Yone Alvarez interview: what are the benefits of hypnosis?

Hypnosis is a form of therapeutic intervention that is as useful as it is interesting. Research carried out over decades about its operation and modes of application has made that today There are various forms of hypnotherapy, and many psychologists are trained to use them in helping their patients.

But... What exactly is hypnosis? To better understand the logics of operation of this practice in the field of mental health and emotional well-being, in this case we interview an expert on the subject, the psychologist Yone Alvarez Boccardo.

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Interview with Yone Alvarez: the benefits of applied hypnosis in therapy

Yone Alvarez Boccardo She is an expert psychologist in the use of hypnosis, and she attends both in person at her office in Barcelona and through the online psychology service. In this interview she tells us about what hypnotherapy is both in theory and in practice.

What is it that made you interested in applied hypnosis in therapy as a field in which to train professionally?

Psychotherapy has a wide spectrum of benefits for people, however, we must continue to evolve as professionals and expand our frames of reference theoretical and technical to provide our consultants with a richer treatment for their personal development, which goes beyond the reestablishment of their balance previous.

In my search I came across new theoretical and philosophical currents, which once again introduce a method of healing from hypnosis to people's attention. In developing my practice as a hypnotist, I find myself working much more deeply into the deepest personal dilemmas of the people, helping them to find their own answers to the great questions in their lives that almost always generate a lot of suffering and confusion.

From your point of view as an expert in hypnotherapy, how do you explain how hypnosis works?

The hypnosis I perform comes from an American school, started by Dolores Cannon, who developed a very specific and transcendent hypnosis method called Quantum Healing Hypnosis Technique.

With this hypnosis technique it is sought to take the person to a state of deep relaxation in which their Theta brain waves, which keeps her semi-awake, in a deep meditative state that gives access to her unconscious.

And from the point of view of the patients who come to the consultation, what does it feel like to undergo hypnotherapy?

The person who attends a hypnosis session is not necessarily a psychotherapy patient, sometimes They come in a timely manner to have the experience and find very valuable answers to their discomfort or situation current.

Thanks to the channel that opens to his deepest unconscious, the person begins to "daydream", and accesses personal memories and memories of the Collective Unconscious (as Carl Jung would say), finding in those experiences answers to his current concerns, from various angles or prospects.

Likewise, in this meditative state, in the second part of the hypnosis session, the person comes to have a dialogue with himself in a calm state, and this gives him his own responses to their concerns, their internal conflicts, their suffering, etc., from their own wisdom that in a conscious state they could not access because they are so involved in discomfort and everyday life. Provides an unmatched perspective!

Having studied the operation of hypnosis and knowing how it is applied in the practice, what do you think are the main myths about this practice, and how would you deny?

Many people are afraid that in this state they may be suggested by the specialist, which is false in neurotic personality structures. This means that the common denominator of the people who attend could not be suggested, in fact this is the reason why hypnosis Traditional suggestion-based behavior changes (addictions to cigarettes, drugs, or alcohol, for example) do not hold effective results in time.

The other myth of the person is the fear of losing control of himself, not being able to stop the process or get out of that state if he is being uncomfortable for some emotional reason. This is false, since in the Theta wave state, the person finds himself with access to her unconscious without losing his state of consciousness from the I, only bridges the two dimensions of your mind, so if you want to leave the state makes. A funny example of this is that in 2 hour sessions many people ask to go to the bathroom, they go back and forth and continue in the hypnosis process without starting from scratch.

Another myth, supported by psychoanalysis itself and later psychotherapeutic currents, is that hypnosis is not useful or effective. And this myth goes through an equivocal view of the benefits of the method. Let me explain briefly: hypnosis is not effective in changing behavior, since we cannot act on anyone's free will; hypnosis is effective in generating expanded states of consciousness and accessing deeper responses of the Self in a state of connection with its truth and its essence that is rarely accessed with psychotherapeutic techniques traditional.

What are the problems for which hypnotherapy is most useful and effective?

It is important for people to be clear about their expectations when seeking hypnosis. The change in behavior is a by-product of the deep insights that emerge from the hypnosis process, not from the suggestion of the individual.

Addictive behavior, Eating Disorders, impulse control disorders (aggressiveness) or depressive disorders, change from the insights and revelations that the person obtains from his hypnosis process. The behavior can only change from the vital changes that the person makes by a change of internal perspective where he is more clearly alienated with her True Self.

The usefulness of this technique is that it bridges directly to your True Self, and the impact is transcendent.

And in what way are the changes for the better produced by the patients? Does it take a long time to notice the first results?

The results of hypnosis can be found in a single session or in several sessions spaced apart in time (I usually recommend at least 3 months between one and the other).

To the extent that the person is less resistant to finding his deepest truths, which make him connect with himself in his most strengthened and powerful place, in that measure sadness, anxiety, suffering, dissonances or confusion, suffering in personal relationships and at work, among so many other issues, Changing. What must change is the perspective of the subject to be able to modify his way of approaching the different themes of his life that generate suffering.