Hypnosis… You have to believe it to see it, haven’t you?
“I don't know if I'm convinced. I suppose that if you don't believe in hypnosis, there won't be any results, will there?" Here we go again… The tone was set.
It's surprising (not really, in fact) but this comment often comes from men rather than women, probably because men are more down to earth, shall we say... although women, of course, can also sometimes express strong reservations.
“Actually no,” I said extremely confident to this gentleman since I had a very concrete example to offer. “Many years ago, when I was just beginning as a hypnotherapist, I had the opportunity to verify that hypnosis worked even with a very uncooperative person. Mrs. C, a 72-year-old lady with a strong temper to say the least, had been suffering from an ulcer on her left ankle for the past 6 months. Every day, seven days a week, her dressing was changed by nurses coming to her home, and every few weeks, she saw a vascular specialist. The last six months had been horrible, according to her family; she had even let herself seen to cry in public, which was nearly unheard off.
At first, she absolutely refused to have hypnotherapy sessions. ‘That’s quackery’ she stated. Thank you… However, when she was finally ready to hear me, I asked her: “How would your life be changed if you no longer had this ulcer?” Suddenly, she stopped being negative to explain that without it, she could do her shopping, do gardening, visit her friends etc etc. She gave me a long list… more than enough for me to write down suggestions that could be given to her subconscious in order to change her state of mind. She finally agreed to do ONE session. Well… It was better than nothing, even if -as I had told her- the usual protocol required three or four sessions.
On D-Day, the lady lay down quietly, closed her eyes… and opened them again almost instantly! I had time to say only a few sentences but she had already decided that she didn’t like what was happening -probably out of fear of letting go: "It doesn't work, I'm still awake."
I reassured her, explaining that she could keep her eyes open if she wanted to… Still, she closed them again, and reopened them a minute or two later, with the same comment. I reiterated that she could let go while keeping her eyes open, if that was her wish… Half an hour later, still playing that little game, I checked her state of relaxation, which I rarely did, but in her case I felt the need:
“On a scale of 0 to 10, 10 representing a state of deep relaxation, where are you?”
“2.”
“2…???” I thought she had misunderstood my question.
“Yes, 2. I am not relaxed at all!”
Right. I reassured her again, took her into a deeper hypnotic trance, guessing that she was more relaxed than what she wanted to admit. Then, based on what she had told me previously, in went all the suggestions that I had prepared and that would making her feel better, change the quality of her skin on her ankle and change her life. And as we know that "all illness is a message from the subconscious" - and it was certainly the case with that leg ulcer, namely an unexpressed and stored anger about a specific event she could recall before the leg ulcer started - I also instructed her subconscious to deal with the issue in 10 days. Why 10 days? Why not…?!?
She laughed when she heard “10 days”. She had been suffering for 6 months, she said, it was absolutely impossible for a change to happen so quickly. Within 2-3 months, possibly. But 10 days??? Complete nonsense!
Right… I explained to her that the subconscious was incredibly powerful and that when we could communicate with it, it was willing to help us, sometimes even instantly.
At the end of the session, she admitted that I had a very pleasant voice, but she really doubted that, pleasant or not, my voice could have made any difference to her ulcer.
Well… I learned later on that three days after her session, the ulcer had already changed in appearance, starting to heal. Ten days after the session, there was hardly anything left: The skin was beautiful, a slightly dark, healthy pink.
All her doubts and preconceptions suddenly flew away, and she advised everyone she met to have hypnotherapy sessions!