What is Hypnotherapy
Do you remember the last time you were completely relaxed? That blissful feeling when mind stops wondering and all worries get lifted instantly. You get in the zone, in the groove, forgetting yourself, the place where everything is possible.
Now imagine that you can get into similar state at will anytime that you want. And in that state you choose to relax even more or make positive changes in your life. For some it can be to replace harmful habits such as smoking, vaping, overeating, procrastination. For others – fear of flying, fear of public speaking or spider phobia. Somebody else wants to be more confident, feel motivated, energised. These are just few topics of what Hypnotherapist could work on with a client. The lists is endless.
In essence, Hypnotherapy is where you use Hypnosis to help someone overcome a problem.
As one of the fathers of modern Hypnotherapy, Milton Erickson said:
“Hypnosis is a loss of multiplicity of the foci of attention”.
According to Erickson, Hypnosis helps to awaken the client to the potential of their being. It is not something like autosuggestion where you repeat the same phrase again and again: “every day I get better and better” Erickson believed and trusted in the power of subconscious mind and it’s ability to change the way we do things for better.
There are many studies on hypnosis and its effects and the two things that now we know:
- It works for most people in changing behaviours: losing weight, quitting smoking, overcoming phobias, anxiety, sleeping disorders, fear of flying or public speaking. It can also help to become more confident, more motivated and a better human being.
- It is safe and unlike medication, doesn’t have side effects.
It is a fantastic tool to help people change their lives for the better.
There are also increased evidence that hypnosis is effective for many people experiencing pain, anxiety, PTSD, a stressful labour and birth, irritable bowel syndrome, and other clinical complaints.
For some of these conditions, that used to rely heavily on drugs, hypnosis outcompetes standard treatments on cost, efficacy and side-effects.
This is where drug companies maybe slightly unease.
Placebo effect
Before the drugs reach the pharmacy, they must undergo a clinical trial or few, where they must perform at least slightly better than a placebo (a fake drug with no active ingredient). A group of patients who get a placebo, thinking it is an actual drug should have at least a bit lower results than a group taking new expensive drug.
Placebo is merely a strong suggestion of a drug given by the authoritative figure – scientists at a reputable institution. In essence they are getting Hypnotised and eventually heal without any medication. This a good example how strong the suggestion can be and how it is used in our medicine right now.
Despite decades of research on therapeutic value of Hypnosis and a growing understanding of its mechanism in the brain, the uptake has been remarkably slow.
Much of that is down to the common misconception that hypnosis is little more than a stage magician’s trick.
However, the trend is changing. The demand in our fast paced and educated society for efficient, side-effect free alternatives is higher than ever. There are also many more clinical studies conducted confirming superiority of using Hypnosis to treat even clinical symptoms.
How does it work?
Generally, hypnosis is associated with relaxation. To be more precise, a person enters a sort of daydream, a state of deep concentration. In that state of relaxed concentration, you can imagine a better future, or a life without cigarettes, losing weight, being more confident, more successful. For something to happen in the real world, it must first happen in the imagination first and this is what a Hypnotherapist works on.
We can achieve all the things that we do with hypnosis without using a hypnotic trance. It’s just that hypnosis allows the change to happen much faster. In the world where it has become essential to deliver the outcomes fast and without side-effects Hypnosis excels.
When was it invented?
It is important to note, that practices similar to Hypnosis have existed in many cultures around the world for centuries before it arrived to the Western World. From the trance in traditional southern African healing practices, to the shamanism of Siberia, Korea and Japan, not forgetting Native North American medicine.
Thus, during the last thousands of years there were practices that tap into the body’s ability to enter a hypnosis-like state, however the West has ignored them. Gladly it caught up later in the 18th century Europe and North America.
You might have heard a term “mesmerise”, it actually came from the practices of German physician Franz Mesmer, who popularised the theory of animal magnetism. Mesmer believed that there is an invisible magnetic fluid flowed throughout the human body, influencing our health and behaviour. He played his part demonstrating how magnetism works and treating patients.
What he discovered evolved through generations, and was further used and developed further by many scholars including Sigmund Freud, James Braid and of course Milton Erickson – all their work eventually became known as Hypnosis.
How does it feel from the patient point of view?
Paul McKenna, globally famous Hypnotherapist has shared that a patient of who lost over 130 kg said “it was like a switch was flipped in my head and suddenly I just didn’t want to overeat”. A lot people tend to say “suddenly when I closed my eyes and relaxed I just knew it was all going to be okay, that something inside me changed so for a long time”.
As Paul McKenna puts:
“In the past people thought it was like a magic power, mostly associating with fun performances on the TV. Now it’s not a magic power but the results you get can be magical.”
Future developments
Hypnosis is further researched, and applications are studied.
It is not new that hypnosis can elevate pain. The British doctor who used hypnosis as anaesthesia in India was Dr. James Esdaile. He was a surgeon working in British colonial India during the 1840s and 1850s. He performed over 300 major and 1,000 minor surgeries using mesmerism (a form of early hypnosis, remember Franz Mesmer?) as the sole anaesthetic, allowing painless surgical procedures including amputations and tumor removals. When he got back to the UK, he was rejected, mainly since pharmaceutical companies where already on producing usual pain killers that we still use generations later.
Nowadays, we have strong clinical evidence that Hypnosis is highly effective in Alleviation of Clinical Pain. A Comprehensive Meta-Analysis found that it helps in vast majority of control participants.
Amid the other symptoms with thousands if not millions suffering from modern world induced anxiety, fear of missing out, chronic stress, sleep disorders, Hypnotherapy has become a safe harbour to the ones who aim for a safe and gentle way to change their lives for better.
Audrius Kazlauskas
Credits: this article is based on the interviews with Paul McKenna as well as clinical researches. Links provided in bold.
