I have been time and again asked about the lasting effect of hypnosis sessions. Clients often wonder if they can expect permanent changes in their behavior and thoughts or if they will go back to old ways in a matter of time. Here I will completely explore and break down the lasting effects of hypnosis and the factors contributing to it.

How Often You Should Do Hypnosis For Lasting Effect

On Average, in our experience 6-12 sessions are needed for general weight loss, anxiety, fears and phobias and one session for quit smoking. The number of sessions you need for a lasting effect often depends on you, your mental state and the intensity of change you need to bring to your life.

Your hypnotherapist will understand your needs and create a structured plan for the number of sessions you will need. Thankfully for clients, well-executed, well-structured hypnosis sessions bring about a change that can last for a lifetime.

The way you choose your therapist, your recorded session or download, the place you pick to listen to the same and how open you are to getting to a hypnotic state all make a difference in the execution of the session.

Let me explain in detail.

How does your therapist decide on the number of sessions needed?

There are two main reasons why clients keep worrying about the number of sessions they need.

1. They are afraid of having to take up sessions life long
2. They are worried the process is not working right away

The number of sessions you need to take up before you experience a lasting or permanent effect is decided by the therapist after careful consideration and by the Hypnotherapist’s experience of how long on average it takes (in general). Your history, how many things you need to change, your medical condition, the vigor of change needed is all taken into consideration. How well you respond to the first session also plays a role in deciding how often you should be doing further sessions.

Another factor that affects the number of sessions you need is how hypnotizable you are. People who are easily hypnotizable and highly suggestible may need lesser sessions than others with a low hypnotisability and suggestible level. (More on this later!)

Few changes happen very quickly and last for a lifetime. Few others do need multiple sessions for the change to take root. The best thing for you to do is to trust your therapist and complete the planned sessions.

You might also like this post How Long does Hypnosis Last: A Guide On What To Expect

Can you do too much hypnosis?

For one-to-one sessions, your therapist will decide on how many sessions a week you need and how many issues to deal with at a time. If you are taking up recorded sessions, it is completely ok to listen to more than one recording at the same time. However, too much of anything can be a burden to the mind and the brain. For best results, stick to one or two programs at a time and listen to them regularly, we recommend listening to one Hypnosis MP3 download once per day for 7 days before moving onto another one or adding any more to your routine. Once you feel confident about them, you can take up other sessions/ recordings.

But there’s more

How long can you stay in a trance state?

So this is also a question that pops up in the minds of most people. Irrespective of whether you meet up a hypnotherapist and take a one-to-one session or get help from recorded sessions, you will want to know how long the session will last and how long it is ok for you to stay in the trance state.

There are people who can stay in the trance state for hours together. Experts who self-hypnotize themselves go to the state to clear their mind, get some focus and to relax their body and mind. If you are, however, not an expert yourself, your therapist will determine the time frame for your trance state. In both recorded and live sittings, most experts create sessions anywhere from 60 minutes to 2 hours.

Heres the good part

Do not worry about getting uncomfortable in this state. This is a state when you will feel close to yourself and enjoy the focus and the stress-free mindset you get.

Many people compare the trance state to meditation. Some people stay in a meditative state for days together without the need to get up from the place or eat/drink. Imagine how amazing the world would be if people can get to a trance state and get hold of their emotions without venting it out on family and friends!

How often can you listen to hypnotic recordings?

The expert who handles these recording sessions often gives you a clear idea of how many sessions you will need to undertake and how often you can listen to the recordings. However, as a thumb rule, these recordings can be listened once a day for the first few weeks to get some positive energy. After that, you can always listen to these anytime you feel like it. This is a definite advantage of recorded sessions.

Now this is important

How soon can you expect the effect of hypnosis to wear off?

There are two ways you can approach hypnosis– the process itself and the change it brings about. The process itself is short-lived as explained before. Depending on your therapist’s suggestion, the time period of your trance will vary. Once you come out of the trance state, the immediate effect can remain in your mind for half a day or for a couple of days depending on the kind of person you are. However, the process would have triggered a change that will last for a lifetime.

If you have had surgery before, this example will be easily relatable. Take the example of a broken bone. You get a surgery done to fix the bone. The scars of the surgery and the stitches heal and disappear in a matter of time. However, the bone remains fixed for life! That’s how amazing the results of a good suggestion are.

What are some of the benefits of hypnosis?

There are so many proven benefits of hypnosis and there are millions of successful stories of people handling their mental and physical state better with the help of positive hypnotic sessions. Some common areas that benefit from the use of hypnosis are:

• Weight Loss – see this post Can Hypnosis Help Me Stop Craving Sweets?
• Quit smoking
• Anxiety
• Pain management
• Behavioral change
• Handling side effects of medical conditions and treatments (cancer, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, burns)
• Handling mental health conditions (stress, anxiety, depression, phobias)
• Dealing with insomnia
• Relieving symptoms of menopause including hot flashes (Mind-Body Medicine Research Laboratory, Baylor University, Waco)
• Anything that involves changing an unwanted habit or behaviors, the benefits are endless (see this post Can Hypnotherapy Help With Mindset?)

Anxiety is becoming a common condition affecting kids and adults globally. Anxiety disorder is a state that can cause irritability, restlessness, and hypervigilance. Worry that is out of proportion to the actual impact of the event is a common effect of anxiety. D Corydon Hammond (2014) published an article that talks about hypnosis being a safe, non-addictive and cost-effective medication/treatment to anxiety and stress-related disorders.

Instead of having to ingest medication that can become addictive or lead to unwanted side effects, retort to hypnosis and you will feel so much better in just a few sessions.

But wait, there’s more

Depression is a serious problem all over the world. Did you know that in any given year, about 1 million people in Australia will go through depression? This is a huge number and very shocking. Michael D. Yapko, in his book called ‘Treating Depression With Hypnosis’ talks about how hypnosis plays a vital role in the interventions and treatment for major depression.

A research was conducted on Slow Wave Sleep (SWS) at the Sleep Laboratory at the University of Zurich in 2014. This concludes that after listening to hypnotic suggestions to sleeping deeper, participants had an 81% increase in their SWS. This will help with insomnia and prevent the use of sleep-inducing drugs which can have side effects.

Is it true that hypnosis effects are permanent?

This question is an extension of the last sub-topic we discussed. By stripping off all the top layers of what hypnosis does and achieves, you get the most fundamental effect of hypnosis – it helps you learn. Learning is a part of life and for each one of us to succeed in the world, we need to learn new things every day. A baby’s basic mode of survival is learning. Without learning, it will not thrive for long.

So read on

Coming back to hypnosis, it positively encourages people to learn and accept things that they are normally not able to. Strong suggestions that are made by experts can last for a lifetime. In other words, they can stay with you permanently. Other suggestions may need multiple times of reinforcements for them to stick with you forever.

Everything in life keeps changing. With hypnosis, you can bring positive, stronger changes to your behavior and action and as a result, get better living life the way you want to.

Are some people easily hypnotized than others?

Some people tell me that they cannot easily be hypnotized and they have tried it before. This is not a completely exaggerated statement! Time and again researchers have concluded that the capacity to be hypnotized varies from person to person.

David Spiegel, MD, a professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences mentions that about two-thirds of adults are capable of hypnotized. He also adds that this has nothing to do with the personality trait of the person. The way his/her brain functions seems to affect the acceptance or rejection of being hypnotized.

Further to this

Now, this is ongoing research and Spiegel along with his team is working to identify the exact happenings inside the brain that causes this change.

The brain is always an interesting part to study. If you want to get into the details of the brain and its changes during hypnosis, keep reading.

Hypnosis and its effect on the brain

Amazing things happen to the brain when you are in a trance state. This concept scientifically backs up the point that hypnosis can have a lasting effect on you when it is done the right way. If you are a person who leans on to science to get an explanation of what’s happening around, do keep reading.

Without cramming in a lot of jargon, let me try explaining this easily for you.

Stanford Medical University published a study in 2016 that aimed at identifying what happened inside the brain when you put a person in a trance state. According to the study, there were three major happenings inside the brain that made a huge difference in the person’s thinking and behavior when he/she was in a trance state.

1. The person had a better focus on the task in hand and did not worry about anything other than the task.
2. The body and the brain worked in perfect sync and this helped do any task better and more effectively.
3. There was a reduction in the general awareness of the surroundings and the action itself. Think of it this way. When you are used to doing a task several times, you automatically do it without thinking too much about it. In other terms, you do something confidently without being over-aware of the same.

The study concluded that the brain undergoes sizeable changes while in the trance state. These changes make the person more focused, effective, relaxed and confident. Medical experts and hypnotherapists can use the same to treat several conditions, ease pain and make a person feel better.

Ok. This is a funny one!

Getting stuck in a hypnotic state

Many clients have asked this question to their therapists and people keep ‘Googling’ about this all the time too. If you mean, ‘will I enter a virtual state and stay there forever without coming back to reality?’, no, you cannot do that.

Irrespective of how many Hollywood movies claim this is a possibility, you can relax. Your therapist will help you get to the trance state and then bring you back once the session is over.

This is what happens

So what do you do if your hypnotherapist does not bring you back? What if your therapist walks away for a cup of coffee leaving you mid-way? You can come back from the trance state anytime you want to. Some people like staying there for a while because they feel good and relaxed.

Hypnosis is a natural state that you get into and come back constantly even in regular life. Just like how you will wake up after falling asleep, you will get back to the present state on your own. So stop with the Google searches and take up your session with confidence and trust!

Is hypnosis safe? Will you have any negative side effects?

Hypnosis is absolutely safe when it is done by a trained therapist. It is also mostly side-effect free.

Most people take back focus, the ability to control pain, positive behavioral changes, and improved mental conditions after hypnotic sessions. Headaches can be a rare but possible side effect for some. This can be handled by drinking lots of water and keeping yourself hydrated.

Who Hypnosis is not safe for

There are certain physical and mental conditions that don’t go great with hypnosis. People with psychotic issues and those with conditions like schizophrenia and epilepsy can experience unpleasant symptoms in a trance state. If you have been diagnosed by these medical issues, it is always best to talk to both your health care professional and your hypnotherapist before you decide to sit for a session.

Listening warning: there is a right and wrong place

If you are listening to a hypnotic recording, always do it in a calm and peaceful place and do not listen to it while working, while studying or worse, while driving. Hypnosis can make you sleepy and it is not safe to be clubbed with other physically and mentally demanding tasks.

How can hypnosis change your personality?

Personality is a set of traits or characteristics that define a person. Everybody has both positive and negative traits. The ratio of these two determines how popular and how successful the person gets. Every person has the capacity to change – to add to the list of their positive traits and to eliminate the negative ones.

Here’s another way to link about it

According to hypnotherapy, clients have everything they need for the change to happen inside themselves. All the expert does is to bring it out so that they can realize it and work towards it. You get more positive reinforcement and more confidence to change your personality to suit your personal life and your career.

So yes, you can definitely use hypnosis to bring about a change in your personality and this change can last for a lifetime.

Related Questions

Does self-hypnosis work?

Self-hypnosis is a method of getting into a self-induced hypnotic state. There are really good hypnotic materials you can buy and listen to achieve this state. There are a lot of success stories of self-hypnosis. Self-hypnosis can be done anytime and anywhere. You just need to learn the basics of the process and it will instantly help you relax and refresh your mind and body.

How to get the most out of self-hypnosis sessions?

The primary factor that makes your self-hypnosis sessions a success is trust. Trust the material and yourself and trust you can be hypnotized easily. Stay in a calm and peaceful place and let go of your worries while listening to the material. Immerse yourself in the content and follow the voice as much as you can.

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