TECHNOLOGY-ASSISTED HYPNOTHERAPY

WHAT IS TECHNOLOGY-ASSISTED HYPNOTHERAPY?

Technology-Assisted hypnotherapy is exactly what it sounds like—hypnotherapy facilitated with the use of brainwave technology to help clients achieve the optimal brainwave range during a session so that they can reach their most suggestible state to achieve the goals of the session. While technology cannot negate the variables that affect how deeply a client slips beyond the critical mind in a session, it can help to level the playing field. To understand this better, it’s important to understand a bit more about brainwave states.

The various regions of the brain oscillate at various frequencies throughout the day depending on the activity being engaged in and the time of day. While we are awake and going about our day, beta (12hz – 30hz) brainwaves are usually dominant. When we are hyper-focused and in flow, our brainwaves can go even higher into gamma (typically 30hz – 50hz, however research suggests that frequencies can even go over 100hz, so the ceiling of the brain’s frequency capability is not yet fully known.) The gamma state is still being explored, and there is potential here to reach a superconscious state as this brainwave frequency is commonly dominant in skilled meditators while they meditate.

Then, we have lower brainwave frequencies that are usually dominant in relaxed, meditative, and hypnogogic states. When we are in a relaxed state but still awake, our alpha (8hz – 12hz) brainwaves are more dominant. When we start slipping into a light dream state, theta (4hz – 12hz) brainwaves are dominant. Both of these brainwave states are associated with hypnosis and meditation. Evidence suggests that we learn best and are most suggestible when we are relaxed and our brainwave dominance is somewhere between theta and alpha in certain regions of the brain. This can be a delicate balance, because if a client is in high alpha, they can even go up into beta and have conscious thoughts interfering with the process. If a client is in low theta, they run the risk of dropping into delta (below 4hz) and falling asleep.

With technology, we are able to achieve sweet-spot frequency ranges more consistently and faster than with standard hypnotherapy induction techniques. Moreover, the client is able to maintain that depth for the entire session without going up into consciousness or down into sleep. Depending on the intention of the session, the depth needed will be different. For example, the first smoking cessation session calls for a low to middle alpha range. The second reinforcement smoking cessation session can then be done in a mid-theta to low alpha range. For a past-life regression session, the target is an oscillating theta range all the way.

Theta tends to be the most sensitive brainwave range to get right. It is the brainwave state that is dominant every night as we fall asleep and every morning as we wake up. It is a liminal state that we transit but we don’t spend much time in. If a client is too deep in theta, they naturally run the risk of dropping into sleep. To help prevent this, technology can be used to suspend the client in a light-dreaming theta phase without dozing off.

WHAT KIND OF TECHNOLOGY DO YOU USE?

Depending on the purpose of the session, a client’s suggestibility, and how the session is delivered (in-person or by Zoom), I use one technology or a combination of 2-3. The main technologies I use are as follows:

• Isochronic tones (Zoom and/or in-person)—This is a sound that oscillates in the target brainwave frequency range. It sounds like beeps that start a bit faster at first (beta) and then slow down into the alpha/theta range. If the client is ready and willing to slip into a meditative/hypnogogic state while listening to isochronic tones, the client’s brainwaves will naturally try to match the frequency of the tones. This is the simplest technology in my arsenal, but it’s just as powerful as the other technologies I use.
• PEMF Pad (in-person only)—This a pulsed electromagnetic frequency pad placed under the client’s head during a session. If the client is ready and willing to slip into a meditative/hypnogogic state while the pad is switched on to the target frequency range, then the gentle pulsed electromagnetic frequencies emited will be picked up by the parietal lobes of the brain and mimicked. This is a gentle and safe consumer-friendly PEMF technology, however as a precaution, it will not be used if any of the following conditions are true for the client: pregnancy, pace-maker, heart arrhythmia, tuberculosis, cadiopathy, mycosis, tumors, wearing magnetized protheses, epilepsy, acute infections, bleeding, or acute viral diseases.
• AVE Device (in-person only)—This is audio-visual entrainment technology that includes glasses and speakers (sometimes headphones). The client has their eyes closed while wearing glasses that pulse lights at the same frequency as the target brainwave. At the same time, the client is also listening to tones (much like beeps) that also oscillate at the target brainwave frequency. The parietal lobes of the brain then match the frequencies that are being seen and heard. This is a fun technology, and clients often mention the cool patterns they see even though their eyes are closed. While it is safe, it cannot be used with clients who have epilepsy.

The use of technology during your session is at your discretion. These devices are not necessary, but they are helpful to maintain theta or alpha states as the session gets underway. I only use technologies once I have your explicit permission (provided that none of the contraindications apply to you).

CONTRAINDICATIONS

Hypnosis and meditation are safe for most people. However, there are many above-average individuals who have taken on extra learning tasks in this life, which often surface as mental health challenges. You should NOT have a hypnotherapy session if you are experiencing any of the following without the approval of your licensed mental health professional:

• Severe mental health issues (schizophrenia, psychosis, etc.)
• Severe depression
• Severe alcohol and/or drug addiction

Several challenging experiences also arise during our lives that can leave us destabilized. If you have recently experienced any of the following, it might be a good idea to wait:

• Recent traumatic event
• Recent loss of a loved one
• Recent relationship breakup
• Recent significant life change

If you are currently working with a mental health professional, please consult with them first to ensure that there will be no interference with your treatment plan. Please only schedule a session with me when you feel 100% ready.

SPECIALITIES

I am trained in a range of hypnotherapy purposes and can tackle almost anything. However, over the years, I have found that most of my hypnosis clients come to me for Smoking Cessation and Past-Life Regression/QHHT. Moreover, these are specialties that I have honed extensively and experienced firsthand as a one who is notoriously difficult to hypnotize. For this reason, these two offerings have become my primary hypnotherapy specializations, and I do not offer hypnosis for other purposes at this time.

How does HYPNOTHERAPY Work?

Hypnotherapy has a reputational mystique about it because of how it has been represented in film and television. It is as if hypnotherapists have been given the keys to the psyches of humankind that no one else is allowed to have, so humans beware. However, that’s far from the truth. Hypnosis is only possible if individuals consent to being hypnotized. Also, hypnotherapists cannot make anyone do anything while under hypnosis that the person would not do when fully awake. And perhaps the biggest myth that needs to be recified…no, a person cannot stay hypnotized forever if the hypnotist forgets or is unable to count them out. The human brain is wired for survival, and it will do everything it can to protect you, including waking you up if a hypnagogic state drags on too long.

While yes, there is an ever-growing repertoire of hypnotic techniques and methods to help people from all walks of life finally hack their New Year’s resolutions, standard modern hypnosis relies on 2 main things:

• Overload of message units—this means the hypnotherapist uses lots of words. Average untrained humans are capable of maintaining focused attention for brief periods. Talk at a person in a monologue, and they will eventually lose focus, tune out of conscious thought, and start slipping into a subconscious state. This is an overly simplistic way of explaining it because consent and the type of language being used matter as well. However, it is the primary way by which hypnotherapists induce their clients into a hypnogogic state to begin with.
• Perceived authority of the hypnotherapist—this means the hypnotherapist must be received by the client as an authority. One reason why hypnosis works is that the client trusts that the hypnotherapist knows what they’re doing and is able to help the client tackle something that is difficult to do on one’s own. Showing authority used to mean “oneupmanship,” meaning the hypnotherapist would employ old-school authoritative maneuvers. This could involve the hypnotherapist interrupting the client with “yes, but…” to indicate that the hypnotherapist is somehow better informed. However, humans are more complex than that, and many of us are not receptive to condescending know-it-alls. Authority has also come to mean that the hypnotherapist is kind and attentive, genuinely listens to and understands the client, and transparently explains the game plan for intervention while giving the client the space to inform the process as well.

In other words, with standard modern hypnotherapy induction techniques, the hypnotherapist uses language to bring a client into a relaxed brainwave state (between theta 4hz – 8hz and alpha 8hz – 12hz) while making it clear that they know what they’re doing. Research indicates that this brainwave range (4hz – 12hz) is optimal for learning and taking in information. This is because we release the conscious critical mind that is active during our natural waking state (beta 12hz – 30hz) and start to slip into the subconscious mind, where most of our way of being in and thinking about the world runs on autopilot in the background. This is relevant because hypnotherapy is often used as a reconditioning technique to help individuals override habits that are consciously difficult to release. Once the subconscious mind gets involved and hypnotically primed, habits can become easier to control because the subconscious mind understands that the behavior in question is not healthy or beneficial, and it starts to reject the habit (rather than continuing to repeat it).

However, the success of hypnotherapists in getting their clients into the optimal brainwave range relies on a number of variables:

• The rapport between the hypnotherapist and client (how the client thinks and feels about the hypnotherapist is huge)
• The suggestibility of the client (how receptive a client is to taking in new information from an external source, particularly that specific hypnotherapist)
• The skill of the hypnotherapist in adjusting language to be better received by clients with varying suggestibilities
• The mental states of both the practitioner and client on the day of the session
• The level of stress in the mind and body of the client on the day of the session

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it points to some variables that affect each individual session, and all of these factors are relevant no matter whether you choose standard hypnotherapy methods or technology-assisted methods. However, technology assistance can help to balance out some of these variables to help a client have a particularly successful session.