How Long Does Hypnotherapy Last? This can be answered several ways and I’ll try and answer in as many ways as is helpful. From the most immediate meeting to the long term lasting effects.
How Long Is a Typical Hypnotherapy Session?
About an hour, an hour and 15 minutes. It’s the same for follow-up hypnotherapy sessions.
I don’t intend to keep you long and if you can and see me you’ll appreciate that hypnotherapy, for most people is fast acting.
It’s one of the reasons for its growing popularity, hypnotherapy doesn’t take too much time in term of sessions.
How Many Hypnotherapy Sessions Are Usually Needed?
Some take about three - stopping smoking or vaping, heights, flying, spiders. Some are longer - resolving childhood trauma, PTSD, low self esteem.
Do the Effects of Hypnotherapy Last?
For some it’s a lifetime. Smoking, vaping and drug taking being the most obvious and often deepest seat patterns of behaviour.
I’ll talk about this throughout this blog, but at the core is what’s called the therapeutic alliance.
This is all about how you and me collaborate, the trust we build, and empathetic relationship between you and me.
In every day language an empathetic relationship is the understanding and sharing between us. For example, do you feel I’ve stepped into your shoes? I really feel what you’re going through, and that I’m non-judgmental.
Practically this means we’ve agreed on your goals, you follow my methods and believe in the process.
You also come to see me less as an authority figure and simply someone who helps you grow in the direction you want to go.
How Long Does Hypnotherapy Take to Work?
For some it’s instant, for others it takes longer. It depends on your mindset and the depth of the problem we’re dealing with.
For example, smoking may take only two sessions (that’s around two hours) and unresolved childhood trauma could be several months.
Is Hypnotherapy for Anxiety a Lasting Treatment?
Good question. It depends on the anxiety and how deep seated it is.
For example, most phobias take three sessions. These include:
Spiders
Needles
Heights
Other’s like, say, panic attacks, fear, overthinking, intrusive thoughts or social anxiety. May take more time.
How Effective Is Hypnotherapy for Smoking Cessation?
Like all of hypnotherapy it depends on:
- mindset and believing in the process
- how many times you’ve quit before
- how many years you’ve been smoking. How hard a habit will it be to break.
- It is your idea? For example, has some one else ‘nagged’ you into coming. In this case you don’t really own the idea of quitting.
So for some people they can quit straight away after hypnotherapy. For others, it means it’s longer gaps between lapses. It’s linked to how long you’ve been smoking, do others smoke in the house, is it deeply ingrained in your social life, have you honestly quit? (do you still have a cheeky one in the car own your own, say).
How Can Hypnotherapy Make Permanent Change for Weight Loss?
This also depends what you do outside of sessions. For example:
- All your food stashes - thrown out. Not, "I’ll start my new regime when I finish all my biscuits.” Chuck them now.
- You stop treating yourself at the petrol station as you go and pay for fuel. No more pies.
- You up your level of exercise.
These all help you develop your new mind set and put a mental distance between you and food. I’ll help you with all of this, but you have to live it.
In the past, I’ve helped clients lose eight stone.
What Factors Affect How Long Hypnotherapy Lasts?
As I talked about earlier, its all about the therapeutic alliance - how you and me get on. I believe in you and I believe you can change for the better.
Although there are some things to consider:
- Are you ready to change? Wholly committed.
- Is it your idea? You’re not doing it to please someone else. If so, at any point you can always say to yours lf or others, “This wasn’t my idea.” You have a reason not to believe. Going along to please others isn’t a good reason.
Another factor is the issue being treated. A phobia like, say, flying is usually done and dusted in three sessions.
But, on the other hand, ten years of cocaine will need a whole lifestyle change and all round support.
Does Hypnotherapy Work Faster Than Traditional Therapy?
Firstly, you choose the therapy that YOU feel most comfortable with. This might be Psychodynamic Therapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Interpersonal Therapy (IPT), Humanistic approaches (e.g. person-centred), or counselling to name but a few.
Hypnotherapy often achieves results in 1–6 sessions for specific behavioural changes or phobias.
Traditional Therapy may require a longer commitment, often ranging from 10–20 sessions or months of treatment to achieve similar outcomes for complex issues.
And psychoanalysis is seen as a much longer-term approach that can take hundreds of sessions over several years.
It depends on your circumstance and challenges and what therapist you feel most comfortable with.
Making Hypnotherapy Results Last Longer
I can’t emphasise enough that if you form a great relationship with your therapist you can do great things for yourself.
From that relationship if you believe in the process then you can really make lasting change.
Hypnotherapy works by relaxing your body and mind to a deep level so the hypnotherapist (me) can ‘talk’ to your subconscious and change you for the better. That’s the change that cam last a lifetime.
Does hypnotherapy wear off?
Yes. It can do. It’s not a magic silver bullet.
And lots off factors feed into its efficacy.
For example, with cocaine takers, hypnotherapy may initially work but you fall off the wagon. What we’re looking for is increasing the gaps between relapses so you no longer fall back on the white stuff.
Is Hypnotherapy a Permanent Solution?
It can be. I guess you’re getting the picture by now if you’ve read this far. If you’re open minded, with a positive mindset, belief in your hypnotherapist and the process good will follow.
So, when you say How long does hypnotherapy last it can be a lifetime.
Will hypnotherapy make a lasting change for you?
It’s a question I get asked by most clients. And rightly so. We need to chat and start to look at your challenges.
Email me at jamesthomas@thegentlemind.co.uk or call me on 07787563099.
