Artistic endeavors and writing are included with the performance categories, even though they seem less public than other activities discussed here. However, these people who work with the creative arts experience many of the same general behavioral hindrances that performers face. Hypnotherapy provides the tools to unleash new depths of creativity, motivate new actions (overcoming writer’s block, for example), and generate new, bold creativity.
As with all performance activities, the work of the artist and the writer are for public consumption. Both know that their work is going to be judged by the public. Challenges with self-doubt, embarrassment, prior bad experiences (the art pieces that did not sell, the “can’t miss” best seller that didn’t sell) can all stem the creative juices and stymie the motivation to plug away. As life and all of its distractions hit, an artist or a writer may lose focus, leaving large gaps in the work at hand. How is one to push through, remain creative, and overcome the negative feelings? Hypnotherapy can provide the answer, and, for the creative sort, offer unique and truly appropriate remedies.
It has been estimated that we use about twelve percent of our brains for thinking, our alert, working brains, that is. However, stored in the other eighty-eight percent of the brain are fully operating and accessible, through hypnosis, emotions, feelings, and memories, full of creative and brilliant ideas. Artists and writers have known for years that new worlds of creativity are within their own minds. How to access those worlds and free them for use has been the issue. As hypnosis has become more understood, many artists and writers have used it as the key first step to accessing the deep creativity of their minds.
As a hypnotherapist, my first goal is to get to know the client. What is his or her history as an artist or as a writer? What works have they produced and what successes and failures have they experienced? What motivates them? What is hindering their passions now? What are their sources of inspiration?
After looking to the past and to the present, we now want to turn to the future. What are the goals that the artist or the writer wants to achieve? What are the hopes and aspirations? What fears accompany these desires? During all of these discussions, I want to get a sense of the client’s confidence, motivation, persistence, and love of the craft. With this information, we now have the tools to make the necessary behavioral changes that will result in creative and confident progress. Together with the client, the hypnotherapist can develop the plan for the sessions, using hypnosis to allow the client’s own Middle Mind to achieve the desired changes and to free the creative juices while providing encouragement and motivation to attack the work. The therapist will provide the tools for the client to work on post-session exercises in order to continue the progress begun in the sessions. Depending upon the circumstances, these post-session exercises may include reviewing session recordings and practicing self-hypnosis to be used in connection with the overall plan of success.