‘My mask was wet with tears’: how hypnotherapy can tap the mind’s healing qualities to help deal with trauma, anxiety, stress, PTSD, even childbirth

Hypnotherapy can help a person deal with things such as stress or anxiety, and to excel at a skill such as playing tennis or public speaking

Reporter Ashlyn Chak tried it out and found herself being mentally led down a spiral staircase deeper into her subconscious, with hidden objects as clues

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Hypnotherapy helps people experience change at a deep unconscious level, a part of the mind which holds all our memories and experiences. It has been embraced more widely since the Covid-19 pandemic began, accepted as a tool to relieve things like anxiety and stress. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 7:15am, 27 Apr 2023Updated: 7:24am, 27 Apr 2023

The Covid-19 pandemic ushered in three challenging years of quarantines, closed borders and social distancing restrictions. Now there is a refocused priority on mental health.

With people around the world sporadically stuck at home for lengthy periods, there were limited opportunities to travel. That left many with time to look inward and confront themselves – and to seek counselling.

Psychotherapy has become less taboo than before. And one of the more curious methods is clinical hypnotherapy.

“There was a time when people would think about weight loss or quitting smoking as the two main applications of hypnosis,” says Christine Deschemin, a certified hypnotherapist and founder of the Hong Kong Hypnotherapy Association.

Hypnotherapy helps people experience change at a deep unconscious level, says Christine Deschemin, a certified hypnotherapist based in Hong Kong. Photo: Christine Deschemin

This perception has changed as a result of the Covid pandemic.

Studies have helped to advance the popularity of medical hypnotherapy, as more people have become aware of the influence of the subconscious mind on their behaviour.

‘My mask was wet with tears’: how hypnotherapy can tap the mind’s healing qualities to help deal with trauma, anxiety, stress, PTSD, even childbirth

Hypnotherapy can help a person deal with things such as stress or anxiety, and to excel at a skill such as playing tennis or public speaking Reporter Ashlyn Chak tried it out and found herself being mentally led down a spiral staircase deeper into her subconscious, with hidden objects as clues

Hypnotherapy can help a person deal with things such as stress or anxiety, and to excel at a skill such as playing tennis or public speaking

Reporter Ashlyn Chak tried it out and found herself being mentally led down a spiral staircase deeper into her subconscious, with hidden objects as clues