So you've identified an area of your life you would like to work on. You've found a professional therapist or hypnotherapist like me to work with. And you've taken the brave step to book in. How can you ensure you get the most out of therapy?
1) Show up
I mean this in the physical sense I.E. attend your session, ideally on time! But also ensure you fully commit to the process.
It is completely understandable to feel daunted, maybe you're concerned about confronting difficult things or emotions. But the reality is you have decided to do this for yourself, so to get the change you seek you have to show up. If you are wavering I would urge you to remember the reasons you sought help in the first place. Failing to attend your sessions will not move you any closer to overcoming that need or make the changes you seek. You may even find that your therapists cancellation policy means you are leaving money on the table.
2) Be kind to yourself
Trying anything new can be hard. Facing or expressing emotions that you maybe haven't before or have held onto for sometime can also be tiring. So it is essential to be kind to yourself when undergoing a therapeutic process.
Before you start sessions it may be helpful to consider what things you will do for self care during the process, ensuring that you give yourself time to feel and process anything you need to.
3) Trust the process
This can be tricky! But is is also so important! When you decide you want to make changes in your life it can be frustrating and challenging when they don't happen at the speed you would like or that they require you to go through some difficult things to get there. That is where the help of a professional can really come in to play. You may feel that things are looking bad at the start, maybe even feeling worse before they get better. But working with a therapist will help you have a plan in place to ensure those improvements occur!
I'm not saying this part is easy at all but it is essential. We have a natural tendency to do the opposite to trusting the process, often frantically trying to stop things going wrong or focusing on what isn't happening rather than what is.
For example a client recently asked me why I was making them wait so long between sessions and couldn't I see them more often to speed up the process. The reality is that simply wouldn't work some things simply take time.
There are 2 key components to my hypnotherapy practice. Initially a 1:1 session with clients where we look at the problem they are facing and the ways it presents itself. Working together we identify the root cause of the issue and release any beliefs from the past that are holding the client back. This can be replaced with new empowering beliefs to bring about lasting changes. These new beliefs are reinforced in the second part of the process whereby the client listens to a hypnosis recording for 21 days, this repetition works with the subconscious mind to ensure changes are lasting and permanent. Trying to skip either part of the process simply won't have such an effective outcome. So allow your therapist to guide you through and you will get the results you want and need.
Liz x