Clinical Hypnosis


History

Hypnosis has been used for thousands of years in many different forms. There are numerous references from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome.

We recognize its present-day relationship beginning with Dr. Franz Mesmer's research into the prevalent ailment of "hysteria" that led to the theory of animal magnetism in the late 18th century. This is comparable to modern-day stress, or in the most extreme form, to the modern Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

The most inspirational hypnotic practitioner to date in modern times was undoubtedly Dr. Milton Erickson, who is largely responsible for the conceptualization of brief therapy. By using covert suggestion in normal conversation, he fathered an entirely new branch of hypnotherapy, developing, refining and promoting indirect suggestion as a means of bypassing resistance.




Trance State

Trance State is an altered state of consciousness, used to encourage and evaluate responses to suggestions. When using hypnosis, one person (the subject) is guided by another (the hypnotist) to respond to suggestions for changes in subjective experience, alterations in perception, sensation, emotion, thought or behavior.

When the subject responds to hypnotic suggestions, it is generally inferred that hypnosis has been induced. Details of hypnotic procedures and suggestions will differ depending on the goals of the practitioner and the purposes of the clinical or research endeavor.

While the majority of individuals are responsive to at least some suggestions, scores on standardized scales range from high to negligible. As it is the case with other positively scaled measures of psychological constructs, such as attention and awareness, the salience of evidence for having achieved hypnosis increases with the individual's score.




Mind-Body Medicine

Although evidence over the past decades suggests that psychosocial factors directly influence both physiologic function and health outcomes, conventional medicine has failed to move beyond the biomedical model.

Mind-body medicine focuses on the interactions among the mind, body, behavior and the powerful ways in which emotional, mental, social, spiritual and behavioral factors directly affect health outcomes.

Hypnosis, as the suggestion in its most potent form, establishes the capacity for conditioning and formation of habit patterns that exceed by far those developed at ordinary levels. Consequently, hypnotic conditioning ameliorates organic conditions based on an important psychogenic factor.

Mind-Body Medicine constitute a major portion of the overall use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) by the public. According to National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2002, Mind-Body Interventions like hypnosis, relaxation techniques, visual imagery and biofeedback were used by more than 30 percent of the adult U.S. population.



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