At least once a day, someone calls me office with questions about hypnosis. The most common thing I hear is some variation of “Can I be hypnotized?” or “I’m not hypnotizable, I just know it”.
The truth is this…If you’ve ever daydreamed, or become completely absorbed in an activity, then you are completely hypnotizable.
Take a look at this article we found by Stephanie M. Lee of the San Francisco Chronicle about a new study that asked why some people are more prone to hypnosis than others…
Some people think that hypnotherapy is nothing more than snake oil. However, some of the most prestigious hospitals in the United States, such as Beth Israel and Mount Sinai in New York City seem to disagree with this harsh assessment of hypnosis.
These hospitals, as well as many others, offer hypnosis to their patients to help them manage pain, anxiety, and a number of other health problems that traditional medicine has difficulty addressing successfully.
You can feel your heart racing as you repeatedly clench and unclench your numb, tingling hands. You try desperately to catch your breath and slow your heartbeat but nothing seems to calm you down. You place your hand on your pounding chest and tell yourself that you are fine, but you can’t shake the all-consuming feeling that something terrible is happening.
Sound familiar? If it rings a bell, than you may be one of the 6.8 million Americans who suffer from anxiety. Although it may not necessarily manifest itself as a panic attack such as the one described above, it is still an extremely debilitating, frustrating experience for those who fall victim to this disorder.
Hypnosis is used to treat patients who have a variety of behavioral and emotional disorders. The following are the major hypnosis treatments Dr. Gluck offers:
● Weight Loss
● Habit Control/Addictions (smoking, alcohol, drugs, and gambling)
● Improve interpersonal skills and self confidence
● Sexual Addiction and Dysfunction
● Stress reduction
● Irritable Bowel Syndrome
● Chronic Sadness
● Eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia, fetish eating, food addiction)
● Phobias
● Dating and relationship skills
Neuroplasticity is a term used in the field of neuroscience to refer to the ability of the brain and nervous system to change both structurally and functionally as a result of input from the environment. Plasticity can occur at the cellular level which is involved in memory and learning, but also on a larger scale such as with cortical remapping in response to an injury. Neurological research has shown that certain experiences can actually change both the brain’s physical structure (anatomy) and its functional organization (physiology)
Neuroscientists are just beginning to realize that the brain is by no means immutable and that it can and indeed does change in response to our environment and experiences.