Are you in search of a therapy approach that revolves around you and promotes positivity?

​

At Soul Chat Therapy, our specialty lies in client-centered therapy, where we harness the power of positively focused techniques and tools to empower you on a journey of self-reconnection and renewed confidence.

​

We leverage the tools of hypnosis and various techniques in our client-centered therapy solutions, aimed at helping you address habits, alleviate symptoms, and manage a wide array of conditions. Hypnotherapy serves as the foundation for all our advanced sessions and experiences.

​

Hypnotherapy extends its support not only to an extensive range of issues but also to your aspirations, fostering positive changes that can significantly enhance your life. From scientifically-backed health benefits to personal transformations, hypnotherapy thrives on the present moment, driving positive changes.

​

In the realm of therapeutic options, hypnotherapy offers deep relaxation and stands as a valuable alternative or complementary approach to conventional therapies, like talk therapy or group sessions. By pinpointing what works and what doesn't for you, hypnotherapy becomes a catalyst for transformative change.

​

​

“Hypnosis is a natural state of mind with many beneficial characteristics.  The client experiences physical relaxation with a heightened mental focus”

​

​

​

​What Is Hypnosis?

Hypnosis, also called clinical hypnosis or hypnotherapy, is a method of achieving a state of focused attention and internal concentration often accompanied by deep relaxation.  As a type of mind-body medicine, it is a form of complementary therapy that utilizes the power of positive suggestion to bring about subconscious change to our thoughts, feelings, and behaviour.

A trained and certified hypnotherapist will guide you into this deep state of focus and relaxation with verbal cues, repetition, and imagery.  This state of mind is often referred to as ‘hypnotic trance’. The trance state is simply a naturally occurring state of consciousness when the mind becomes inwardly focused.  Being in trance is a natural state humans experience frequently.  For example, if you are enjoying a good book or movie and are not consciously aware of noise around you, this is a state of trance.

 

In trance, you can access the part of your brain called the subconscious.  Our subconscious mind is responsible for emotions, imagination, memories, habits, intuitions, and dreaming.  It regulates our autonomic bodily functions, such as the heart, digestion, respiration, salivation, perspiration, pupil dilation, sleep, and sexual function.  Our behavior is driven by the subconscious mind and its powerful tools of imagination, memory, and emotion.

​

What Does Hypnotherapy Do?

Often times when we experience a challenge, we become stuck in a particular way of thinking, relating, behaving or feeling that no longer serves us.  In these cases, our limiting beliefs have hijacked our potential to create change.  The roots of our patterns are often held outside of our conscious awareness.

Hypnotherapy helps you to harness the power of your subconscious mind to bring about positive change to thoughts, feelings and behaviour.  The method is not unlike hitting a refresh button, reframing negative or self-limiting beliefs, changing unhelpful behaviour patterns and empowering you to move forward with your life in a more positive and productive way.

A hypnotic trance can serve as a vehicle of communication with the subconscious mind, bypassing the critical thinking component of your conscious mind which can block us from achieving wanted changes for ourselves.  When you are in a trance state, your intense level of concentration and focus allows you to ignore ordinary distractions and be more open to guided suggestions to make changes to improve your health or to help you reach specific goals.

 

It is because of this alternative approach that hypnotherapy’s relaxing method helps to create a person’s wanted changes much more effectively and efficiently than other forms of talk therapy which can require a prolonged or circuitous re-learning program in your fully conscious mind state.

 

What Hypnosis Is Not...

Often people have misconceptions about utilizing hypnosis due to negative experiences with “stage hypnosis” entertainment (performed by an entertainment ‘hypnotist’ not a hypnotherapist).  It is important to note that a hypnotized person is not asleep and cannot be compelled to act against their own wishes.  Hypnotherapy is completely safe and is a powerful agent of change when the recipient is motivated and the therapy clinician well-trained.  Unlike someone performing stage hypnosis, an ethical hypnotherapist follows the lead of the client and reinforces what the client wants and needs to hear, building on strengths and achievements.  Like psychotherapy, hypnotherapy is a collaborative process between client and therapist.

 

 

​How Does Hypnosis Work?

Hypnosis techniques help to create a state of deep relaxation and sharp focus often described as a kind of “guided daydreaming.” In this state of mind, our subconscious mind is more accessible, which creates the potential for rapid and impressive results.  In this state of relaxed focus, the client is highly receptive to information and messages they find meaningful and acceptable. 

 

The process itself aims to alter our state of consciousness in a way that relaxes the conscious part of the mind while simultaneously stimulating and focusing the subconscious part. In this heightened state of awareness called trance – reached using skilled relaxation techniques – you are more open to gentle guidance [from your hypnotherapist] to help you modify or replace the unconscious thoughts that are driving your current behavior or limiting thoughts.  Your relaxed state allows the therapist to then make appropriate suggestions based on the goals you and your therapist determined for the therapy session.

A key component of this process is the setting of intentions on the part of the client with help from the hypnotherapist.  These will align with the goals decided upon with your therapist and reason for therapy. The use of itentions will help to harness the power of one’s mind to bring about change by gently focusing its thoughts and imagination on desired outcomes as defined during this collaboration.  By utilizing the power of positive suggestion during hypnosis, the client’s improved health and ability are amplified, as opposed to focusing on diseases, negative behaviors, or deficiencies.

 

Common experiences in the state of hypnosis:

• Profound relaxation

• Increased suggestibility (for those suggestions which resonate well with the person in hypnosis)

• Heightened concentration

• Heightened recall

• Time distortion (time may seem to slow down or speed up)

• Dissociation of conscious and unconscious mental processes (One’s conscious mind may feel like a detached observer)

 

 

Why Should I Choose Hypnotherapy?

The uniqueness of hypnotherapy is its approach to define, reframe, and overcome a variety of psychological, emotional and physical challenges by utilising the power of your subconscious mind to effect positive change.

It is a tool that has helped millions of people.  Hypnosis is an extremely efficient, scientifically proven state of mind that everyone is capable of reaching.  Its use enables you to make changes to improve your health, take control of your life, and reach personal goals.

The naturally relaxed state of hypnosis allows individuals to make rapid enhancements to their lives through a process of learning appropriate new beliefs, breaking unwanted habits, changing negative behaviour patterns, overcoming learned limitations, and removing the root cause of your symptoms.

Additionally, hypnosis use has been shown to enhance one’s abilities to deal with stressful situations and decrease avoidance behavior.

 

How Successful Is Hypnotherapy?

Hypnotherapy has been shown to be quicker than other types of therapy and has been proven to produce effective, efficient results.  Becoming a clinical hypnotherapist requires a great deal of training, education and experience to master.

 

A comparative study courtesy of the American Hypnosis Clinic reported:

• Psychoanalysis: 38% recovery after 600 sessions

• Behavior Therapy: 72% recovery after 22 sessions

• Hypnotherapy: 93% recovery after 6 sessions

 

Hypnotherapy has been recognized by the American Medical Association (AMA) since 1958 and the British Medical Association (BMA) as a field of study. It is taught at Harvard Medical School, Yale, and countless other higher learning institutions around the world. In addition, the U.S. Military and U.S. Olympic athletes use hypnotherapy to enhance their physical and mental performances.

​

Practitioners and researchers claim 90% and higher success rates for professionally conducted hypnotherapy, that is followed up with a treatment plan and self-hypnosis tapes.  A research project in the UK found that 92% of those who had attended a hypnotherapist would recommend the experience to others.

 

What Issues Is Hypnotherapy Suitable for Treating?

Hypnosis has proven to be a powerful mind-body tool effective in treating many different areas of personal mental and/or physical change and growth.  Because it helps to provide us an opportunity to access and re-wire our limiting beliefs and behaviors, hypnosis use can assist us in creating authentic, enduring changes within ourselves that support our growth, health and healing, and overall well-being.

What this can translate into is a powerful tool to help you positively and gently align and change your internal patterns to evolve external changes to ones you deem more positive for yourself such as improving health conditions, inspiring growth behaviors, and improving mental and emotional fitness.

 

Some common applications of hypnotherapy:

• Motivation / goal setting

• Self-esteem / confidence improvement

• Performance enhancement (physical / sports, career, public speaking / stage fright)

• Addressing fears / phobias (specific phobias, panic attacks)

• Memory improvement and recall

• New language learning / memory recall

• Tapping into creativity

 

• Stress

• Anxiety disorders / panic attacks

• Behavior changes / habit control

• Grief/loss

• Quitting smoking

• Food / weight / lifestyle issues (weight loss, healthier eating, healthier body image)

• Insomnia and sleeplessness

• Mild depression

• Pain management or reduction

• Menopausal symptoms (anxiety, depression, hot flashes, self-confidence, stress)

• Relationships

• Sexual problems

• Trauma and PTSD

 

Partnering with a Clinical Hypnotherapist

Hypnotherapy is completely safe and is a powerful agent of change when the recipient is motivated, and the clinician well-trained.  A professional hypnotherapist follows the lead of the client and reinforces what the client wants and needs to hear, building on strengths and achievements.  Like psychotherapy, hypnosis is a collaborative process between client and hypnotherapist.

​

Hypnosis can be applied to many goals. The hypnotherapist often provides compassionate support, assistance in goal formulation, and facilitation of the hypnotic state. Ultimately, though, it is the client who is responsible and in control of own’s own destiny. Hypnosis can be a powerful agent of growth and change, but it does not exempt a person from self-responsibility and doing the work that needs to be done.

​

When you undergo therapy to facilitate change, it is reassuring to know that Soul Chat Therapy works to high levels of professional standards and best practices.  We follow a comprehensive list of eligibility requirements and a strict code of ethics and continuing professional development.

 

Our client code of ethics:

• The welfare of the client is the prime consideration at all times. 

• The therapist will maintain the highest professional standards of integrity with the client. 

• All the information from the client will be regarded as confidential and will not be divulged without the full consent of the client. The only exception is when it is appropriate to pass this information to the legal authorities. 

• The therapist will assess their own competence, skills and limitations. They will seek on going opportunities to acquire additional knowledge and skills through regular participation in training events, seminars and other opportunities.

 

For more information on Soul Chat Therapy’s clinical training and education, visit About Us.