Does hypnosis work?

How to know if hypnosis is for you + a video interview with a hypnotist

Featured in this video is Debra Heslin, my coach, who has been doing hypnosis for 8 years and also teaches hypnosis. She is certified to teach on the American Board of Hypnosis. Prior, Deb was General Manager JFK Airport of JetBlue Airways. You can find more info on her here.

I was hypnotized a couple of months ago.

It was not what I expected.

Going in, I was simply curious. Intelligent enough to know it would be nothing like a stage act in front of a large audience but I had a lack of knowledge on what the process would entail. I was fairly sure my hypnotist would not pull out theatrical props like swing a pocket watch on a chain, or shove a black-and-white spiral in my face. Although I still did not know… would I sleep? (I did not.) Does it work? (It did for me.)

Because I trusted my hypnotist, I knew she would not conduct fishy mind control. Essentially I went through a guided relaxing meditation, which was a beautiful and trusting experience.

Most importantly and surprisingly, hypnosis exposed deep personal issues I did not expect to uncover.

The curiosity in hypnosis started during a discussion on a trip with friends. I asked the group, if you could, what would you be hypnotized for? One friend wanted to stop her decades-habit of biting her inner cheek, while another would like to rid her fear of flying. We heard stories of hypnosis on quitting smoking and conquering fears.

Me?

I wanted to squash my sleepiness while driving.

For as long as I remember, whether I’m a passenger or a driver, you can find me fighting a coma, even after 5 minutes in motion. Including when I’m fully rested. For perspective, if I drove to a destination a mere 40 minutes away, it wasn’t uncommon to see me pull over, 20 minutes in, and into a parking lot to take a power nap.

I had a strong assumption that this was due to repetitively being “stuck” in the car with my parents who chronically argued. Sleeping was my way to cope and escape the long road trips with them shouting at each other, or withstand the deafening silence in the car.

Prior to hypnosis I have been working with Debra Heslin, a master coach and neuro-linguistic programming trainer. NLP is a pseudoscientific approach to communication, personal development and psychotherapy. Basically, I work with Deb to help me build confidence, and push aside doubts and limiting beliefs. We worked together on various therapeutic practices to help me be — in a nutshell — the best I can be.

Hypnosis seemed like a natural therapy to try with her.

When we began, Deb helped me learn what hypnosis is and, more importantly, what it is not.

“Hypnosis is not something that can be done to you. It's the cooperation of your unconscious mind, your subconscious mind, to make those changes,” Deb said to me in an interview. “Hypnosis is relaxation. It's just another name for it. Do you like to relax? Do you like to meditate? Do you like to pray? It’s along those same lines where we're guided by our inner guidance within us.”

And just like that, we can squash some myths.

A haunting hypnosis.

The zapper!

Movies like Get Out depict hypnosis as a way to trap or trick someone into doing something they do not want to do. One myth is that hypnotherapists make their subjects do things beyond their will.

Does anyone remember John Waters zapping Penny Pingleton in Hairspray (the one with Ricki Lake not John Travolta) to jolt her into changing her mind so she no longer likes “negros” or “black boys”? Yep, it’s shocking for me to write it down. And no, this is surely not hypnosis either.

Skeptics say that hypnosis preys and works on the weak, or those more suggestible.

According to an Australian Department of Health article, “Suggestibility doesn’t mean you have a weak character, as popularly believed. A strong-minded person may be a good candidate for hypnosis because they will strive to get results from treatment.”

Thank goodness I found this excerpt because I began to wonder if I was weak-willed. But, in fact, based on my hypnosis sessions, I can claim strength and power to take my subconscious to a state of mind I always sought and strived to hold.

Patricia Meier, hypnotherapist at Sparks of Healing in Canada, who has written about hypnosis on her substack, reminds us that her role is facilitator and that we are in control of the whole process.

“Truly, the only thing a person needs to have a successful hypnotic experience is to trust their hypnotist, to allow all levels of mind to do the work for them, and to be curious about where the journey into trance will take them,” Patricia said to me in an email.

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Circa 2012 at peak sleepy lady driving status

In my hypnosis with Deb, which was split into two sessions, I assumed we’d get right to it and fix the sleepy-while-driving issue. I was ready to talk about my parents’ marriage, all the baggage I have around my dad’s anger. Yada yada. 

Deb and I met virtually since we live on opposite American coasts. After an educative session on hypnosis, she asked me a series of questions, which ultimately led to unpacking many of my unconscious thoughts.

She kept drilling me, albeit a gentle sort of prodding, like she always does when we meet. She’s a stellar coach who helps bring out some of my inner most thoughts to the surface so we can truly work on what may be limiting me.

At first I was annoyed. I just wanted to drive like a normal person. Why couldn’t we just jump right into it? Once I realized Deb was trying to tap deeper, I focused on being more open instead of pushing back. My issue wasn’t just about sleepy driving. Deb helped me through connected themes I needed to address, on confidence, trust, safety, my role as a protector, empowerment, happiness, and being present, to name a few. Overall, I realized I dreaded driving and I wanted to overcome it.

The second session was a meditative-like process in which she spoke about the above themes. I was fully awake but relaxed, mostly with my eyes closed but I had full control of my mind and body. Deb spoke calmly and gently using phrases and words we explored in the previous session. Everything she said was familiar, repeating what my inner guide wants me to follow.

For anyone curious about hypnosis, explore it if you’re willing to go with an open mind.

After hearing from various people in my social media and personal circle, reading through articles, and talking to two hypnotherapists, it’s clear that the experience of hypnosis ranges widely.

Connections on social media told me:

• “I tried it for stopping smoking. It didn’t work and thought it was mostly bullshit.”

• “I watched almost every showing of the same hypnotist show at the Del Mar fair for a week straight. It was a total sham, actors.”

• “I did the hypnotist show at the Del Mar fair. It was a weird feeling. Like I knew what I was doing but felt compelled to do what he was telling me.”

Two months after hypnosis, I no longer experience the sense of dread when driving. Sometimes I do get sleepy but I can better snap myself out of it. When we drive as an entire family, I offer to drive and don’t mind it. I feel more confident about safely driving myself and my family.

Tell me: have you been hypnotized? What was your experience? Share in the comments!

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If you’re looking into hypnosis, more insight from Patricia can help you in your research process:

How do I know that I am not just making it up?

This is a fair question and our imaginations are tied to the trance state, where we experience dreams. As I guide clients with words and suggestion, certainly their minds are making up pictures, feelings, perhaps even sounds that match the words they are hearing; a gentle breeze, waves of the ocean, or the soft sounds of the forest. My answer to this question is a question. Do you feel better at the end of the session? Have you been relieved of the habit, identity, belief, or issue that you came here with? If yes, then why does it matter how you got to this state of wellness? Let the conscious mind rest on the how and just experience the positive outcome.

Who can be hypnotized?

There are very few people who cannot be hypnotized.

People also have a misconception of what hypnosis is. Not everyone has the type of hypnosis that looks like sleep, in fact, I have had clients as young as 8-years-old who wiggle and jiggle the whole time and still have the positive outcome they came for. There are many different levels of hypnosis; some people hear the entire session as if they are an audience member at a play, others do not recall the majority of the session, and others have a combination of the two states. There are those who go into somnabulism, completely unable to move their bodies; that only happened to me once, I had a really itchy nose during the session and was unable to move my arm to scratch it.