What clinical hypnosis actually is
No swinging watches, no clucking, no handing over control. Here is the real mechanism and an honest account of the limits.
A definition you can actually use
Hypnosis is a state of focused attention with reduced peripheral awareness and heightened responsiveness to suggestion. That is close to the formal definition used by the American Psychological Association's division for psychological hypnosis, and there is nothing mystical in it.
Two things change in that state, and both matter for the work I do.
Attention narrows. Whatever we are working on gets the whole field, without the usual competition from everything else in your head.
The critical filter softens. Ordinarily, if you tell yourself the marriage ending does not mean you are unlovable, an internal voice immediately produces counter-evidence. In hypnosis that argument quiets, and the suggestion is accepted and acted on by systems that are not under voluntary control.
Why insight has not been enough
Nearly everyone who contacts me already understands their situation. They can explain the family roles, the pattern, the reason it happened. And they still check his phone, still wake at 3am, still flinch at the door.
That is not a failure of willpower or intelligence. It is that these responses were learned below the level where reasoning operates, and that is the level they have to be changed at. Understanding a reflex does not disarm it.
What a session is like
- Talking, 15–20 minutes. How the week went, what we are aiming at today. Ordinary conversation.
- Induction, 5–10 minutes. I talk, you settle. Eyes closed, comfortable. Nothing dramatic happens.
- The work, 20–25 minutes. Suggestion, imagery, and often dialogue with the part of you that has been running the pattern. You can speak throughout.
- Coming back and integrating, 5–10 minutes. What you noticed, what to practise.
- Afterwards. I record your personalised audio and send it through the client portal.
What it will not do
- It will not change another person. Not his drinking, not his mind.
- It will not erase memories, and you would not want it to.
- It is not psychotherapy and not addiction treatment. Where you need those, I will say so.
- It does not work equally for everyone. A minority get little.
- It does not work without practice between sessions, which is what the recording is for.
About the method
Will I lose control or say something I do not want to?
No. You stay aware, you remember it, you can talk the whole time and you can stop whenever you like. Hypnosis cannot make you act against your own values. If you are picturing stage hypnosis, that is a performance using pre-selected volunteers who came specifically to be entertaining.
What does it actually feel like?
Deeply relaxed but mentally clear — much like the moment before sleep, or being so absorbed in something that you stop hearing the room. Most people's first reaction is that it was less dramatic than they expected. That is normal and says nothing about whether it worked.
Can everyone be hypnotised?
Almost everyone can reach a useful state. Roughly one person in ten is highly responsive, most are moderately so, and a small minority respond very little. Responsiveness also improves with practice.
Is it safe?
For the work I do, with proper screening, there are no known physical risks and no drug interactions. It is generally not appropriate during active psychosis or with certain dissociative conditions, which is part of what intake is for.
Not sure this is for you? That is a fine place to start.
Send a request and tell me what is actually going on. I reply within one to two business days with your intake paperwork and a secure link to pay and pick your time. No payment is taken at the request stage, and if I am not the right person for this I will say so and point you somewhere better.
Requests go to a secure, HIPAA-compliant SimplePractice form — no payment is taken there. Sessions are held online by video, worldwide.