If you are seeking relief for a medical condition, you probably want to find a health care professional-such as a physician, nurse, psychiatrist, psychologist or social worker-who is trained and experienced not only in hypnosis but also with your particular symptom or ailment. Always seek people who have had the maximum training possible in the area in which you are seeking help. Remember, it is your mind they will be working with. Finding a qualified hypnotherapist isnt that hard. Many health care professionals licensed in other fields practice hypnosis, so chances are good that your health care professional can give you a referral. Two major organizations that are recognized as having high professional standards are The American Society of Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH) and The Society of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis (SCEH). Both can provide the names of qualified practitioners in your area:
Hypnosis is a medium or modality through which you may become more alert to your own thoughts and feelings. But its not all that different from being absorbed in thought or reading a book. With hypnosis, you are far more open to suggestion, at least to suggestions compatible with what you are motivated to achieve. It is a form of intense receptive concentration. Accordingly, hypnosis often is used to modify behavior and overcome phobias and bad habits–it can help you make changes that youve been unable to make otherwise. Questions notwithstanding, hypnosis seems to be effective for many people. In fact, a National Institutes of Health (NIH) panel has endorsed its use for the relief of various types of chronic pain. As a relaxation technique, hypnosis can help reduce your stress. Its also used to relieve phobias, lessen anxiety, break addictions and ease symptoms of conditions such as asthma or allergy. Using hypnosis can help patients control nausea and vomiting from cancer medications and morning sickness, reduce bleeding during surgery, steady the heartbeat and bring down blood pressure.
Hypnotherapy is the therapeutic use of hypnosis. In hypnotherapy, hypnosis is used by psychotherapists to modify a patients behavior. According to the American Association of Professional Hypnotherapists, there is a 75-90% chance of effectively changing behavior with hypnotherapy. Once the patient has seen a hypnotherapist, self-hypnosis can be learned, and is sometimes recommended as part of the treatment plan. Self-hypnosis involves a patient using relaxation techniques and specific signals to clear his mind of extraneous thoughts and sensations.
Preparation
Hypnotherapy requires only that the patient desire to change a certain type of behavior. The hypnotherapist usually prepares for the sessions by asking the subject to stare at an object, suggesting, in a soothing voice, that the eyelids are becoming heavy, that the subject relax, and that he is becoming hypnotized. Then, the hypnotherapist conveys to the subject that it will be effortless to follow the hypnotherapists suggestions
Aftercare
Coming out of the hypnotic state is as simple as entering it. Waking from the hypnotic state slowly is preferable for optimal results. After hypnosis, subjects report changes in bodily sensations and describe an awareness of having gone into an altered state of mind.
Risks
Because hypnosis can sometimes completely remove or distract people from feeling pain, it is important that a doctor, or other appropriate medical specialist, assess the underlying medical or psychological condition. This assessment is important because, when using hypnosis to reduce pain or other physical symptoms, the pain may be alerting the patient to a problem that needs some other form of medical or psychological treatment. As an example, a brain tumor might be causing chronic headaches, and require immediate treatment.
Normal results
Family doctors have begun using hypnosis to treat psychosomatic illness, control appetite, and reduce the need for medication. Because of the utility of using hypnosis to reduce the sensation of pain, it can make it possible for physicians to lower dosages of pain medication in cases of chronic illness. Because hypnosis is actually an intense state of concentration, physicians have now accepted the fact that patients can regulate their own heart rate, circulation, temperature, muscle tension, and other body functions, if necessary.
Abnormal results
Hypnotherapy requires that the patient desire to change a certain type of behavior. Success is greater the more committed the subject is to change. If the patient is reluctant, hypnotherapy may be unsuccessful.
Key Terms
- Anesthesia
- The absence of normal sensation, especially sensitivity to pain as induced by an anesthetic substance, or by hypnosis. May be induced for medical or surgical purposes topically, locally, regionally, or generally.
- Hypnotherapist
- A professional who uses hypnosis as an adjunct to other techniques in psychotherapy
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