Hypnosis to forget a memory

There has been a lot of misunderstanding surrounding hypnosis. The biggest fault for that falls on the shoulders of popular culture, most of all TV and film. They, at a time, totally miscast hypnotherapists. They present them as someone who will make you fall asleep, get you totally under their control and form your subconscious to their willing, without any moral or ethical concern.

Hypnotherapy is a way to relax the patient, In this relaxed state, his mind is heightened. He should be more aware of himself and the world around him, and not asleep. In this heightened state, he can access some surpassed thoughts or memories. A hypnotherapist will help him deal with them by suggesting positive ways of dealing with them in a calm and safe manner. Hypnotherapy has been used to deal with many issues such as:

Fears of all kinds

Anxiety

Smoking

Depression

Eating or sleeping disorders

But the question remains, can you use hypnosis to forget a memory?

There are countless examples on TV and movies that suggest that is the use. But, once again the reality doesn’t align with fantasy. You can’t just come into a session and erase a part of your memory or mind. Hypnotherapy isn’t a way to erase your mind or parts of it.

But that doesn’t mean that hypnosis is useless. It can help with bad memories, but not erase them. With positive feedback, a therapist can help you see and understand a memory in a new light. We consider the memory a good or bad one by the highest emotion we felt during its occurrence. A therapist can help you nudge and change that feeling. Help you focus on what else happened during that memory. The negative gets lessened and the positive strengthened. Hypnosis can’t help you forget a memory but it sure can help you deal with it, even help you reform your understanding of that one, grueling memory.