Hypnotherapy: The Power of Suggestion

First, I’d like to dispel some common misconceptions about this therapy. For some people who have never tried it, the idea of going into a hypnotic trance may seem weird or scary. But the fact is that we’ve all experienced trance states in everyday life--whether daydreaming, watching a movie, driving home on autopilot, or practicing meditation or other relaxation techniques. Essentially, trance is an altered state of consciousness marked by decreased scope and increased intensity of awareness. What distinguishes hypnotherapy is that it involves a deliberate choice to enter this state of consciousness for a goal beyond relaxation: to focus your concentration and use suggestion to promote healing. It can be done in person with a hypnotherapist or you can do it yourself, called self-hypnosis.

    Parlor tricks and stage shows aside, a clinical hypnotherapist will not make you quack like a duck or sing like Elvis. The person in a hypnotic trance is always in control, just as someone who is daydreaming can decide to go on or stop at any time. While the practitioner serves as a teacher or guide, the only person who can hypnotize you is you, since trance is a latent potential of your own mind. Therefore, all hypnosis is self-hypnosis.

      Some people use it to ease their aching backs. Others find it relieves eczema. Even one of the hot-air balloonists who broke world records by flying around the globe admits he relied on it to steady his nerves and catch some sleep while at the mercy of the jet stream. Hypnotherapy, or trance work, is a group of techniques that allow practitioners and patients to take advantage of the mind-body connection to foster healing. It’s also one of the most common referrals we make for our patients here at the University of Arizona’s Integrative Medicine Clinic. I’ve often recommended it in this newsletter for a wide variety of conditions, and this month I’d like to offer some tips for using it wisely.

From Ancient Roots to Modern Use

     Known as "sleep healing" in ancient Greece and "mind cure" in the fourteenth through mid-nineteenth centuries, what we now call hypnosis has a long history of therapeutic use. In the first half of this century it came into favor as a treatment for battle fatigue (what would now be called post-traumatic stress disorder), and later found a niche as a useful approach for kicking habits such as smoking and overeating. More recently I’ve seen this versatile modality gain wider acceptance for a broader spectrum of applications, as more and more people explore mind-body approaches to healing. Meanwhile, scientific researchers have been looking at the benefits of hypnotherapy in a number of small studies. Here’s a brief sampling of what they’ve found:

• Irritable bowel syndrome. A British study of 18 adults with IBS published in The Lancet found that hypnosis "strikingly" reduced colonic motility, thus decreasing diarrhea and cramping (July 11, 1992).

• Erective dysfunction. In a controlled study of 79 men with impotence from no known organic cause, only hypnosis proved more effective than a placebo, boosting sexual function by 80 percent (British Journal of Urology, February 1996).

• Preparing for surgery. A controlled study of 32 coronary bypass patients showed that those taught self-hypnosis pre-operatively were more relaxed after surgery and had less need for pain medication (Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery, February 1997).

• Pain. A review panel appointed by the National Institutes of Health found "strong evidence" for the use of hypnosis in alleviating pain associated with cancer (Journal of the American Medical Association, July 24-31, 1996).

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