Backing up Blog Post Part 9 from DrakeG's blog

Hello again, today we are going to discuss the benefits of hypnosis. This is by no means an exclusive list, but we will discuss some of the more common uses. As always this is based on my experience and opinions. If you have any questions, comments, or things you would like me to discuss in the future feel free to let me know via the Contact page.
So as we have touched on before, hypnosis has many benefits. It can be used for relaxation, pain management, weight management,  and entertainment among other things. It is a really versatile tool since it can help adjust how a mind processes the information around it. Starting with the simplest use, relaxation. Even if relaxation is not the goal of hypnosis session, most of the time hypnosis leads to a very relaxed state. This is because most of the time, the subject will be sitting or laying down, probably have their eyes closed, and their focus is only on the hypnotist who is not going to be asking them to do anything complex. So you get someone who doesn’t need to think about what’s going on, sitting or laying down with their eyes closed, it is easy to see how relaxing that can be and how the subject could look to be asleep. Then once in a trance, the hypnotist can draw the subconscious mind to how good that relaxation feels. And once it focuses on that feeling, that feeling can be manipulated. By which I mean, hypnosis can be used to lessen, increase or change a sensation. If the subject is already really familiar with the sensation it can be spontaneously generated. That being said, it is more reliable to create a small version of the sensation and then make it more powerful.
Pain management works under a similar idea to relaxation. So as mentioned before, the human mind is not good with negatives, and some words can generate an effect just from saying them. This is where pain management differs from relaxation. If the hypnotist says that the subjects doesn’t feel pain, this will likely cause the subject pain. Even if the hypnotist says you will feel the pain reduce, just saying pain could increase it or cause a new one. So when discussing pain the hypnotist should use another word like discomfort. And since the hypnotist is trying to avoid calling attention to the pain, this should be tackled a different way. If the hypnotist can create a small numb sensation, they can increase it. And then once it is strong enough, direct the numb sensation to where the pain is to cancel it out. So that just leaves us with creating a small numb sensation. This is easy enough to create by having the subject raise their hand up just enough so that it starts to go to sleep. This combines both methods of creating a sensation since the hypnotist is physically causing it and is calling on the memories everyone has of their limbs feeling like pins and needles. It is important to note, that the subject does need to be mindful of what they do after receiving pain management hypnosis. Pain is a way that the body tells you something is wrong. Numbing the pain does not fix the root issue, so it could lead to the subject exacerbating the issue if they are not careful. This is why I require a sign off from a doctor before I will do pain management with a subject.
Behavior change is kind of a wide topic. This could be help quitting smoking, nail biting, procrastinating, or it could be more positive things like help study more, clean more regularly, or keep with a work out program. The important part of all of these is that for any of these changes to be lasting, the subject must be able to convincingly say, “I need to change now.” This has them accept that a change needs to happen, they are what needs to change, and it needs to happen now. The definition of of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. So if the subject wants to change a behavior, they can’t keep doing what they are doing and expect the behavior to change. The only thing that we can control is ourselves. So even in a situation where other people are causing a problem, you have to change yourself to fix the problem. This could being willing to talk with the other person, refusing to deal with them anymore or something else all together. But the change needs to come from yourself. The change needs to be now. If the person is willing to put off changing, then they are not actually ready for change. 
For example, over the last few months I have had intermittent internet issues. I have a degree in computer networking and use to work tech support. I hate calling tech support with a passion. So despite the issues I was willing to deal with them for weeks before I decided I had tried every option open to me, and contacted them. They tried a couple things and asked me to let them know if the problem continued. When the problem showed back up the next day, it took me another week or two to be willing to call them again. More steps tried, which lessened the issues but caused some different ones as well. It again took me another few weeks before I was willing to call them again. So just this last week, they got a tech out to my house and the problem was a combination of their hardware and some settings in their system. So this is a problem I could not fix without them, but I was willing to deal with the problems it was causing me to not have to talk to tech support. So until I was ready to say this has to change, nothing could be fixed.
Weight management is an interesting issue to handle with hypnosis. Hypnosis is not going to have someone drop 20 pounds overnight, but it can help subjects reach their goal. It is also worth noting, I am saying management not loss for two reasons. One is that if you say that you lost something, the mind assumes you are going to try to get it back. So it is best to avoid that line of thought. The other is that, while many want to lose weight, the same processes can also be used to help someone who struggles to gain weight. Part of the process is behavioral changes. It is common knowledge what foods are healthy, which are not, and that exercise can help with weight loss. Using hypnosis can help guide subjects to choose the healthier foods, eat healthier portions, avoid the unhealthy foods, and exercise on a regular basis. As a note for hypnotists, it is important to leave these suggestions vague unless you have some type of training or certification for dietary or fitness. I normally include in the suggestion that the subject should talk to a doctor or other similar professional about getting a list of foods and exercises that are right for them. This keeps me who is not a health professional from suggesting something that is ineffective or maybe harmful. Also if a subject is coming in for weight issues, they probably are going to have self esteem issues. They are likely to be uncomfortable with their body which in turn effects their mood, which can have big affects on their life. Reinforcing the subjects self esteem can then build motivation to do more. Finally, just as it is possible to adjust sensations, it is possible to suggest to the subconscious that it is ready to speed up the metabolism and stop storing excess fat (or slow and start storing more if trying to gain). Since your subconscious controls all of your bodies automatic processes, they can be adjusted slightly. When all of these steps are combined it can create great results.
Entertainment is a less often discussed aspect of hypnosis. The most common would be stage hypnosis, where like a magic act, it is being used to create a show. That is not the only way that it can be used though. Again since sensations can be manipulated, it is possible to create fantasy scenarios for the subject. You can create the experience of relaxing at a beach, riding a roller coaster, or a mountain hike. For a Christmas present, I created a scenario for a friend where they got about 30 minutes in their favorite video game. They felt like they were really there in the action, almost like a lucid dream. And on that note, lucid dreaming is possible to induce via hypnosis. The far end of using hypnosis for entertainment is that it is possible to use it sexually. While I am going to keep this blog mostly family friendly, based on what we have discussed today about sensation modification and behavioral changes, it should not be hard to guess how this can be applied to sexual situations. On that note, I will leave you all for another week. Thanks for reading and feel free to contact me with any questions or comments.