Hypnosis for healing and personal development

We owe the modernization of hypnosis, and the development of  hypnotic techniques  for both diagnosis and therapeutic ends, to the genius of medical psychiatrist Milton H. Erickson (USA 1902-1980).

First, Erickson adapted hypnotic techniques to each subject, according to their personality and their ability to communicate, making hypnosis accessible to all. He then discovered alternative techniques much more efficient than existing ones.

Erickson broke with Freud's psychoanalytical vision of the unconscious by  considering the unconscious a vast reservoir of physical and mental self-healing resources. His strategies focused entirely on"how to help the patient" instead of "what is the source of the patient’s ailment". Erickson discovered that it is far more preferable to focus on what goes well, and will go well in the future, than on what doesn't and has been problematic in the past. In classic psychiatry the emphasis is the identification of symptoms, the diagnosis, and the classification of the pathologies. In contrast, Erickson focused his attention on the uncovering of the patient’s resources and the solutions at hand.

M. Erickson revolutionized  psychotherapy and psychosomatic medicine; and this has lead to the integration of hypnosis in numerous psychotherapeutic strategies.

Advantages

• One wins time by no longer having to diagnose the problem and search for a hypothetical interpretation. In fact, Erickson’s work is founded on the following observation: the hypnotic process allows access to the patient’s resources and potentials which are inaccessible for the person when in a conscious state. His hypothesis is that the solution to a physical or psychological problem emerges from the patient’s organism itself.

Disadvantages 

• A lot of therapists who learn Ericksonian Hypnosis are so impressed by the virtuosity of the master that they do not dare to use the method. Others only use some of his simpler techniques, without really inducing a modified state of consciousness.
• Instead of using the permissive approach, certain hypnotherapists focus essentially on the manipulative techniques of Erickson. In fact, he has demonstrated that it is possible to heal patients without their collaboration, even without their knowledge. However, this approach does not increase the patient’s confidence in his/her ability to change, and risks making the patient dependant on the therapist. New Hypnosis, on the contrary, teaches patients how to heal themselves.  

Revolution and techniques

During the past sixty years the use of hypnosis in medicine has progressed tremendously. Where it used to be a cause for controversy, it is now a fully recognized medical and psychotherapeutical technique.

A positive step

Instead of continually confronting the patients with their problems, the therapist gives value to all that goes well:  their qualities, capacities, resources, ideals and their potential; anything which has already been used in the past and that can be used again. The therapist guides the patient to potentials yet to be discovered, and the state of hypnosis facilitates the access to these.

Evolution of the technique and discipline

Therapeutic hypnosis is very different from classic hypnosis. The term “NEW HYPNOSIS” was created by D. ARAOZ (NY) in his book "New Hypnosis" and was used as a title for several Ericksonian congresses (e.g. Venice, 1998, 3rd European Congress on Ericksonian Hypnosis and Psychotherapy). ARAOZ uses the term “New Hypnosis” to differentiate it from traditional hypnosis.

New Hypnosis is a practice that aims to:

• Collaborate with the patient, who is an expert concerning his/her problems and the owner of capacities to change. New Hypnosis is completely opposed to the authoritarian therapist who forces changes, as well as to the “all knowing and can change you without your awareness” aspect of M. H. Erickson’s work.
• Integrate the ideas and strategies of hypnotherapists who continue to develop hypnosis since Erickson’s death in 1980.
• Use a number of CBT strategies (cognitive behavioural therapy); mostly those who tackle negative ideas and false beliefs which are sources of negative auto-suggestion.
• Promote the understanding that negative auto-suggestions are active during the process of certain illnesses and (psychological) problems.

Advantages

Besides being extremely effective, New Hypnosis helps the patients to understand how they were capable of change. Therefore, patients become more autonomous, and are able to resolve future problems without necessarily the help of a hypnotherapist. In fact, patients will have acquired more confidence in themselves and in their own capacity to change.

Disadvantages

As there is no use of manipulation or authority, New Hypnosis only works with patients who are motivated and collaborative. If a patient shows some resistance, the therapy will take longer than necessary in comparison to when techniques of manipulation are used

Concerns the hypnosis developed and taught amongst others by Dr. Eric Mairlot.

What E. Mairlot calls “phenomenological hypnosis" is directly derived from the findings of the “New Hypnosis” and Ericksonian hypnosis; but it takes the ideology further - concentrating fully on the patient and his/her resources to change. According to E. Mairlot each human being has undoubtedly astonishing hypnotic resources; most people who suffer from a problem are auto-hypnosis experts, but ignore it!

Phenomenological hypnosis believes that patients can create their physical or psychological problems not only by negative self-suggestion, but also by negative auto-hypnosis. What we think we endure, we create in fact ourselves. This process uses “hypnotic phenomena” and is unconscious. We can produce profound negative auto-hypnosis to the point of crises: bulimic attacks, phobias, psychosomatic and painful states in which we relive past traumas, chronic fatigue, manias, obsessive compulsive disorders, tics, behavioural problems, etc. Hypnotic phenomena are also the origin of certain emotional states such as nervousness, anxiety, depression, rage fits, sensations of disgust, etc. All these states in which we loose control of our will are due to the hypnotic phenomena unconsciously taking control of the self (HLP Hypnotic-Like Phenomenom).

A therapy that goes to the essence

When one has thoughts and emotions like those mentioned above, hypnotherapy is very effective, as it reproduces the terrain from which the problem emerges. Suffice then to modify the negative hypnotic phenomena (PHL) into a positive sense to stop the problem or heal the symptoms. Patients will then use their own hypnotic capacities in a positive manner. Moreover, the patient will then have acquired autonomy from the therapist.

Individual consultations in English, French, spanish, italian and Dutch

The team’s practitioners offer individual consultations using a large range of brief therapeutic techniques: not only hypnosis but also EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy), family and couple therapy (systemic therapy), coaching, NLP, sophrology, sex therapy, meditation and mindfulness.

Brief therapies focus on using the patients’ own resources and are oriented towards problem solution rather than towards exploring the history of the problem. The practitioners in the Centre for Brief Therapy (CBT) therefore favour rapid and effective results rather than a prolonged and often difficult approach.

Most French speaking therapists work in their own language only. However, because of the very pragmatic and change oriented nature of the therapy, they use a simple and easy to understand language. Any individual with a reasonable knowledge of the French language can, therefore, consult any of the team’s therapists.

However, English speaking patients who wish to have a therapy in their own language can be seen by Dr. Gerbert BAKX . This physician-therapist, member of our team, has a perfect knowledge of both French and English and can therefore give therapy in both languages.

Autohypnosis group workshops 

The Institut de Nouvelle Hypnose organizes group autohypnosis workshops. In 5 or 6 sessions the participants gradually learn to master autohypnosis and to develop their natural capacities for self-healing. This is, however, not a group therapy where participants are invited to discuss their individual problems. The workshops are organized around several themes:

• Smoking addiction. In order to free oneself of the smoking habit, the programme consists of an individual consultation followed by 5 sessions in a closed group.
• Bulimia and overweight. The programme consists of 10 workshops in open group.
• Stress management. The programme consists of 10 different workshops in open group.

The autohypnosis workshops are given in French. The spoken language is very easy to understand and is accessible to non French speaking persons with a reasonable practical knowledge of the French language.

Therapeutic massages

Being massaged results in an enhanced feeling of « well being ». That is why a professional massage therapist is present in the centre. This physical approach is extremely effective to eliminate stress and to improve emotional disorders, even chronic ones, including depressive conditions and affective and anxious conditions.

Autohypnosis group workshops

The Institut de Nouvelle Hypnose organizes group autohypnosis workshops. In 5 or 6 sessions, the participants gradually learn to master autohypnosis and to develop their natural capacities for self-healing. This is, however, not a group therapy where participants are invited to discuss their individual problems. The workshops are organized around several themes:

• Stress management. This programme is aimed at learning to better deal with emotions and to enhance self-confidence
• Sexual development
• Mindfulness
• Meditation

Autohypnosis workshops are conducted in French. The language is, however, easy to understand and accessible to non French speaking persons with a reasonable practical knowledge of the French language.

Coaching in the corporate environment

The Institut de Nouvelle Hypnose organizes training sessions in the corporate environment. This is a mode of coaching using autohypnosis in order to learn to manage stress, deal with fatigue (particularly for night work), increase professional performances (tonus, precision work, speaking in public, …). This training is given in French, English and Dutch.

Training of health professionals

The Institut de Nouvelle Hypnose is also a centre for therapeutic hypnosis training. This training is destined for mental and physical health professionals and is offered in French, English and Dutch.

The Lancet – Vol 353 – January 30, 1999.

Following an article featured in The Lancet, the worlds leading general medical journal (Dr Eric Mairlot)

HYPNOSES MAKES HEADWAY IN THE CLINIC

Exaggerated claims by lay hypnotists have obscured the technique’s proven benefits, say clinicians who routinely use hypnosis in the treatment of pain, needle phobia, and many other conditions.  « There is a rich scientific literature on hypnosis that stretches back over 100 years – each year there are about 150 articles on hypnosis in mainstream medical and science journals.  It’s not one of those fuzzy interventions for which no research has ever been done », stresses Michael Nash (University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA), editor of the International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis.  The American Medical Association and other medical associations have formally recognised hypnosis as a viable medical treatment, says Nash, and « we don’t even qualify for alternative-medicine research funds ».

Donald D Price (University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA) says there is now evidence of a neurobiological basis for hypnosis.  « People think that during hypnosis, the brain goes to sleep.  In fact, specific brain areas become activated. »  In a study to be published soon in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, positron emission tomography scans were done on volunteers during hypnotic relaxation. Scans were also done during hypnotic suggestion : the volonteers’ hands were put in hot water, and suggestions given aimed at altering pain perception.  Different patterns of regional cerebral blood flow were recorded in response to hypnosis with and without suggestion (panel).

Brain activations during hypnosis.

Hypnotic relaxation.

(+) Activity in : 

- occipital region ( ?deep relaxation/decreased arousal).

- caudal area of right anterior cingulate sulcus.

- inferior frontal gyri.

(-) Activity in :

- right inferior parietal lobule ( ?dissociation/reduced sense of self).

- left pre-cuneus/posterior cingulate gyrus.

Hypnosis with suggestions.

(++) Activity in : frontal cortices ( ?verbal mediation of suggestions).

(+) Activity in : media land lateral posterior parietal cortices.

These results imply that the hypnotic « trance » state is different from normal consciouness, and that it facilitates the processing of hypnotic suggestions, says Price, who has himself been hypnotised.  « My idea is that when you’re hypnotised, you experience things automatically, not deliberately.  If someone suggests that your arm is raising up, it’s as if your arm is doing it by itself. »

Irving Kirsch of the University of Connecticut (Storrs, CT, USA) argues that what decides a patient’s response to hypnosis is patient expectations.  « You can’t get any response with hypnosis that you can’t also get without it, although hypnosis slightly increases the likelihood of getting the response.  How people behave and what they experience during hypnosis depends almost completely on what they think is supposed to happen. »  People who don’t want to be hypnotised won’t be, and hypnosis can’t make people do things they would normally refuse to do.

« People have the idea that the hypnotist has the power, and it’s through his cunning techniques that a person experiences hypnosis.  That is wrong », says Nash.  In receptive individuals, the hypnotist « uses in a systematic way the abilities the patient already has.  It’s almost like helping them hone their own skills ».

Irrespective of whether a person goes into a trance-like state or is simply open to suggestion, hypnosis is useful in the clinic.  Nash tells of a man who needed cystoscopy every 3 months for 5 years after removal of a bladder tumour.  At his first check-up, « he had to be held down because of the pain ».  The man did not want general anaesthesia, and epidurals were risky, so Nash taught him self-hypnosis.  Before the second cystoscopy, « he took 60 seconds to prepare himself, and that was it.  The procedure was over in 10 minutes, and the six people who had intended to hold him down went for coffee ».

« Self-hypnosis facilitates a sense of control and self-efficacy in patients with cancer », adds psychologist Phyllis Alden (Derbyshire Royal Infirmary, Derby, UK).  Alden uses adjuctive hypnosis to help patients who have nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy, and anxieties associated with other procedures and the cancer itself.  « Hypnosis isn’t magic but it is a valuable tool in a cancer centre. »

Hypnosis is also helpful in burn centres, where the daily care of wounds can be more painful than the initial injury, says David Patterson (University of Washington Burn Center, Seattle, WA, USA).  Large morphine doses are needed for these patients, but may not adequately relieve pain.  Patterson, who has held a National Institutes of Health grant to research into hypnosis for the past 9 years, has used adjunctive hypnosis with loggers and other « hardy » types not typically  thought of as hypnosis candidates.  In those with intense pain, « dramatic effects » can ben achieved, he says.

Barry Hart, a consultant psychologist in Scunthorpe, UK, has had similar experiences.  For example, a dock worker with persistent pain and anxiety from a crush injury to his toes learned self-hypnosis and was able to return to work.  Hart also uses hypnosis in patients with respiratory problems who become panicky because of breathlessness, and in those with chronic pain disorders.

Referring physicians should properly prepare patients for hypnosis and other psychological interventions, urges Hart.  « If you have chronic pain because of a real physical problem and you’re sent to a psychologist, you may feel like you’re being written off.  It should be explained that the pain is real, but that psychological factors can alter your experience of it. »

Despite their enthusiasm, clinicians who use hypnosis warn against overstating the technique’s benefits.  « Hypnosis can be easily learned and used as a tool by general practitioners and other health professionnals, they note, « but hypnosis is a context in which you do therapy ; it’s not a therapy itself », says Hart.  « Using hypnosis won’t make you a good clinician ; you have to be a good clinician, and then you can use hypnosis in a savvy way », cautions Nash.  « I could teach a high-school student to do hypnosis in half an hour, but using hypnosis therapeutically is a very different story. »

The Lancet – Vol 353 – January 30, 1999.

The Bulletin - March 12, 1992

POWERS OF SUGGESTION

Long discredited as a form of therapy, hypnosis is making a comeback.  Lucy Magosse investigates some of its practitioners.

Cabiria, a young prostitute, walks into a vaudeville theatre.  The man on stage is performing magic tricks.  He invites her to join him, she hesitates, the audience shouts encouragement, she reluctantly climbs onto the stage.  The magician hypnotizes her, then tells her to describe her most secret love fantasies.  She naively evokes a scene in which a young man offers her flowers and pure love.  When she awakens from the trance the audience is roaring with laughter.  The scene is from Fellini’s Notti di Cabiria, and it evokes the image most of us have of hypnosis : a music hall act in which people reveal their innermost secrets under the command of an irresistible wizard.

Hypnosis is the ancestor of psychoanalysis and of most modern psychotherapies.  As a young neurologist, Freud used the technique to free his patients from the terrible secrets that burdened their souls.  But he abandoned it as he gradually developed new techniques to treat them.

Hypnosis today, as practiced primarily by psychiatrists, has begun to regain its therapeutic credibility.  It has proven most effective in cases of psychologically rooted symptoms.  One major step in the development of hypnotherapy has been the work of American psychiatrist Milton Erickson, whose approach reached Belgium in the past decade.  A department of hypnotherapy now exists at Brugmann Hospital and there is a Milton Erickson Institute for the training of future practitioners.

The Belgian analyst, Professor François Duyckaerts, is currently writing a book about psychologist Joseph Delboeuf who taught at Liege University during the last century and practised hypnosis.  Freud referred to the Belgian pioneer frequently in his early writings and, in his The Interpretation of Dreams, was very much influenced by Delboeuf’s research.  Duyckaerts explains the Delboeuf was a precursor of modern hypnosis as used by the Erickson school, an empathetic rather than an authoritarian method.

Hypnosis has a long history that goes back to antiquity when it was often incorporated into religious ceremonies.  From the Middle Ages to this day, witchcrafts and possession have been the primal expressions of this still inadequately understood mental state.  The German doctor, Anton Mesmer, born in 1734, was perhaps the first recognized medical hypnotist.  He managed to induce convulsions in humans by passing a powerful magnet over the prostrate forms of his gullible patients.  Claiming to be able to cure any illness, he soon became a cult figure in Paris.

Mesmer who, among other accomplishments, introduced the harmonica into France, was a friend of Mozart.  In Cosi fan tutte there is a scene of magic medicine in action ; Despina, the maid, disguided as a wizard, manipulates a giant magnet that makes the tenor and baritone suffer convulsions, or pretend to.

In reality, the hypnotic state is not quite so mysterious as it may seem.  The power of a hypnotist is no greater than the person under hypnosis will allow.  Jean-Martin Charcot, with whom the young Freud studied in Paris, treated severely afflicted hysterical patients, a pathology one rarely sees nowadays.  He concluded that the hysterical illness with its strange symptoms was similar to the state reached under hypnosis.  In the case of hypnosis, the hypnotist could induce such hysteria-like symptoms as partial paralysis or the absence of physical sensation.  Through these observations, Freud came to understand hysteria from a different angle ; if they had no organic cause, then the body was saying something that words could not express.

Research in the field of hypnosis came to a halt in France after Charcot’s death in 1893.  No further progress was made until the Pavlovian school of psychology conducted research into hypnosis in the Soviet Union and a handful of psychiatrists examined the phenomenon in de United States.

Freud eventually gave up hypnosis because he wanted to extend treatment to pathologies other than hysteria ; he also noticed that whatever progress his patients made quickly disappeared when their personal relation to the therapist ran into trouble.  Hypnosis appeared also to stimulate erotic feelings ;  a young woman waking from a trance threw herself into his arms and attempted to kiss him, a scene he has described in his autobiography.  Later, he developed the technique of free association, encouraging the patient to let his or her thoughts flow forth in a verbal stream, like a traveller on a train describing the landscape as it passes by.

French analyst Léon Chertok was consulted in 1948 by a 35-year-old woman who had suffered from amnesia for 12 years.  She thought she was 22.  With no idea what his chances of success might be, the young doctor hypnotized his patient and her 12 forgotten years came back to her.  Chertok devoted most of his career to hypnosis an its many therapeutic applications.  He faced a great deal of hostility from sceptical colleagues in France.

Isabelle Strengers, the Belgian philosopher of science, has recently written two books in collaboration with Chertok.  Together they consider the ethical and philosophical questions of hypnosis versus psychoanalysis in L’Hypnose, blessure narcissique (Laboratoire Delagrange), Le Cœur et la raison.  L’hypnose en question (Payot) describes Chertok’s research and his adventurous life.

His technique is considered traditional, rather in the vein of Charcot.  The aim is to break through a represented event and bring it back to the patient’s conscious memory.  This approach is unusually effective in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorders.  Chertok’s book describe many case histories with successful outcomes, especially in the field of psychosomatic medicine.

The important innovation brought about in hypnotherapy by Milton Erickson is the technique in which the traumatic event could be changed by the patient.  Under hypnosis, the patient relives the event and changes the course of it by entering the scene himself as an adult, or by asking the therapist to intervene.  The new insight this experience brings to the event restores the patient who can see him/herself in a different light and thereby move away from the crippling past.  The emotions attached to the tragic or terrifying scene will now have changed significantly.

This form of therapy does not apply exclusively to victims of a specific trauma.  Its range of application is vast ; psychosomatic ailments like asthma, spastic colon, and allergies may benefit a great deal from it.  Dr Eric Mairlot, who founded the « Institut de Nouvelle Hypnose » and works at Brugmann Hospital, has helped many people to stop smoking by working on their nicotine addiction.

Mairlot claims that most stress-induced symptoms – such as repetitive failure patterns both professionnal and emotional, or compulsive and obsessional behaviour – improve dramatically under hypnotherapy.  « Among my patients are actors and other stage performers who have been handicapped by severe stagefright », says Mairlot.

He sees a structural connection between phobic states and bouts of compulsive eating.  « In both cases », he says, « the attacks are caused by an uncontrollable state of modified consciousness.  Hypnosis, too, is a state of modified consciousness, but a controlled one.  Pathologies that are characterized by a negative modified consciousness will respond to the positive and controlled effect of hypnosis ».

Hypnotized people are not unconscious ; they are free to move, talk, say what they wish.  The frequently noted inability to remember what has happened under hypnosis – a form of amnesia – is generally caused by the patient’s unconscious desire to forget what may have been an emotionally painful experience.

Hypnotherapy is a treatment.  It can last for months and is not compatible with other psychotherapies, except for group or couple therapy.  The technique not only focuses on getting rid of the painful symptom ; its aim is to help the person to feel better within himself.  The Ericksonian therapy respects the patient’s symptoms, unlike the hypnotists of the last century who gave strict commands and insisted on blind obedience.

Today, hypnotherapists explain that their treatment induces positive modifications of behaviour.  The criticism that analytically inclined therapists make is that there is no analysis of the patient-doctor transference.  The transference is used, but not worked over ; the hypnotist assumes virtually magic authority.  It also means that the patient does not experience the conscious working-through process, as he does in analysis.

The hypnotic state has been known to bring about some dramatic changes, even in the case of depression.  One of the most extraordinary examples occurred in 1900 when Sergey Rakhmaninov suddenly recovered from three years of creative despair after undergoing hypnosis and went on to compose his Second Piano Concerto.

In Dr Mairlot’s words, « Coming out of depression means that patients can once again develop their full creative potential.  It is like discovering spring after a long dark winter ».

 The Bulletin - March 12, 1992

USING THE POWERS OF HYPNOSIS TO HEAL BODY AND MIND

by Jane E.BRODY

My husband, Richard, smoked cigarettes for 50 years, having failed several attempts to quit on his own.

When a friend told him in August 1994 that hypnosis had enabled her to quit, he decided to give it a try.

« It didn’t work ; I wasn’t hypnotized, » he declared after his one and only session.  But it did work ; since that day, he has not taken on puff of a cigarette.

Gloria Kanter of Boynton Beach, Florida, thought her attempt in 1985 to use hypnosis to overcome her fear of flying had failed.  « When the therapist brought me out, I said it didn’t work, » she recalled in an interview.  « I told her, ‘I heard everything you said’ »

Nonetheless, the next time she and her husband headed for the airpot, she was not drenched in sweat and paralyzed with fear.  « I was just fine, » she said, « and I’ve been fine ever since. »

Like many others whose knowledge of hypnotism comes from movies and stage shows, my husband and Kanter misunderstood what hypnosis is all about.  While in a hypnotic transe, you are neither unconscious nor asleep, but rather in a deeply relaxed state that renders the mind highly focused and ready to accept suggestions to help you accomplish your goals.

Hypnosis has been mired in controversy for two centuries, and its benefits are often overstated.  It does not smoking, for example ; then again, neither do other kinds of treatments.

And the patient’s attitude is critical.  In the words of Brian Alman, a psychologist who practices hypnosis in San Diego, « The power of hypnosis actually resides in the patient and not in the doctor. »

Roberta Temes, a clinical hypnotist in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, insists that hypnosis cannot make people do anything they don’t want to do.  Hypnosis can succeed only in helping people make changes they desire, she said in an interview.

In her book « The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Hypnosis, » Temes points out that success in achieving your goal is the best proof that you were really hypnotized.  She also suggests a second or third session if you didn’t quite reach your goal after the first try.

In effect, hypnosis is the epitome of mind-body medicine.  It can enable the mind to tell the body how to react, and modify the messages that the body sends to the mind.  It has been used to counter the nausea of pregnancy and chemotherapy ; dental and test-taking anxiety ; pain associated with surgery, root canal treatment and childbirth ; fear of flying and public speaking ; compulsive hair-pulling ; and intractable hiccups, among many other troublesome health issues.

Writing in The Permanente Journal in 2001, Alman said the « useful potential » for benefiting from hypnosis « exists within each patient. »  « The goal of modern medical hypnosis, » he said, « is to help patients use this unconscious potential. »

Alman described a 65-year-old concentration camp survivor who repeatedly choked when she tried to swallow, though examinations of her esophagus revealed no obstruction.  After three hypnotherapy sessions, her problem was solved.  « I was liberated from my esophagus, » the patient said.

You may not even have to be face to face with a hypnotist to benefit medically.  Temes said hypnosis could be helpful even if done with a cassette tape or CD, or by telephone, which she offers as part of her practice.  She said many helpful Cds could be found throught the Web site www.hypnosisnetwork.com.

Ellen Fineman, a physical therapist in Portland, Oregon, had had five surgeries to repair a retina that kept dtaching.  Hoping that a sixth attempt would hold, she uses a hypnosis tape prepared by Temes for patients undergoing surgery.

 The tape « was very calming and reassuring, » Fineman said in an interview.  « It told me that I would be in the hands of professionnals who would take good care of me and that I’d have minimal swelling, » she said.  « This time the surgery went superbly – no inflammation, no swelling and no more detachment.  The surgeon was amazed and asked what I had done differently this time. »

As with any other profession, some hypnotherapists are more talented than others.  Temes suggests that word of mouth may be the best way to find someone practiced in hypnosis for the kind of problem you’re trying to solve.

While not everyone is easily hypnotized, nearly everyone can slip into a therapeutic trance, Temes maintains.  Another of her patients, Dr. Susan Clarvit, a New York psychiatrist, thought she could not be hypnotized – she was too scientific, too rational a person, she said.

 « But I was desperate, » Clarvit said in an interview.  « I was pregnant with my second child and too nauseated to be alive.  Dr. Temes asked me what I held most ofter, and I said a pen.  She hypnotized me so that when I held a pen I had an overall feeling of wellness.  I held a pen all the time, even while driving, and didn’t feel nauseated. »

Under hypnosis, Clarvit was given a posthypnotic suggestion that linked holding a pen to feeling well.  Such suggestions enable people to practice a new, desired behavior after being brought out of the trance.

Someone trying to overcome snacking on sweets might be told, « When you are hungry, you will eat vegetables. »  The suggestion to a smoker might be « you will drink water when you want a cigarette. »

Sometimes patients with well-established illnesses can benefit indirectly from hypnosis.  Alman told of a rectly from hypnosis.  Alman told of a woman with multiple sclerosis who was treated with hypnosis for depression that had failed to improve with antidepressants.  Almost immediately, he reported, not only did the woman’s depression ease, but her gait and speech improved markedly.

He explained that for many patients the medical problem is so complex that specific directions and commands may be ineffective.  The benefit from hypnosis may rely more on unleashing unconscious processes within the patient.  He suggested that thera exists « a wealth of material in the patient’s unconscious that can be used in healing » but lamented the fact that although medical hypnosis can often produce rapid change even in difficult cases, it is « underutilized as a therapeutic tool. »