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Hypnotherapy used to treat mental health issues including addiction, chain smoking
Renee Rosenow
Issue date: 5/5/08 Section: Money/Health
"I believe that when it is used by qualified mental health professionals who have other clinical skills hypnosis can be a very powerful tool,"
she said.
Crothers said problems with hypnosis arose a few years ago when therapists were using hypnosis to help patients de-repress memories of childhood abuse.
She said the danger of this technique is while some patients recall actual life memories, others may recall events that did not happen in reality. Such memories are called "pseudo memories." She said the problem is that pseudo memories feel real to the patient and may cause increased distress for them, rather than promoting psychological healing.
She said she never uses hypnosis to de-repress memories, but instead uses it at appropriate times with selected patients to help them master anxiety or achieve trauma resolution.
She added hypnosis helps in these situations because it allows the patient to tolerate his or her anxiety about what happened and can be a very helpful and therapeutic tool.
She said if she did use hypnosis to help a patient to stop smoking or lose weight it would not be the only part of the treatment.
Marano said most of his sessions are around an hour long and the number of sessions needed to treat a person varies on their situation.
Marano said his smoking cessation program, for example, is two sessions back to back (one time) and has a 90 percent success rate.
Crothers said she is skeptical about hypnosis programs that do one-time large group sessions to stop smoking. She said during hypnosis, people's defenses are down, and she is concerned about this placing fragile individuals in a vulnerable position during large group sessions, when no one can attend carefully to individual participants' reactions.
Covington said her aunt underwent hypnotherapy about 10 years ago to stop smoking and hasn't smoked since. She said her aunt didn't do a one-time session but went to see a hypnotist over a period of a few weeks.
Marano and Crothers both agreed that credentials are important when looking for a hypnotist.
Marano said a person should have at least the C.H. behind their name meaning "certified hypnotist," indicating they graduated from an accredited school in hypnosis.
Crothers stressed the importance of knowing her patients well and understanding their boundaries and their trauma histories before using hypnosis. She said that if she treated 100 patients she might only use hypnosis for seven or eight.
Marano said a person cannot be forced to be hypnotized and that hypnosis is not for everyone, but works well for just about everybody.
"The only thing that makes hypnosis effective is the participant wants the outcome."
she said.
Crothers said problems with hypnosis arose a few years ago when therapists were using hypnosis to help patients de-repress memories of childhood abuse.
She said the danger of this technique is while some patients recall actual life memories, others may recall events that did not happen in reality. Such memories are called "pseudo memories." She said the problem is that pseudo memories feel real to the patient and may cause increased distress for them, rather than promoting psychological healing.
She said she never uses hypnosis to de-repress memories, but instead uses it at appropriate times with selected patients to help them master anxiety or achieve trauma resolution.
She added hypnosis helps in these situations because it allows the patient to tolerate his or her anxiety about what happened and can be a very helpful and therapeutic tool.
She said if she did use hypnosis to help a patient to stop smoking or lose weight it would not be the only part of the treatment.
Marano said most of his sessions are around an hour long and the number of sessions needed to treat a person varies on their situation.
Marano said his smoking cessation program, for example, is two sessions back to back (one time) and has a 90 percent success rate.
Crothers said she is skeptical about hypnosis programs that do one-time large group sessions to stop smoking. She said during hypnosis, people's defenses are down, and she is concerned about this placing fragile individuals in a vulnerable position during large group sessions, when no one can attend carefully to individual participants' reactions.
Covington said her aunt underwent hypnotherapy about 10 years ago to stop smoking and hasn't smoked since. She said her aunt didn't do a one-time session but went to see a hypnotist over a period of a few weeks.
Marano and Crothers both agreed that credentials are important when looking for a hypnotist.
Marano said a person should have at least the C.H. behind their name meaning "certified hypnotist," indicating they graduated from an accredited school in hypnosis.
Crothers stressed the importance of knowing her patients well and understanding their boundaries and their trauma histories before using hypnosis. She said that if she treated 100 patients she might only use hypnosis for seven or eight.
Marano said a person cannot be forced to be hypnotized and that hypnosis is not for everyone, but works well for just about everybody.
"The only thing that makes hypnosis effective is the participant wants the outcome."
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Ralph Benko
posted 5/05/08 @ 8:44 PM CST
Nice article! It was picked up by the Pnosis RSS Feed on its homepage and projected around the world. (Pnosis is a general interest magazine about hypnosis and hypnotists read in 79 countries around the world. (Continued…)
Jobu
posted 5/06/08 @ 3:47 AM CST
Contrast this with the quote from the famous Ehrich Weiss:
"Hypnotism and mind-reading are fakes."
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