Hypnosis is what happens when your conscious mind climbs in the back seat and takes a little nap while your subconscious mind climbs into the drivers seat.  You're not actually asleep, rather you're simply in a state of deeper self-awareness.  Most people find this state of being incredibly relaxing. 

Believe it or not, most of us slip into a state of self-hypnosis every day.  When you're driving and get so lost in your own thoughts that you miss your turn, or arrive at your destination without remembering the actual drive there, you're in hypnosis.  When you're watching a movie, playing a video game or reading a book and become so engrossed that you don't hear someone calling your name, you're in hypnosis.  

There are a lot of misconceptions about hypnosis, primarily based on entertainment style hypnosis (think Chris Angel), fictional movies (think Donnie Darko), and of course cartoons.  Certainly, entertainment style hypnosis is real, but a hypnotist can't ever make someone do something that they're not comfortable doing in a fully conscious state.  

Hypnotherapy is an holistic method of utilizing hypnosis for therapeutic purposes.  Think of it like guided meditation.  Anyone can meditate on their own and achieve a wonderfully deep state of relaxation, whereas guided meditation is a more focused version intended to help with specific issues.  Hypnotherapy is designed to work with your subconscious mind to reveal the root causes of whatever ails you in a mind/body/soul way.  Once these roots are discovered, healing immediately begins to take place.  Understanding is power and understanding through hypnotherapy is the most powerful form of self-awareness a person can achieve.   

Hypnosis is simply a deeply focused brain wave state.  Everyone enters into various states of hypnosis everyday. Children under the age of 7 spend most of their waking hours in a mild state of hypnosis. 

This brain wave is the same one we're in during REM sleep, though you're not asleep at all during hypnosis.  You're 100% aware of everything that's happening and being said during your session.  

Hypnosis works by accessing the subconscious mind while you're in this brain wave state.  It's like the ultimate mind hack because everything that has ever occurred in your entire life is stored in your subconscious, and while your conscious mind eventually loses many memories, the subconscious mind remembers everything.

First of all, you CAN.  You likely do it many times throughout your day, everyday. It's simply being in a state of Alpha brain-wave activity, which happens to almost all of us whenever we're daydreaming, letting our minds wander to the point where we miss our turn off when we're driving, or don't notice someone calling our name.  So, you CAN be hypnotized but some of us have a more challenging time being led into hypnosis by someone else.  There could be any number of reasons for this, most often having to do with trust and/or fears of feeling vulnerable...both perfectly valid emotions!  This article explains this in much greater detail-> 

Why Can't I Be Hypnotized? 

That's fine...in fact, it can be incredibly helpful to use more than one healing modality as it's simply approaching your issue(s) from multiple aspects.  In other words, it can't hurt.  It will simply serve to strengthen and reinforce the changes you are making! 

If this is the case, then consider yourself lucky!  Hypnotherapy, like any other type of therapy, may reveal more of the story for you though.  Perhaps you know the why, but not the how, or the where but not the when, and vice versa, and chances are that there is more than one why, where, how and when.  RTT hypnotherapy will help to reveal these in a safe environment.  Understanding is power and understanding in hypnosis is transformative!