But I didn’t have a bad childhood

But I didn’t have a bad childhood

For many people the word therapy is a little bit taboo. Only people with issues go for therapy right? I have been told by someone that their mother didn’t like the fact they were having therapy because the counsellor would “make me think I’d had a bad childhood”. What is this thing that many therapists have about bad childhoods? I have personal experience of this as when training to become a hypnotherapist I was told “you must’ve had bad things happen in your childhood” I replied with no I don’t think I really did (what constitutes bad anyway?). This was in a room full of people all looking at me. I was then told “you must have because you are blushing”. Well yes, many people would blush if put on the spot like that in front of many other people.

I didn’t have bad things happen to me in my childhood and I am not someone who thinks that everyone had bad things happen to them. I do however think that everyone has had a negative reaction to something when growing up that has resulted in some kind of issue in adult life (be it a lack of confidence, weight issues, control problems, addictions etc). This is why I use regression in many of my hypnotherapy sessions. When I say regression I mean that I allow the client to go back to a time prior to today to find out and resolve some of these things that could have created certain behaviours today. I certainly don’t lead the client to a particular time in life – even childhood (which is where most regression therapists would say the client has to go). I also do not use past life regression, though I have been trained to do so.

My problem with regression is that for many therapists the purpose is to find awful things that happened to the client during their childhood. This frustrates me, as does the thought process of many that memories of sexual abuse (that the client had no idea of before) will be found. There is a problem with using regression – false memory syndrome. This is when a person is affected by “memories” uncovered using recovered memory therapies (such as regression) which are not true memories. Wikipedia (the fountain of all knowledge!) says:

“Recovered memory therapy is used to describe the therapeutic processes and methods that are believed to create false memories and false memory syndrome. These methods include hypnosis, sedatives and probing questions where the therapist believes repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse or other traumatic events are the cause of their client's problems.”

In the above definition childhood sexual abuse crops up. When you look on the website of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation there is again a lot of talk on the subject of child abuse. Unfortunately I have spoken to lots of therapists who often say things like “ah yes that problem is related to sex” or something along the lines of sexual abuse. It is no wonder we have this problem of false memory syndrome when so many therapists think everything is related to a bad childhood ... and what is a bad childhood?

In my years of working with clients I have never experienced anyone recover memories of sexual abuse, I have also never had anyone experience a hugely dramatic abreaction (this is where someone relives an experience – often in hypnosis – and releases emotions that were repressed at the time). Yes I have clients get upset and sometimes angry but never what I was given the impression I would see prior to becoming qualified. What I have seen however is clients reliving positive experiences, many of those seeing me for weight loss therapy remember happy times with family or friends at big social events where food was always involved; big feasts during holiday periods or at weekends or treats for behaving all day. Childhood experiences that mean the adult often reaches for food to relive the feelings felt at these times, but great childhood experiences. There was even someone who once said to me “Juliet, you have helped me find the old me”. This particular person had remembered times of fun, energetic outings, holidays and parties with friends... very different to the depressed adult that was sat in front of me. For me using regression in my way means going back to previous experiences, sometimes releasing emotion, reframing experiences from an adult point of view or learning coping techniques but many times finding happy, positive memories. I am yet to work with a client that finds memories of big things, such as sexual abuse that they didn’t know had ever happened, someone will often say “I’d forgotten all about that” but in my opinion if someone has been abused physically or mentally they know about it, they may have suppressed each individual episode of abuse but they know they were abused.

When I use regression with a client I am not searching for memories that are not known, I am not even searching for negative memories, nor always childhood memories. In fact, in my opinion many of the thoughts and memories ‘recovered’ could be spoken about and relived in a normal conversation. However, for me, the hypnosis helps my clients to feel relaxed, lose inhibitions and to feel that they are in their own world. It is common for someone to say to me “I can’t believe I told you all that” but the relaxation and eye closure helps my clients to feel confident and comfortable speaking about things that are bothering them or have bothered them in the past, perhaps things they find embarrassing and would not ordinarily speak about. Whether these thoughts and memories have been suppressed or not talking about things helps the majority of people. I always spend a lot of time at the beginning of a session explaining to the client that we are not necessarily looking for negative memories just things that they could have reacted to in a negative way, after all a parent may love and care for their child so much that they are over protective. Unfortunately that often results in an adult with confidence issues as they have been brought up indirectly being told that they are not safe anywhere or capable of looking after themselves. Is this a bad childhood? I don’t think so. I am also very careful to make sure my clients do not leave blaming their parents for their issues today. In the majority of cases our parents always do what they think is best for us, what they believe at the time to be right or doing all they can to the best of their ability. As explained above (with the over protective parent) this can result in an adult with ‘issues’ but it is not the fault of the parent it is simply because every person is an individual and the way things are perceived at the time is not always the way they were meant. This does not mean, in my opinion, we all had bad childhoods.

Does it matter if I fall asleep?

Last week I got asked a question that I often get asked by clients. Does it matter if I fall asleep? My answer, yes it does! This question was put to me by a client to whom I’d just given a CD, she was wondering if she listened to it and fell asleep half way through would it still have the same affect. My personal opinion is no it won’t.

Some hypnotherapists may say that it doesn’t matter if you sleep during hypnotherapy for the subconscious never sleeps. This is true, we still digest food when asleep, we still breathe and we even dream however I suspect there are very few people that would learn French solely by listening to a learn French CD every night whilst they slept.

I have two arguments for sleep not being an ideal state of mind for hypnotherapy to take place. My first point is simply why do we use hypnosis if a sleep state would be fine? Surely we would be sleep therapists. Although the word hypnosis is derived from the Greek word hypnos, meaning to sleep the two are in fact very different states of mind. Dave Elman (one of the ‘heros of hypnosis’) apparently said:

"Sleep and hypnosis are really two entirely different states. They are not compatible, when the hypnosis precedes the sleep. Those of you who are doctors know from your medical studies that in sleep the bodily functions slow down. Respiration gets slower and deeper, blood pressure and heart action slow down, reflex action slows down. In hypnosis, you will sometimes find the mildest of slowdowns, but most of the time, none at all. In sleep the mental processes slow down considerably, and in deep sleep, there is an apparent loss of consciousness. This does not occur in hypnosis.

"If you test reflex action in hypnosis, you will find it quite normal. Respiration does not decrease; heart action remains normal; blood pressure remains normal. It is true that these functions can be made to slow down by suggestion, but you can't get them all to slow down simultaneously as occurs in natural sleep. Despite appearances, it is impossible to fuse these two dissimilar states—the normally functioning body in hypnosis and the slow functioning body in sleep.”

As a hypnotherapist I do not want to induce sleep, hypnosis is focused attention with deep relaxation. I want my clients to be consciously aware (focused attention) but relaxed, which leads me onto my next point.

During the vast majority of hypnotherapy sessions with me the clients have input. They will be speaking, answering my questions, telling me things that they have thought about, if we are instilling anchors making actions with their hands – generally very much an active part of the session. I rarely have a client sit in my room and just listen to me for an hour but this does sometimes happen and it is what happens when my clients listen to their CDs. However, even though during these times the client is not participating in a way that anyone would be aware; in my opinion they are participating hugely. Much of the time will be spent asking the client to visualise certain things, maybe asking them to get a feeling into their mind and body, perhaps asking them to recall a previous experience. All of these things, in my opinion, take conscious awareness. When in hypnosis the subconscious mind is much more at the fore however we are not switching the conscious mind off totally (again the difference between hypnosis and sleep is highlighted). I want my clients to be consciously aware, although I sometimes want them to just allow thoughts to come naturally from the subconscious there are also times that I am quite happy for the conscious mind to get involved. For example when I ask the client to imagine themselves in the future if they change the way they eat, here a bit of conscious logic may be required. I am certainly not suggesting that the conscious mind is the part of the mind we want to work with during hypnosis – again that would go against the general view of what hypnosis is and why we use hypnosis (to access the subconscious mind) but I definitely think some conscious awareness is required. If a client falls asleep during hypnosis they have lost the ‘focused attention’ part of hypnosis. They are simply deeply relaxed. I also believe that being consciously aware of what happened in the session (or remembering what was on the CD) will help my clients in day to day situations. Although the purpose of hypnotherapy is to help the client make positive changes without the need for will power; in my opinion remembering (being consciously aware of) the image of oneself dying from a smoking related illness Vs the image of vibrant health achieved from stopping smoking goes a long way when deciding whether to smoke another cigarette as does the image of maggots over the chocolate when deciding whether to eat that next bar of dairy milk!

There are only two instances in which I would be more than happy for my clients to fall asleep whilst listening to one of my therapy CDs, if they had come to see me to help them sleep better at night or if they had come to see me for relaxation.

If anyone disagrees I have a learn French CD right here, I challenge you to listen to it every night whilst you sleep for a few months and then come to me with all that you have learnt. I will happily be proven wrong as there are a few things I would love to learn but just don’t have the time!

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What is natural nowadays?

Natural – what is natural nowadays? So many cosmetic products have natural written all over them. Others use colour or images to suggest that they are natural. Even some foods have natural written on them but what does this really mean? Research seems to state that there are not any legal standards for what constitutes a natural food product. It seems to be the same rules for natural cosmetics. So why do producers use the word natural and how do we as consumers fall into their trap? Most of us want to be as healthy as possible, both inside and out but we’re not really sure how to do it. We hear the five a day rule for fruit and vegetables and we try and stick to it but often that is as far as our health knowledge goes. When we see something that suggests it is natural, either by writing the word natural on it or using packaging to indicate this we jump at it. As more and more manufacturers become aware of this marketing tool more and more products are being advertised as natural. In my opinion it won’t be long before all cosmetics have the word natural on them and all food products use packaging to suggest they are natural. Is this our mistake as consumers though? Are we misinterpreting the word natural? I don’t think so. For me natural means taken from a natural source with no modification, for example the ‘natural’ face wash could be made with oatmeal and milk, yet somehow when I go shopping I am drawn to the more natural looking products. Recently I have learnt that natural does not mean natural and I now base my purchasing decisions on other factors. Are you doing the same? I think manufacturers could be shooting themselves in the foot. As others learn that natural does not mean natural they too will purchase items for other reasons. There is also the thought that on some occasions we may not want natural. What if I want to buy something for a special occasion that has been modified to produce a better flavour or perhaps better results? What if the real natural product hasn’t helped reduce the redness of my spot or the natural wine doesn’t taste as good as the normal wine? Would I then opt for the product that doesn’t suggest it’s natural even though it may contain exactly the same ingredients as the product next to it with natural written all over it? Be careful manufacturers sometimes taking something too far can produce negative results!

Juliet Hollingsworth

Running away from success

Fear of success... really? I hear you ask. It is really quite a common thing to be scared of success. Success tests people, it can show weaknesses or flaws and it’s scary. Sometimes it’s just easier to carry on right where you are – plodding along, staying in the safe zone. A sign of a fear of success is self sabotage. Procrastinating, making excuses for why you can’t do what you need to do. Pushing snooze on the alarm so that you arrive late for an important event. Those that have a fear of success do not necessarily realise it.

You see, we all know how to cope with failure, we can all work failure. There is the sadness, then if we are lucky we can talk ourselves out of that “well it wasn’t meant to be”, “something else will come along”, “there’s always next time”. We pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and get on with the next big thing. What happens however if we succeed? How do we deal with that success? When one is successful there is often not anyone to follow, success can bring leadership – this can be scary as with leadership comes responsibility.

Sometimes a fear of success is brought about by a feeling of not being worthy of that success. A feeling of not being good enough, the success may come along naturally but are you running away from it? To achieve success the first step is to recognise that you are good enough and that you do deserve that success. Everyone deserves success; and anyone who works hard to achieve it deserves it even more. If the success comes your way then you must be good enough.

The first thing to do is work out where you really want to be. Then a plan needs to be put into place to remove all of the sabotage habits that have built up. Focus on the success, the positive aspects of the success and steer away from the fears that surround it. Get your plan in order – write a list and begin to see the wood through the trees. Start with the first thing on the list or at the beginning of your plan. There is no need to think about what you do not want to happen, it is fine to simply focus on what we do want to happen.

Use visualisation tricks to see yourself as the successful person you want to be, feel how it feels to be that person, and start to believe that you are that person. As the positive patterns become habit the previous habits will start to disappear, every step in your path to success will help you to realise that it is not so scary after all, and the fear of success will begin to evaporate.

Juliet Hollingsworth Hypnotherapy

Natural Birthing

On 6 January 2011 I googled the word natural, the second entry to appear was Medical Videos - Natural Vaginal Child Birth Delivery Video ... If you click on the link (beware it is quite graphic!) you will see that this links to a five minute video of a natural birth. This is the Natural Vaginal Child Birth Delivery Video. 2,792 people have liked this video and shared it on facebook suggesting that there are many people out there who like the idea of a natural birth. In our society today it is all too easy to opt for drugs to relieve pain or even elect for a caesarean in order to not have to ‘go through’ a labour experience.

Understandably there are births that come with complications and require medical intervention such as a delivery aided by forceps or ventouse or even an emergency caesarean but if this is not medically necessary is there a better way? I recently read an article on the Mail Online website Maternity meltdown: A devastating firsthand account of the chaos on wards - and why overweight mums are partly to blame. The article talks about staff shortages on labour wards and how this is becoming a major problem. The author does suggest that the number of births in the hospital that she works in has more than doubled over the past couple of years but she also says that a woman who is about to give birth and has been given an epidural is meant to be monitored constantly. Nowadays so many women are asking for epidurals surely this must take up much needed time as the midwives monitor these women continually. Having an epidural can also slow down labour so the women need to be looked after for longer periods.

The majority of pregnant woman avoid certain chemicals such as those in cigarettes and alcohol during pregnancy. There are also certain medications that pregnant woman should refrain from taking along with a selection of foods. A question I always ask is, why when having kept away from all of these things for 40 weeks would you then go and give your baby a shot of a chemical that in normal circumstances you would not let anywhere near you? Pethadine for example is a synthetic form of morphine. Diacetylmorphine (better known as heroin) was synthesized from morphine in 1874 and brought to market by Bayer in 1898. Yet many women - justifiably - find the pain of childbirth too difficult to experience and at the last minute are happy to be injected with these chemicals and in turn pass the chemical onto the baby. In some cases the fear associated with the pain could result in a prolonged labour and the pain relief/medical intervention become necessary but wouldn’t it be worth trying something else to help avoid this situation? Having a natural birth can be an amazing experience; using HypnoBirth can help to achieve a natural birth, most couples that have used the Fertility2Birth HypnoBirth programme have achieved the natural birth they so desired. For the mother, a natural birth increases the probability of an easier, healthier recovery due to no chemicals in the body, cutting of the perineum bruises from IV lines, or severe headache or backache due to side effect of epidurals. For the baby, a natural birth reduces the exposure to chemicals. A natural birth also reduces the likelihood of needing to separate the infant from its mother after birth, important for successful breastfeeding and bonding. Surely it’s worth a go to avoid taking in these chemicals, to avoid passing the chemicals on to your baby and to help out those busy midwives. You never know you might be able to tell your baby that his or her entrance to the world was an enjoyable magical experience.

Juliet Hollingsworth

Fertility & birth specialist at On Harley Street

Spontaneous Birth Reflex / Maternal-Fetal Ejection Reflex / Natural Expulsive Reflex

Spontaneous Birth Reflex / Maternal-Fetal Ejection Reflex / Natural Expulsive Reflex

Research taken from:

ACDM ~ California College of Midwives ~

Characteristics of Clinical Competency

June 2001 Technical Bulletin #5

~ Maternal-Fetal Ejection Reflex ~

Designer Genes program a natural “labor saving devise”, the fruit of a physically and psychologically undisturbed labor in a healthy mother



There is a large difference between undisturbed spontaneous labour and birth. At a spontaneous birth (and by spontaneous I mean where the birth is undisturbed, natural and ‘with the body’) the spontaneity can be seen as a naturally advancing process combining biological and psychological resources making the birth tolerable for the woman and safe for the baby. It is accompanied by a dramatic increase in childbirth specific hormones – endogenous oxytocins – to stimulate uterine activity and beta endorphins (the source of the “runner’s high”) providing natural pain relief for the mother. Maternal hormones also trigger hormone production in the foetus to prepare it to breathe independently and maintain its body temperature after birth. The understanding of this reveals the problems that can arise when trying to provide medical care to a large percentage of healthy women who, if undisturbed, will have labours graced by a “labour-saving” mechanism -- the spontaneous birth reflex.



In recognising this phenomenon Dr. Michael O’Dont first named it the Fetal Ejection Reflex. It is now common to add the word Maternal to the name to make it clear that the baby does not, independent of the mother eject itself from the body but rather the birthing mother allows the spontaneous energy to run through her to safely birth the baby. Dr O’Dont was trying to identify the biological mechanism responsible for rapid, apparently easy deliveries. The normal spontaneous birth reflex is the “physiological” process (biology + psychology) that makes birth mechanically successful, physically tolerable for the birthing mother and safe for the baby. At a certain time after the cervix is fully dilated the mother experiences a dramatic event in which the body simultaneous opens up (relaxes normal muscle resistance) while forcefully propelling her foetus downward. This reflex overcomes the usual soft tissue resistance and takes advantage of momentum to press the baby down and out. This reflex has the exact same biological chain of events as vomiting but in the opposite direction. It is a natural response similar to a reverse sneeze, or the way our body naturally moves food through itself. Historically speaking it was the inclination of second or more time birthing mothers to have very quick births that scared obstetricians and caused them to bring mothers in early and induce them by artificially rupturing the membranes.



A crucial part of the Maternal Fetal Ejection Reflex (MFER) is the psychological comfort of the mother. Michael O’Dont described this as creating psychological circumstances for the mother so she “feels secure and unobserved at the same time”. He observed that the birth attendant’s first responsibility is not to disturb the natural process. For many mothers her need to be undisturbed is balanced by an equally powerful need to be in the right place and have family members of great psychological importance, as well as the doctor or midwife present, before she can permit, at least at a subconscious level, the labour process to unfold. For those who prefer hospital care, these mothers must have arrived at the hospital before the MFER can complete itself.



The MFER is a constant exception to the rules of labour as expressed by Friedman’s Curve*, which graphically represents labour as a relentlessly slow and painful process. Most importantly, this linear concept sees labour and birth as solely dependent on hard work and the ability of the mother to tolerate the pain rather than using her internal resources to help with or surrender to her labour. The picture society has of labour and delivery is one of incredible effort in which the mother labours with slow incremental progress. The MFER is almost the opposite of that expectation. While it is impossible to predict who will experience the MFER many birth attendants have observed that a calm or confident mother is more likely to do so than a fearful, anxious one who feels greatly unsure of herself or is afraid of birth.



A true MFER appears to provide the calm that can only be matched in a medical setting through the use of an epidural. Often (but not always) the MFER is enhanced by submerging the mother in deep water after she has reached 5cm dilatation and letting her and her husband or partner focus together with as few caregiver interruptions as possible (vaginal examinations for example). Dr O’Dont describes this as permitting the mother to feel secure and unobserved at the same time. Unfortunately this spontaneous birth reflex is easily disturbed and often (but not always) obliterated by medication during the delivery period.



The MFER appears to represent in birth what sex researchers Drs Master and Johnson identified as the orgasmic plateau, that is to say a state of being during which an overriding internal mechanism triggers a series of discrete but perfectly timed and attuned events of physiology which fire off in domino fashion when the conditions are right. Hence the term orgasmic birth. At this point it is a natural reflex and happens regardless of the individual’s wishes so, during labour this means that even if contractions seem painful or the mother is clearly anxious, the labour will be briskly moving and result in a normal spontaneous vaginal delivery without anaesthesia and often, without significant perineal trauma, perhaps even before the doctor or midwife arrives.



The MFER is very much a primitive natural instinct and it is the neo-cortex part of the brain (the most recently developed) along with the disruptions of a disturbed birth (examinations, bright lights, loud noises, unfamiliar people etc) that can prevent the MFER from happening as birthing mothers often feel very far from “secure and unobserved”. The MFER is often not recognised as it can follow a lengthy and even painful latent stage. For hospital births it may include both induction and epidural before this fast-finish. The MFER often comes at the end of a long, psychologically difficult latent phase, it is not necessarily perceived by either the mother or the midwife as a “fast birth”. There are five elements for a successful normal spontaneous vaginal birth and a long latent phase appears to set up the circumstances so that all five elements are present. The five elements required are as follows:



1. A healthy Mother, a normal pregnancy & a spontaneous onset of labour at term

2. An understanding of the physiological and psychological aspects of spontaneous labour and birth by both parents and practitioners

3. Physiologically appropriate response by family and professional caregivers to the normal physical, biological and gravitational demands of spontaneous labour and birth

4. Psychologically appropriate response by family and professional caregivers to the emotional and psychological needs of the mother to the normal stresses and sensations of labour and birth

5. Willingness of the mother to accept pressure of uterine contraction and the anxiety of not knowing how much harder the process may be or how much longer the process may take.



– The absence or severe dysfunction of any of these elements can generate symptoms that may ultimately require medical or surgical intervention



Unfortunately for most women nowadays, undisturbed labour in which all five elements can be present is rarely seen.









*Dr. Friedman did his residency in the 1950s. He was not a man to suffer fools gladly and he considered a lot of his superiors to be fools. He felt that they made medical judgments based on their intuition and not on science, so he set out to accumulate the research data necessary to give the profession a firm scientific foundation.

Dr. Friedman used his spare time to compile detailed observations about every labouring woman who came through his hospital. His aim was to find out what ‘normal’ labour looked like. Using observations from tens of thousands of women, he created a curve. Women who followed the curve were almost certain to have a vaginal delivery. Women who fell off the curve were more likely to need a C-section.

Dr. Friedman was the first to say that you should not section a woman in latent phase (when contractions have started but the first stage of labour has not yet been reached) because a long latent phase was not a sign that the baby doesn't fit. He insisted that you should not section a woman in the active phase of labour unless she failed to make a certain amount of progress in a certain amount of time. When Dr. Friedman used to tell stories about the genesis of the curve, he would express the utmost disgust for doctors who would say, "She looks like a C-section to me".

Dr. Friedman was very anti forceps. He concluded, correctly, that forceps hurt babies and should be banned. He used to travel around the country testifying for the families of children who had been injured by forceps. When he would appear, the family would win.








http://www.joyousbirth.info/forums/showthread.php?t=41731&pagenumber=


Juliet Hollingsworth

Fertility & Birth Specialist at On Harley Street

Fertility2Birth HypnoBirth Programme

Fertility2Birth Fertility Programme

Habits are hard to break....

Habits are hard to break....

Or are they? According to Wikipedia habits are routines of behaviour that are repeated regularly and tend to occur subconsciously, without one being conscious about them. Habitual behaviour often goes unnoticed in persons exhibiting it, because a person does not need to engage in self-analysis when undertaking routine tasks.

We were not born with habits; habits are simply something we learnt to do. Smokers – do you remember the first time you smoked? I am sure you did not enjoy that first taste of smoking, yet you learnt how to smoke. Nail biters, more difficult to remember the first time it was done but was it really that enjoyable to want to do it again? Or was it something that made you feel secure in a nervous situation? Or maybe gave you something to do with your hands when bored. The list of common habits could go on and on but the one thing that is similar across the board is that the owner of the habit would feel weird if they didn’t ‘do’ their habit. For example, the smoker would feel weird and not know what to do with their hands whilst standing with other smokers. The nail biter may feel more anxious in a nervous situation without biting their nails. Another thing that is quite common is for the habit to involve the hands, smoking, thumb sucking, nose picking, nail biting, hair twirling. These habits are generally thought of to be nervous habits. There are more involved habits such as tics; vocal or motor. These can be more complex and can stem from muscle tension or medical disorders so are often solved in a different way.

The reason the body feels weird when not doing the habit is because it has become a learned reaction. If you are a driver you will know that if you are in the passenger seat and the person driving the car gets a bit too close to the car in front your foot will try and push down on the imaginary brake pedal in front of you. This is a learned reaction; as is putting your knife and fork in the correct hands when you sit down to eat. Learned reactions are things that we were not born knowing how to do but become as instinctual as natural reactions such as excessive breathing whilst exercising. To try and stop learned reactions can be as weird as trying to stop a natural reaction as the subconscious mind has learnt to automatically react in this way. The conscious part of our mind is the area that controls things we are aware of, the subconscious things we are not aware of. Once a habit is formed it is being controlled by the subconscious mind. Therefore to break the habit we have to become aware of it, this is where will power comes in. Will power is great – when it works. With will power you are willing yourself to do something, therefore you need to keep reminding yourself what it is you are trying to achieve, this has its own problems. To continually remind yourself what you are trying to achieve you have to think about what it is you want to stop yourself doing. This can become a battle in your own mind as you consciously tell yourself that you do not want to bite your nails again / smoke another cigarette / suck your thumb whilst your subconscious mind keeps trying to do what it is you consciously do not want to do. When in hypnosis the subconscious mind is open. Just like when you are asleep and your subconscious mind takes over, allowing you to continue breathing and functioning whilst dreaming and resting the hypnotic state is very similar. When in hypnosis one is not asleep but just on the edge of sleep. Perfectly calm and relaxed with the subconscious wide open ready to accept any suggestions that it chooses to accept. Hypnosis can help, so that habits are not hard to break. When using hypnosis to overcome a habit the therapist will give you suggestions that break the link between your thoughts and the habit, allowing you to stop the habit for good without the need for will power.