Hypnosis, Hypnotherapy, and Transpersonal & Trauma Healing Hypnotherapy: What’s the Difference?

Hypnosis is a form of narrowed focused attention, in which deeper states of consciousness are reached, often dipping into the subconscious mind, and thus slower brainwaves – often theta brainwaves. The subconscious mind is where everything is stored such as: memories, emotions, traumas, underlying beliefs, habits, etc. From this state, it is often easier for a person to see certain patterns or issues and to shift them within themselves, rather than just analyzing things over and over in the cognitive, conscious mind. It is important to note that this “hypnotic” state is a natural state that humans experience throughout life spontaneously. For instance, when one is daydreaming, in deep contemplation, or reminiscing, this is a trance-like, meditative, or hypnotic state. Another example is when we are engrossed in a book or a movie and everything else seems to fall into the periphery and time escapes us. These are examples of a trance or hypnotic state. Another example is when we have “highway hypnosis” or when we are driving and we remember nothing about the drive itself or the turns taken, but we still end up where we were going. In that example, our conscious mind was somewhere else and our subconscious mind was driving the car. Hypnosis is invoking these natural states on purpose, in a therapeutic manner. 

Hypnotherapy is the use of hypnosis to assist with certain issues that arise in a person’s life.

Transpersonal & Trauma Healing Hypnotherapy is a specialized type of hypnotherapy that was developed by Liz Burkholder, APRN. It was created specifically to help process and resolve trauma in a safe and therapeutic environment. Its framework draws from and builds upon many other modalities, therapies, and practices such as clinical hypnosis, transpersonal hypnotherapy, Heart-Centered Hypnotherapy*, meditation, mindfulness, guided imagery, emotional release techniques, somatic release techniques, polyvagal theory, nervous system regulation, neuropsychology, inner child work, ego parts therapy, Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), subtle energy work, chakra work, yogic practices, trauma focused yoga, Jungian psychology, etc.

*Transpersonal & Trauma Healing Hypnotherapy was created by Liz Burkholder, FNP, PMHNP - owner of Burkholder Wellness Center in Charlotte, NC. 

*Heart-Centered Hypnotherapy is a type of hypnotherapy that was developed in the 1990s by psychotherapists Diane Zimberoff and husband, David Hartman, both founders of The Wellness Institute in Seattle, WA.

About Transpersonal & Trauma Healing Hypnotherapy:

People are usually much more guarded and are more likely to hold back during regular talk therapy. During hypnotherapy, clients are more relaxed and less guarded, making it easier to get down to the real issues and feelings underneath. Clients can sometimes get further in just ONE hypnotherapy session than with months of traditional talk therapy. This is because we get “out” of the conscious “thinking” mind and get “into” the body and the subconscious “feeling” mind, where everything is stored. 

In TTHH, clients are in a very relaxed state, which is a light to medium hypnotic or “meditative” state. Clients are still very aware of their surroundings and everything going on, but much less distracted or guarded. This allows for a very safe space for unresolved issues to surface and to be processed and resolved without fear or judgement. This allows a conscious connection to certain subconscious patterns in the person’s life, thus allowing them to break self-sabotaging patterns much more easily. 

We don’t remember everything with our conscious mind (which is only about 10% of our mind) in regard to our past or from our childhood. But it has all been intricately recorded and stored there in our subconscious mind (which is about 90% of our mind) filed away, and often controlling much of our present behavior. We may have repressed memories and repressed emotions stored in the subconscious mind (that we aren’t even aware of) that are manifesting as daily life struggles (anxiety, self-defeating beliefs & behaviors, difficulty connecting with others, trust issues, commitment issues, choosing bad relationships, eating disorders, addictions, etc.).

TTHH helps get to the root cause(s) of underlying destructive beliefs and behaviors and helps to eliminate them at the source. We work on re-programming (at the subconscious level) clients’ destructive beliefs and behaviors that no longer serve them, in order to promote healthier beliefs, behaviors, and life choices.

Release of repressed or “stuck” emotions and negative energy are a big part of TTHH. People often have years of repressed emotions and energy that is locked up in the mind and body, again, that they may not even be aware of. TTHH helps to eliminate and free this mass of negative energy within, so that clients may replace it with positive energy, love, and compassion (for themselves and others). 

Inner child healing is a also big part of Transpersonal &Trauma Healing Hypnotherapy. This is extremely beneficial for healing old wounds and re-aligning the inner child part of ourselves with the wise adult part of ourselves. This helps clients to consciously make better choices from the healthy adult part vs the wounded inner child part of themselves. Many people are running around with their wounded inner child (again, completely without their awareness) making decisions for them in life that are based solely out of fear, pain, guilt, shame, anger, uncertainty, etc.