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[center]Hypnotherapy[/center]

[goto=two]What is Hypnosis[/goto]
[goto=three]Definition of hypnotherapy[/goto]
[goto=four]How does it work?[/goto]
[goto=five]What form might the treatment take?[/goto]
[goto=six]What problems can be treated by hypnotherapy?[/goto]
[goto=seven]The History of Hypnosis[/goto]
[goto=eight]Hypnotic pioneers[/goto]
[goto=nine]Useful Links[/goto]

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What is hypnosis?
Within science, there is no debate as to whether hypnosis exists or works. Science simply cannot agree on what it is and how it works, although as The British Society of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis states:
"In therapy, hypnosis usually involves the person experiencing a sense of deep relaxation with their attention narrowed down, and focused on appropriate suggestions made by the therapist."
These suggestions help people make positive changes within themselves. Long gone are the days when hypnosis was seen as waving watches and controlling people's minds. In a hypnotherapy session you are always in control and you are not made to do anything. It is generally accepted that all hypnosis is ultimately self-hypnosis. A hypnotist merely helps to facilitate your experience - hypnotherapy is not about being made to do things, in fact it is the opposite, it is about empowerment. If someone tells you they can hypnotise you to do something, ask them to hypnotise you to rob a bank, and when they can't, ask them to stop making ridiculous claims.
The following four extracts from Dr Hilary Jones' book, "Doctor, What's the Alternative?", provide an accurate and accessible wonderful description of what hypnotherapy is, how it works and how hypnotherapy can help you change and grow.

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Definition of hypnotherapy
Contrary to popular belief, hypnosis is not a state of deep sleep. It does involve the induction of a trance-like condition, but when in it, the patient is actually in an enhanced state of awareness, concentrating entirely on the hypnotist's voice. In this state, the conscious mind is suppressed and the subconscious mind is revealed.
The therapist is able to suggest ideas, concepts and lifestyle adaptations to the patient, the seeds of which become firmly planted.
The practice of promoting healing or positive development in any way is known as hypnotherapy. As such, hypnotherapy is a kind of psychotherapy. Hypnotherapy aims to re-programme patterns of behaviour within the mind, enabling irrational fears, phobias, negative thoughts and suppressed emotions to be overcome. As the body is released from conscious control during the relaxed trance-like state of hypnosis, breathing becomes slower and deeper, the pulse rate drops and the metabolic rate falls. Similar changes along nervous pathways and hormonal channels enable the sensation of pain to become less acute, and the awareness of unpleasant symptoms, such as nausea or indigestion, to be alleviated.

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How does it work?
Hypnosis is thought to work by altering our state of consciousness in such a way that the analytical left-hand side of the brain is turned off, while the non-analytical right-hand side is made more alert. The conscious control of the mind is inhibited, and the subconscious mind awoken. Since the subconscious mind is a deeper-seated, more instinctive force than the conscious mind, this is the part which has to change for the patient's behaviour and physical state to alter.
For example, a patient who consciously wants to overcome their fear of spiders may try everything they consciously can to do it, but will still fail as long as their subconscious mind retains this terror and prevents the patient from succeeding. Progress can only be made be reprogramming the subconscious so that deep-seated instincts and beliefs are abolished or altered.

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What form might the treatment take?
Firstly, any misconceptions a potential patient may have about hypnosis should be dispelled. The technique does not involve the patient being put into a deep sleep, and the patient cannot be made to do anything they would not ordinarily do. They remain fully aware of their surroundings and situation, and are not vulnerable to every given command of the therapist. The important thing is that the patient wants to change some behavioural habit or addiction and is highly motivated to do so. They have to want the treatment to work and must establish a good clinical rapport with the therapist in order for it to do so……
The readiness and ability of patients to be hypnotised varies considerably and hypnotherapy generally requires several sessions in order to achieve meaningful results. However the patient can learn the technique of self-hypnosis which can be practiced at home, to reinforce the usefulness of formal sessions with the therapist. This can help counter distress and anxiety-related conditions.

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What problems can be treated by hypnotherapy?
Hypnotherapy can be applied to many psychological, emotional and physical disorders. It is used to relieve pain in surgery and dentistry and has proved to be of benefit in obstetrics. It can shorten the delivery stage of labour and reduce the need for painkillers. It can ease the suffering of the disabled and those facing terminal illness, and it has been shown to help people to overcome addictions such as smoking and alcoholism, and to help with bulimia. Children are generally easy to hypnotise and can be helped with nocturnal enuresis (bedwetting) and chronic asthma, whilst teenagers can conquer stammering or blushing problems which can otherwise make their lives miserable.
Phobias of all kinds lend themselves well to hypnotherapy, and anyone suffering from panic attacks or obsessional compulsive behaviour, and stress-related problems like insomnia, may benefit. Conditions exacerbated by tension, such as irritable bowel syndrome, psoriasis and eczema, and excessive sweating, respond well, and even tinnitus and clicky jaws (tempero-mandibular joint dysfunction) can be treated by these techniques. See list below:

[center]Eating & Appetite Disorders: Obesity, Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia, etc.
• Stress Disorders & Management: Anxiety, Asthma, Hypertension, Arthritis,
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Gastric Problems, Cardiovascular Problems, Migraine, Tension Headaches, Decreased Concentration Levels, Energy Depletion, Tension, Frustration, Panic Attacks, Increased Irritability, etc.
• Addictions & Disorder of Habit: Alcoholism, Smoking, Insomnia, Bed-wetting, Nail-biting, Thumb-sucking, etc.
• Lack of Confidence: Public Speaking, Shyness, Stage Fright, Blushing, etc.
• Fears & Phobias: Irrational Fears of Height, Darkness, Snakes, Animals, Insects Water, Rats, Insects, Birds, Dental, Blood, Flying, Closed / Open Spaces, etc.
• Psycho-Sexual Problems: Impotence, Frigidity, Premature Ejaculation, etc.
• Social Disabilities: Speech Disorders, Tics, Tremors, etc.
• Depression & Unresolved Grief: Separation, Divorce, Death of Family Member/ Friend/ Pet, Job Loss, Business Failure, etc.
• Skin Disorders: Eczema, Dermatitis, Psoriasis, Excess Sweating, Warts, etc.
• Gynaecological Disorders: Menopausal Problems, Pre-Menstrual Syndrome, Amenorrhoea, Dysmenorrhoea, etc.
• Obstetric Uses: Ante-Natal Training, Morning Sickness, Heartburn, Labour Contractions & Pain Management, Post-Natal Depression, etc.
• Academic Difficulties: Studying, Exam Nerves - School, Nursing, Driving, etc
• Pain Management: In Acute & Chronic Illness, Burns, Cancer, Dentistry, etc.
• Sports Difficulties: Performance Enhancement, Training Discipline, Event Nerves.
• Executive Stress-Sales Performance-Burn Out-Interview Performance, etc.[/center]

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The History of Hypnosis

The earliest references to hypnosis date back to ancient Egypt and Greece. Indeed, 'hypnos' is the Greek word for sleep, though actual state of hypnosis is very different from that of sleep. Both cultures had religious centres where people came for help with their problems. Hypnosis was used to induce dreams, which were then analysed to get to the root of the trouble.
There are many references to trance and hypnosis in early writings. In 2600BC the father of Chinese medicine, Wong Tai, wrote about techniques that involved incantations and passes of the hands. The Hindu Vedas written about 1500BC mention hypnotic procedures. Trance like states occur in many shamanistic, druidic, voodoo, yogic and religious practices.

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Hypnotic pioneers

The modern father of hypnosis was an Austrian physician, Franz Mesmer (1734 - 1815), from whose name the word 'mesmerism' is derived. Though much maligned by the medical world of his day, Mesmer was nevertheless a brilliant man. He developed the theory of 'animal magnetism' - the idea that diseases are the result of blockages in the flow of magnetic forces in the body. He believed he could store his animal magnetism in baths of iron filings and transfer it to patients with rods or by 'mesmeric passes'.
The mesmeric pass must surely go down in history as one of the most interesting, and undoubtedly the most long-winded, ways of putting someone into a trance. Mesmer would stand his subjects quite still while he swept his arms across their body, sometimes for hours on end. I suspect that this probably had the effect of boring patients into a trance, but it was certainly quite effective.
Mesmer himself was very much a showman, conveying by his manner that something was going to happen to the patient. In itself this form of indirect suggestion was very powerful. Mesmer was also responsible for the popular image of the hypnotist as a man with magnetic eyes, cape an goatee beard. His success fuelled jealousy among many of his colleagues and this eventually led to his public humiliation. Looking back, it is quite incredible that hypnosis survived these early years, because the medical world was dead against it.
Another forward thinker was John Elliotson (1791 - 1868), a professor at London University, who is famous for introducing the stethoscope into England. He also tried to champion the cause of mesmerism, but was forced to resign. He continued to give demonstrations of mesmerism in his own home to any interested parties, and this led to a steady increase in literature on the subject.
The next real pioneer of hypnosis in Britain appeared in the mid nineteenth century with James Braid (1795 - 1860). Primarily a Scottish eye doctor, he developed an interest in mesmerism quite by chance. One day, when he was late for an appointment, he found his patient in the waiting room staring into an old lamp, his eyes glazed. Fascinated, Braid gave the patient some commands, telling him to close his eyes and go to sleep. The patient complied and Braid's interest grew. He discovered that getting a patient to fixate upon something was one of the most important components of putting them into a trance.
The swinging watch, which many people associate with hypnosis, was popular in the early days as an object of fixation. Following his discovery that it was not necessary to go through all the palaver of mesmeric passes, Braid published a book in which he proposed that the phenomenon now be called hypnotism.
Meanwhile, a British surgeon in India, James Esdaile (1808 - 1859), recognised the enormous benefits of hypnotism for pain relief and performed hundreds of major operations using hypnosis as his only anaesthetic. When he returned to England he tried to convince the medical establishment of his findings, but they laughed at him and declared that pain was character-building (although they were biased in favour of the new chemical anaesthetics, which they could control and, of course, charge more money for). So hypnosis became, and remains to this day, an 'alternative' form of medicine.
The French were also taking an interest in the subject of hypnosis, and many breakthroughs were made by such men as Ambrose Liebeault (1823 - 1904), J. M. Charcot (1825 - 1893) and Charles Richet (1850 - 1935).
The work of another Frenchman, Emile Coue (1857 - 1926), was very interesting. He moved away from conventional approaches and pioneered the use of auto-suggestion. He is most famous for the phrase 'Day by day in every way I am getting better and better'. His technique was one of affirmation and it has been championed in countless modern books.
A man of enormous compassion, Coue believed that he did not heal people himself but merely facilitated their own self healing. He understood the importance of the subject's participation in hypnosis, and was a forerunner of those modern practitioners who claim, 'There is no such thing as hypnosis, only self-hypnosis.'
Perhaps his most famous idea was that the imagination is always more powerful than the will. For example, if you ask someone to walk across a plank of wood on the floor, they can usually do it without wobbling. However, if you tell them to close their eyes and imagine the plank is suspended between two buildings hundreds of feet above the ground, they will always start to sway.
In a sense Coue also anticipated the placebo effect - treatment of no intrinsic value the power of which lies in suggestion: patients are told that they are being given a drug that will cure them. Recent research into placebos is quite startling. In some cases statistics indicate that placebos can work better than many of modern medicine's most popular drugs. It seems that while drugs are not always necessary for recovery from illness, belief in recovery is!
Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939) was also interested in hypnosis, initially using it extensively in his work. He eventually abandoned the practice - for several reasons, not least that he wasn't any good at it! He favoured psychoanalysis, which involves the patient lying on a couch and the analyst doing a lot of listening. He believed that the evolution of the self was a difficult process of working through stages of sexual development, with repressed memories of traumatic incidents the main cause of psychological problems. This is an interesting idea that has yet to be proved.
Freud's early rejection of hypnosis delayed the development of hypnotherapy, turning the focus of psychology away from hypnosis and towards psychoanalysis. However, things picked up in the 1930's in America with the publication with the publication of Clark Hull's book, Hypnosis and Suggestibility.
In more recent times, the recognised leading authority on clinical hypnosis was Milton H Erickson, MD (1901 - 1980), a remarkable man, and a highly effective psychotherapist. As a teenager he was stricken with polio and paralysed, but he remobilised himself. It was while paralysed that he had an unusual opportunity to observe people, and he notice that what people said and what they did were often very different. He became fascinated by human psychology and devised countless innovative and creative ways to help people. He healed through metaphor, surprise, confusion and humour, as well as hypnosis. A master of 'indirect hypnosis', he was able to put a person into a trance without even mentioning the word hypnosis.
It is becoming more and more accepted that an understanding of hypnosis is essential for the efficient practice of every type of psychotherapy. Erickson's approach and its derivatives are without question the most effective techniques..
...Over the years hypnosis has gained ground and respectability within the medical profession. Although hypnosis and medicine are not the same, they are now acknowledged as being related, and it is only a matter of time before hypnosis becomes a mainstream practice, as acceptable to the general public as a visit to the dentist.

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Useful Links

The National Council for hypnotherapy - NCH currently represent over 700 practitioners within the United Kingdom

The International Association of Counseling Hypnotherapists

National Society of Professional Hypnotherapists - A non-profit making organisation and a patron of the General Hypnotherapy Register, a member of the National Council of Psychotherapy, and a member of the General Hypnotherapy Standards Council

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