Silicon Valley Hypnosis Center offers a variety of services that help clients quickly meet their goals, including hypnosis and NLP.

What is hypnosis?

During hypnosis, a hypnotherapist guides you into a relaxed state so that your mind is open to suggestions on how to make positive changes. Hypnosis is commonly used to resolve issues related to losing weight, quitting smoking, reducing stress, sleeping better, and controlling pain.

The first step is an intake session to find out exactly what you want to achieve in the session(s). We answer your questions about hypnosis and discuss how we’ll help you make changes in your life. If you’ve tried and failed to make changes before, we’ll discuss these issues, too.

After the intake process, with your permission, the hypnotherapist will guide you into a relaxed state, then offer suggestions to your unconscious mind.  These suggestions will lead you toward making the changes you want to make in your life and behaviors.

Some hypnotherapists use specific scripts for specific problems. We believe that people are more complex than this one-size-fits-all methodology. That’s why we tailor each session to the specific outcomes, wants, needs, and concerns of each person who comes into our office.

Sometimes the session will be recorded so the client can take home a hypnosis audio CD or mp3 for reinforcement sessions. You may also be given instruction on self-hypnosis so you can continue your training at home.

Although rapid and lasting change can often happen in the first session, it is customary to have follow-up sessions to ensure the changes you implement become part of a new pattern of behavior.

Going into hypnosis

Hypnosis and trance phenomena are all natural states for humans. We go into and come out of these of states of mind all the time. If you’ve ever had a strong emotional response while watching a movie or listening to music, found your mind wandering while driving or washing dishes, or experienced a sense of deep, transcendent relaxation during a massage, you’ve naturally entered a trance state.

Contrary to popular belief, you are always in control during hypnotherapy. You and the hypnotherapist work as a team to ease you into a relaxed state. Even if you’ve never been hypnotized before, or think you can’t be hypnotized at all, anyone can do it. Trance states can be learned and practiced so you can get better and better at entering a relaxed place.

Most people report that it hypnosis is relaxing – even refreshing — and many clients truly enjoy their sessions.

Why hypnosis works

Hypnosis directly accesses your unconscious mind — the part of you that automatically creates and modifies your behavior. Your unconscious mind’s programming can be useful since it allows you to do things like drive a car without having to consciously think about every single movement needed to do it. But it is also the part of you that repeats your habits – good or bad – over and over again. So, if you’ve ever found yourself overeating or reaching for a cigarette and not even realizing it until later, your unconscious mind was at work, making those things happen.

With hypnosis, we work directly with your unconscious mind. We can work with the beliefs, thoughts, and patterns that create your behavior, and provide better ways of meeting your needs than the problem behavior you want to overcome.

What is Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP)?

Neuro-linguistic Programming, or NLP, is a set of change-work tools used to effect rapid and lasting change. These tools help you uncover your mind’s programming language and the emotions that drive your behaviors. Once discovered, your programming can be updated so you feel and behave differently. It’s not unlike installing new software to replace outdated software on a computer.

NLP work is typically done with your eyes open and can involve talk, visualization, and exploring patterns of how things feel. It has sometimes been called “Waking Hypnosis.” You are in complete control and your eyes are open during the session.

NLP has created specific models of change that were synthesized from renowned, highly effective therapists such as Fritz Perls, Virgina Satir, and Milton Erickson. Some examples of these NLP models are rapid techniques such as the Fast Phobia and Trauma Release processes that can typically resolve those issues in one session.

Why NLP works

Behavioral patterns are a way of life. They script how we think, feel, and act. For example, someone who has a phobia of a snake never forgets to have the phobia when seeing the snake. That phobia usually presents itselfthe same way every time as well – as a strong fear and shaking for example, or breaking out into a cold sweat.

The same is true for issues like overeating, which leads to weight gain. Some people see a full tub of ice cream and the next thing they know the spoon is in their mouth and the tub is half empty. Other people look at a tub of ice cream and think to themselves, “I’d never eat that,” and walk away without a second thought.

With NLP, we discover those unconscious patterns you have that are holding you back, and help you find a new pattern that allows you to behave differently and get better results in life. Sometimes the new pattern is something you are already good at in one area of your life, and just need to apply it in another area of your life. Other times we can pick from NLP models that are known to work and apply them to your situation.