So, what's hypnotherapy all about? is an altered stateof consciousness, which is a little bit like day-dreaming. Haveyou ever driven somewhere and during the journey your mind hasbeen focused on something completely different to the job ofdriving, and when you have arrived at your destination, yourealise that you remember no details of the drive? You were in ahypnotic trance! You were miles away consciously, but yoursub-conscious mind was driving the car and doing it quiteadequately without the conscious mind interfering, then suddenlyyou're back to reality.

Full Conscious Awareness is the state in which we spend most ofour waking hours. In this state, our mind is attentive and useslogic to reason, evaluate, judge, and make decisions.Unfortunately, when attempting to make life changes, theconscious mind often gets in the way of our desires, by creatingdoubts and conflict in our thinking.

Hypnosis is special because it opens up a channel ofcommunication between the conscious and the sub-conscious mind.It is not sleep, but a relaxed state, where the critical facultyis bypassed, where we focus and close down the conscious mind,where we store all of our beliefs and values. We can then allowourselves to absorb new values, beliefs and desires, thusenabling changes that we want to happen, to occur.

At a subconscious level we don't think in the usual way. Ourminds react and we can't distinguish between reality andunreality, we absorb all the information received through thesenses as true, as real.

In the Hypnotic State, you are "experiencing" withoutquestioning, without critical judgment or analysis, you are ableto suspend your dis-belief, a little like when you are watchinga movie, and the hypnotherapist can make suggestions that arevery likely to feel real and to permanently alter your valuesand beliefs - precisely because your conscious mind is notgetting in the way. You are not "judging" or being "critical" ofthe suggestions.

So why is it that some people respond and some don't? Generally,if two or more emotions are in conflict, the dominant one winsout over the weaker. Imagination wins out over will power,emotions win out over logic, the subconscious mind wins out overthe conscious, every time, Our emotions rule. If for somereason, you will yourself not to allow suggestions to beaccepted, they won't be. The habitual smoker who asks for helpto quit smoking but is not really committed to that goal, cannotbe forced to do so against their will.

By definition, Habits, are those repetitive behaviors that youdo "without thinking." With the critical faculty bypassed and byusing the power of imagination, specific thoughts andsuggestions can be placed in the subconscious where they canpropel someone toward a desired goal or change behavior in apositive, permanent way.

I am not for a moment suggesting that drug treatments should beabandoned in every case. There is clearly a time and a place fordrug-based therapies, but all too often people assume that thereis a pill for everything that is wrong and that simply is notthe case.

In many cases drugs are not a cure, we rely too much on thetreatment of symptoms and not enough on the causes of ourproblems. A change in attitude towards the way we think aboutillness and well-being, may enable us to treat the causes andeliminate the problems permanently.

About the author:Ron Goodswen. Partner at Imagine Me Media. Additional info byRoderick Piggott (N.C.P.) hypnotherapist.http://www.imaginememedia.com

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