When to Consult a Hypnotist

[R1986]

I was wondering what the professionals on here think about when consulting a hypnotist is the right step in any kind of treatment. Do you recommend other forms of psychotherapy first or is hypnosis considered a good treatment in place of traditional psychiatry?

[Paddy Landau]

That is a great question.

Hypnosis tends to help with anything that is mentally involved and is not a medical condition (such as schizophrenia).

It can often help with conditions such as depression when used in conjunction with conventional treatment.

In some cases, hypnosis is the preferred first approach, e.g. with smoking, and in others, it is not, e.g. with OCD.

Where the brain is able to affect the body, hypnosis can work with that, too. For example, I knew one documented case where hypnosis helped an AIDS victim to increase his white blood cell count. Of course, this was only a temporary measure and it did not last; and you should also be aware that hypnosis cannot promise this sort of thing reliably or consistently.

Paddy

[R1986]

Thanks for starting it off Paddy. If someone wanted to say, get help with anxiety or a similar psychological issue, would you recommend hypnosis first or some other type of psychotherapy? I wonder when hypnosis is best suited toward treated an ailment and how quickly it can be gone to. Perhaps this will be a highly subjective question but I'm still curious to hear your informed opinion.

[Paddy Landau]

Yes, it is a subjective question. However, we can make it more objective by asking questions such as:

• Would you like to solve this quickly or to take a long time? (Almost everyone would answer "quickly".)
  
• What does research indicate is the most effective option?
  
• What are your personal preferences? For example, some people dislike the very idea of hypnosis.
  
• What are your various options? Are you happy to "mix-and-match" or would you prefer to go with just one therapy?
  
• What does your doctor say about it?

"Traditional" psychotherapy (i.e. Freudian), generally speaking, either doesn't work or takes a long time. However, psychiatry has moved a long way since Freud. In fact, modern psychiatrists include hypnotherapy as part of their arsenal.

Hypnoanalysis seems to be a mixture of Freudian-style analysis combined with modern hypnotherapy. Some people get great success with this, and other people find it distressing without helping at all.

When looking at hypnotherapists, you'll want to find their styles. Some use past-life regression; some hypnoanalysis, either with or without childhood regression; some use a mixture of hypnosis, NLP or other therapies; and so on. Which style would you prefer?

So, again, yes, it is indeed subjective. Your personal preferences will matter.

Paddy

[katharina]

[Paddy Landau]

This was on tape as part of my hypnotherapy training. Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of the hypnotherapists involved (there was more than one hypnotherapist).

Bear in mind that your state of mind affects your immune system, so it's not quite as surprising as it might have seemed at first.

Breasts do change size during pregnancy, so, I guess it's at least theoretically possible for hypnosis to change them; however, I have not come across any reliably documented cases.

The only thing I know about height is that you grow until physical maturity, and then from around the age of 30 you start to shrink (slightly). I don't suppose that hypnosis can affect this.

Paddy

[R1986]

Thanks for the response Paddy, that was exactly the kind of response I was interested in reading.

Do most hypnotists hold regard for traditional psychotherapy methods? I know you can't speak for the entire community obviously but this is a facet of this discussion that I started thinking about after reading your responses.

[Paddy Landau]

[hypno-therapist]

Some great observations, theories and beliefs have been shared here, but really I would like to add something.

FACT: The answer is not in the therapy!

Whether it be psychiatry, psychotherapy, hypnotherapy or behavioral techniques, the answer always lies with the client. This is where I feel that certain therapies and therapists may railroad themselves and not reach their optimum.

It is so easy nowadays to say that Freudian techniques don't work and are in some cases very inappropriate and even dangerous in regards to misdiagnoses, however without guys like Freud, we would be a lot poorer in knowledge.

In fact one psychiatrist that was considered in the same league as Freud and guy called Frankl, is responsible along with Freud, Ellis and Beck, amongst others, for the understanding that we have about the psychological function in humans.

All therapists could do well by learn more of other approaches and even learning some basics of how the mind actually works instead of going on faith in their sometimes 'non evidence' based techniques.

[RastaKid]

I think that you don't have to go through other sessions first.You can go to a hypnotherapy session whenever you think you have a problem that cannot be solved by other ways.

[Brandbla8]

Regular doctors are always wanting to throw medications at you when they are not all the time needed. It is good to have other options depending on the situation.