Myth: When you're in hypnosis, you give up your free will.
Reality: You cannot give up his free will in hypnosis any more than you can give up your free will when you are asleep. Actually, you use your free will to go into hypnosis, which is simply a heightened state of concentration and focus - - something most of us experience quite often anyway. In hypnotherapy, we isolate an area of a client's life that he/she wants to change, where he/she has not been able to change on his/her own. So essentially, you gain self-control. When one has not been able to quit smoking on his own and quits smoking with the aid of hypnotherapy, that is gaining enormous self-control and personal power!

Myth: When you're in the hypnotic state, the hypnotherapist has complete control over you.
Reality: A hypnotherapy treatment is only as strong as the client's allowability. Think of it like this: hypnosis does for the mind what massage does for the body. When you are enjoying lying on the masseur's table, you are vulnerable and trust the masseur to treat your body according to your wishes. If at any point, he hurt you or did something inappropriate, you would sit bolt upright, would you not? We call this "abreaction." If a hypnotherapist gave you an undesirable suggestion, you would immediately come out of the state. Essentially, all hypnosis is self-hypnosis. A knowledgable hypnotherapist merely guides or facilitates the process for you.

Myth: Under hypnosis, you lose consciousness and have amnesia.
Reality: Even medical science cannot guarantee a 100% success rate. Certainly there is a small percentage of people who go so deep into trance that they do experience spontaneous amnesia. However, the vast majority remember everything the therapist says while they are in the state. Sometimes there is a delayed reaction...in other words, it may "hit" the client a day later. That is the real beauty of hypnosis: no matter how great you feel when you leave the office after a session, it is in the distillation process that occurs within the subconsious/psyche that one feels the real power. In other words, we "plant seeds," and they begin to sprout and grow after treatment.

Myth: You can be put under hypnosis against your wishes.
Reality: Can you go to sleep against your wishes? Or have a massage against your wishes? It is essentially the same "alpha" state. Further, your chances of being taken advantage of by a hypnotherapist are equal to your being take advantage of by a Medical Doctor. Does it happen? Yes. Are these practitioners in business for long? No! Choose a Certified or Chartered Mental Health professional therapist. Take advantage of a free phone consultation, and go with your intuition.