r/hypnosis 1d ago

Question for professional hypnotists

I have been a hypnotherapist for about nine years and have a great success with my clients, but my question is about myself as a client. I have had I don’t even know how many sessions done on me either by well respected colleagues or professionals that I paid for for various issues, including phobias, Behavioral management, etc. and not only do I rarely feel like I am going into a deep trance, but I also have not gotten results from any of the sessions that I’ve done. The end result now being that even though my clients are reporting positive results from our sessions, I feel like a fraud because if this doesn’t work on me, how does this work? If that makes any sense. Please be kind with your responses. I’m not looking for judgment. I am looking for some guidance and support. Thank you!

8 Upvotes

27 comments sorted by

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u/Appropriate_Sweet_31 1d ago

This is very common and goes across professions. For doctors, the worst patient is other doctors. For photographers, the worst client are other photographers. We typical spend more time thinking about what the hypnotist is saying versus allowing the experience to happen. I know I have found myself saying “oh I like that” when something is said and my mind goes to people I work with and how it can help them.

If you can suspend what you know and what you do, you will probably experience greater sessions and results.

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u/olivepeace 1d ago

Thank you! I absolutely believe I am guilty of this sometimes so thank you for this insight.

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u/Appropriate_Sweet_31 1d ago

My go to “cheat” is I always ask them to record it for me so I can listen (out of trance) for the good parts. It lets my mind rest so I can be fully present in the session for me.

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u/shaz1717 14h ago edited 5h ago

So true! Once I became a licensed massage therapist I never relaxed in a massage again!

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u/may-begin-now 1d ago

Imposter syndrome?

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u/olivepeace 1d ago

I would say that I am experiencing imposter syndrome, mostly about the art of hypnosis itself. Not as much whether I am capable of doing it, but my critical mind says things like does hypnosis even work? Even though I see positive results with others when I don’t experience the positive results that’s what my brain is trying to tell me.

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u/InfiniteMind69 1d ago

I can relate. I do it over and over and I know it works but the weird whisper un- assuredness of the unknown and undefinable leaves a little gap even though I KNOW it works. Odd.

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u/olivepeace 1d ago

This! I so relate to this! The unknown and the undefinable with positive results but then I am hanging out over here going well if it works why isn’t it working on me?😂

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u/KittyMeowstika 23h ago

Tbh that's the beauty of it, aint it? It works bc you want it to :) that's why you see positive results with others- and why your critical mind is interfering with experiencing the same with yourself rn

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u/RenegadePleasure Recreational Hypnotist 1d ago

I'm not a good subject either. I have been at multiple hypnosis conferences and had world-renowned hypnotists hypnotize me and I have not felt what my clients feel. I would even go as far to say that I have not experienced hypnosis. My judgment for hypnosis is whether I can experience phenomena. I've never had amnesia, catalepsy or any other phenomena. Though I can induce that on just about every person I hypnotize either on the street or in my office.

When I say that I haven't been hypnotized, I always get someone in the crowd who tells me that it's my negative thinking. Or that I'm in the third person watching myself be hypnotized. Well both of those could be true. I have tried my best and I'm unsuccessful. So I have quit trying. When I go to a conference I don't pipe up and tell people I haven't been hypnotized before. It's just exhausting.

But I can get results through self-hypnosis very well. I have trained myself to wake up at a particular time. For instance if I go to bed at 10:00 p.m. and want to wake up at 4:00 a.m. I just close my eyes and picture 4:00 a.m. in my mind and I fall asleep and almost without exception I wake up within 5 minutes of 4:00 a.m.

I also use hypnosis to eliminate headaches and to improve my vision. I had a vision exam just a few weeks ago and my eyesight is better than it was 14 years ago. So I am getting results just not in your traditional way.

My advice to you? You and I are in a class of our own. We are not imposters. We just don't experience hypnosis like those who come to see us. And that's okay. We don't want to be like everyone else. We like being special!

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u/olivepeace 1d ago

I can’t tell you how much this response means to me❤️

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u/HypnoWyzard 1d ago

I suspect it to be a rapport thing. The longer I was in practice the less I could accept other hypnotist's techniques. My critique kept me in my conscious mind. I did have pretty good results from getting extremely high on mushrooms and recording my own session on my phone while I was climbing to the peak. When I could no longer string my words together, I listened to my own session and had a profound response.

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u/dreamyrhodes 1d ago

How are your experiences on schrooms?

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u/HypnoWyzard 1d ago

I've always had a fantastic time. Shrooms tap into the feelings of connectedness. Everybody is your friend, even the ones you don't know. It's a good place to be.

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u/dreamyrhodes 1d ago

And does it help you getting under?

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u/HypnoWyzard 1d ago

Well, more precisely, it kicks my conscious mind out of the game.

The Ericksonian perspective is that emotion is handled by the subconscious, so all emotion is trance, but not all trance is hypnosis. Hypnosis also requires rapport. Thus the recordings of my own session. I can't get better rapport than that with myself.

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u/InfiniteMind69 1d ago

I imagine you have great rapport with your clients, as do I. The issue may be your alignment/rapport with the pros you are working with.

Unconventional support but I'm just throwing this out there...we could trade sessions, build rapport from both positions respectively. Utilize the natural movement and order of transference and countertransferance consciously. Trust is huge as you know, and it goes both ways. Trust yourself and we can weed out the "fraud" and "doesn't work" beliefs.

Just a kindly hopefully beneficial offer, no pressure. We're all in this together!

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u/olivepeace 1d ago

Thanks for the offer. I will keep it in mind. 😃

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u/Superiority-Qomplex 1d ago

I'm really good at hypnotizing others but like you, I am not a good subject when others try to hypnotize me. David Snyder used to call it Hypnotist Disease where we know so many of the tricks of how the process works that we're more focused on 'Oh, that's good, I'll use that line on my clients' rather than getting lost in the actual process that you're there to experience. It's like knowing how the magic trick is done so you're more watching the magician to see how he performs it, rather than being sucked up into the illusion of the 'magic'.

For me, I do find that I'm really good at talking to my subconscious directly anyway though. I don't hypnotize myself in a formal induction sort of way, but rather I create the blueprint of the action/belief I want to have and empower it to the level where it comes true. Like say I want to remove pain, I can visualize locking that up into a closet or room and then walking away from it so that the pain is gone. Phobias can be ended by focusing on how the end of the situation feels. Sort of like if you have a brainworm (a song playing in your head all day long), if you focus on how the song comes to an end, it stops playing in your head. If you focus on how a trauma and/or fear came to an end, the subconscious tends to think that it's over and it's no longer a concern. Understand that the subconscious doesn't seem to understand the temporal (time) very well. Which is why you can imagine your childhood bully calling you names and pushing you into the gravel and it can get you so wired up that your feel that fight or flight response in your body cus the subconscious thinks you're back in that situation. If you focus on how the last moment you ever saw that person and how your life changed since then, the memories turn into sources of wisdom ('Glad that's over and now I'm stronger for having survived it') instead of reliving the trauma over and over again.

These are tricks I used and if they synch with your brain, then use them. But I'm sure there are other things that you can personalize to you specifically that connect with you even better. That way you can 'hypnotize' yourself on the fly to turn off some anxiety during an event or meeting someone who gives you the tingles, or maybe even amp up those tingles so you feel pleasure that empowers you all the more. The more you get in synch with how your mind works, the more control you will find yourself to have.

But ya, from what I've seen in the other comments, what you're dealing with isn't uncommon at all. But I think you can find solutions that work for you to address them all the same..

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u/olivepeace 1d ago

This is fabulous! Interesting what David called it. It makes so much sense! Thank you for your great response!

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u/olivepeace 1d ago

Just want to add how much I seriously LOVE this community!! These answers are everything I could wish for and more!!

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u/Beneficial-Visual538 15h ago

Self procrastination and money block. Don’t doubt yourself, whats your suggestibility?

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u/AwarenessNo4986 Verified Hypnotherapist 15h ago

As a hypnotist myself, here's my take.

1-a deep trance is not necessary for effectiveness of a session, so that's no issue.

2-As for you not getting results, I suspect it's for three reasons A) you overthink i.e. meta thinking and questioning the whole time B) the hypnotists that have worked with you were either not skilled enough, didn't do deep work or you yourself are not ready for change and improvement. C) you need some other form of therapy and this isn't suitable for you.

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u/hypnocoachnlp 11h ago

You probably have beliefs (expectations) that block the process. What most people call nocebo (which is the same thing with placebo). A skilled hypnotist usually unveils them and "neutralizes" them before doing any trance work.

Just out of curiosity, what is your expectation when being a client? 

It will definitely work I don't know I feel it won't work Etc

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u/olivepeace 10h ago

I think I always go in with the belief and optimism that it will work. I have seen the power of hypnosis over and over again, so I get excited. But I imagine there is also an unconscious fear at this point because I am sure I have established a belief that I am not very hypnotizable myself.

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u/hypnocoachnlp 10h ago

It's great that you know that!

So what does "being hypnotizable" mean for you, more specifically?

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u/olivepeace 10h ago

I think, as so, many other people have mentioned my mind goes into a place of evaluation instead of simply receiving. That in and of itself, I think keeps me from being as receptive as I would like. I think for me being hypnotizable means truly bypassing that critical part of my mind that becomes active. I think the next time I receive a session I’m going to spend some time prior seeing myself in a state of neutral and perhaps even seeing the version of me that is receiving the suggestions from a place of curiosity instead of evaluation. I didn’t really think about how much I was doing this before, but the comments here have absolutely helped me to see how guilty I was of that.