Mental Health and Hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy -- also called hypnosis -- uses guided relaxation, intense concentration, and focused attention to achieve a heightened state of awareness that is sometimes called a trance. The person's attention is so focused while in this state that anything going on around the person is temporarily blocked out or ignored. In this naturally occurring state, a person may focus their attention -- with the help of a trained hypnotherapist -- on specific thoughts or tasks.
Hypnotherapy is usually considered an aid to psychotherapy (counseling), rather than a treatment in itself. It helps with psychotherapy because the hypnotic state allows people to enter a deep state of relaxation that can better allow them to explore painful thoughts, feelings, and memories they might have hidden from their conscious minds. In addition, hypnosis enables people to perceive some things differently, such as blocking an awareness of pain.
Hypnotherapy can be used in two ways, as suggestion therapy or for patient analysis. Suggestion therapy: The hypnotic state makes the person better able to respond to suggestions.
Analysis: This approach was historically used to induce a relaxed and uninhibited state to find suspected unconscious causes of a disorder or symptom, such as a traumatic past event that a person has hidden in their unconscious memory. Once the trauma is revealed, it can be addressed in hypnotherapy/counseling. In modern times, hypnotherapy is not often used as a technique within psychoanalysis.
What Are the Benefits of Hypnotherapy?
The hypnotic state allows a person to be more open to discussion and suggestion. It can improve the success of other treatments for many conditions, including:
Phobias, fears, and anxiety, Sleep disorders, Depression, Stress, Post-trauma, anxiety,
Grief, and loss.
It also might be used to help with pain control and to overcome habits, such as smoking or overeating. It also might be helpful for people whose symptoms are severe or who need crisis management. Hypnotherapy is not a dangerous procedure. It is not mind control or brainwashing. A therapist cannot make a person do something embarrassing or that the person doesn't want to do. The greatest risk, as discussed above, is that false memories can be created.
Who Performs Hypnotherapy?
Hypnotherapy is performed by a certified mental health professional who is specially trained in this technique.