One of the questions I’m asked most often is: what actually is hypnosis? And closely following it: is it the same as trance? They’re good questions, and the answers are more interesting, and more reassuring, than most people expect.

Hypnosis and Trance: A Useful Distinction

Although the terms are often used interchangeably, there is a meaningful difference. Hypnosis is best understood as a state of focused attention, a deliberate narrowing of awareness, guided by language and suggestion, toward a particular purpose. It’s collaborative, purposeful, and you remain aware throughout.

Trance, on the other hand, is a broader, more naturally occurring shift in awareness. You’ve experienced it many times without realising: that moment when you arrive home and can’t quite remember the last few miles of the drive, or when you’re so absorbed in a book that someone has to say your name twice. Trance is an altered state of awareness, not unconsciousness, but a different quality of attention.

In therapeutic hypnosis, we use the focused state of hypnosis to gently invite trance, creating the conditions in which the mind becomes more receptive to positive change.

What’s Happening in the Brain

The neuroscience of hypnosis has advanced significantly in recent years. During hypnosis, brain imaging studies show a shift in brainwave activity from the fast, busy beta waves of our everyday waking state into the slower alpha and theta wave patterns. These are the same patterns associated with deep relaxation, meditation, and the moments just before sleep.

In this state, the default mode network, the part of the brain associated with rumination and self-referential thinking, becomes quieter. Meanwhile, connectivity between the prefrontal cortex and other brain regions increases, allowing for greater flexibility of thought. In simple terms, the inner critic gets quieter, and the creative, problem-solving parts of the mind get louder.

Who Can Be Hypnotised?

Research suggests that around 10 to 15 percent of people are highly responsive to hypnosis, while 60 to 80 percent are moderately responsive. Most people, in other words, can benefit. The depth of trance matters less than many assume. Even a light state of relaxation can be profoundly therapeutic. What matters most is your willingness and the quality of the therapeutic relationship.

The Evidence Base

Hypnotherapy is not alternative medicine sitting at the fringes. It is recognised by the British Psychological Society, endorsed by NICE, and increasingly integrated into NHS services. The evidence is particularly strong in several areas:

  • Chronic pain: Studies show hypnotherapy can achieve a 42% reduction in pain perception, and NICE now endorses it as a management tool for chronic pain conditions.
  • Anxiety and stress: Hypnosis has been shown to reduce activity in the amygdala, the brain’s threat detection centre, helping to calm the nervous system and build more resilient patterns of thought.
  • Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS): Gut-directed hypnotherapy is recommended by NICE for treatment-resistant IBS, with robust clinical evidence supporting its effectiveness.

The breadth of application continues to grow, with emerging research into areas such as sleep difficulties, phobias, and supporting people through grief and loss.

Why I Practice This Way

I came to hypnotherapy through my own experience of discovering what it feels like when someone truly listens, not to diagnose or fix, but to understand. The Ericksonian approach I use is built on the belief that every person already has the resources they need for change. My role is simply to help create the conditions in which those resources can emerge.

What drew me to this work, and what keeps me here, is watching people discover their own capacity for calm, for clarity, for moving forward in ways that feel right for them. It’s never about imposing change. It’s about helping people reconnect with something they already possess.

There is a quote from Milton Erickson that I return to often, and it captures something essential about this work:

“Change will lead to insight far more often than insight will lead to change.”

We don’t always need to understand everything before we can begin to feel different. Sometimes the feeling comes first, and the understanding follows.

If you’re curious about whether hypnotherapy might be helpful for you, I’m always happy to have a conversation. No pressure. No commitment. Just a chat about where you are and where you’d like to be.