Hypnotists, among other types of therapists, have developed exercises to create the emotional space to contain the process of finally playing out (grieving) the previously disowned, troublesome emotions and experiences, and processing them to completion, resolution and forgiveness.

You hear a story of injustice, assume it is true, and feel angry, outrage. You hear a story of loss, and feel sorrow. You hear a story of passion and feel excited. You hear a story that is shameful, and feel disgusted. If you hear a story of danger, you feel frightened, unsafe. If the conscious mind believes the story, sees the story as ''facts'', then the emotions follow. Someone might say, ''I feel sad, but there's nothing to feel sad about." Or, "I should be feeling sad, but I don't feel anything." Or, "I should be feeling romantic right now, but I can't feel anything, or feel frightened, or confused." Or, "I feel romantic right now, but I don't want to and can't understand why." "I've been disrespected, and should feel angry, but I don't. What's wrong?" In each instance, there's a part of the mind that thinks in a logical way, and then another part [subconscious, emotional] that feels another way. Hypnotherapy is one of several techniques of bringing the confusion and conflict to understanding and resolution.

Recall a time when you gathered some facts and let the matter simply sit for a while. Maybe ''sleep on it'' or ''mull it over''. After some time, maybe you ''realize'' an idea or conclusion. They call that an "Aha" experience. Where was the realization prior to consciousness, or was it created, and, if so, where? Another example is the time when you reacquaint someone, but you cannot recall his or her name. The harder you think about it, the more elusive the name becomes. It seems, only after you stop thinking about it, does the name come to you. Where was the name prior to consciousness? These are examples of the ''subconscious'', an important area of consciousness used in hypnosis.

The Process and Practice of Hypnotherapy process is effectively taught by Calvin Banyan, MA (hypnosiscenter.com) in his 5 Phase Abreactive Hypnotherapy practice, course, and training.

1. The first phase is the introduction to hypnosis, to dispel the many myths and misconceptions about hypnosis. We demonstrate a ''test drive'' session of how to get into and out of hypnosis, only to realize that we enter and leave hypnosis many times a day. The only thing that prevents effective hypnosis is fear of it, and the fear is dispelled by education and answering any questions.

2. The second phase is to dispel fear. We identify "that feeling you don't like that has everything to do with why you are here today". Imagine going back to the worst times of childhood as an adult to encounter who you were as a child, and then to inform that child of the truths based on what you have learned since.

3. The third phase involves processing anger. It's about what's not fair. Imagine being able to encounter, on your own terms, the people in your life who made the worst mistakes, who did the most harm, and to be able to control the whole confrontation. All effort leads to forgiveness in the subconscious mind.

4. The fourth phase deals with guilt and shame, forgiving the perceived failure to be who you expected yourself to be. We identify the ''mistake making part'' of who you are and move ahead to forgiveness from there.

5. The fifth phase, if necessary, acknowledges any benefits that might have been associated with the problems, and addresses healthier ways of proceeding in a symptom free life.

Through all of the process, we identify outmoded emotions from the past such as fear, anger, guilt, shame and regret, and neutralize them into the present. The emotion of sadness is usually an appropriate byproduct of the work, allowing us to grieve now what we couldn't feel then. Many of us don't know how to grieve. We don't get those years back, and that's sad. We pass through the sadness. We move into a present and future in which we can spontaneously and appropriately feel the whole range of human emotions, including joy, curiosity, excitement, and satisfaction.

 What are you feeling now? Notice this feeling. How would you describe it? How does it play out in your body? How is it changing as we speak? How is it now? How much is this feeling really appropriate to now? Are you really in any danger? If not, they what is this fear doing here? Is anyone provoking you? Then where is the anger from? Is anyone shaming you? Then where does the self-hatred come from? How much of this feeling is an overreaction, or do you try to ignore it, push it out of consciousness? How do you do that? How old is this feeling? How long has it been that you have had to fight this feeling? Do you know that you are using your own energy to fight your own energy? No wonder you're exhausted. So go into this feeling rather than run from it. Withdraw your attention backwards from THE STORY OF YOUR LIFE, and focus on the feeling itself, on your body. What happens next? And next? And next?

Adapted from Stephen Wolinsky, The Tao of Chaos

 Hypnosis for Appreciation, Joy and Pleasure

What do we do when we have repaired the traumas and grown past all the ''pathologies'' and there's better functioning but no happiness? How can we rediscover, or in many instances, discover for the first time, what it feels like to really enjoy life? In fact, if we don't find pleasures and joys in life, then what is there to keep anyone from returning to the same familiar, miserable attitudes previously escaped? It's like the metaphorical petty criminal who keeps returning to jail because that's all he's ever known.

The true source of joy is within, as all the philosophers say. One person might have many wonderful gifts, not appreciate them, and feel miserable so much of the time. Another person might have few gifts but feel grateful, complete, satisfied moment to moment. To associate all one's joy to one other person is the misunderstanding that adult joy resides as a capacity inside, and not in any other external person' presence or attention. So many lotto winners are broke and miserable not so long after the winnings arrive.

 Future Hypnotists

Hypnosis is an especially effective influence technology that is at the heart of advertising, religion, politics, courtship, and psychotherapy.

Consulting hypnotists are non-licensed professionals who offer important client services, including smoking cessation, weight management, and stress reduction to individuals, groups and corporations. Other services include attention training, self-hypnosis, theatre techniques, confidence building, public speaking, spirituality, and many others.

Hypnotherapists, [MSW, PhD, RN, LMHC, MD], as licensed therapists, may use the same hypnosis theory and techniques for diagnostically appropriate mental health services including age-regression, parts therapy, Gestalt therapy, and other techniques.