Hypnoanalysis, sometimes also known as analytical hypnotherapy....

......uses free association and regression to locate the root cause of problems, release the carried emotional burden, and resolve any associated issues.

Often, in life, we will have had experiences which will have proven too much to cope with at the time when they occurred, particularly as children when we didn’t have the necessary resources or understanding to emotionally process the event or situation. Though we may feel we have dealt with those issues intellectually, it is commonly the case that the emotional impact of those experiences remains unresolved. Unresolved emotion can be carried in the psyche and can have a powerful effect on our present day lives. It can be that a single event in the past has caused a symptom we are experiencing in the present, but more often than not it is an accumulation of a number of tiny traumas which are causing difficulties. One way of changing what you feel today is to re-view and re-write the experiences that started you feeling things in that way. Analytical hypnotherapy uses regressional techniques (not past life...just this life) to allow the clients’ subconscious mind to wander freely to locate those memories which contain unresolved material (emotion/negative beliefs etc). Feelings have roots at one level, and by following feelings back to their roots we can access the moment of the creation of a belief/feeling. When we successfully locate a repressed emotion under hypnosis we make contact with that emotion in a very real way, and it is literally “released”. This release can be profound….a real weight off the shoulders. With the repressed emotion now freed from the psyche, it is possible to re-frame the situation with the understanding we possess as an adult. Re-framing forms a substantial part of the analytical process, and even the most traumatic of events can be dealt with using effective modern techniques designed to emotionally de-sensitise us from traumatic memories. It's not always a trauma that creates a problem though. Sometimes it can be something very innocent which was simply misunderstood or taken too literally. Often it's a case of righting wrongs (which we do by re-viewing and re-framing the situation at its creation point) at the mental and emotional level, thus creating a new root from which a stronger today can feed. Memory is fluid, meaning the way we remember things is not set in stone. The story we tell ourselves about ourselves is often a story told only from one perspective. Our subconscious minds can be amazingly helpful in this process and can show us a very rounded picture of our lives, allowing us to learn new perspectives on old assumptions about ourselves and the world around us.

Hypno-analysis is quite different from other forms of analysis where you go and you "talk" about your "issues" and "analyse" why things are the way they are. These therapies take place at the intellectual and analytical logical level and are usually focused on understanding the "why" of things. Though this can be helpful, it can also become counter productive, since knowing "why" doesn't always change the way we feel and often just focuses us on problems. It's extremely common for people to say to me "I understand my difficulty intellectually inside out. I know WHY I have the problem....I just don't know how to heal it". People are frequently taken aback by the clarity of recall and the release that then follows when working at the emotional level using hypnosis. "Why" is really not important. What's important is releasing the stuck emotion (something understanding an issue rarely does!) and then re-framing the event in a new light which then feeds into all future perception from the root rather than as a purely intellectual concept. This helps bring about a conscious rejection of limiting ideas or beliefs about ourselves since they are no longer being "driven" by a limiting subconscious belief system or avoidance mechanism. With the emotional charge now released and a new understanding of the situation in place at the moment of its creation, you are free to think and feel what you want.

Hypnoanalysis can definitely change the way we feel! Hypno-analysis uses the "feeling" body, not the "analytical mind". Hypnosis, being a way of screening out internal/external chatter, is a powerful tool for being able to really tune in to the feeling body and give it our full attention. Often we are able to bring a level of attention to these feelings (through hypnosis) that allows us to really explore them in a way that is not normally available. The changes that can then take place happen at quite a visceral level. People undergoing analytical therapy are often very surprised by the clarity of memory and the powerful emotional releases that can take place when we work at this level. 

It should be noted that analytical hypnotherapy can be emotional work. It can also be very beautiful work....providing you're not scared of meeting feelings. An example of this might be that with hypnoanalysis we might encounter unresolved grief over a loss of some kind. Once the lid is off on that grief, it might take some time to work through the feelings that arise as a result. Often we'll be able to resolve any conflicts and process the memory positively in the consulting room, but sometimes it takes a little time to filter through your system in the same way that any emotional arousal takes time to settle. If you're okay with that and can see the benefit of allowing those emotions to move through you (and out of your system ultimately) then you'll be comfortable with hypnoanalysis. If not, then it won't be for you and you're more suited to solution focused hypnotherapy.

You will find that many hypnotherapists (particularly here in Bristol) will focus entirely on Solution Focused Therapy and do not offer hypnoanalysis. That's largely because hypnoanalysis is emotionally arousing work and solution focused therapy is all about reducing emotional arousal, not increasing it! When I trained however, I was trained in both disciplines, solution focused and hypnoanalysis. Over the years it has become clear to me that both have their place, and different people want different things. Some people say to me that they specifically want to look at their past. So long as they understand that there are a few solution focused principles that we have to keep in focus at the same time, then I'm happy to look at the past with them too. Other people don't want to touch on the past at all. Well that's fine...we stay in solution focused mode! Of course it also depends what the difficulty is too. We wouldn't use analysis to stop smoking for instance! 

The overall effect of Analytical Therapy is the same as that obtained from the Solution Focused Therapy. Stress levels are lowered, and relief from symptoms is obtained. 

Analytical therapy is best suited to those problems which are clearly located in the past or of an unknown origin and analysis often leads to clients gaining a much greater understanding of their personal history. The process of re-viewing early events through the eyes of an adult can be profoundly transformative. A full therapy programme will usually take between six and twelve sessions and does require a reasonable commitment on the part of the client since it is a therapy definitely best completed once begun. Symptom resolution generally takes longer with hypnoanalysis than via the solution focused route though some people believe it is a more thorough therapy. This is for each person to decide individually but as a general rule I will opt to use the Solution Focused therapy route for most problems. As a trained analyst I continue to offer hypnoanalysis for those who wish to explore their histories, and am happy to use hypnoanalysis if preferred or necessary.