What Makes a Good Hypnotic Screed

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  1. Introduction

In order to make a good hypnotic suggestion the therapist should understand the workings of the conscious and the subconscious mind. They need to be aware of the role of the Conscious Critical Faculty (CCF) and the importance of recognising a client’s beliefs.

They must have a congruent belief in what they are saying in order to influence the client’s belief system. By using Waking Hypnosis and positive statements beneficial change can be induced.

Another factor, which will help to make therapy successful, is the initial consultation, possibly free of charge, which will enable the Hypnotherapist to build rapport, break down barriers, and overcome any objections, resistance and institutionalised misconceptions. Also when a client’s treatment is individualised, the success of the therapy is increased.

  1. The Conscious and the Subconscious Mind

        There are two separate parts of our mind. The conscious is the part that is dealing with experiences that are occurring in the present. This is the mind that you actively and deliberately think with. It is the internal voice that you think of as me. But while the conscious mind has its uses, it is extremely limited in what it can accomplish on its own. That’s why our conscious mind is assisted by the power and capacity of our other, larger mind – the unconscious mind.

        The subconscious mind is the database where we hold all of our learning and experience; it also contains the key to all of our automatic reflexes and safety circuits in our bodily functions. This is the part of us that ultimately controls every aspect of our behaviour. It keeps our heart beating, our brain thinking and our body healthy and energised. It is like having autopilot in the brain, which allows you to do multiple things simultaneously without having to concentrate on all of them at once.

        For example, when we were children we had to concentrate consciously to learn to tie our shoelaces. But now that our subconscious mind has learnt the sequence of moves, we do not need to pay attention to the process consciously anymore.

        There are four stages of learning that we go through – unconsciously incompetent, consciously incompetent, consciously competent and unconsciously competent. Using the analogy of learning to drive, these can be explained as follows:

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Unconsciously incompetent - When you were a child you probably sat in a car and watched the driver and thought how easy it was to drive. You may have thought that you could drive without too much difficulty.

Consciously incompetent - On your first driving lesson you would have become aware of how difficult it was to drive, how many different elements there were, and realised your own incompetence.

Consciously competent – Eventually you became more proficient, progressing to taking and passing your driving test you realised that you were able to drive a car successfully and competently.

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