If you think hypnotherapy is like 'stage hypnosis' you're wrong. That's for side-show alleys and advertisers who can manipulate and have you believing that you'll be an overnight sensation by wearing the 'latest' look that a 12-year-old model in a size 4 outfit on a fashion shoot has donned.

The truth is that most people walk around in a permanent trance each day. They act as if on remote control - and in a sense, they are - because they've been programmed to think and behave the way that advertising and cultural value-systems have 'programmed' them to.

The style of clothing we wear is influenced or 'suggested' to us as fashionable through subtle (and not so subtle imagery), which means that if you wear a certain style you'll look and feel ... [younger, smarter, more attractive, more successful, richer etc ...] - in other words insert the word you want to experience and the advertising campaign will meet that need.

The car we drive says a lot about us - whether it's expensive and rare or run-of-the-mill and rusty. We are programmed to eat at certain times of the day, sleep in a designated room, travel through hideous traffic to get to work each day, eat at certain restaurants/coffee shops, order certain foods (how did 'pulled pork' become fashionable!!!) and at the same time kid ourselves that we're 'an individual'.

The problem is that while we aim for this 'authentic state', we're following the flock and running a race we'll never win. It's designed this way to keep the economy brimming with your dollars buying things you never knew you wanted until some marketing guru dreamed up a 'how-to-look-sexy-in-this campaign'. 

Unfortunately, we only discover this when deep dissatisfaction around the life choices we've made, usually manifesting over decades, finally hits home.

Hypnotherapy's work is first in "Awakening The Person Within" to let them know that there are choices and that they don't need to continue deadening themselves with alcohol, cigarettes and food just to cope.

While advertising and marketing keeps leading us by the nose, we'll continue buying a message that is anything but helpful.

Life is about choices. Imagine making a choice that puts you in control of your mind.