Hypnosis in a therapeutic context bears no relationship at all to the tomfoolery and mental disrespect often seen in movies or on the stage. People who volunteer for such shows are only interested in having some fun, and know in advance the sort of antics they will be involved in. If the stage hypnotist were to tell them to do something against their morals or would put them in danger they would simply be shocked out of trance, if they were in fact hypnotised, and would refuse to comply.
Unfortunately, in such situations, the stage hypnotist does not always vet his volunteers adequately, and occasionally people can be left quite traumatised by their experience, especially if they had problems to begin with. Being in the stage show, and sometimes only in the audience, only heightens their fears and feelings of lack of control.

One of the things about hypnosis that concerns many people is the perceived “ giving over of control “, and it can take some effort on the part of the hypnotherapist to reassure them that hypnosis is definitely not mind control, rather a cooperation between therapist and client. After all, if you are not willing to follow the instructions of the therapist, you won’t be hypnotised. Think about that for a moment. Surely if hypnotists could control anyones mind, the world would be a vastly different place, hypnotists would have anything they wanted at any time, controlled only by their own ethics and morals. Since that is obviously not the case, then equally obviously, hypnosis is not mind control. That being said, some people who have been rejected by stage hypnotists have the mistaken belief that they cannot be hypnotised. Anyone of normal intelligence who wishes to be hypnotised, can be hypnotised. Stage hypnotists are only looking for very suggestible people, not the 90 % of the rest of us that take a little time to induce.

When looking for a hypnotherapist, it is a very good idea to make sure the person you are going to see has the correct and relevant qualifications. It is not hard to learn how to induce a trance in a willing subject, however it is what comes after that is the most important part. There are many incidents where harm is done when an untrained and possibly irresponsible person starts fiddling with the delicate intricacies of the human psyche. To illustrate this, you wouldn’t allow an untrained and unqualified person whose only tool was a hammer to work on your expensive car, would you ? In the same way, it is essential to allow only a trained professional to work on something as complex as the human mind.

The first thing a hypnotherapist will do is to make sure that the client actually is a suitable candidate for hypnosis. With such conditions as schizophrenia or psychosis, or epilepsy, it is advisable to check with the persons treating doctor or psychiatrist before doing any work at all, and proceeding only with that persons permission. A trained hypnotherapist will deal with their clients issues in a compassionate, non judgemental way, helping people to better understand themselves and their place in the world, and restore their faith in their own capacities and abilities to make the decisions in life that are right for them; to help them gain the confidence that allows them to make the changes they wish to make safely and comfortably, to achieve that dream for themselves that they have in their mind’s eye.