How good would it be to design your life, rather than live it by default? Hypnotherapy is the key that enables the vast power of the mind to bring about positive and beneficial changes.

The technique is used for psychological purposes to relieve anxiety or otherwise improve or alter behaviour – it’s a way to harness and focus your natural abilities to relax, ease pain, prepare for and recover from surgery, overcome depression, and change unwanted behaviour.

Your idea of hypnotism is perhaps based on what you have seen on TV, maybe a Derren Brown type show or even the Little Britain scenes with the immortal words: “Look into my eyes…” Neither actually represents a true picture of hypnotherapy – in fact, most therapists would suggest that these images of hypnosis are detrimental to the profession and prevent people with many debilitating problems from seeking help.

We think it’s important to bring to the public awareness the difference between hypnosis and hypnotherapy. It has nothing to do with ‘looking into your eyes’ and more to do with looking into your behaviour!

Hypnotherapy is commonly used to help with weight loss and stress – and it has also been proven to be beneficial with smoking cessation and Irritable Bowel Syndrome – but surprisingly, it is probably most often used for psychological problems like anxiety and low self-esteem.

With smoking cessation, hypnotherapy in general has shown to be two and a half times more effective than nicotine replacement therapy (i.e. nicotine gum/patches), and is five times more likely to succeed than willpower alone.

So what can hypnosis do for us?

Well, one area where it is recognized for achieving massive success is indeed with the problem of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) Over a decade of scientific research has shown hypnotherapy to be an effective choice for alleviating the symptoms of this and other debilitating conditions. Hypnotherapy routinely produces positive results in over 80% of the people who use it.

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Hypnosis has been so successful for improving IBS symptoms that Adriane Fugh-Berman (MD), chair of the National Woman’s Health Network in the USA, says that hypnosis should be the treatment of choice for IBS cases that have not responded to conventional therapy.

The main theory behind the success of hypnosis for IBS is that the relaxation improves blood flow to the gut – something that stress tends to inhibit – and so improves digestion and the movement of food through the bowel.

I can testify to this myself as I first had this therapy before deciding to study hypnotherapy and it was very successful —Stella

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The NCH is regarded as a premier authority and self-governing body in the practice and teaching of hypnotherapy.