by Katina Gleeson (Focus Hypnotherapy)
Without exception everyone I have worked with is smart. They know that the habit they have come to see me about, for instance smoking, overeating, drinking excessively, feeling anxious, fear of public speaking to name just a few, are depriving them of enjoyment in life. They also know there is something else they would prefer to be experiencing and yet struggle to make this change.
Very often part of the cause of this frustration between what a person is currently experiencing and what they would prefer to be 
experiencing is unhelpful beliefs. We can call these beliefs many things such as erroneous, limiting, false or destructive. Many of these beliefs start with “I can’t …” or “I am …”
Each of us has core beliefs and to a great extent they define us. They influence who we think we are and what we believe we are capable and not capable of doing. These beliefs may be helpful and support us to achieve what we want to achieve, for instance a belief that “I’m good enough”, “people respect me”, “I can trust myself”. Or beliefs may hold us back, for instance “I’m not good enough”, “I can’t stop …”, “I don’t have motivation”.
Many of the limiting beliefs are learnt in childhood and are held at the unconscious level. Like all beliefs whether limiting or helpful, they influence us very powerfully in relation to how we feel, what we do and the decisions we make.
A widely practiced form of therapy, cognitive behaviour therapy, uses the conscious mind to replace limiting beliefs with helpful beliefs. The focus being on training the conscious mind to learn the right way to think and/or feel and/or behave. A person might identify that they have the limiting belief “I’m not good enough” and they will be asked to challenge and replace that belief with a helpful belief such as “I am good enough” whenever they are aware of the limiting belief influencing them in some way. I have found this approach unnecessarily difficult and prolonged having the responsibility for change on the quite limited conscious mind.
As a hypnotherapist I believe a much more effective approach to changing our limiting beliefs is using the unconscious mind. Our beliefs play out at an unconscious level and the most effective way for changing unconscious patterns and beliefs is to work at the unconscious level.
If you want to know more please contact me on 0415480804 or katina@focushypnotherapy.com.au
Katina Gleeson is a hypnotherapist, social worker & counsellor who is passionate about working with people to achieve their best personally & professionally.