Hypnosis fail

guitarzero

I went for hypnotherapy about 3 months ago. After 3 attempts he couldnt actually hypnotise me. This was over a 2 hour period, perhaps well over 3 hours. I complied with all the commands etc and still I couldnt fall under the spell.

I read that everyone can be hypnotized and that it can never be an excuse on the hypnotists part to say it was my fault. He claimed I'm very sensitive and have "higher" awareness which makes it a lot harder. He then said I'd have to learn to relax and use visualization technique in order for it to work.

I was still charged the full 200euro.

If these were prerequisites then they should have been outlined and made aware of.

I'm just curious if anyone has had any issues like this. If so what measures did you take?

Btw, this hypnosis group is a well renowned in Ireland.

hotspur

Hypnotisability (as defined by the ability to manifest a variety of experiences under a situation labelled hypnosis) is differentially distributed throughout the population. There are people who are highly hypnotisable and people who are lowly hypnotisable. It is possible to increase the capacity somewhat of someone who is lowly hypnotisable through teaching them various techniques.

Hypnotisability is a relatively stable trait. Which is to say that your score on a hypnotisable scale such as The Stanford Scales of Hypnotic Susceptibility will be similar over the course of your life. Hypnotisability is a multifaceted phenomenon which is largely a product of your natural capacity for things like suggestibility, absorption, vividness of imagery etc.

None of this means that you are low on hypnotisability. I cannot say one way or another. The fact that you are expressing it in terms of "I couldn't fall under the spell" strongly suggests that you don't well understand what hypnosis is, and so it is possible that the person you went to was remiss in their duty of properly explaining to you what it is.

It would be a poor hypnotherapist who would allow a person to think that they couldn't be hypnotised and that a session were a failure on that basis. The expectancy effect and social cognitive assuming of the role of someone hypnotised is such a strong part of a lot of people's hypnosis experience that most experiences in a hypnosis "induction" will be framed as being evidence of hypnosis by most competent hypnotherapists.

Their claiming that you are "very sensitive and have 'higher' awareness which makes it a lot harder" could be either trying to be nice to you so that you wouldn't feel too disappointed or else they could have been genuine, in which case they are likely an idiot.

I get a sense that you are looking for some comeback for your money. But nobody guarantees anything in hypnotherapy (or any other form of therapy of any sort). It may be that you are lowly hypnotisable and this hypnotherapist was under the mistaken belief that that mattered a lot for the therapeutic component. Or it may be that you were very anxious at the time. Or it may be that they just sucked. Whatever it was there is really no comeback if they didn't offer you a refund.