Therapies
Hypnotherapy
Introduction
Achieving altered states of consciousness can be dated back
thousands of years to early cultures where chanting and dancing were used as
healing rituals. Healing through the hypnotic state can even be traced back
as far as the Druids who referred to the altered state as "magic
sleep". However, it was not until the mid 19th Century that the current
methods of capturing a patients' total concentration through eye contact and
verbal suggestion were established. Even then several schools of thought
were developed and when Freud decided not to use hypnosis in his field of
psychoanalysis it was many years before hypnosis as a tool for healing was
again taken seriously. In 1955 the British Medical Association finally
approved hypnosis as a valuable technique in the world of healing.
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What
is Hypnotherapy?
Hypnotherapy uses the power of the mind to help heal physical
as well as emotional problems. It helps the patient discover the underlying
emotional and psychological causes to their ailments. It differs from
hypnosis in that there is more interaction between the patient and the
therapist in hypnotherapy, allowing the patient to discover more about the
emotional background to his or her current problems. Hypnosis is more
suggestive than therapeutic.
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How
does it work?
There is no doubt that our minds and bodies work together,
when one is under stress, the other suffers. We have all experienced it -
blushing when embarrassed, going pale with shock, having sweaty palms when
nervous. These are just small instances of the way in which our minds can
affect our bodies. Medical literature is now full of studies confirming that
many diseases are psycho-somatic (caused in the mind) or stress-related.
Some doctors have estimated that as much as 75% of modern disorders are
actually induced through stress. Fortunately, the power of the mind has also
been shown to be a primary factor in healing many diseases, even cancer. It
is therefore important in any physical or emotional health problem not to
overlook hypnotherapy on the road back to health.
Research has proven that the body chemistry can change in trance states, for
example a girl who was unable to hold her hand in icy water for more than 30
seconds in normal consciousness was able to do so for 30 minutes under
hypnosis with no change in blood cortisol levels. In another experiment, a
man was told that the pencil he was holding was burning his hand and, being
in a trance state, he dropped it. Afterwards he recalled being aware that he
was only holding a pencil but he definitely felt the heat!
The debate rages on as to why phenomena like these occur, with some experts
saying that the trancelike state allows us to suspend normal logic and allow
ourselves to accept illogical suggestion. However, it is still unknown
whether the changes that are experienced under hypnosis are real or
imagined.
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What
does a hypnotherapy treatment involve?
A Hypnotherapist will attempt to find out as much about the
client and their problem as possible during the first visit to try and
establish the relevant psychological factors and the appropriate mode of
treatment.
In hypnotherapy you will be relaxed in a comfortable chair or couch and by
talking in a firm but monotonous voice, the therapist will put you into a
hypnotic state - neither asleep nor awake. You will be asked to relax your
body by breathing deeply and slowly. The therapist will then try to extract
information from your subconscious mind in order to find the cause of your
problem, possibly by taking you back to your childhood for your earliest
memories. Suggestions may be made to your subconscious which will be related
to your problem. At the end of the session you will be brought out of the
hypnotic state feeling calm, relaxed and re-energised.
Hypnotherapists state that
the subconscious will only accept commands that do not conflict with the
natural instinct for self-preservation and will therefore not allow the
patient to become an object of exploitation by an unprincipled therapist.
However,
due to the very intimate nature of hypnotherapy, it is extremely important
to the success of the treatment that you carefully select the therapist in
order to establish a trusting rapport, and to be absolutely certain that the
hypnotherapist's first priority is the patient's welfare.
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