From time to time as a hypnotherapist, I get flippant remarks thrown at me such as 'can you hypnotise me and make me look like Nicole Kidman!' Although said in jest, it is surprising how sceptical and uninformed people are about the potential as well as the limitations of hypnotherapy. Certainly, hypnotherapy can help one look good, it can help us make the most of ourselves. It can work seeming miracles, but it cannot go against the laws of nature. So obviously hypnotherapy won't enable us to escape the laws of gravity, jump out of a window without doing ourselves damage, but it will help us to be less fearful of flying in an aeroplane. If that happens to be an issue for us.

True, I have seen some extraordinary results with clients. Panic attacks under control, weight loss, confidence boosted etc but I also know that as a hypnotherapist I am powerless if my client does not truly want to change. Contrary to Hollywood propaganda, there is no way someone can be made to do something, through hypnosis, UNLESS they want to.

Providing the client really wants to change, then hypnotherapy is the best way I know, to create change and make it easy to achieve. The truth is that our greatest power lies in the unconscious. This would explain why someone will say one thing but do something else.

So our smoker friend for example, may say that he knows he must stop smoking, he knows that he is damaging his health, he even feels his breathing is being restricted, BUT he simply won't do anything about it. This is a classic example of the unconscious, not participating with him. Somehow the unconscious has been previously programmed by him, to feel that smoking is hip and trendy, or offers camaraderie or countless other reasons to rationalise the habit. This programming was not done consciously, but it was done at some point, for sure. If he is going to become a non-smoker, then he will have to engage his unconscious. Interestingly, the verb KNOW is used a lot these days. When you hear people say they 'know' something, often they are implying an intellectual knowing. It could be argued that real knowing can only take place when we have the unconscious mind on our side.

Remember when you were learning to drive a car or ride a bicycle? How much effort it took in the beginning. Knowing when to change gear, coordinating clutch control and gear change... It took real concentration. Later, once you have learnt how to drive, the skill is taken up by your unconscious and you drive effortlessly, you no longer have to ponderously concentrate on the mechanics. This is where the hypnotherapist can help. He acts as a kind of go between. An envoy between our conscious self and the unconscious. The hypnotherapist will talk to you about your goals, wishes and desires as well as take a brief history of the presenting conditions. Then he will use his skill to establish contact with your unconscious and reprogramme it. Sometimes it may be necessary to go to the source of the problem, this may be some time in the past in childhood. The client may not be aware of the source of the problem, but his unconscious will.

The unconscious stores all of our experiences. The hypnotherapist is able to engage in conversation with the unconscious (obviously with the permission of the client), and once this has taken place, past experiences can be reframed from a different, more resourceful state. So you could well use hypnosis to find your inner beauty, to tone your body and be more attractive, hypnosis, can make you a more attractive person, but unique and not a copy of a film star.