They say admitting you have a problem is often half the battle.  And indeed it is.  Deciding to do something about an issue that’s been rumbling on for months or years is the first positive step to tackling it.  Whether it’s accepting that a phobia is controlling your life, or admitting an addiction, recognising a need for help is a huge step.

But once the initial decision has been made, there are numerous issues to consider – practical and otherwise.  What about, for example, location?  Despite assured complete confidentiality people may prefer to see a hypnotherapist that is perhaps outside their local area, but still in surroundings they are comfortable in.

Money, of course, is a paramount issue.  Hypnotherapists may offer reduced rates for students, and the unemployed or those seeking benefits, but which ones?  No one wants to end up bartering with a hypnotherapist over the price of their mental well being.

And what guarantees that the hypnotherapist is the real deal?  There are no laws in the UK that govern hypnotherapy, so what’s to stop anyone setting up shop to listen to people’s problems?  There are qualifications and professional bodies, but these can often be confusing and over-whelming.

This is where Hypnotherapy Directory comes in.  It was set up to provide a simple, easy, and most importantly un-daunting way of connecting people that need help with the people that provide it.  A comprehensive searching tool, the site allows postcode, town and country searches of the whole of the UK, and produces a list of hypnotherapists registered in this area.  Each hypnotherapist has a profile, listing a bit about themselves, their approaches, what areas they deal with, and all their training, qualification and experience and fees.

The site shows which hypnotherapists are registered/accredited with a professional body, and full profiles are only displayed after insurance and qualification documents are checked or membership with a professional body has been verified.

The site has also become a huge information bank – there are articles written by hypnotherapists, as well as comprehensive information on all kinds of distress – from depression to eating disorders to phobias, to help people identify their problems and become informed, not scared.

We hope it will prove invaluable, reducing the amount of stress and worrying that can contribute to an already difficult enough process.

Related posts:

1. How Everyone Practices Self-Hypnosis
2. That Fuzzy Old Subconscious

Specific brainwave patterns can be used for many things.  Brainwave frequencies can be used for migraine relief, accelerated learning, insomnia, self-hypnosis or meditation, alcohol or drug addictions, depression, arthritis, and an almost endless list of purposes.  Here’s a pretty comprehensive list of brainwave frequencies and their possible uses.

Creating specific brainwave frequencies through binaural beat technology and other methods has been around for quite some time now.  Through various methods, your brain can be lead or “entrained” into very specific brainwave frequencies (or combinations of frequencies) which are ideal for any number of purposes.

Oh yeah, here’s that free brainwave entrainment stuff:

The Unexplainable Store has a free 10 minute sample of brainwave entrainment through binaural beat technology.  They also offer free brain tips and techniques if you join their email list.  I enjoyed listening to their sample and thought it was better than many I’ve listened to over the years.  They also have a very cool list of brainwave entrainment mp3s in their store, including Lucid Dreaming, Confidence, Past Life Regression, Memory Enhancer, and a host of other titles.

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The Super Mind Evolution System website has a page of freebies that includes a free Alpha Mind Control mp3 Audio (brainwave entrainment) and other goodies.  Here’s what they say about the mp3:

The research has found that listening to the Alpha track twice a day, at approximately the same time every day for 30 days, will yield extraordinary results creating cerebral hemispheric synchronization, sense of peace and well being, clarity of thought and significant reduction in the harmful effects of stress.

They also offer access to a Super Dreams System and three Power Reports (Beyond Visualization, The Evolution of Mankind, and Secret Research is Finally Revealed). You have to join with their free membership to get the goodies, but you can always opt off their mailing list if you want. I listened to the mp3 and read one of the power reports. Some interesting and informative stuff.

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Transparent Corporation is a brainwave entrainment website that offers software (Mind WorkStation, Mind Stereo, and NeuroProgrammer2) that you can try out for free for a couple of weeks. I own one of their older programs, Brain Sound Studio. With this nifty software, I can embed brainwave entrainment frequencies of my choice into any sound file. Cool stuff. This is a very informative website with lots of information and a very good forum community. They also sell other brainwave entrainment products.

Hope you enjoy the free stuff!

Related posts:

1. That Fuzzy Old Subconscious

No, it’s not because you can’t be hypnotized.  Don’t be silly.  We’re all walking around hypnotized, and we’re the ones who are doing it to ourselves.  Thoughts are running through our minds endlessly.  And then we have thoughts about our thoughts.  And don’t forget about the feelings we have about our thoughts—some intense, some subtle.  This combination of recurring thoughts (at the conscious and subconscious levels) and feelings is how we hypnotize ourselves.  We’ve been feeding ourselves suggestions since birth.  And this is how we develop habits and create our belief systems.  This is how we use self-hypnosis to determine how we view the world, how we act in it, and how we experience it.  The problem is we’re not very good at hypnotizing ourselves in a conscious way, the way in which we could be more effective at creating what we want.  Certainly, we’ve all had success in different areas in life, but almost all of us have areas in which we’d like to make changes.  But before we can learn how to hypnotize ourselves effectively (and make those changes), it’s a good idea to understand why we haven’t yet succeeded at creating the life we want for ourselves.

The first thing to understand is that you are the only one who can create change for yourself.  You’re responsible for every success you have.  No hypnotist or therapist or friend can ever create change within you.  They may give you guidance or support or offer a vehicle through which you can succeed or make changes, but ultimately you are the one who will determine your success.  Okay, having gotten that out of the way, it’s time to take a look at the reasons why hypnosis, or self-hypnosis, might not be working for you.

1.  Maybe You’re Just Not Really into Making a Change—Maybe your desire isn’t all that strong.  Could that be it?  Desire is the driving force behind creation, and the fact is, nothing gets created or changed without desire being front and center.  If you want to quit smoking because your spouse or your kids want you to quit, your chances of quitting aren’t going to be that great.  Now, if you’re the one who really wants to quit, your chances of being successful have just risen dramatically.  Because having a powerful desire is the first step toward successful self-hypnosis and creating the changes you want to make for yourself.

2.  Maybe You’re Not Really Clear on What You Want— Not having a clear intention on what you want to change or create for yourself can sidetrack anyone.  Along the same thread, you might have conflicting ideas that can also sidetrack you (this is an area in which I have some expertise).  Or you might want to change too many things at once.  To effectively create change, it’s absolutely critical to get a clear vision on exactly what it is you want to change or create.  And then focus on that one area for change.  When you combine clear intention with a powerful desire, you’re well on your way to being successful in whatever it is you want to create.

3.  Where’s Your Faith?—Everyone has faith.  The big question is—Where have you placed your faith?  Do you have faith that you can successfully create whatever it is you desire to create?  Or is your faith focused on your inability to create what you want?  Faith is based on your beliefs (both at the conscious and subconscious levels of mind) and your energy in relationship to those beliefs.  If you believe (consciously and unconsciously) that you can do something and you have positive energy in relationship to that belief, then you have faith.  If you don’t have faith, the good news is, you can learn to build faith by using hypnosis (to change your beliefs at the subconscious level) and energy alignment techniques (to align your energy with your beliefs).

4.  Are You Fully Committed?—If you’re not fully invested in making a change, then you’re not likely to make that change.  That’s pretty self-evident, and I’m sure we’ve all had experience with not being fully committed to something.  Commitment is the unwavering resolve to reach your goals.  Yet, while you are resolved to reach your goals, you do so in a lighthearted way—as opposed to being too serious.  Why?  Because the subconscious mind does not respond well to being forced to do something; however, it responds remarkably well to relaxation.  Here’s an example.  You’re trying to remember the name of an actor, but no matter how hard you try to remember, the name simply won’t come up for you.  The next day you’re taking a nice relaxing bath, and suddenly the name pops into your mind.  When you try to force something with the subconscious mind, it’s like putting a road block up.  When you relax, everything flows freely.  So be committed in a relaxed and confident way.

5.  The Formula! The Formula!—It’s vitally important to understand the formula for creating or making changes.  So here goes:

Positive Conscious Thoughts + Positive Subconscious Thoughts + Properly Aligned Energy = Creation/Change

A simpler version of the formula might be:  Faith = Creation/Change.  As was mentioned earlier, faith is a combination of our beliefs at both levels of mind and our energy in relationship to our beliefs.  But what is often missing in many strategies or formulas for creating change is the energetic component.  For many years I wondered why hypnosis at times seemed to work miracles, but other times didn’t seem to get the job done.  As I’ve evolved as a hypnotherapist, I’ve come to understand that with some areas of change (those having a strong emotional component), getting someone’s energy aligned with the change they want to make is absolutely crucial to their success.

So, to be more successful where hypnosis or self-hypnosis is concerned, keep the following keys in mind: make sure your desire for change is strong; be clear on what it is you want to change; have faith that you can make the change; be committed in a lighthearted way; and remember the formula and follow through on each aspect of the formula.

For some areas of change, hypnosis or self-hypnosis should do the trick.  But for any area of change that has a strong emotional component to it, make sure to use some type of energy alignment in addition to the self-hypnosis.  Abundance issues and weight loss are two examples of areas where there are often emotional issues involved.  Perhaps the most popular form of energy alignment is EFT (emotional freedom technique).  You can do anything you put your mind (and your energy) to doing.

If you enjoy the articles here, why not buy me a cup of tea:

Related posts:

1. How Everyone Practices Self-Hypnosis

Many years ago I experimented with lucid dreaming and out of body experiences. I had read several books on the subjects and decided to use hypnosis before I went to sleep at night to help induce lucid dreams. I would read over my short little script before I went to sleep (I’d also include the subject I wanted my lucid dream to be about). I’d often explore past lives.

The lucid dreams would occur in two ways. Sometimes I would become aware that I was sleeping. I would then roll out of bed (not my physical body, of course) and be on all fours on the carpet. I could feel the carpet and I’d also feel a great sense of excitement that I was about to begin an exciting journey. I’d get up and head towards the window at the east side of our bedroom. Our bedroom was a large attic bedroom and the windows on each end were quite small. But when I’d get to the east side window, the window would suddenly become quite large and I could open the window and jump out and begin to fly. And before I’d know it, I was flying into a past life scene. Extremely trippy stuff.

The second way in which I would begin a lucid dream is more typical of a lucid dream. I would wake up in the middle of the night, and before I dropped off back to sleep, I’d repeat to myself several times, “I am awake in the dream.” I’d repeat the phrase perhaps four or six times and then I’d try to keep my awareness intact as I dropped off. And as I slipped into a dream state, I would maintain my conscious awareness.

Lucid states don’t generally last a long time, though I’ve had a few lucid dreams that have lasted quite a while. There are a few things I’ve learned through my lucid dreaming I’d like to share. I used to use some tricks I’d read about to keep a dream scene going when I felt it was about to dissipate. But a friend of mine once suggested that rather than trying to control the dream, which I was apt to do, I should simply try to witness the dream without become emotionally involved or attached. I tried it and the results were spectacular.

Normally in a lucid dream, the colors are very vivid and objects have a tangible feel to them. When I would simply “witness” the lucid dream, the scenes would last much longer than normal and the colors were even more vivid than usual.

One side effect that eventually caused me to quit my lucid dreaming experiences was the lack of rest I got. When you’re lucid dreaming, your conscious mind isn’t getting the rest it usually does during sleep. I’d often be quite tired during those days after spending time the previous night lucid dreaming.

So why am I talking about phantasmagoria and lucid dreaming on a hypnosis site? Because to experience or become aware of the transitional state–as happens when you experience phantasmagoria and lucid dreaming–between waking and sleeping can give you a better understanding of the state of mind you’re trying to achieve for hypnosis. A state of mind in which you are extremely relaxed; your thinking mind is taking a little vacation; your mind is highly focused on the subject at hand; and yet, you are extraordinarily aware.

Related posts:

1. Brainwave Entrainment Freebies and Other Stuff
2. Why Hypnosis Might Not Be Working for You
3. How Everyone Practices Self-Hypnosis

Today, I may be thinking about that new computer I want. But how am I thinking about it? Am I focusing on the fact that I don’t have the computer. Is my energy low and weak when I have the thought that I don’t have the computer. Or am I determined that the computer is mine or is going to be mine. Is my energy strong in relationship to my thoughts about having the new computer? If I feel weak and disempowered in my thoughts and repeat that same energy and those same negative thoughts day in and day out, I’m not likely to see that computer any time soon. But if my thoughts and energy are strong, clear, and persistent, I’ll find a way to get that computer–especially when I repeat those positive thoughts and energy.

In a normal hypnosis or self-hypnosis setting, you become relaxed and focus your mind on what you want to create or change. But you can do the same thing with waking hypnosis. You can teach yourself to have positive and powerful thoughts and feelings in relationship to the things you’d like to create for yourself. You can even practice hypnotherapy on yourself.  The most important aspect to becoming effective with waking self-hypnosis is to learn to monitor your thoughts and feelings. Becoming more aware of your thoughts and feelings as you go through your day gives you a greater opportunity to have success with waking hypnosis. Spend a day focusing on watching your thoughts and your feelings. You’ll be amazed at what you’ll learn about yourself. When I first started monitoring my thoughts, the effort at concentration actually gave me a headache. But with some practice and a little patience, I became fairly adept. All of us are practicing self-hypnosis now.  We hypnotize ourselves on a daily basis.  So, there’s no reason not to become the best waking self-hypnotist you possibly can.

Related posts:

1. Why Hypnosis Might Not Be Working for You
2. Introducing Hypnotherapy Directory from the UK