{"id":20,"date":"2026-08-11T21:57:52","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T21:57:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.benjamingryner.com\/en\/?p=20"},"modified":"2026-08-11T21:57:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T21:57:52","slug":"do-you-need-to-find-the-root-cause-to-move-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.benjamingryner.com\/en\/do-you-need-to-find-the-root-cause-to-move-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Do You Need to Find the Exact Root Cause of a Problem to Move On?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Do you need to find the exact origin of a problem before you can move on? No. Understanding what contributed to a difficulty can be useful, and sometimes enlightening, but you do not need to find a specific scene, a first cause, or a forgotten memory before you can begin to change.<\/p>\n<p>In many situations, the most useful place to start is with what is happening today and the automatic patterns that keep the problem going. You may notice anxiety appearing without knowing when it started. You may avoid certain situations without being able to explain why, or have thought extensively about your history without changing your reactions.<\/p>\n<p>The question then becomes not so much \u201cWhere did this come from?\u201d as \u201cHow does this work today, and what can I do differently?\u201d Hypnosis gives us a practical way to work with the pattern as it operates now.<\/p>\n<h2>Understanding the origin is not always enough to change<\/h2>\n<p>We naturally look for a cause. When a fear, habit, or automatic reaction emerged after a difficult period, it makes sense to want to understand the connection. Making sense of your experience can bring relief, help you judge yourself less harshly, and show that a reaction may once have served a purpose.<\/p>\n<p>But an explanation does not always produce change. Knowing that a fear took hold after a painful experience is not necessarily enough to take the elevator, speak in public, or fall asleep without anticipating the worst. Likewise, knowing the supposed origin of your tendency to procrastinate does not necessarily keep you from putting off a task again.<\/p>\n<p>The problem has often become a rapid sequence: a situation triggers tension, that tension prompts a thought, feeling, or urge, and then a reaction brings immediate relief. With repetition, the entire sequence can unfold before you even have time to think.<\/p>\n<p>This is not evidence of weakness or a lack of willpower. It is an established automatic pattern that keeps firing even when it no longer fits your life. Change can begin by working directly with the sequence that keeps repeating.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"bg-article-note bg-article-note--key\" aria-label=\"Keep in mind\">\n<p><strong>Keep in mind<\/strong> Understanding the origin can help you make sense of a difficulty, but change also comes from working on the triggers, reactions, and associations that keep it going today.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<h2>What we can work on without pinpointing a specific memory<br \/>\n<\/h2>\n<p>In the session, I start with what you observe in daily life: the situations in which the problem appears, the sensations that accompany it, the automatic thoughts, the avoidance, and the consequences. This is often enough to define a specific goal. You do not have to tell your entire story or produce a complete interpretation of your past.\n<\/p>\n<p>For a fear, the work can focus on anticipation, the rising alarm response, and the ability to remain present in the situation. For rumination, it may involve loosening the connection between a thought and the feeling that you must follow it to the end. For self-confidence, the session aims to change patterns of self-criticism, hesitation, or withdrawal. You can also visit the page on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.benjamingryner.com\/en\/hypnosis-for-fears-and-phobias\/\">fears, phobias, and panic<\/a> when avoidance limits your daily life.<\/p>\n<p>With an automatic behavior, we look at what comes before it and what it provides in the short term. Snacking may accompany fatigue, frustration, or a need for a break. A cigarette may be associated with a transition, tension, or a social setting. For <a href=\"https:\/\/www.benjamingryner.com\/en\/quit-smoking-hypnosis\/\">smoking cessation<\/a>, the work focuses directly on the actions, cravings, and settings connected with smoking rather than searching for a single cause.<\/p>\n<p>This approach does not dismiss personal history. It simply avoids turning a complete investigation of the past into a prerequisite. The goal is to make a different response more accessible in the situations that are causing difficulty now.\n<\/p>\n<h2>Why hypnosis can be relevant<br \/>\n<\/h2>\n<p>Hypnosis can help you work with attention, images, sensations, and associations that shape a reaction. During a session, you can view a familiar situation differently and experience a less automatic response. You remain actively involved in the work: you do not need to produce a hidden memory to participate in the session.\n<\/p>\n<p>In my practice, I start with the current difficulty and the change you want. We identify what triggers the problem, how you respond to it, and what you wish you could do instead. Hypnotic work then aims to change your relationship with the situation: less alarm, more choice, more attention available, or a response that better fits the situation.\n<\/p>\n<p>This approach is particularly useful when you already understand your problem but find that understanding is not enough. You may know you should relax, speak up, start a task, or stop a behavior, but your body and attention keep moving in the same direction. Hypnosis can help you intervene at this automatic level without requiring a complete explanation first.\n<\/p>\n<section class=\"bg-article-video\" data-bg-video-id=\"wv-CW3Ly3Zs\" aria-labelledby=\"bg-article-video-wv-cw3ly3zs\">\n<p class=\"bg-article-video__eyebrow\">Related video\n<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"bg-article-video-wv-cw3ly3zs\">Your brain doesn&#8217;t want you to be happy<br \/>\n<\/h2>\n<p class=\"bg-article-video__intro\">This video explains why certain patterns can repeat themselves, even when you know they are hurting you.\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"bg-article-video__media\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=wv-CW3Ly3Zs\" data-bg-article-video-play data-video-id=\"wv-CW3Ly3Zs\" data-video-title=\"Your brain doesn&apos;t want you to be happy\" aria-label=\"Play the video: Your brain doesn&apos;t want you to be happy\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/wv-CW3Ly3Zs\/maxresdefault.jpg\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"\"><span class=\"bg-article-video__play\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\u25b6<\/span><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"bg-article-video__youtube\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=wv-CW3Ly3Zs\">Watch this video on YouTube<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p>Psychotherapy research has also examined how people explore and make sense of their experience during sessions. A meta-analysis found a small to moderate association between the depth of this process and treatment outcomes [1]. This does not show that an exact origin must be found or that hypnosis alone produces a result. It supports a more specific idea: the way you explore and transform your experience during therapy can matter.\n<\/p>\n<h2>The past can shed light without becoming an obligation<br \/>\n<\/h2>\n<p>There are situations in which revisiting personal history makes sense. A breakup, a significant relationship, a recurring family pattern, or a difficult event can help explain how a reaction developed. If looking back brings new understanding and connects the past with the present, it can be part of the work.\n<\/p>\n<p>The difficulty begins when finding the cause becomes a prerequisite for any improvement. You may wait until you can return to \u201cthe real moment\u201d before allowing yourself to move forward. You may wonder whether you have forgotten something or whether your problem is less legitimate because you cannot explain it. That expectation can pull your attention away from the present situation you want to change.<\/p>\n<p>A memory alone does not always establish the origin of a difficulty. This is why I do not try to uncover a specific event at all costs. A session should help you live and act more freely, not build a definitive explanation from uncertain elements.\n<\/p>\n<h2>Start with how the pattern works today<br \/>\n<\/h2>\n<p>A simple way to move forward is to describe a recent sequence. What happened just before the reaction? What did you feel in your body? What thought or image arose? What did you do next? What did this response allow you to avoid or achieve, even temporarily?\n<\/p>\n<p>These questions help identify points at which change is possible. Someone who wakes during the night may notice the connection between waking up, fearing they will not fall back asleep, checking the time, and experiencing racing thoughts. Someone who repeatedly puts off a task can look at the moment discomfort arises and what they do instead.\n<\/p>\n<p>For <a href=\"https:\/\/www.benjamingryner.com\/en\/hypnosis-for-stress\/\">stress and mental load<\/a>, this observation helps distinguish an alert tied to a specific situation from an ongoing state of tension in daily life. The same principle can be applied to a fear, a habit, difficulty sleeping, or a work-related block.\n<\/p>\n<p>From there, the session can focus on a specific step: staying with a sensation without escaping it, starting despite discomfort, letting a thought pass, or regaining some choice when an urge appears.\n<\/p>\n<ol class=\"bg-article-steps\">\n<li>Define the current difficulty and the change you want in an identifiable situation.\n<\/li>\n<li>Identify the triggers, automatic reactions, and immediate relief that keep the problem going.\n<\/li>\n<li>Experience a different response during the session, with attention paid to new sensations and possibilities.\n<\/li>\n<li>Observe what changes in daily life, then adjust the work if necessary.\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>How many sessions should you expect?<\/h2>\n<p>In my practice, one session is often enough to do meaningful work on many focused concerns when the issue is clearly defined and we can address the automatic response directly. Two or three sessions may sometimes be useful depending on your situation, the difficulty, and the number of issues involved.<\/p>\n<p>This framework does not depend on discovering a single cause. A session can address the association between a situation and a reaction, urges that arise automatically, or a habitual way of anticipating what will happen. The number of sessions provides a practical framework, not a guarantee or a universal rule.<\/p>\n<h2>An important limitation<\/h2>\n<p>Finding the exact origin is therefore not a requirement for trying hypnosis. However, certain situations require appropriate medical or psychological support, particularly when distress is intense, significant trauma is involved, or symptoms require assessment. Hypnosis can then be part of a care plan without replacing the recommended follow-up.<\/p>\n<p>A more useful question is often, \u201cWhat is this difficulty preventing me from doing today, and how would I like to respond instead?\u201d That gives the work a clear direction and helps determine whether the goal is specific enough to work on.<\/p>\n<h2>Moving forward without explaining everything<\/h2>\n<p>You don&#8217;t need to know the exact cause of a problem to start freeing yourself from it. Understanding your history can support change, but the work also addresses the learned reactions, associations, and habits that are active now.<\/p>\n<p>This is where hypnosis can be useful: it can help you experience another way of responding in situations that limit you, without waiting to reconstruct your entire story. If you want to move forward with a specific difficulty, we can begin with what you notice today, define the change you want, and explore the work that may help\u2014without requiring a recovered memory or a perfect explanation first.<\/p>\n<h2>References<\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/26961204\/\">The client &#8220;experiencing&#8221; scale as a predictor of treatment outcomes: A meta-analysis on psychotherapy process.<\/a> Psychotherapy Research: Journal of the Society for Psychotherapy Research (2017). PubMed PMID 26961204<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do you need to find the exact origin of a problem before you can move on? No. Understanding what contributed to a difficulty can be useful, sometimes enlightening, but it is not\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bg_seo_title":"Do You Need to Find the Root Cause to Change?","_bg_meta_description":"Do you have to uncover the exact root cause of a problem before you can change it? A practical look at cause, meaning and present-day patterns.","_bg_card_excerpt":"Change does not always require identifying one perfect explanation for the past.","_bg_article_theme":"Root causes and present-day change","_bg_journey_target":"about","_bg_cta_label":"Learn about my approach to change","_bg_social_image_id":0,"_bg_related_pages":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benjamingryner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benjamingryner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benjamingryner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benjamingryner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benjamingryner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.benjamingryner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94,"href":"https:\/\/www.benjamingryner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions\/94"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benjamingryner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benjamingryner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benjamingryner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benjamingryner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}