Having a basic understanding of the conscious mind and subconscious mind is important to appreciate how hypnotherapy works.

The conscious mind is active during the day, thinking, making decisions, finding solutions, analysing, judging etc. It’s what most of us identify with when we say “I”.

The subconscious mind on the other hand is where your feelings, emotions and memories live and where perceptions arise and beliefs are formed. It is also the part that is responsible for the involuntary bodily functions like heartbeat, body temperature and the release of hormones. The subconscious mind takes in a huge amount of information at any given time; much more than the conscious mind is capable of. So, surprisingly for some, it is a much bigger part of you than the conscious mind!

The subconscious mind is constantly working for balance, looking after your health and well-being. However, once stored in your subconscious mind every thing is uncritically accepted and maintained because the subconscious mind strives for balance and doesn’t evaluate what it stores.

When conscious and sub-conscious mind work together harmoniously within it creates an ideal state of health and balance. When there is conflict, however, we can experience a whole array of symptoms and may develop debilitating conditions. We then struggle to cope with something within us that seems beyond our control. This does apply to habits as well as any other psychological problem.