Private Sessions

The Gateway to Personal Change and Transformation

Step 1 – The Interview:

In the first session, there’s a fairly extensive interview based on your answers to the Intake form. The form asks a little about your history and current physical and emotional state, as well as what you wish to accomplish with the work.

In that interview, it’s important to establish rapport. You want to feel safe as well as understood, and in the care of someone who knows what they’re doing. It’s also a chance for Patrick explain what to expect while in trance, and a little about how hypnosis works, how the mind works, and possibly even how a particular NLP or hypnotherapy method works.

In general, Patrick wants you to understand the process he chooses to do with you, based on the issue or goal you present. This provides you with an opportunity to ask questions and clear up any concerns or possible misconceptions you may have about hypnosis or NLP. It also provides an opportunity to explain a little about why a certain method is being proposed, and how or why that method is the best choice for your particular issue or goal.

In subsequent sessions, the interview is more streamlined because rapport has already been established, as well as an understanding about the nature of the work and the reasons for doing it. These interviews are more about you describing the differences you’re experiencing as a result of doing the previous session.

The description of what is changing in your life is used to determine if a goal has been achieved, or if there is more work to do. If there is more to do, that description is used to determine the best way of moving forward or completing the work.

This way of working ensures that the process of change is evolving based on the responses and individual results you receive as a consequence of doing sessions. This means that everything is individually tailored to you and your issue and goals.

Step 2 – The Experience of Trance:

The experience of trance is generally one of feeling relaxed, as is often the case when using any of the NLP methods. Patrick will often use NLP methods while you’re in trance, to make the process easier and more thorough for you.

Trance itself is a natural, though altered state of awareness, where the focus is more internal than external. In trance, you have much more access to the abilities and the contents of your Subconscious mind, where your memories are stored, sorted and organized, and it’s also where your imagination and emotions originate from.

The feeling of trance is very subjective and will often vary from one experience to the next.. Some people report feeling relaxed and heavy in the chair, while others report feeling light and tingly. Some of that has to do with the depth of trance, which may be a little different each time you go into trance, or it may have to do with other factors, like how rested you are, or whether or not you had coffee that day.

The Reason for Using Trance:

The point of going into trance is to connect you with the part of the mind where change needs to occur, in order for you to experience a reliable and lasting difference in your feelings or behavior. What this means is that for a change to be effective, it needs to occur where it is needed, from the level where change is possible, and using the tools that will do the best job.

The conscious mind is not the part of your mind that needs to change. Your habits and any addictions, and un-resourceful responses and behaviors, all originate from and are controlled by, the Subconscious mind. That is the level where the change needs to occur in order for you to actually experience a lasting difference in your feelings and behaviors.

Even though you may use your conscious mind to identify what you want to change, or even how, or why you wish to change, your conscious mind is not capable of making and sustaining those changes all by itself.

The reason for this is that your conscious mind is not in charge of the habits, ideas, beliefs or behaviors that you want to change. The Subconscious mind is in charge of those things. The Subconscious runs things for you automatically, so that you don’t have to do those things yourself. It automates skills, habits and behaviors for you, so that you can give your conscious attention to things that require more attention and thought.

Going into trance also connects you with the actual resources that you need in order to make those lasting changes. To paraphrase Milton Erickson; ‘You have all the resources you need to make any change or achieve any goal – those resources are inside every person.’ Where those resources are located is in your amazing Subconscious mind.

Step 3 – Specific Processes to Create and Maintain Desired Changes:

In every Session we do some type of change process, or even more than one, to create a desired shift that you as client have asked for, or that we as a team, have agreed is desirable and beneficial for you to have. And there are so many different processes available, that to talk about them all would be beyond the scope of this discussion. Part of the art of being effective as a Hypnotherapist or a Master Practitioner of NLP, is the ability to select the process best suited to the person and what they wish to achieve or change.

This ability develops and improves as one gains more experience, and since Patrick has been doing sessions since 1995, he’s developed that ability to a very high degree.

Step 4 – Ending the Session and Assigning Accelerators:

Doing homework is essential to the process of creating and maintaining lasting change. There are things that you as the Client will be asked to do between sessions. These types of ‘assignments’ could include writing or saying therapeutic suggestions or using an NLP Anchor on a daily basis, or spending time envisioning your desired future every day and taking appropriate action steps. Doing these assignments gives you ways to integrate the changes you’re making inside of the Sessions, and makes you part of the process of your own transformation.  A very important part of the whole idea of this kind of work is that you as the Client are the co-pilot. Your participation in your own process of change is Vital.

It is you who makes the hypnotherapy/NLP work that is done in the office, concrete and real outside of that office. This is where you take what you’re learning or achieving in trance, and put it into practice so that you can experience the results where you need them most. Where you really want to experience your changes is in your daily life, and so that is where you take directed action on your own.

Common Questions about Hypnotherapy: And the Correct Answers

Can I get stuck in trance?

You cannot get ‘stuck’ in trance any more than you can get stuck in any other natural state of mind:

In the hypnosis process you will only attain a state of trance by choosing to do so, by following my instructions, and by allowing yourself to be in that state and to remain there for the duration of the Session. At the end of the Session, I’ll guide you back out of trance, up to your full conscious mind, with suggestions to “remember everything important” about the Session.

Will I lose control in trance?

To go into the trance state Requires you to Choose it and to Allow it:

All of the things that are possible to do while in trance, are only possible as long as you agree. This means that everything you experience in trance is by choice. In trance, you have more control over your mind than you ordinarily have.

Will I reveal secrets that I don’t want to be known, because I’m in trance?

Since you remain in control of your experience while in trance, you will not reveal anything you do not wish to be known:

However, if you desire success with an issue or a goal, I advise you to as open and honest as you can, so that everything that is done in Sessions is based on a true understanding of you, and whatever else may be involved in what you wish to achieve.

Can you make me do anything that I don’t want to do?

This is not possible: While that idea may make for interesting stories or movies, it is not the reality. You cannot be made to do anything against your will by the use of hypnosis or NLP. As a human being, we’re always being influenced by each other, but hypnosis is not a form of any kind of mind control, other than Self-control. You can learn to have more control over your thoughts by practicing self-hypnosis or getting good Hypnotherapy Training.

Will I be asleep while I’m in trance?

You will not be asleep while you are in trance. If you were asleep, you would be unresponsive to the work, and Hypnotherapy has to be interactive. Even while in trance you may be answering questions and responding to the Hypnotherapist by nodding your head when you’ve completed a step. Another thing to understand, is that every Session progresses based on how you respond to each step of a process. This. requires you to be an activeparticipant in the process, and you can be a fully active participant in a Hypnotherapy/NLP Session, even when you’re fully in trance. In fact, that’s the way it works best for most processes.

Will I remember what happens in trance, after the Session is over?

You will remember what occurs during a Session, though not necessarily everything. This is useful, since there’s no need for you remember everything that happens. Many things are procedural, necessary steps of a process, but there’s no need to remember all the things you did to achieve a certain result. Once you have achieved a desired result, the ‘how’ is not typically important for you to know or remember.

In private Sessions, I always end by giving suggestions that you will remember “whatever is important for you to know.” This is nice because it allows you or your inner mind to decide if it’s important to remember something specific from a Session. If there’s something that you want to make sure that you remember, simply tell me and I will write it down and give it to you to take with you after the Session is over.

How will I know that I’m in trance?

It’s different for everyone. Some people know or realize they’re in trance when it’s as if they can’t open their eyes, even when they try. This is something that shows Clients that they’re in trance because in order to be able to do that, Clients have to want to have that experience. They have to be willing to have that experience, and then it’s easy to achieve. And that is not an experience you will have outside of trance.

Other people are convinced for different reasons, such as being able to access memories they didn’t consciously know they had, or because we were able to solve a problem or achieve some other positive result which they had previously been unable to obtain otherwise.

How many Sessions does it take to get results?

It’s different each time, because some goals are easier to achieve than others, and some issues are more or less complex: Because of the individual differences in issues and goals, and the differences between people, any given issue or goal may require fewer or more Sessions to complete.

Many Phobias and fears can be cleared in a single Session or a few. Many Allergies can also be cleared in a single or just a few Sessions, whereas Smoking Cessation often requires 3 Sessions.

Weight loss tends to depend on the amount of weight needing to be let go of. Larger amounts equal more long-term goals, and they often require several Sessions. I offer blocks of 3 Sessions for a reduced rate, as that’s often sufficient to create a significant difference for someone.