The New York Times
22-05-2003
Source hyperlink

Hypnosis Therapy Offers New Hope for Pain Relief

Summary: Hypnosis therapy is gaining attention as an effective treatment for chronic pain, according to new research and testimonials from patients. By using guided relaxation and focused attention, hypnotherapy aims to alter the perception of pain in the brain.

Dr. James Walker, a hypnotherapist and researcher at the University of London, has been studying the effects of hypnosis on pain management. “Our studies suggest that hypnotherapy can significantly reduce pain intensity and improve the quality of life for chronic pain sufferers,” he said.

In a recent study published in the British Medical Journal, patients who underwent hypnosis therapy reported a 40% decrease in pain levels. These findings have sparked interest in the medical community, leading to further exploration of hypnotherapy as a complementary treatment for pain.

Mary Smith, a 50-year-old arthritis patient, shared her positive experience with hypnotherapy. “Before trying hypnosis, I was in constant pain and dependent on medication,” she said. “After several sessions, my pain has become more manageable, and I’m able to reduce my medication intake.”

Despite its promising results, hypnotherapy has its skeptics. Critics argue that the placebo effect could play a significant role in the perceived benefits of hypnosis. However, proponents like Dr. Walker believe that the therapeutic potential of hypnosis should not be dismissed.

“While more research is needed, the evidence we have so far is encouraging,” Dr. Walker said. “Hypnotherapy has the potential to become a valuable tool in the management of chronic pain.”

National Institutes of Health
12-2002
Source hyperlink

Hypnosis in pediatrics: applications at a pediatric pulmonary center

Abstract
Background: This report describes the utility of hypnosis for patients who presented to a Pediatric Pulmonary Center over a 30 month period.

Methods: Hypnotherapy was offered to 303 patients from May 1, 1998 – October 31, 2000. Patients offered hypnotherapy included those thought to have pulmonary symptoms due to psychological issues, discomfort due to medications, or fear of procedures. Improvement in symptoms following hypnosis was observed by the pulmonologist for most patients with habit cough and conversion reaction. Improvement of other conditions for which hypnosis was used was gauged based on patients’ subjective evaluations.

Results: Hypnotherapy was associated with improvement in 80% of patients with persistent asthma, chest pain/pressure, habit cough, hyperventilation, shortness of breath, sighing, and vocal cord dysfunction. When improvement was reported, in some cases symptoms resolved immediately after hypnotherapy was first employed. For the others improvement was achieved after hypnosis was used for a few weeks. No patients’ symptoms worsened and no new symptoms emerged following hypnotherapy.

Conclusions: Patients described in this report were unlikely to have achieved rapid improvement in their symptoms without the use of hypnotherapy. Therefore, hypnotherapy can be an important complementary therapy for patients in a pediatric practice.

The New York Times
10-09-2002
Source hyperlink

Hypnotherapy: A New Tool for Stress Management

September 10, 2002 — Hypnotherapy is emerging as a promising method for managing stress and anxiety, according to recent studies and experts in the field. The technique, which involves inducing a trance-like state to enhance focus and suggestibility, is being used to help individuals cope with the pressures of modern life.

Dr. Laura Green, a hypnotherapist based in New York, has seen a significant increase in the number of clients seeking hypnotherapy for stress management. “In our fast-paced society, people are looking for effective ways to deal with stress,” she said. “Hypnotherapy offers a unique approach by helping individuals access their subconscious mind to promote relaxation and change negative thought patterns.”

Recent research published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology supports the effectiveness of hypnotherapy. The study found that participants who received hypnotherapy sessions reported a 30% reduction in stress levels compared to those who did not receive any form of therapy.

One case in point is John Doe, a 35-year-old financial analyst, who turned to hypnotherapy after experiencing chronic stress and insomnia. “I was skeptical at first, but after a few sessions, I started to sleep better and feel more at ease,” he said. “Hypnotherapy has made a significant difference in my life.”

Despite its growing popularity, hypnotherapy remains a subject of debate within the medical community. Some critics argue that more extensive research is needed to fully understand its benefits and potential risks.

Nevertheless, practitioners like Dr. Green remain optimistic about the future of hypnotherapy. “We are just beginning to understand the full potential of this therapy,” she said. “With continued research and acceptance, hypnotherapy could become a mainstream treatment for stress and anxiety.”

British Psychological Society
2001
Source hyperlink

British Psychological Society Report on Hypnosis

As a Chartered Psychologist and member of the British Psychological Society (BPS), I was very interested to stumble across a review of hypnosis by the BPS.

The review was led by the renowned psychologist Professor Michael Heap and other experts. It was published in 2001, shortly after I started practicing hypnotherapy in London. The findings of the report are very interesting and I quote in full below the section on the effectiveness of hypnotherapy for anxiety and many other conditions:

“Applications of hypnosis in therapy and evidence of its effectiveness Although accounts of the clinical applications of hypnosis have been published in books and journals over the last 150 years or so, it is only in the last 30 years that serious attempts have been made to evaluate the outcome of hypnotic procedures in groups of patients with specific problems. In such studies, hypnotic procedures have constituted the main component of treatment and have typically been directly targeted at symptom alleviation.

Enough studies have now accumulated to suggest that the inclusion of hypnotic procedures may be beneficial in the management and treatment of a wide range of conditions and problems encountered in the practice of medicine, psychiatry and psychotherapy. In many cases, however, the relative contribution of factors specific to hypnosis is as yet unclear, and often the influence on outcome of the measured hypnotic susceptibility of the patients is small or insignificant.

The results of clinical research may be summarised as follows: There is convincing evidence that hypnotic procedures are effective in the management and relief of both acute and chronic pain and in assisting in the alleviation of pain, discomfort and distress due to medical and dental procedures (Blankfield, 1991; Genuis, 1995; Lang, Benotsch et al., 2000; Lang, Joyce et al.,1996; Montgomery, DuHamel & Redd, 2000; Walker et al., 1991) and childbirth (Brann & Guzvica, 1987; Freeman et al., 1986; Jenkins & Pritchard, 1993).

Hypnosis and the practice of self-hypnosis may significantly reduce general anxiety, tension and stress in a manner similar to other relaxation and self-regulation procedures (Schoenberger, 2000). Likewise, hypnotic treatment may assist in insomnia in the same way as other relaxation methods (Anderson, Dalton & Basker, 1979; Stanton, 1989).

There is encouraging evidence demonstrating the beneficial effects of hypnotherapeutic procedures in alleviating the symptoms of a range of complaints that fall under the heading ‘psychosomatic illness’. These include tension headaches and migraine (Alladin, 1988; Holroyd & Penzien, 1990; ter Kuile et al., 1994); asthma (see review of clinical studies by Hackman, Stern & Gershwin, 2000); gastro-intestinal complaints such as irritable bowel syndrome (Galovski & Blanchard, 1998; Harvey et al., 1989; Whorwell, Prior, & Colgan, 1987; Whorwell, Prior & Faragher, 1984); warts (DuBreuil & Spanos, 1993); and possibly other skin complaints such as eczema, psoriasis and urticaria (Shertzer & Lookingbill, 1987; Stewart & Thomas, 1995; Zachariae et al., 1996).

Hypnosis is probably at least as effective as other common methods of helping people to stop smoking (see review by Green & Lynn, 2000). Meta-analyses by Law & Tang (1995) and Viswesvaran & Schmidt (1992) give mean abstinence rates for hypnosis at 23 per cent and 36 per cent respectively. There is evidence from several studies that its inclusion in a weight reduction programme may significantly enhance outcome (Bolocofsky, Spinler & Coulthard-Morris, 1985; Kirsch, Montgomery & Sapirstein, 1995; Levitt, 1993).

There have been fewer studies specifically on children, but the available evidence suggests that the above conclusions may be extended to children and young people (Hackman, Stern, & Gershwin, 2000; Sokel et al., 1993; Stewart & Thomas, 1995; see also review by Milling & Costantino, 2000).

Too few studies have been published investigating the adjunctive use of hypnosis in broader psychotherapeutic programmes for the treatment of specific psychological disorders such as depression, sexual dysfunction and disorder, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, speech and language disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder and phobic disorders. A similar statement may be made concerning its use in sports psychology.

The above conclusions are provisional, as research on the clinical effectiveness of hypnosis is continuing with improved Methodology” (Heap et al 2001, pp. 9–10).

As can be seen, the report is very favourable regarding the effectiveness of hypnotherapy. The report also suggests that more research is needed, which is a sentiment I fully support. It is only through research that we can identify the best strategies and approaches for applying hypnosis to treating various conditions.

The British Psychological Society
03-2001
Source hyperlink

The Nature of Hypnosis – A report prepared by a Working Party at the request of The Professional Affairs Board of The British Psychological Society

Summary: The report highlights an important ruling by France’s highest court, the Cour de Cassation, deeming evidence collected from witnesses under hypnosis as inadmissible in court proceedings. The article features the views of hypnotherapist Alban de Jong, who criticizes the court’s decision, emphasizing the significance of his hypnotherapy work in providing crucial evidence for solving puzzling cases. De Jong provides examples where his work under hypnosis led to vital breakthroughs in criminal investigations, thereby questioning the court’s dismissal of hypnosis evidence. The article also presents the perspective of the court and provides specific case examples, showcasing the debate surrounding the utilization of hypnosis in legal proceedings.

Harvard Gazette
21-8-2000
Source hyperlink

Hypnosis found to alter the brain: Subjects see color where none exists

People have been hypnotized to see color where only shades of gray exist, and to see gray when actually looking at brightly colored rectangles.

That result wouldn’t be so surprising at a carnival or stage show, but it comes from a tightly controlled scientific experiment done at a Harvard University medical facility.

Researchers separately hypnotized eight people as they lay in a scanning machine that recorded activity in their brains. These subjects then tried to drain bright color from pictures, or see color where none existed. They also attempted to do the same thing when not hypnotized. The records of cerebral activity clearly show that hypnosis can change the state of the brain.

“Hypnosis has a contentious history,” notes Stephen Kosslyn, professor of psychology at Harvard and leader of the study. “Some insist it’s a state of mind that differs from normal states and involves unique consequences; others say it’s nothing more than state-show gimmickry.”

Color testCOLOR ME HYNOTIZED: Under hypnosis, some people see only shades of gray in this pattern of brightly-colored rectangles. Such a result shows that hypnosis can change the state of the brain. As an example, if you give some men a brick and ask them to hold it at arm’s length for as long as they can, they will be able to do it for about five minutes. But if you hypnotize them, they will hold the brick out for 15-20 minutes. That result favors the idea that hypnotism creates a unique state of mind.

However, if you tell males that some females who were just tested held the brick out for 20 minutes, they, too, will hold it for that long without being hypnotized. That result favors a suggestibility, or role-playing explanation.

“It all comes down to the question of whether the brain is doing something different,” Kossyln says. The answer apparently is yes, at least in the case of color perception.

How the brain changes

To show how controversial hypnotism is among scientists, Kosslyn and colleagues had great difficulty in getting their research published. Two of the world’s largest scientific journals wouldn’t publish the results.

“One of them asked for three separate revisions,” notes William Thompson, a research assistant in Harvard’s department of psychology. “Then they still turned down our report even after we answered all their criticisms.” After three years, their study has finally been published as the cover story in the August issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Both Kosslyn and Thompson emphasize that the experiment worked only on “highly hypnotizable” people, a category that includes only about 8 percent of all people. “We pre-tested 125 subjects and for those who scored lowest in hypnotizability, the results were just garbage,” Kosslyn says. “They couldn’t do the task.”

The highly hypnotizables slid horizontally into a positron emission tomography (PET) scanner at Massachusetts General Hospital, a Harvard teaching hospital in Boston. They inhaled a short-lived, slightly radioactive type of oxygen. The oxygen traces blood flow and makes visible the most active parts of the brain when a subject is hypnotized and not hypnotized.

It took between two and ten minutes to hypnotize the people while they lay in the scanner. A computer screen overhead then presented them with a pattern of yellow, red, blue, and green rectangles, similar to a painting by the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian. They tried to “drain” the color from what they saw on the screen while the PET scanner recorded their brain activity. Under the same conditions, they saw the rectangles in various shades of gray and had to color them with their minds.

When not under hypnosis, people asked to perceive color – whether they actually saw color or not – showed activity on only the right side of their brains. (The brain is split into right and left hemispheres by a furrow filled with nerve fibers that connect the two halves.) When told to see gray, whether looking at color or gray, again changes in activity occurred on the right side only.

That result was expected on the basis of previous research. However, under hypnotism the researchers found what Kosslyn calls “a curious tweak.” Both the left and right hemispheres responded. In other words, the right side of the brain alone responded to what the subjects saw when they were not hypnotized, but both sides responded under hypnosis.

“The left hemisphere color area registered what people were told to see only when they were hypnotized. The right hemisphere registered what people were told to see [independently of what they actually saw] whether or not they were hypnotized,” Kosslyn explains. “If you ask people [who are not hypnotized] to visualize color in a gray pattern, or vice versa, only the right hemisphere is activated during the task. Thus, our findings in the left hemisphere could not have been produced by mental imagery alone.

“What we have shown for the first time,” Kosslyn concludes, “is that hypnosis changes conscious experience in a way not possible when we are not under hypnosis.”

How hypnosis works

Why the hemispheric differences? Kosslyn and his colleagues think that the right hemisphere is more sensitive to goals and expectations. This part of the brain finds it easier to reinterpret sensory experience to match the images a person wants to perceive – to see color where none exists, or to color a gray palette. This idea fits with the fact that, in most people, the left side deals more with logic and reason, so may require an extra boost from hypnosis to disassociate itself from the senses, i.e., to change what is actually seen.

Such disassociation of senses, Kosslyn and Thompson speculate, may account for the success of hypnosis in reducing pain and anxiety, combating insomnia, and helping some people to quit smoking. Pain, anxiety, insomnia, and smoking, might be reduced by the same type of brain activity that allows some people to drain color from brilliantly hued rectangles.

Highly hypnotizables apparently would be better at this than most people or those who show the lowest levels of submission. Thompson is studying the brain differences between high and low hypnotizables. So far, he has found that the middle-part of a brain area called the cingulate gyrus shows more activity in the highs than lows. This area deals with attention and emotion.

Does changing a brain by hypnosis mean hypnotizables can gain more control over what are normally involuntary functions of the brain – responses to stress, regulation of hormones, control of the immune system, for instance? Maybe. David Spiegel of Stanford University School of Medicine, who collaborated on the color experiments, is interested in the possibility of bolstering the body’s defenses against disease by psychological means that might include hypnosis. Evidence exists that strengthening these defenses may reduce the rate of growth of cancer tumor.

At this point, anything beyond changing color perception is pure speculation, Kosslyn and Thompson insist. However, Kosslyn refers to their study as “the thin edge of a wedge that shows that conscious experience can be changed in a willfully directed way by hypnosis.”

Other researchers who participated in these experiments include Associate Professor of Radiology Nathaniel Alpert of Harvard Medical School and Maria Costantini-Ferrando of Weill Medical College, Cornell University. The research was made possible by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

The Independent
06-04-2000
Source hyperlink

Hypnosis ‘can help asthma sufferers’

Summary: Hypnotherapy could help asthma sufferers to halve their use of reliever inhalers, according to new research.

A study of 39 asthma patients found that those who were given hypnotherapy showed a dramatic improvement in symptoms compared with those who were not.

The research, carried out at University College London, found that after a year, patients who had undergone hypnosis sessions had cut their use of reliever inhalers by half and their use of preventer inhalers by a third.

They also reported feeling more in control of their illness and less anxious about their condition.

The findings are published in the journal Respiratory Medicine.

Dr John Weinman, who led the research, said: “This study shows that hypnosis could be a powerful complementary therapy for people with asthma, reducing their symptoms and improving their quality of life.

“Asthma is a condition that can be made worse by stress and anxiety. Hypnosis can help to reduce stress levels and give patients a greater sense of control over their illness.”

The patients in the study were divided into two groups. One group had four sessions of hypnotherapy over a month, while the other group had no hypnosis.

Both groups continued with their usual medication throughout the study.

After a year, the group who had undergone hypnosis reported using their blue reliever inhalers an average of 3.3 times a day, compared with 6.2 times a day for the control group.

Use of brown preventer inhalers had also fallen from 3.1 times a day to 2.1 times a day in the hypnosis group, while there was no change in the control group.

Dr Weinman said the results were encouraging, but larger studies were needed to confirm the findings.

He added: “Hypnosis is not a cure for asthma, but it could be a useful addition to conventional treatments.”

The National Asthma Campaign welcomed the research but said more studies were needed.

A spokeswoman said: “This is an interesting study which suggests that hypnotherapy may have a role to play in helping some people with asthma.

“However, it is important to remember that this was a small study and more research is needed before we can draw any firm conclusions.”

Los Angeles Times
27-7-1999
Source hyperlink

Hypnotherapy Gets More Concentration

The Yellow Pages ads beckon.

“Hypnotherapy as a career.” “Become a certified hypnotherapist.”

A form of behavior modification that involves deep relaxation and intense concentration, hypnotherapy is riding the wave of increased acceptance among alternative forms of health care, health-care experts say.

And as the number of potential clients increases, so does the number of people who find such ads, and the training programs behind them, alluring.

Some San Fernando Valley area practitioners who have taken up the calling say the field–long considered by many to be more parlor trick than science–is showing increasing promise as a viable vocation that can generate up to six-figure incomes.

So far, only a few studies vouch for the efficacy of hypnotherapy–and most of those focused on its use in conjunction with more traditional forms of medicine, said Shri K. Mishra, who heads the Complementary/Alternative Medicine program at the University of Southern California.

Still, the number of believers on both sides of the recliner is growing, with some estimates asserting there are more than 20,000 “certified hypnotherapists” nationwide, double what it was 10 years ago.

The discipline took a big leap toward respectability late last year when Blue Cross of California, the second-largest health insurer in the state, included hypnotherapists in its network of “alternative medicine and wellness resources” for many of its members.

But even as insiders celebrate what some are calling a “watershed event,” they question some of the internal workings in the industry, asking, for instance, whether more government oversight is needed for the virtually unregulated field.

And in one local case involving hypnotherapy training, the clash between expectation and career experience has led to a lawsuit.

Insiders say it’s an industry in transition, with no clear game plan on which way to go.

*

Most hypnotherapists make a distinction between their practice, which involves use of hypnotic techniques to bring about a health or behavior-related outcome, and stage hypnotism, where you may end up squawking like a chicken.

Confusion in the public’s mind between the two contributes to a lingering huckster image, some hypnotherapists say. And trying to change that image is just one of the challenges hypnotherapists say they face. Filling the hours of the day with paying clients is often another.

For about a year after Tarzana-based hypnotherapist Lupe Zuniga began her private practice in 1989, she had to hold down two other jobs to make ends meet.

But even during the lean times, she said she never questioned whether she could make it work.

“I just felt this pull,” said Zuniga, adding that she earned at least $75,000 annually once the practice took off. “It never entered my mind that I wouldn’t be a success. It all depends on the effort you put into it.”

Steven LaMar Peterson, on the other hand, is grateful for a spouse with a steady income. As a full-time hypnotherapist in Valencia, his income has been a bit spotty.

“It would be much more of a struggle if I didn’t have a wife who had a good job,” said Peterson, who received his training in hypnotherapy about six years ago, after becoming disillusioned with his work in computers.

“It was substantially rougher than I thought it was going to be.”

Both Peterson and Zuniga got their training at Tarzana-based Hypnosis Motivation Institute, founded in 1968 as a family run business by psychotherapist John George Kappas.

The school also counts as one of its graduates actress Florence Henderson of “The Brady Bunch” fame. Henderson is married to John Kappas. And it boasts of being the only hypnotherapy school in the country to be accredited by the Accrediting Council for Continuing Education & Training.

But now it’s facing a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court in April by three HMI graduates who claim, in part, that the school “misleads potential students about the prospects for earning a living as a hypnotherapist after graduation,” according to the complaint.

Jeffrey Higley, one of the three plaintiffs and a 1998 HMI graduate, said he believes the school does not disclose “the tremendous difficulty people have in setting up their career. It’s a lot tougher than you’re led to believe.”

While generally positive about his experience at the school, Peterson, who is not a plaintiff in the suit, also said the school did not prepare him for the hard knocks he encountered in the early years of his practice.

“If a student really knew what their odds were of having a full-time practice, they’d probably have fewer students,” Peterson said.

But George Kappas, son of the founder and director of the school, said HMI graduates are making a living in the field, noting that many practitioners in the Blue Cross program got their start at HMI.

“One thing that it does require is that you have to maintain a realistic perspective,” said Kappas, whose school graduates about 170 students per year, roughly 60% of whom plan to pursue a career in hypnotherapy. “It’s not going to happen overnight.”

Kappas declined to go into detail about the pending legal action, which he labeled a “harassment lawsuit.”

But he was effusive in his discussion on the impact of the Blue Cross program, which was expanded last month to include all Blue Cross members.

In Los Angeles County alone, 74 hypnotherapists, including more than 50 based in the Valley, have agreed to join the Blue Cross Healthy Extensions program, offering Blue Cross members discounts averaging from 10% to 25%.

Some Valley hypnotherapists said they’ve already seen inquiries increase as a result of the program, described by many as a first for a major health-care company.

“It’s the most significant step to ever happen in the field,” George Kappas said. “Just having the Blue Cross name with hypnotherapy makes a major perception difference in the general public.”

Kappas sees the Blue Cross involvement as the first step on a path that will ultimately lead to state registration or even licensing for hypnotherapists, something his organization has pushed.

Currently the state gives 20 hypnotherapy schools in California approval to operate and attempts to verify that the schools are delivering on the education they promise. But the state does not weigh in on the widely varying curricula–ranging from one weekend for a few hundred dollars at one school, to more than one year and a $9,000 price tag at another.

And despite the fact that several schools, including HMI, describe themselves as “state-licensed,” the state does not license schools or students.

Most practitioners describe themselves as either a “certified hypnotherapist” or “certified clinical hypnotherapist.” Neither is regulated by the state. Instead, many schools, including the leading ones in the Los Angeles area, establish separate arms to certify their graduates.

At HMI, students are certified by the Hypnotherapists Union, Local 472, a group George Kappas heads and that includes mostly HMI grads.

“You have to create a certification agency because there isn’t any,” Kappas said. “What we would like to see is state standards.”

The suit facing HMI challenges a past practice in which students were required to join the union as a condition of completing the training. The practice was halted after one of the plaintiffs complained.

At the Hypnotism Training Institute of Los Angeles, which is in Glendale, students are certified by the American Council of Hypnotist Examiners, which was established by the school’s founder, Gil Boyne.

And at the Irvine-based American Institute of Hypnotherapy, where one can become certified after a weekend of classes and some at-home study, certification is handled by the American Board of Hypnotherapy. The board is headquartered in the offices of the institute and was established, in part, by the institute’s founder, A.M. Krasner.

Bob Strouse, an administrator at the American Institute, said his school also has been pushing for state regulation, a move he and others say will do even more to increase the public’s confidence in this still mysterious field.

“We are hopeful,” Strouse said. “Hopefully, that’s the direction we’ll be able to go.”

BBC News
23-4-1999
Source hyperlink

Health ‘No link between hypnotism and madness’

Hypnotic facts
Variations of hypnosis used in ancient times
1775
Dr Franz Mesmer in Vienna uses “animal magnetism”, basis of modern-day hypnotism
1821
magnetism first used in dentistry in France.
1845-1853
hypnotism used as form of anaesthesia in surgery by James Esdail.
1914
new era of hypnosis due to shortage of psychiatrists in World War One
1950s
the British Medical Association backs hypnosis
1962
brain operation performed under hypnosis in US
1993
Large survey shows hypnosis is best way to give up smoking

Hypnotist Paul McKenna was cleared of causing mental illness

Hypnosis cannot cause mental illness, a conference on hypnotherapy will hear.
Dr Graham Wagstaff, a researcher and member of the British Society of Experimental and Clinical Hypnosis, will tell its annual conference in Birmingham on Saturday that there is no proof that hypnosis can cause severe mental illness such as schizophrenia.

Stage hypnotist Paul McKenna was recently cleared of causing a man to become schizophrenic after he appeared in his show.

Dr Wagstaff told News Online: “If people have an underlying mental health problem, a whole variety of things could make it worse, such as an accident.

“But that is not a peculiar characteristic of hypnosis.

“It depends what the hypnotist does. Hypnotists should take the normal safeguards that any good therapists does.”

There are currently few regulations regarding hypnotherapy.

Anyone can advertise as a hypnotherapist in the Yellow Pages and they may have only the most minimum of knowledge of the subject.

Some hypnotherapists are calling for the regulations to be tightened, but Dr Wagstaff says this should apply to other therapies as well, such as counselling, where there are also few regulations.

“There is nothing particularly unusual about hypnotherapy,” he said. “Bad therapy is bad therapy wherever it is found.”

He added: “A lot of the fears over hypnosis are due to an outdated concept of hypnosis related to entertainment.

“A lot of people think it makes you enter a strange state where you lose control and are controlled by the hypnotist who can cause strange neurological effects.”

Education

He said there was a great need for education about what hypnosis involved.

“Most people who have been hypnotised say it is a situation where they imagine and relax and go along with suggestions made to them unless they are violently opposed.

“They do not zonk out and lose consciousness.”

He believes people do stupid things when hypnotised on stage because of social pressure rather than as a result of hypnosis.

“It would be embarrassing if they did not join in. That is not hypnosis,” he said.

He added that there were great differences between stage and clinical hypnosis.

“Stage show hypnosis is for entertainment. There is no preparation, no relaxation and no case history is taken.”

He said most hypnotherapists would do a risk assessment before subjecting a person to hypnosis.

BBC News
29-06-1998
Source hyperlink

Hypnosis ‘doubles IVF success

Summary: Women who are hypnotised before undergoing the transfer of an embryo as part of fertility treatment are twice as likely to become pregnant as women who are not, according to Israeli researchers.

Dr Eliahu Levitas and his team at Soroka Hospital in Beersheva found that 28% of women who were hypnotised became pregnant, compared with 14% of those who were not.

The researchers studied 185 women who were undergoing embryo transfer.

Twelve of the 98 who were not hypnotised became pregnant, compared with 28 out of 87 who were hypnotised.

Dr Levitas said: “This shows that hypnosis can be used to improve embryo transfer, and also to reduce the anxiety of women waiting for that single crucial moment of implantation.”

Embryo transfer is a crucial stage in in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment.

It involves placing the embryos that have been fertilised in the laboratory into the woman’s womb.

Dr Levitas believes hypnosis helps women to relax, and that this may make the lining of the womb more receptive to receiving the embryo.

The hypnotised women were more relaxed and optimistic after embryo transfer, the researchers found.

They also needed less sedation during the transfer procedure.

Dr Levitas said hypnosis could be used to treat infertility in general, not just during IVF treatment.

He said: “We don’t know why, but we know that the chances of getting pregnant are reduced when a woman is stressed.

“Maybe hypnosis helps to reduce stress in these cases too.”

The research was presented to the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology conference in France.