Forget stage hypnosis: those characters you see on TV and on social media that cause people to faint or say things that ridicule them.
Why Before explaining what hypnosis is, we need to explain what it is not. Doctor Charlie Fantechi (@drfantechi), with thirty years of experience in the sector, is the point of reference in Italy for scientific hypnosis, practiced with the utmost balance and respect for the patient.
Doctor in clinical and community psychology, specialized in Hypnosis at the Ericksonian School (recognized by the Ministry of University and Research), several books under his belt, including two coming out very soon, a master’s degree at the SDA Bocconi Business School. Consultant to entrepreneurs and great athletes, his philosophy sees hypnosis as a tool to give an empowering message, a positive suggestion.
A much more respectful approach to hypnosis, the one studied with Milton Erickson, which aligns the figure of the therapist with that of the patient, without ever overriding him.
Doctor Fantechi, let’s start by explaining WHAT hypnosis IS NOT
“I believe that there is a fundamental difficulty with hypnosis in Italy. What we see in videos or on TV has somewhat distorted the idea of a tool that is very precious. It has been used over the years by some characters in a theatrical way, to create entertainment, instead not using its true potential, which is to transform people, providing corrective and fortifying emotional experiences. What I have been trying to do for a few years is to try to convey another type of experience of hypnosis.”
How does hypnosis work on a physiological level?
“This state corresponds to a variation within our brain, because the detectable waves seem to slow down.
In the theta waves, which are those of hypnosis, I can acquire profound learning. These waves are prevalent in all of us in the childhood phase, from five to ten years old, and this is one of the reasons why the brain, at that moment of life, acquires something that is not simply information, but underlying beliefs, values that are learned in the family or at school, and in some way, that wave is a programming with which the mind acquires fundamental information.”
And once adults?
“Once adults, we are trained to stay in the execution phase, so our brain downloads with very fast waves throughout the day. The slower wave is not rewarded, because work rewards us if we perform, if we are awake. This also weanes us from that part of slowing down that allows us to make new learning. So what is hypnosis? It’s as if it were an exercise in staying, in moving on from that wave. The hypnotist’s task, when using hypnosis in the correct way, is to keep the person balanced on that wave in that specific passage and to insert suggestions which can be empowering beliefs, such as the transformation of behavior. That is a state in which the person is not fully aware of what is arriving at his system, but implements the consequences of this insertion of the suggestion at a later stage.”
His hypnosis practices are also about increasing self-esteem and reducing anxiety.
“These are some topics that I have been touching on especially in recent years with entrepreneurs and professional athletes.”
Obviously without naming names, can you tell us something about these experiences?
“What is often the problem? That the person, entrepreneur, athlete, but it applies to everyone, received his mental software when he was seven-eight years old. That mental software, that is, all those beliefs ranging from the banal not to talk to strangers, to the most profound beliefs about friendship rather than about money, we program it at a different age than the current one. It is as if instead of facilitating, it counteracts in some way. This applies for example to bullying suffered. The subsequent effort required to reprogram the software is enormous compared to the ease with which is programmed when we are children. The difficulty is to overcome that initial programming, because somewhere in one’s head there is always the idea of having a flaw, of being uncomfortable, of being wrong, and it is something that no matter how much one can work on it from a cognitive point of view, trying to convince oneself, it is never enough, and if it is enough it takes an immeasurable amount of time compared to how long it took for this thing to settle in your head.”
So what does hypnosis do?
“Hypnosis is as if it restores those brain waves that I had as a child or teenager, it is as if it makes you go back in time and allows that person to experience his childhood, his adolescence or some important passages, modifying them as if we were going to reassure him, modifying the vision of his personal history.”
But will the person remember their experience in the correct way, will they remember for example being bullied or having suffered violence, or will they actually remove a piece of their life?
“There is also various literature on this. Milton Erickson, perhaps for the first time in the history of hypnosis, intervened on a girl’s difficulties with depression, sowing her memory with positive suggestions, ensuring that the girl did not remember having lived through certain traumatic experiences, thus eliminating the depression.”
This could help people who have suffered really serious traumas, such as violence
“This experience is a bit borderline because the person wasn’t fully aware of it, and it can rightly make people turn up their noses. It’s not the hypnosis that I practice.
But if you think about what can be done with a part of awareness, where the person maintains their narrative coherence with respect to their experience, but empties it of the negative emotions linked to the violent event, it can be a very valid contribution to personal strengthening and the processing of a trauma. The violent event is emptied of emotional tension, anguish and sometimes feelings of guilt, to allow the person to live in balance in their daily life. Those negative imprintings that our unconscious still fuels are eliminated. Hypnosis and self-hypnosis allow you to re-access the theta state and finally update that software.
And if we talk about athletes, they are made to perform better.”
He also suggests self-hypnosis and holds courses on it
“I recommend dedicating some time to understanding what this tool could do in people’s lives. In cases where there is a serious or dangerous situation, turning to professionals is absolutely a must. But when we are faced with situations that we can define as lighter, such as personal empowerment, to reduce anxiety in certain contexts or reduce some fears, to feel better and resolve some daily issues such as sleep for example, the person who learns the basics is able to immediately apply a transformation. These courses, and in any case self-hypnosis in general, helps us explore our inner world, creating a healthier and more functional approach to daily challenges.”
In summary, no Are there any contraindications to hypnosis?
“The only contraindication… is the hypnotist, in case he is not a good professional! There is no contraindication in itself, the important thing is to do it with a person who actually wants your positive transformation, and has the most solid skills to accompany you on a path of strengthening.”
