Hypnosis is often defined as “an altered state of mind where a person is said to be highly suggestible.”
Let’s break that down a bit. The altered state of mind is something other than being full conscious and alert. But neither is it sleep. If we were measuring brain activity with an EEG, it would fall in the vast gap between between consciousness and sleep.
If we think of the brain as a computer, then think of “suggestibility” as the ability to update the operating program of that computer.
The role of the hypnotherapist is help a person enter this altered state of mind and then provide the suggestions (the new data) which the individual’s mind will then use to make changes to his or his “programming.”