When it comes to motivation in hypnotherapy, understanding the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation can be key to achieving lasting change. Recognising what drives a client helps therapists tailor their approach and increase the chances of success.
Intrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic motivation comes from within—it’s the inner drive shaped by a person’s values, goals, and worldview. When someone acts in alignment with these, they experience a deep sense of satisfaction and fulfilment.
For example, a client might begin exercising and discover that it gives them more energy and helps them connect better with friends and family. This creates a reinforcing loop—positive change in one area of life supports improvement in others that are personally meaningful.
Hypnotherapy can strengthen intrinsic motivation by helping clients reconnect with their core values, inner desires, and sense of purpose.
Therapists can support this by:
- Exploring core values: Helping clients uncover what truly matters to them and reinforcing these during sessions.
- Using direct suggestion: Where appropriate, suggestions can align with these values to encourage positive change.
- Visualisation and mental imagery: Encouraging clients to vividly imagine their ideal future selves, experiencing fulfilment, success, and purpose, deepens emotional engagement and boosts internal motivation.
- Reframing limiting beliefs: Blocks that once felt insurmountable can be viewed differently and transformed into tools for growth. Working with intrinsic motivation in this way can be profoundly empowering.
- Exploring the roots of harmful behaviours: By identifying how certain actions conflict with the client’s deeper values, these behaviours can be recognised as unhelpful and replaced with healthier alternatives.
By fostering self-efficacy, personal agency, and alignment with core values, hypnotherapy nurtures a sustainable internal motivation—one that persists even when external rewards are absent.
There’s also a broader benefit. Many clients find themselves trapped in a cycle of trying to change, receiving praise or short-term rewards, then relapsing and feeling discouraged. Reward-seeking behaviour is often unsatisfactory because it depends on others for validation. Over time, hypnosis can reduce the habitual need for external approval by strengthening intrinsic rewards—the sense that the goal is worthwhile in itself. This helps clients create lasting, authentic change.
Extrinsic Motivation
Extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, is driven by external rewards or pressures—such as recognition, money, approval, or the desire to avoid punishment. While it can be effective in the short term, especially for kick-starting new habits or meeting specific goals, it tends to be less sustainable once those rewards disappear.
Extrinsic motivation is not inherently negative. In fact, it can be a useful therapeutic tool, particularly for:
- Initiating behavioural change
- Achieving short-term or clearly defined goals
- Reinforcing early progress
For instance, some clients are motivated by external expectations: a partner’s request to lose weight, or a manager’s demand for greater assertiveness. If these goals do not align with the client’s own values, change can feel forced and difficult. However, when short-term objectives are needed, external motivators can be effective.
In these cases, therapists may help clients to:
- Build motivation and commitment through goal setting and planning
- Overcome obstacles such as fear of failure, procrastination, or low self-esteem
- Use positive visualisation and affirmations to boost confidence and belief in their ability to achieve change
- Reframe subconscious limiting beliefs that block progress, replacing them with empowering thoughts and imagery
Hypnotherapy is particularly effective for reducing anxiety, self-doubt, and emotional barriers that hinder external motivation. By clearing these obstacles, clients can move more confidently towards their goals.
Ethical Considerations
Because extrinsic motivation comes from external influences, it brings important ethical considerations for hypnotherapists. It’s essential that any use of external motivators respects the client’s autonomy and supports, rather than undermines, their personal freedom and well-being.
Therapists must ensure that:
- External motivators do not override free will: Clients should never feel pressured or manipulated into making changes that conflict with their true values or personal wishes.
- Informed consent is obtained: Clients should be made fully aware when external triggers or rewards are being used as part of therapy, along with their intended purpose.
- Dependency is avoided: Over-reliance on extrinsic rewards can create dependence and weaken intrinsic motivation. Therapists should therefore use external incentives carefully and always aim to strengthen the client’s internal drive alongside them.
- Manipulative dynamics are prevented: The therapeutic relationship must remain supportive and empowering, avoiding any suggestion of control or coercion.
Ultimately, the ethical goal of hypnotherapy should be to promote the client’s long-term well-being, self-determination, and personal growth—not merely short-term compliance or surface-level behavioural change. Techniques should therefore align external motivators with the client’s own values and long-term goals, ensuring that progress is both meaningful and sustainable.
Integrating Both Motivations
While extrinsic motivation can help initiate change, hypnotherapy ultimately aims to internalise these motivators—transforming external incentives into personal values and goals.
The most effective therapeutic approach blends both forms of motivation. External goals or rewards can help clients take the first steps, while the therapist gradually shifts the focus towards developing intrinsic motivation for lasting success.
By helping clients connect emotionally to their deeper “why”, external achievements gain genuine meaning and satisfaction. When external incentives—such as a workplace target or fitness milestone—are aligned with the client’s core values, hypnotherapy creates a strong sense of purpose that supports long-term, fulfilling change.
Get in Touch
I hope this has helped clarify these issues—and perhaps inspired curiosity for further exploration. If you’d like me to cover a particular topic or expand on any aspect, please feel free to get in contact.
Coming Next
In the next of the series, Motivation and Emotion, we’ll look at Emotional Regulation Techniques