Why choose a Strategic Hypnotherapist?
1. What is a Strategic Hypnotherapist and what makes them distinctive from other hypnotherapists?
A Strategic Hypnotherapist incorporates Ericksonian Hypnotherapy with aspects of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, and in most cases, Gordian Therapy.
This specific and eclectic combination is a highly effective solution for the issues that most people experience and would see a therapist about.
Hypnosis is in essence the vehicle by which Gordian Therapy, as well as any other derivatives, is delivered.
Strategic Hypnotherapists differ from most traditional Hypnotherapists in what they target, and what they are seeking to do for the client.
Most traditional forms of Hypnotherapy focus their attention on bringing you back into a present state and calming the client down. This could include a range of guided visualisations of calm and pleasant places that are designed to put you into a state of relaxation, thereby alleviating the anxiety or agitation. Many of these approaches can be characterised in the phrase “calm blue ocean.”
From a strategic perspective, teaching a client relaxation skills and helping them calm down is a useful approach, but a strategic hypnotherapist is seeking much much more than that. From a strategic perspective what is most important is not just calming your emotional state in that moment, but teaching you how to not generate anxiety or agitation in the first place.
Visualizations of forests or beaches or calm blue oceans don’t really change your risk assessment. A strategic hypnotherapist operates on the premise that if you are anxious, you are seeing risk where others do not. You are struggling with the uncertainties of life, and what you actually need is a more realistic way of assessing risk.
Strategic Hypnotherapists will help you make an adjustment in your perceptual filter (mostly unconsciously created) so your sensitivity to risk is alleviated. The reality is that the anxiety you run is because you’re seeing risk where other people don’t. Any approach that doesn’t seek to teach you new skills, and new ways of perceiving the world is unlikely to have long-term benefits. In many ways, anything that is akin to meditation or mindfulness is a nice adjunct, but insufficient to do the job appropriately.
Therapy is about learning how to do things differently. It’s about building skills and changing perceptions. Using hypnosis, we can adjust the way you see risk and diminish the amount of catastrophizing you do. In this way, we don’t just help you solve your concerns around the relationship or potential redundancy, we are going to help you across the board in every area of your life.
Strategic hypnotherapists are therefore going after something much larger than the presenting issue that brought you to the clinic. They are seeking to transform you at your core, offering you a more resilient and greater ability to handle the uncertainties of life.
2. Why would you want to engage a Strategic Hypnotherapist?
Most Strategic Hypnotherapists are also familiar with the trademarked Gordian Pillars of Psychotherapy, which they use as an assessment tool. The Gordian Pillars provide a discernible framework for most issues you are likely to present. This accelerates the process and typically your Strategic Hypnotherapist will want to start the therapeutic process in the very first session.
Hypnosis allows the therapist to speak to the unconscious part of you that is running the issue. I am sure you have had the experience of knowing, at least intellectually what you need to do, but not be able to do it. Using hypnosis we can address the issue where it exists – in the unconscious process.
A Strategic Hypnotherapist does not need to know you to know that if you refer to yourself as an “anxious person” or a “worrier”, you must do the following:
1. see risk where others do not.
2. You do not handle the uncertainties of life very well,
3. You tend to overanalyze things
4. You catastrophize into the future
5. You often feel like your emotional state is not within your control and feel like the stress or anxiety happens to you, or is something physical.
This is part of the perceptual pattern that needs to be addressed. What you specifically worry about might be quite different from others, and a Gordian Therapist will address your specific triggers and sensitivities, but a Gordian Therapist will have a fair idea of what to do from your intake form. Once they have interviewed you and found out both how you run the problem and where you have unused resources, they can finalize their full treatment approach.
Your Gordian Therapist will explain what the process will be, seek out your agreement, and then start tackling the issues head-on starting in the first session.
All Gordian therapists have Nationally Accredited Qualifications, and adhere to strict codes of conduct in order to maintain their license. Additionally, they undertake Continuous Professional Development and receive regular supervision throughout the year.
3. What conditions can Strategic Hypnotherapist address and what can I expect to pay?
There is a set of Gordian Pillars for:
1. Anxiety
2. Social or performance Anxiety
3. Addiction
4. Phobias
5. Low Self Esteem
6. Anger
7. Procrastination
8. Grief
9. Depression
10. Post-Natal Depression
11. Pain
12. Obsessive Compulsive Behaviour
13. Post Traumatic Stress
14. Chronic Weight Issues
15. Insomnia
The hourly rate for therapy varies enormously depending on your location, and the therapist’s individual fees. Some therapists will charge $150-$180 per hour, while other more experienced therapists are closer to $400 per hour.
Gordian therapists are rare and can be in high demand. It is often better to opt for a package that will cover the therapeutic process.
There’s a considerable difference between feeling better and doing better. Doing better means that you’ve developed new skills and capacities and can handle more pressure than you could prior to doing therapy.
