The American Psychological Association, Division 30, defines clinical hypnosis as:
A state of consciousness involving focused attention and reduced peripheral awareness characterized by an enhanced capacity for response to suggestion.

Most describe it as similar to the absorption of watching a film or the drowsy-but-alert state just before sleep. Some feel heaviness or lightness in the limbs; sensations vary and there's no single correct experience.

No. You remain in the driver’s seat. Hypnosis is a state of focused attention and relaxation, not sleep. EEG studies show a mix of alpha and theta activity, distinct from stages of actual sleep. Clients remain aware of their surroundings and can hear everything said.

My approach is permissive rather than authoritarian. Instead of scripted commands, I use conversational language, invitations, and your own pace to guide the process, often incorporating focusing, a technique that helps you tune into subtle bodily sensations and felt meanings connected to an issue. Importantly, you stay an active participant throughout, guiding what emerges rather than following a fixed script (with the exception of standardized protocols).

This tends to feel more like a guided internal exploration than "being hypnotized"

No. Hypnotic trance is a form of deep focused relaxation. There's no physiological mechanism for indefinite trance.

No. Clients retain judgment and can reject any suggestion that conflicts with their values. This is the most persistent misconception, largely from stage hypnosis, where participants are pre-screened for suggestibility and compliance, and are not coerced.

Suggestibility varies by individual and is roughly normally distributed in the population. Most people are moderately hypnotizable; a small percentage are highly resistant, a small percentage highly responsive. Motivation and rapport with the clinician affect outcomes more than innate trait alone.

No, they have entirely different contexts and intent. Clinical hypnosis is goal-directed, collaborative, and used for symptom management, behavior change, or pain control. Clinical hypnosis is offered by a trained, state licensed health care provider under strict ethical and legal guidelines.

The honest answer is that "unconscious" and "subconscious" are useful clinical metaphors more than settled neuroscientific constructs. Practically, hypnosis is understood to work by narrowing conscious, effortful, analytical processing and increasing access to associative, imagistic, and emotional material that's harder to reach in ordinary problem-solving mode.

Clients often describe this as bypassing the "inner critic" or getting past overthinking to reach material more directly.

Yes, for a specific set of applications. Reasonably strong evidence exists for IBS (gut-directed hypnotherapy), procedural and chronic pain, and smoking cessation. Evidence varies for other clinical concerns. This will be covered in our consultation call.