Hypnotherapy

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I'm starting to develop an interest in hypnotherapy and am wondering if anyone has any experiences they wouldn't mind sharing.

I'm mindful of not delving into other's trauma, and am more interested in the process and general subjective experience. I'd be grateful to hear from you.

I went to someone who had great reviews and was supposedly an expert.
He was a Naturopath by training so he was covered on my benefits for free.

I wanted to just see how it worked.
My main goal was to try to remember childhood memories - good or bad.

I went two or three times but it was a waste of time.

He put me in headphones in a dark room, and spoke to me on the headphones.
He kept giving me visualization prompts or telling me to visualize certain things.
That was so I could relax.
Duh, if I could do that I wouldn't have been there.

I have aphantasia so I can't picture things, even when they're familiar.
I can't control my thoughts or stay on track in a linear fashion either.
I'd try to think about what he was saying but go off on a mind-tangent.
The tangents were unrelated to my focus.
Blame ADHD for that, I guess.

Anyway, I got nothing out of it except frustration.
In the end he said my subconscious was clamped shut like an iron gate.
People with ASD or trauma have a hard time letting down their guard.

Another issue is that I was hyperaware of every little noise.
I could hear him breathing or moving, on my headphones.
Then I focused on that.
Blame hyperacusis and the fact I'm hyperalert all the time.

I believe it works for most people, but it didn't work for me.
Same with EMDR - which gave me a stroke.

Was sent to a hypnotist.

Nothing like Isabella's experience. Nothing like in the movies either.

The lady hypnotist started off by saying "IRL its not like in the movies".

Fully lit room. She just talked to me. When I talked about memories she said "you look off to the left...that means that the past on your left side". It different for different folks .

I guess I went "under" at some point without knowing it. Got a trick to deal with the issue I went there for.

Trouble is I would forget about the trick and forget to use for a couple months. Then started to use it. It helped.

That sounds like EMDR. ^

It's cool that it worked for you, whatever it was.

I researched self hypnosis for a while. It is actually similar to autistic hyperfixation. I think it could be useful for some people but I lost interest.

yeah, like Isabella, I can't visualize a thing in my mind. Hypnosis does not work for me either self hypnosis or attempted by others. At least I am not likely to be subject to group hysteria

I don't remember, but I think so.
We did talk a lot pre-headphones.

He was really professional and knew his stuff.
I just wasn't in the right headspace for it, I guess.

He's not there anymore and I don't remember his name.
Otherwise I'd look him up and possibly try again.

I'm sure there are other methods too.

I'd like to try hypnotherapy.

When I was a teenager a hypnotist came to our school and entertained us by putting a bunch of grade 9 students into a trance and made them do silly things like act like they were taking a trip to Las Vegas, winning lots of money at the casinos, and then babysitting and playing with baby space aliens, and having to change their diapers. I don't know if hypnosis is real or not, but we all had a lot of fun and laughs.