About Hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy is the application of hypnosis as a form of treatment, usually for relieving pain or conditions related to one's state of mind. Practitioners believe that when a client enters, or believes he has entered, a state of trance, the patient is more receptive to suggestion and other therapy. The most common use of hypnotherapy is to remedy maladies like obesity, smoking, pain, ego, anxiety, stress, amnesia, phobias, and performance but many others can also be treated by hypnosis, including functional disorders like Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

History

The roots of medicine by therapy lie in ancient societies even earlier than the Ancient Egyptians and Ancient Indians. Religious rituals were characterized by dancing, music, and masked peoples assuming new identities.  In the nineteenth century, healers like Abbe Faria and practitioners like Franz Anton Mesmer, James Braid, James Esdale, John Elliotson, Ambroise-Auguste Liébault, Emile Coue, and Jean-Martin Charcot met resistance from society and the medical community for their novel ideas on using hypnosis to treat illness.  Sigmund Freud tried using hypnosis for psychological treatment in the late 1930s but he was not successful in treating any ailment with it and gave up on it in favor of his newly developed free association technique.  In the 1940s Andrew Salter introduced conditioned reflex therapy. He thus gave a rebirth to hypnotherapy.  Milton H. Erickson was one of the most successful modern hypnotherapists. He wrote many books, journals, and articles, on the subject and is a defining figure of modern hypnotherapy. As a professional doctor of medicine (MD) he treated many patients successfully using hypnotic techniques and did his very best to document his achievements.

Techniques

• Age Regression - by returning to an earlier ego-state the patient can regain qualities they once had, but have lost. Remembering an earlier, healthier, ego-state can increase the patients strength and confidence.



• Revivification - remembering past experiences can contribute to therapy. For example; the hypnotist may ask "have you ever been in trance?" and then find it easier to revive the previous experience than attempt inducing a new state.



• Guided Imagery - a method by which the subject is given a new relaxing and beneficial experience.



• Confusion - a method developed by Milton Erickson in which the subject becomes receptive to ideas because confused.



• Repetition - the more an idea is repeated the more likely it is to be accepted and acted upon by the patient.



• Direct Suggestion - suggesting directly. "You feel safe and secure".     



• Indirect Suggestion - using "interspersal" technique and other means to cause effect.     



• Mental State - people are more receptive while relaxed, sleeping, or in a trance.     



• Hypnoanalysis - the client recalls moments from his past, confronting them and releasing associated emotions, similar to psychoanalysis.     



• Post Hypnotic Suggestion - a suggestion that will be carried out after the trance has ended. "When you re-awaken you will feel refreshed."     



• Binds or Double binds - tension on a bind causes trance. This is like "the centipede who when asked which comes first, the left foot or the right, lost his concentration, stumbled, then rolled into the ditch". Binds are very common in hypnosis and it is essential to know the capacity of the subject and to ensure they will concentrate on the leg that will carry them through their journey. The duty of the hypnotist is to concentrate the subject on their desired goal.     



• Visualization - being told to imagine or visualize a desired outcome seems to make it more likely to actually occur.     



• Techniques specific to medical disorders, such as gut-directed hypnotherapy protocols for Irritable Bowel Syndrome (Van Vorous, 2001)