Hypnosis is a deeply relaxing and imaginative process that helps you quiet your inner critic to more easily direct the changes you want to make in your mind and your life. In hypnosis, you'll experience what is called a trance.

Hypnotic trance is a natural state that we enter all the time! Have you ever driven home and as you turned the car off, realized that you had no memory of the drive itself? That’s a hypnotic trance!

Have you ever been watching a movie or TV show and the rest of the world seemed to disappear, you're so engrossed in the emotions of the story, and you lose track of time? That’s also a trance!

We are constantly moving in and out of that state of flow and focus, feeling “in the groove” in every day life. This is a state of being involving focused attention and deep relaxation. 

The practice of hypnosis uses this focused & imaginative state of consciousness to open the subconscious mind up to suggestion and transformation.

Hypnosis uses a combination of relaxation and focus strategies to open up the imaginative subconscious mind. This is essential because our automatic functions, like habits, core beliefs, and stress-based associations, exist within the subconscious mind.

And guess what? The subconscious mind takes up 95% of our brain function. In order to truly want to make lasting change in the majority of your life, you have to work with the subconscious.

Hypnosis allows people to access and make changes in the subconscious mind more easily through the use of suggestion, which helps you harness your abilities to reduce stress, build confidence, and enhance creativity and flow, align your brain with your goals, improve your overall wellbeing, and so much more.

In a typical session, you'll be invited to relax your mind and body and focus your attention, and then you'll be offered suggestions to explore images, ideas, imagined experiences to help you reach your unique goal.

In every hypnosis session, you are fully in control. You have the power to choose which suggestions you'd like to accept, and which ones you'd like to reject, putting you in the driver's seat of your experience.

An oversimplified explanation might describe hypnosis as a highly customized, suggestion-based guided meditation with a specific goal.

However, there's more to it than that. 

Meditation aims to focus and strengthen the conscious mind by increasing a person's conscious focused attention on the present moment. For example, you might consciously focus on the sensations of your breath, a mantra, or physical sensations. 

In doing this, meditation allows you to cultivate a sense of deep acceptance for the present moment,  and over time it will become easier for you to accept the circumstances in your life without judgment.

Hypnosis, on the other hand, access the subconscious. Using relaxation and focus techniques, an individual experiencing hypnosis is likely to become less concerned with their present moment surroundings, less mindful of the moment so that they can open up their mind to new ideas, transformation, and change. 

In other words, meditation is about accepting the present moment, and hypnosis is about changing it .

That being said, a lot of folks find the experience of hypnosis to be quite similar to meditation. Both are deeply relaxing, empowering, and leave folks feeling calmer and more confident. Everyone responds differently to hypnosis, so give it a try and see how it feels for you!

Hypnosis is often depicted as a form of "woo woo" mind control and manipulation, and that is simply not true. Hypnosis is a highly collaborative process in which you are in control the entire time.

As a hypnosis practitioner, it’s my job to offer you suggestions, and that’s all they are. They aren't commands or demands, they’re simply suggestions, and you have full ability to accept or reject any suggestion that is offered as you go through a hypnosis session. Just like if I were to tell you to take a deep breath right now, you could choose not to. It’s the same in hypnosis. You are able to think thoughts, be as aware of your body and your environment as you'd like to be, and most importantly, you cannot be hypnotized into doing anything you do not wish to do.

Hypnosis isn't a belief system - it's science. When I tell people what I do for a living, I often get responses like: "Oh, I just don't believe in that stuff." The thing is, hypnosis is a heavily researched, science-backed clinical tool that has been shown to create some of the most powerful changes that folks can experience within their minds and bodies, whether they believe in it or not. In fact, many of my clients don't believe it'll work at all when they first try it, and they're shocked to see the results!

You do, however, have to want the outcome. You cannot be hypnotized into doing anything you do not wish to do, so it is essential that you desire the outcome of the hypnosis session in order to accept suggestions that are offered.

A lot of people believe that you need a formal hypnosis process to get into a hypnotic trance.  In reality, hypnotic trances are natural states of consciousness. A "trance" is simply a combination of focused attention, deep relaxation, and heightened creativity, and you go in and out of trance every single day. If you've ever been so engrossed in a story from a book or a TV show that the rest of the world almost disappears around you and you're feeling the emotions of the characters, that's a trance. If you've ever "zoned out" while driving a familiar route home, only to realize you have no memory of the drive, that's also a trance.

You don't need a hypnotist to get you into this state. Hypnosis sessions and guided hypnosis recordings come in and act as a way to help you facilitate that trance and use it to your benefit.

Hypnosis is simply the systematized tool that helps to intentionally bring you into the state of consciousness and open your mind to the specific suggestions, ideas, and outcomes that you are seeking.

Hypnotic trance is a wakeful state. Even though your mind and body are highly relaxed, and you might look like you’re asleep, you are in fact awake and able to open your eyes and walk away at any time during hypnosis.

You may hear hypnotists use the suggestion "sleep" in their sessions. This is simply a tool to suggest a deeper state of relaxation in the mind and body, rather than actual deep sleep.

Additionally, everyone’s experience of hypnosis is different. Some people remain very conscious and aware of their surroundings. The best part is that the depth of trance does not determine the effectiveness of hypnosis. Many people describe the experience of hypnosis as a deeper, more goal-oriented guided meditation.

Going into hypnosis is also a skill that can be cultivated, so the first time you experience hypnosis, that is likely the least deep you will ever go. The more you listen to Doddle Hypnosis sessions, the easier and faster you will access your powerful trance state.

Some people think that being susceptible to hypnosis means that a person’s mind is weak, or that they are too gullible. On the contrary, it means that an individual is highly creative and able to transform their own lives! In any hypnosis session, you have full ability to accept or reject the suggestions that are offered, which means that you are in the driver’s seat of your experience. Individuals who are highly hypnotizable often show the strongest sense of resilience, emotional intelligence, and mental control. 

While we all experience hypnosis differently, I want to emphasize that anyone can be hypnotized. Moving in and out of trance and accessing imagined circumstances in hypnosis are skills that can be strengthened and cultivated. The more you engage with hypnosis, the deeper you’ll be able to get, and the easier it will be for you to really harness its benefits.

While stage hypnosis is often used as a form of entertainment, having people cluck like a chicken in front of an audience, for example, hypnosis is simply a tool for delivering suggestion and facilitating transformation. The kind of hypnosis you will experience in Doddle comes from clinical hypnosis, which is vastly different from what you’ll see on stage or in movies.

When hypnosis is done in front of an audience, the suggestions offered are for the benefit of the audience, not the person going through hypnosis. And it is important to emphasize that the subjects of hypnosis shows want to be hypnotized. There is a reason stage hypnotists ask for volunteers. They choose people who wish to participate in a silly activity, and throughout the show, they excuse the people who are not taking their suggestions.

Doddle, hypnosis is used as a tool that acts in your best interest, so the suggestions offered will be focused on supporting your wellbeing. You cannot be hypnotized into doing something you don’t want to do.

Hypnosis is a heavily researched, science-backed clinical tool! It has been shown to help with...

• pain management
• replacement for anesthesia
• recovery from chronic illness
• migraines and headaches
• behavior change
• adopting healthy habits
• addiction
• fears and phobias
• athletic and artistic performance
• insomnia
• anxiety
• nervous system regulation
• depression
• trauma recovery 
• irritable bowel syndrome
• skill enhancement
• pregnancy
• public speaking
• creativity
• exercise and strength
• productivity
• confidence
• resilience
• self esteem
• stress management
• goal setting
• happiness
• beliefs
• and so much more