Hypnosis for Behaviour Change

Understanding our habits and automatic gestures

Why willpower is not enough

An established habit does not play out in the part of the brain that decides.
It runs in a loop, and that loop has three steps:

• A trigger, often invisible to the person themselves: tension, boredom, concentration, a place, a time, a specific emotion.
• A behaviour: the gesture, which starts before you have even noticed it.
• Relief, brief, real, and it is this that explains everything: the gesture soothes something. That is why it comes back.

Two practical consequences follow.
First, reasoning with yourself does not work, or not for long: the decision is made in one register, the automatism plays out in another. That is exactly the gap hypnosis works on.
Second, removing a behaviour without putting anything in its place rarely works. If the gesture was soothing a tension, removing the gesture leaves the tension whole and the behaviour comes back, or shifts onto something else. Serious work does not simply forbid: it gives that tension something else to do.

First, know what you are dealing with

This is the most important part of this page, because these behaviours look very similar on the surface and call for entirely different responses.

• A habit. A repetitive, irritating gesture, sometimes twenty years old, but one that does not take over your life: you bite your nails in meetings, twirl a strand of hair while reading, chew the inside of your cheeks. You would like to stop, without it stopping you living. This is hypnosis's legitimate territory.
• A diagnosable disorder. The behaviour takes up time, comes with significant distress, leaves physical marks, persists despite repeated attempts to stop, or makes you avoid situations. That is something else, and it calls for an assessment by a doctor or a psychologist. Hypnosis can have a place there, as a complement, never alone.
• A dependency. When a substance is involved, alcohol in particular, the body has adapted to its presence, and stopping becomes a medical matter. This situation should never be improvised, for reasons we detail further down.

A serious practitioner will do this sorting-out with you from the first meeting, and will refer you on without hesitation if your situation calls for something else.

When another professional should see you first

Four situations call for a referral, and we prefer to name them precisely.

Trichotillomania and dermatillomania

When pulling out hair, eyelashes or eyebrows, or picking at the skin, leaves bald patches, lesions or scars, this is no longer a habit: these are diagnosable disorders with a specific form of care, notably habit-reversal techniques, validated and taught by trained professionals.

These situations call for a doctor or psychologist first.
Hypnosis can come in as a complement, on the tension, anticipation and guilt that often go with these behaviours, but it is not the main treatment, and we will refer you.

Tics and Tourette syndrome

Essential point: tics have a neurological origin. They are not bad habits, and they are not a matter of willpower.

There is one thing that should never be done, and yet it often is, with the best of intentions: asking someone, a child especially, to "hold it in" or "make an effort". It is ineffective, it increases the tension, and it adds shame to a symptom the person is not responsible for.

These situations call for a neurologist or a paediatrician.
What hypnosis can support, alongside proper follow-up: the stress that often worsens tics, how the person experiences others' looks, and self-esteem. Never the tic itself, as if it were a habit to correct.

OCD: a confusion worth clearing up

Many people say "I'm a bit OCD" to describe a quirk. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is something else, and the distinction matters.

OCD combines obsessions (intrusive, distressing thoughts you cannot get rid of) and compulsions (acts or rituals carried out to bring that anxiety down). Three elements define it: the distress is significant, the rituals take up time (often more than an hour a day), and life becomes organised around them.

The reference treatment for OCD is not hypnosis.
It is a specific form of cognitive behavioural therapy — exposure with response prevention —, sometimes combined with medication. This care is effective, and it is delivered by trained professionals.

Alcohol: the most serious situation

Here, we need to be especially clear, because information that is misunderstood can be dangerous.

Let's distinguish two situations in alcohol use:

• Risky use, without an established dependency: you drink more than you would like, especially in certain settings, but without physical withdrawal symptoms. Hypnosis can usefully help here to spot triggers, defuse the automatic evening drink, reduce the tension alcohol was soothing, and hold a decision over time. Even in this case, checking in with your doctor is a good idea.
• A dependency: the body demands it, stopping brings on physical symptoms, previous attempts have failed. This is a medical pathway, with a family doctor or an addiction specialist, and often multidisciplinary support.

Hypnosis can find a place there, on cravings, stress, sleep, relapse prevention, but as a complement to proper care, never in its place, and never as a starting point.
No serious practitioner will offer to stop your drinking "in a few sessions". If someone offers you that, find another practitioner.

Our page on alcohol covers all of this: what hypnosis can and cannot do, the official low-risk drinking guidelines, and helplines in Quebec and in France.