am I in a trance?
'I could open my eyes at any time, I can hear everything they are saying, Im hungry, sh** my face itches, can I scratch it? Will they know I am not in a trance, I need to cough, can I cough in a trance, will that mean I am not in a trance, I can hear everything they are saying, do they now I am having my own thoughts, this isnt working, how much longer...I can hear everything they are saying....'
not sure if you had any of these thoughts...
As a hypnotherapist I find that it is a bit of a balance between wanting my clients to have a deep hypnotic - zombie - experience and letting them know that it actually feels quite normal. The point is that however experienced you are as a hypnotherapist the experience the client has is going to vary is it not? The weirdest thing is it feels quite normal, getting over that is the biggest hurdle but one that is easily scaled if you are prepared for it...but unsummountable to some
I almost always explain to my clients that they will have their own thoughts, that they will be able to hear what I am saying, that if they need to move to make themsemves more comfortable they can do so - you do not have to be totally still to go into a trance, that if they need to cough, cough, sneeze, sneeze, fart well save that one...but basically you can do whatever you would normaly do when in a trance it is just a state of mind....
the best advice I can give to anyone is just to go with whatever they are feeling...sounds easy does it not?
Not everyone gets timeline - I struggle with it myself, not everyone can visualise well, I struggle with that at times too...your hypnotherapist needs to recognise your struggle and either (1)confuse you and wack you into a deep trance, (2)demonstrate some waking trance phenomena that will enable you to know that 'a ha this is what it is all about' or (3) and my favourite, set up some unconscious signals that will show you that you are in a trance even though you still feel very normal
I would say you need to have a more open expectation of what trance will feel like - as much as hypnotherapists will rattle on saying it feelis like driving your car on autopilot, its like being engrossed in a movie etc - it still does not really get the message across. For most people being in a trance feel very normal - it alos goes up and down - you listen intently at times and anylyse what is being said, you drift off at others adn have your own thoughts. A sound demonstration of some hypnotic phenomena will show you that there is more to you than you thought and you wil then be able to relax, stop worrying if you are in a trance and go with the flow...........
So ask him/her to show you?
Ant