Beliefs are everything

One of the most vital parts of any hypnotherapy session is the identification of beliefs. The beliefs you hold shape how you think, how you feel, how you act, what opportunities you take, what you avoid, your relationships and ultimately your happiness in life. These beliefs are imprinted in childhood through interaction with parents, guardians, teachers, peers and other authoritarian figures. Sometimes these beliefs are positive, leading to self-confidence, acceptance of oneself and the world, a willingness to work on mistakes and to grow in consciousness. Unfortunately, many of the beliefs imprinted in childhood are the adverse of these. Conscious and subconscious messages of “not being good enough”; “being flawed and at fault”; “unworthy and useless”; and many other negative ideas are often fed to us. As children we do not have the psychological resources to evaluate whether these beliefs about ourselves and others are true or false. Rather, we accept whatever we hear, see and feel. These beliefs then become our “identity” and cause life-long problems if not worked with and transformed.  I have worked with so many individuals that have struggled with fear, guilt, anger, stress, insecurity, and a lack of love for oneself – all of these negative feelings stemming from earlier life experiences.

The aim of each session is to uncover and explore these beliefs which limit your experience of happiness in life. Once identified, my clients and I work on developing new, more healthy beliefs.  These beliefs are then imprinted using hypnotherapy and home exercises, consisting of affirmations and visualizations, which I train my clients in using.

There are many books on the subject of beliefs, imprinting, visualization and affirmation. However, a simple, yet highly effective book which I recommend to my clients is John Kehoe’s “Mind Power.”