What’s the difference between hypnosis and guided imagery?
Hypnosis is a way of learning. As we move along the course of our lives, we learn many things in mainly two ways: by repetition, e.g., hearing, seeing, practicing or experiencing something many times, or, in moments of heightened focus – often accompanied by emotion, i.e., powerful moments of beauty, excitement, interest, fear, shame, humiliation, etc. In these ways we learn or get “programmed”. Hypnosis and guided imagery help you to change programming that you no longer find beneficial, and to enkindle latent abilities. Guided imagery gently guides you into your imagination to access and explore creative ways to gain benefit. Therapeutic hypnosis (hypnotherapy) includes guided imagery and incorporates many other mind/body tools such as NLP (neurolinguistic programming), inner child work, sub-personality/parts work, reparenting, archetypal and symbolic work in the Jungian tradition, breathwork, effective meditative practices, and more.
