When was the last time you were driving and then found yourself at your destination? You would have been thinking deeply about something and "entered" into your own internal world.

It is like daydreaming. One moment you are watching the television and next minute you have missed something. Have you ever read a book and then realised you can't remember what you have just read.

We, "in the business" call it an alterered state of awareness. Something we all experience every day.

With the guidance of a therapist you can enter your own internal world and not notice the things going on around you.

You are in control all the time, you always know what is happening and you can come out of the altered state at any time in the same way one can snap out of a vivid daydream.

Within this hypnotic state, a hypnotherapist can by-pass the barriers to your inner thoughts and feelings.

Mental imagery can also be used. The subconscious mind does not distinguish between real and imagined experiences, which are why dreams can feel real.

A therapist can use suggestions which work more powerfully when you are in your internal world that is possible if you were in you normal state.

Within Hypnosis you can create new positive realities for yourself or alter your perception of past events which may affect your current behaviour.

DID YOU KNOW: There is also a growing body of scientific knowledge, psychoneuroimmunology, which is showing that the mind is directly linked to our immune systems, which means that techniques used in hypnotherapy can also affect our physical as well as psychological and spiritual well-being.

You can use hypnotherapy for almost any problem but I would not use it for someone who has a specified mental illness.

Many symptoms such as nail biting, smoking, bed wetting, pre-exam nerves are mainly habits and can be treated easily and effectively with Hypnotherapy.

Many other symptoms such as panic attacks, OCD, eating disorders, addictions are more complex and hypnotherapy can be used to help the client reach a relaxed state of inward focus and then work with past events, patterns of behaviour, feelings that arise.

Getting you out of your logical head and into your body, using hypnotherapy is highly effective in the treatment of these types of symptoms.

A Hypnotherapist can use "suggestions" whilst someone is relaxed and in an hypnotic state. This will help straightforward problems or habits such as smoking, pre-exam nerves, nail-biting or bed-wetting.

The sub-concious mind will take on these suggestions and work together with the conscious mind and you will find that you start behaving in a different way than you were before, when you acted out your old behaviour pattern.

I will be adding to this lens on a regular basis - so keep checking in