family issues. Later I began to utilize imagination in fantasies. I call hypno my FX channel!

Brain still isn't keen on the intrusion though and continues to demand control. I find myself having to reassure her each and every time I 'go under' that we will be safe. Instead of imagining the numbers he counts me down with I now 'see' the word and feel SAFE.

We do not underestimate the power of brain; she will use hypno to sometimes distract me too. I can become too safe under hypno's influence, and avoid todays problems with it.

What might make me feel horrified, terrified, and enraged without hypno can easily be tolerated with it. Hypno continues the therapy process by making intolerable emotions accessible enough to vent. It can by bypass the fear of rage.



I dont know enough about brain and what the effects of hypno can have on the individual. I tend to think it could be very dangerous in the hands of anyone who doesn't know what they are doing. I would never see it as a quick fix, and a way to get to repressed emotions unless our defenses have been slowly and carefully 'dealt with' first. There must be a certain amount of trust in the therapist too before brain can accept such an intrusion. My hypno has always been light enough to bring mysef out of it at will, and yet deep enough to allow access to thought and emotion. There is a very fine line there me thinks, and no patient should be put at risk by attempting it without the proper training.


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