Trance-forming the brain: reshaping neural pathways through hypnotherapy

You may have heard the word ‘neuroplasticity’ and wondered what it means. As a Clinical Hypnotherapist and Trauma Specialist, neuroplasticity is central to my therapeutic work, helping clients make positive changes and overcoming severe and enduring mental health problems.

Neuroplasticity refers to the ability of the brain to create new neural pathways, which is the process that enables us to learn new things, change thinking styles and develop new habits (or break old ones).

In the past, we used to think that once we pass early childhood, our brain was fixed. But more and more research has demonstrated that this is not the case. We can work with neuroplasticity to change all sorts of things about ourselves. We can become more confident, or less anxious, we can learn to paly sport better, or we can overcome trauma. Exciting new research is even investigating therapies for conditions such as ADHD!

I often work with my clients using hypnotherapy. Hypnotherapy is a really effective way of harnessing neuroplasticity, especially to reduce stress and anxiety. When I support my clients to enter a relaxing trance state, their subconscious is activated, and there is also increased activity in the areas associated with imagery and visualisation. EEGs have shown that a trance state itself alters neurocircuitry and even induces changes in gene expression.

We know that when you visualise yourself doing an activity, it has a similar effect to if we actually do it in real life. This means that when a client is in a hypnotic trance, and encouraged to visualise themselves being the way they would like to be (e.g. giving a perfect presentation, feeling confident while attending a social gathering, playing golf really well) this creates the same neural pathways in the brain as if they were actually doing it. If we repeat an activity (or repeatedly visualise ourselves doing it) this strengthens the neural pathway until it becomes the default way of being.

So when we combine a hypnotic trance with visual imagining, we can get some really powerful therapeutic benefits!