Why hypnosis?
Good question.
Let’s talk about why hypnosis is such a good option.
What is therapeutic hypnosis?
Let’s start with what therapeutic hypnosis isn’t. Therapeutic hypnosis is NOT:
Making you cluck like a chicken on stage
Waving a watch in front of your face to make you fall asleep (though, therapeutic hypnosis can help with insomnia)
Smoke and mirrors designed to trick an audience
These stereotypes are examples of stage hypnosis, where a performer takes advantage of the way the human brain works to entertain an audience.
While therapeutic hypnosis utilizes similar features of the brain, it uses them for good instead of to make you look silly. These features include the following:
focused attention
heightened suggestibility
deep relaxation
By focusing your attention, you will hone in on the actual problem without being distracted by the noise. This allows us to make changes without 3 years of weekly therapy.
Heightened suggestibility allows you to suggest good habits to your unconscious mind (where habits are stored) so it gets on board with the change you want to make. It’s like going directly to the source.
Deep relaxation allows you to calm your nervous system out of fight / flight / fawn responses so that you can stop falling into the same old patterns of reacting to triggers.
It’s like a goal-oriented meditation. And I love it.
Hypnosis gives you
power to bypass barriers
set by your conscious mind
to give you
unfettered access to your unconscious mind.
A few of my favorite research studies*:
Hypnosis in the treatment of anxiety and stress related disorders
D Corydon Hammond, University of Utah School of Medicine, 2014 https://doi.org/10.1586/ern.09.140
“Considerable evidence exists that training in self-hypnosis not only reduces generalized stress, but is also effective in reducing anxiety associated with public speaking, test taking and coping after being diagnosed with cancer, as well as in reducing anxiety experienced by burn patients and those going through childbirth. The evidence is especially compelling regarding the ability of hypnosis to significantly reduce anxiety associated with a variety of surgical, medical and dental procedures (e.g., incisional biopsy, venepuncture, having radiological and imaging procedures, dentistry or oral surgery).”
Review of the efficacy of clinical hypnosis with headaches and migraines https://doi.org/10.1080/00207140601177921
“According to these standards for judging the efficacy of clinical psychology treatments, the use of hypnosis with headaches and migraines qualifies as a well-established treatment that is both efficacious and specific. The efficacy of hypnosis with headaches has been demonstrated to be statistically superior or equivalent in comparison with commonly used medication treatments, in a double-blinded placebo controlled study, in comparison to established biofeedback treatments, and in research performed by many different investigators. “
Hypnosis Intervention Effects on Sleep Outcomes: A Systematic Review
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5786848/#B16
“First, successful hypnosis interventions for sleep may be relatively short. Our review indicates that on average, 3 to 4 sessions were sufficient to obtain benefits for sleep outcomes.
Second, hypnosis is a flexible approach with a big toolbox of techniques that can be tailored to the specific individual and their symptoms.
Further, hypnosis appears to be an approach with a low incidence of adverse effects…sleep problems are typically treated with sleep medications that have known unpleasant side effects and have an unknown efficacy for long-term use.
Of 24 of the included studies, more than half (58.3%) reported a positive effect of the hypnosis intervention on the assessed sleep outcome over time. Mixed results indicating improvements in some but not all sleep outcomes were presented in 12.5% of the included studies. The rest of the publications (29.2%) demonstrated no effects of hypnosis or comparable effects of hypnosis and control conditions on sleep outcomes.
Efficacy and cost-effectiveness: A study of different treatment approaches in a tertiary pain center https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ejp.674
“The most prominent results were obtained for patients allocated to the self-hypnosis/self-care group, although they received only six sessions over a 9-month period. These patients showed significant benefits in the areas of pain intensity, pain interference, anxiety, depression and quality of life.”
Hypnotherapy is more effective than nicotine replacement therapy for smoking cessation: Results of a randomized controlled trial https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0965229913002100
“Hypnotherapy is more effective than NRT in improving smoking abstinence in patients hospitalized for a smoking-related illness, and could be an asset to post-discharge smoking cessation programs. Hypnotherapy patients were more likely than NRT patients to be nonsmokers at 12 weeks (43.9% vs. 28.2%; p = 0.14) and 26 weeks after hospitalization (36.6% vs. 18.0%; p = 0.06).”
* The “gold standard” of research is the double-blind study where neither patient nor researcher knows which group receives each intervention. That is pretty hard to do with an intervention like hypnosis. With that said, the above studies were conducted by reputable institutions with appropriate rigor applied to both the methodology and data analysis.
“Hypnosis is the oldest Western form of psychotherapy, but it’s been tarred with the brush of dangling watches and purple capes,”
- David Spiegel, Assoc. Chair of Psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine
“Allie helped me stay calm and focused during a really tough time. Working with her was a game changer for my stress level.”
—Kalya M.
I’m curious but I’ve still got questions…
Schedule a 30 min “Can I help you?” call.
You’ll share with me what your goals are and I’ll tell you honestly if I can help and how.
You’ll get all your questions answered and
have a clear idea of your best next step.
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