Hypnosis is most effective when you feel a clear emotionalized desire for specific positive change in your daily life. A question to ask yourself: Am I ready and wanting positive change now? It is also most effective when you feel mutual trust, respect and responsibility with the hypnosis practitioner. Good rapport is essential.

Over your first few visits, you will learn about hypnosis and how this process can help you achieve your goal or resolve your issue(s). We will have detailed conversations, exploring your situation, beliefs, history and readiness for growth. Together, we will write your first suggestion therapy script. Each script is unique to each individual. Then you will engage in the hypnosis process.

Over subsequent visits, you will move forward using various forms of hypnosis, such as suggestion, regression, gestalt, parts and mind-body integration. You will engage in autosuggestion and practice your action steps. When interested, you may learn self-hypnosis to use independently.

Integrative hypnosis often brings rapid, meaningful change and increased vitality. People usually experience progress within 4-6 sessions. People express feeling more calm, clear and at ease. Frequently people experience so much beneficial change in one area, that they return to improve other aspects of their life.

For some people, hypnosis carries an aura of mystery and power. Classic old movies show a hypnotherapist (usually a man in a dark suit) swinging a pendulum, then the person watching the pendulum suddenly drops off into oblivion. Understandably, people are left wondering what really happens. This is a misleading portrayal of the hypnosis process. Hypnosis is a natural, safe, deepened state of awareness with many beneficial characteristics.

The person experiencing hypnotic “trance” is…

• • aware of their surroundings, emotions, words and actions
  • can verbally and physically communicate
  • can easily direct, alter and, or end the hypnosis session
  • can not be externally controlled or compromised
  • can not get trapped in hypnosis

Hypnosis is not sleep!

Although the term hypnosis is derived from the Greek word for sleep, as a clinical experience, hypnosis is simply a state of relaxation and focused concentration.

Hypnosis feels a lot like daydreaming, or simply relaxing for a few minutes in your favorite chair after a busy day at work.

This is one of the most common questions about hypnosis. There is so much research to demonstrate the efficacy of hypnosis that it is impossible to list it all here. Research backs hypnosis as a treatment for physical problems such as pain management, IBS and other gastrointestinal difficulties, as well as a demonstrated effective tool to assist with accomplishing personal goals (i.e. test-taking, sports performance enhancement, confidence and self-esteem building, getting over stage fright and public speaking fears), and habit change (quit smoking, lose weight, stop nail biting, etc), and to help us relax (manage stress, overcome fears), as well as to increase intimacy, improve communication, and manage emotions such as anger, depression or anxiety.

93% Success rate. One meta-analysis of hypnosis research studies suggests extremely high success rate (93% success rate over fewer sessions then talking therapies).

This is another popular question about hypnosis. There are three primary reasons hypnosis is so effective:

First, hypnosis teaches you skills to become aware of your body’s physical response to stimuli, so you can handle it. In a way, it is similar to biofeedback.

Second, hypnosis is a pathway to learning. Our subconscious mind has probably learned many negative behaviors over the years that can be re-learned during hypnosis. For example, after 20 years of smoking you have essentially trained yourself to light up after each meal. Or, when eating dinner out, you have been trained to eat all of your food, even though the portions are double the dietary guidelines. These destructive learning patterns can be relearned (healthy retraining of the subconscious) in the process of hypnosis.

Third, our hypnosis programs create accountability and help you to attain goals and feel supported in your decisions for change. Our well-qualified director is a skilled therapist, personal fitness trainer and certified clinical hypnotherapist.

There are many other reasons hypnosis is so effective, and you will find your visit to be a professional learning experience that teaches you new skills to unlock new ways to live life.

No. Hypnosis is a natural phenomena that occurs in everyone’s life on a daily basis, even though we might not recognize it as such.

It is similar to the first five minutes of sleep, where you know you could open your eyes and get up, but it feels so good you simply choose not to – or when you get in your car after work and drive the 30 minutes home, and then wonder if you actually stopped at all the stoplights along the way.

In life we are either highly alert, asleep, or somewhere in the middle; there is nowhere else for the brain to go. While it is true that in the process of clinical hypnosis we will alter the level of high alertness to a more relaxed pace, this is not a “6th dimension” or some magical place or out of body experience or any such strange thing. It is simply relaxation, something you are capable of experiencing at any time.

Hypnosis is a totally natural state; it is safe, effective and has no side effects.

We have a natural ability to use our mind to create healthy bodies and make healthy decisions.

I can think of no religion that does not want us to use natural, safe, and effective methods of problem resolution to make our lives better.

It is important to realize that all “trance” phenomena or characteristics of hypnosis occur all the time. In ordinary life, we use the creative part of the mind, we accomplish tasks by utilizing the subconscious learnings of our mind, and we experience states of relaxation. In clinical hypnosis, we are simply using the ordinary mental processes of the subconscious mind in a systemic way to solve problems that are destructive in life.

Perhaps the confusion on this issue comes because some religious groups use trance for meditation or attaining “spiritual enlightenment,” but because a religious application of the methods of hypnosis can be utilized, does not make hypnosis a religious act.

Some people, who do not truly understand the nature of clinical hypnosis, are opposed to “opening the mind” or “turning the mind” over to outside forces. In hypnosis you are always fully aware, and never are you “‘controlled” by another. These beliefs come from a misunderstanding of what hypnosis is, probably based on Hollywood myths.

Johnathan Smith does not offer enlightenment training, help people recover repressed memories, charm snakes, find “past lives” or any other religious or non-clinical application of hypnosis not accepted by the medical and clinical community. Johnathan Smith does provide structured direct suggestion and the tools necessary to live life to its fullest.

Its simply use the natural functions of concentration, relaxation, and the natural abilities of our subconscious mind to resolve difficulties that have caused us problems in life. This is something any healthy religion would actually encourage people to do.

My goal is to help you meet your desired goals as quickly as possible, so you can get on with your new healthy, happy life. You will usually be scheduled for 1-3 sessions, and most people respond well to hypnosis in the first one.

Our professional office is conducive to relaxation, and your sense of comfort is one of our greatest concerns. If you’ve ever been to a counseling, therapy or psychology office, you’ll notice the surroundings are fairly similar, But we can also do this at your location.

When you start you will sit in a comfortable chair and discuss your goals with Johnathan Smith. Once the two of you agree on the subjects to be addressed during the session, then Johnathan Smith will then guide you through a relaxing process of creative problem solving and education.

The lights may be dimmed but they are always on, and although most people find it easiest to relax with their eyes closed, you can open your eyes at any time you wish.

There are few risks in hypnosis, a process the Mayo Clinic calls “benign.” Although a very small percentage of people report feeling ‘groggy’ after a session (sometimes referred to as a “hypnotic hangover”), the majority of people report feeling invigorated, energetic, relaxed and happy.

If you are being treated with psychotropic medications or have certain psychiatric diagnoses, you will want to share this with Johnathan Smith, but hypnosis in generally viewed as a safe process with no side effects.

No. All hypnosis is actually self-hypnosis; a hypnotist merely guides you into your own experience of relaxation.

A good analogy is that of the hypnotist sitting in the passenger seat of a car, reading map directions to the driver (the client). The driver can listen and follow the suggestions given by the passenger, or they can choose to go their own way, because the driver is always in control.

A person who is hypnotized can awaken themselves at any time, and the hypnotist cannot make someone do something that they otherwise would not want to do.

Those who fear that the hypnotist has some kind of “magical” power or “mind control” ability simply do not understand how the mind works. These concepts are myths, not realities, in clinical and medical hypnotherapy. Although the results may seem amazing or miraculous, there is truly nothing ‘mystical’ about hypnosis.

Johnathan Smith will release no information about our clients or their sessions to anyone without the client’s express written permission.

We treat your information just as any doctor’s office would – with strict confidentiality.