What is hypnotherapy like?

I don’t think a lot of people have ever had hypnotherapy before. Here’s what its like!

My go-to fun fact when people make you do those terrible icebreakers (business idea: GOOD icebreakers) is that I got hypnotised to stop eating orange chips.

I am a fan of:

• Orange chips like rashuns, cheezels, burger rings and twisties (listed in order from most favourite to least favourite)
• Woowoo stuff that is the closest thing to magic in my sad, boring life
• Trying new things

I am not a fan of:

• Diets or eating healthier
• Willpower
• Exercising

So when my beloved orange chips were making me gain weight and my stomach upset, the clickbait probably sponsored articles from the NZHerald about how a lady lost heaps of weight through hypnotherapy really sold me. No dieting or exercising? Sounded too good to be true.

What is hypnotherapy?

Hynotherapy is basically trying to hypnotise you to stop a habit – it can be smoking, or eating too much. The hypnotherapist I found specialised in people who needed to lose weight for gastric band surgery.

I think hypnosis only works on people who are open to being hypnotised, but as I say later, as long as you will follow instructions you will probably get hypnotised.

So in 2019 when the Skycity building caught on fire, I went to a hypnotherapy session all the way in Browns Bay. I remember this clearly because I was working in the CBD at the time and saw all the smoke starting. We got to work from home, which in pre-COVID times was WILD. I talked about it to the hypnotherapy practitioner who was very nice.

What happens in hypnotherapy?

You lie down on this lazy boy like chair and get given a blanket and headphones. For my session, it was in this practitioner’s office where she sat behind her desk and I was on a chair in front.

She then starts talking into a microphone that’s connected to your headphones (which also is recorded).  It starts off as more meditation/relaxation stuff, like she told me to take deep breaths and to relax your body starting from your head, etc. She got me to imagine I was in my safe space – for me it was my bed.

Getting hypnotised

I guess when you follow the instructions, your brain just sort of listens when you are relaxed? 

She would say ‘your eyelids are getting heavy and now you will find them too hard to open’ and I started giggling because that’s exactly what was happening – I felt like I couldn’t open them. It’s so bizarre that I could recognise that I was hypnotised while my body was doing what she was saying. So weird!

And then you just listen to what she’s saying! She told me that the whole point of hypnotherapy is to influence your subconscious – when I am craving for chips, it’s my subconscious trying to get comfort, interest, feel in control. What hypnotherapy tries to do is to get your subconscious to realise those actions are not productive or good for you.

It sort of felt like I was in a pre-sleep stage, like if you were just hovering on sleep while someone is clearly in your ear (as you’re wearing headphones) telling you something. You don’t really feel sleepy, but it’s a ‘head empty’ kind of vibe.

It was so weird because at the end she was like ‘and now you feel yourself return to the present, stretching and feeling refreshed, opening your eyes NOW’ and then my body just did it??? When before I was just lying there, head empty??

Did hypnotherapy work?

I got sent the recording so I can still listen to it whenever I want. It definitely helped for a few months, and I am supposed to listen to it whenever I want to eat orange chips again.

It definitely cut down on my cravings, especially when I listen to the recording again. However, it doesn’t work when I get back into my trigger environment or emotions, such as when I’m stressed, depressed or living with my parents. Those orange chips are no stranger to me lips.

I also did not lose any weight (which I was also wanting). Just stopped eating orange chips as much.

Will hypnotherapy work for me?

Hypnotherapy will not work for you if:

• You refuse to listen. Like when the practitioner says ‘take a deep breath’ and you refuse to. It’s sort of like going to a gym class and listening to the instructions for a warm up, not thinking-kind of listen.
• You do not listen to the recording again during moments of weakness
• You are constantly in your trigger emotions
• You want a drastic weight loss

I think it’s definitely worth a go if you’re a good boi or gwol who is able to follow instructions. If you listen nicely and will do what an instructor at a gym class, PT, driving instructor or YouTube tutorial tells you, then it’ll work.

The magic also ‘breaks’ when you pick up the habit again – nothing is stopping you.

It was such a different experience that I obviously still talk about 4 years later.

The next thing I want to do is reiki – comment down below how you personally found hypnotherapy, or if you’ve ever done reiki!!