Mental health is on the rise, the good news is we now have the knowledge to know what we can do to combat it.

Countless studies show us that through mental training the brain can permanently be altered, a process now referred to as -down plasticity (Begley, 2007).

Since my undergraduate work was in Genetics and Molecular biology, I have enthusiastically followed the epigenetics research, how environmental conditions can play a significant role in whether you will or will not get a specific disease – it’s not all in the genes, but rather in the gene expression.

Interestingly, the brain is no different. Gene expression is turned on by novelty and surprise, thus, deep meditation or hypnosis (a state of altered brain wave patterns) can stimulate neurogenesis and the building of new neural pathways, hence, insight.

You may have you’ve experienced this yourselves. You’ve spaced out for a few minutes, when all of a sudden a brilliant insight pops into your mind – that ‘spaced out’ feeling you experienced was a trance or hypnotic state. As a matter of fact, the average person moves through natural neural rhythms of arousal to relaxation 12 times a day.

Mindfulness, deep meditation or hypnosis is a method to quickly induce the brain circuitry for plasticity. PET scans show thought during deep relaxation, the left pre-frontal lobe is activated and the right pre frontal lobe activity decreases. The left pre-frontal lobe is associated with positive feelings, while the right with anger and anxiety.

Using this knowledge, experiments have been conducted on patients with anxiety, depression and OCD, all showing positive results when mindfulness techniques were included in care.

I’m a sucker when it comes to positive genetic changes in the brain, and love meditation but don’t have the time for it, nor do most of my patients – thus, my keen interested in hypnotherapy.

Hypnotherapy is a deep, guided meditation.  With a script written specifically for you, to talk to your subconscious brain, it can quickly and easily get you into a deep, relaxed, receptive state.  While in this state, your mind is more susceptible to suggestions, and your subconscious mind then works to make these suggestions come try.  Often booked for anxiety, depression, energy, and smoking cessation, a hypnotherapy session might just be what the doctor ordered to take your mental health to the next level.

Book a free 15 minute discovery call to see if a hypnotherapy session is right for you.