QUEST COGNITIVE
HYPNOTHERAPY
WHAT IS COGNITIVE HYPNOTHERAPY?
Let me reassure you that at no time will I swing a watch, ‘put you under’ or ask you to ‘look into my eyes’!
Cognitive hypnotherapy is very different from what most people imagine traditional hypnotherapy to be like. It draws on leading-edge research in neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, positive psychology, cognitive theory and NLP. Therapy sessions are interactive and - because trauma is stored in the body - often include somatic work.
THREE PRINCIPLES UNDERPIN
COGNITIVE HYPNOTHERAPY:
1. TRANCE IS AN EVERYDAY PHENOMENON
Research suggests that about 90% of our behaviour is automatic. In other words we’re on a kind of behavioural autopilot - or everyday trance - for large parts of our day.
Many of these everyday trance states are useful. Thanks to them, we don’t have to start from first principles every time we tie our shoelaces or drive our cars. Instead our unconscious learning takes over, so that we can listen to the radio and think about our upcoming meeting as we go about our daily routines.
But these everyday trance states are also the reason why it can be so difficult to change problem behaviours. Consciously we may know there’s no need to be anxious about giving a presentation to a group of friendly colleagues, for instance, but unfortunately our conscious minds aren’t running the show in this situation!
2. ALL BEHAVIOUR HAS A POSITIVE INTENTION
In cognitive hypnotherapy we say that every behaviour has a positive intention. Even though shaking like a leaf and feeling sick with adrenaline before a big presentation may not feel useful, your unconscious truly believes that these symptoms are saving you from a far worse evil (giving the presentation). The harder you push against these negative trance states, the more they push back.
So what’s going on? The answer is that occasionally – and especially when we’re young - our brains make processing errors. Somehow, your brain has equated standing up to give a talk with certain destruction. No wonder it does everything in its power to stop you from doing it!
Often we don’t even remember the initial events that triggered these programming errors and set in motion the consequent negative behavioural patterns. We only know that we’re stuck with really unhelpful behaviour patterns that are getting in the way of our lives.
Cognitive hypnotherapy updates our unconscious programming with our conscious mind’s understanding of reality, leaving you fully in control.
3. YOU’RE AN INDIVIDUAL
Because everyone’s unconscious programmes have developed differently, cognitive hypnotherapy doesn’t use labels or diagnoses.
Whereas a traditional hypnotherapist might decide you 'have anxiety' and read you their 'anxiety script', in cognitive hypnotherapy we look at the elements of your individual problem and devise a plan to take you towards your solution state.
You might say that cognitive hypnotherapy helps you wake up from negative trances, or that we de-hypnotise you, giving you back control of your life.
EVIDENCE BASED
Quest Cognitive Hypnotherapy (QCH) launched a unique research project in 2011. Using a team of QCH therapists, clients with anxiety and depression were assessed using the same outcome measures currently used to assess the effectiveness of talking therapies within the NHS.
The pilot study was published in the Mental Health Review Journal in 2015.
It recorded that, using 118 cases measuring the effectiveness of Quest Cognitive Hypnotherapy for the treatment of depression and anxiety, 71% considered themselves recovered after an average of 4 sessions. This compared to an average of 42% for other approaches using the same measures (like CBT).
To our knowledge, this is the only hypnotherapy approach to have been validated in this way.
DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY SUCCESS RATE
OTHER
APPROACHES
