What hypnosis feels like
Explore what hypnosis feels like, how attention shifts inward, and how hypnosis, hypnotherapy and RTT® differ.
What does hypnosis actually feel like?
For many people, hypnosis feels far more familiar and natural than they expect.
You are not asleep, unconscious or disconnected from what is happening around you. You can hear my voice, you can speak, think and make choices, and you remain aware throughout the experience.
You may already recognise similar moments in everyday life – becoming completely absorbed in a book or film, drifting into a light meditation, daydreaming, or driving a familiar route and suddenly realising that part of the journey seems to have passed almost automatically.
You were awake the whole time. Your attention had simply shifted.
Hypnosis works with this natural capacity for focused attention and inward absorption. As attention becomes less occupied with everything happening around you, it can become easier to notice thoughts, memories, emotions, images and associations that may not usually receive the same conscious attention.
You are still you. You are simply paying attention differently.
From active thinking to inward focus
A simple way to understand brain rhythms
Our brain is electrically active all the time. Different patterns of activity tend to become more prominent depending on whether we are actively thinking, resting, becoming drowsy or sleeping.
These brain rhythms do not operate like switches, and hypnosis cannot be reduced to one particular frequency. The Beta → Alpha → Theta illustration is simply a useful way to understand the gradual shift from active outward attention towards greater relaxation and inward focus.
The aim is not to make you fall asleep. It is to create the conditions for focused inner attention while you remain aware.
Hypnosis, hypnotherapy and RTT® – what is the difference?
The terms are often used interchangeably, but they do not mean exactly the same thing.
Hypnosis
Hypnosis describes the state and process of focused attention. It is the way attention is directed inward and the mind becomes more receptive to therapeutic suggestion.
Hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy is the therapeutic use of hypnosis. Once a person is in this focused state, different therapeutic approaches can be used to work towards a particular goal.
Rapid Transformational Therapy®
Rapid Transformational Therapy® was created by British therapist and hypnotherapist Marisa Peer and shaped by more than three decades of experience working with clients. The approach brings together hypnosis with a structured exploration of the beliefs, meanings and patterns that may lie beneath a current difficulty, with the aim of understanding and reframing what is no longer helpful.
Ready to explore what may be possible for you?
Our first conversation gives us the space to talk about what brings you here, what you would like to change and whether this approach feels right for you.