Yesterday I had my first ever session of hypnotherapy. It was very interesting. I'm not 100% sure if it 'worked', but this could largely be due to my preconceptions about hypnosis in general, which - no matter how carefully the process of hypnotherapy is explained - are hard to shift. So there was no getting me to wag my tail and act like a fawning spaniel, or getting me up on stage to make a spectacle of myself. Instead, there was a brief introductory session of harmless hypnosis, sandwiched between a fascinating and wide-ranging discussion with Russell - an engaging, full-time hypnotherapist with silver-grey hair and a penchant for Borneo.
The discussion ranged from the issues I wished to address to the different types of therpay we had both experienced; from my feelings during childhood to our favourite corners of the world. Funnily enough, we had plenty in common, having grown up in the same corner of Coventry and having suffered a similar kind of depression in our lives.
I felt myself 'coming in and out' of the state of hypnosis - really a type of acute awareness rather then the drifting, sleepy anesthesia I had expected. Typically enough, I was probably 'trying too hard', or aiming to listen rather too intently to the messages Russell was giving me. However, the session lasted much longer than the 10-15 minutes I had imagined (more like 40 minutes, in fact), so there was obviously a fair amount of 'inner work' being done.
Quite apart from the hypnosis itself, this man had many interesting things to say, so I ended up getting a three-hour session instead of the expected two hours. Either he did a convincing impression of pretending to like me, or we got on very well indeed, so I'm very much looking forward to my second session in a few days' time... hopefully I'll be able to relax into the process more easily next time, and allow myself to go with the flow.
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