For centuries, scientists, physicians, and researchers have taken a keen interest in hypnotherapy. More specifically, they’ve been driven by a simple question: Does hypnotherapy provide medical benefits?
Today, we have decades’ worth of research that says, yes, hypnotherapy can help alleviate a variety of conditions, from helping people quit smoking to reducing depression.
So what is hypnotherapy?
Here’s a quick definition: Hypnotherapy is the use of hypnosis for therapy and behavior modification. To practice hypnotherapy, you enter into hypnosis, a deeply relaxed state in which the mind becomes more responsive to suggestions. In this state, you provide suggestions directly to the subconscious mind, which can have therapeutic benefits. For example, if you wanted to use hypnotherapy to quit smoking, you might enter hypnosis and then suggest that you “no longer need to smoke.”
Increasingly, hypnotherapy is being recommended for medicinal use. This is a recent trend. The medical establishment only began endorsing the use of clinical hypnosis beginning in the 1950s. Now, the list of healthcare providers that prescribe hypnosis includes some of the world’s top healthcare facilities, including the Mayo Clinic and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
So what’s driving the trend? Why are more and more healthcare providers prescribing hypnotherapy?
For one, hypnotherapy is effective. Based on research, it’s a more effective alternative to traditional psychoanalysis. A classic hypnosis study found that, on average, patients required just six hypnotherapy sessions with a 93-percent recovery rate. Psychoanalysis, on the other hand, required roughly 600 sessions with just a 38-percent recovery rate.
Sounds interesting? But now you might be wondering: What exactly is hypnotherapy? How does it work? Or does it even work?
Here, you’ll find a broad overview of hypnotherapy, including what you can expect by visiting a hypnotherapist, some examples of how it works, and the types of conditions it can help, as well as what the medical research says about hypnotherapy.
Hypnotherapy vs Hypnosis: Key Differences
The words “hypnosis” and “hypnotherapy” tend to be used interchangeably. But there’s a key distinction between the two. During hypnotherapy, a patient is hypnotized, but once they reach this state, “therapy” is performed.
In other words, hypnotherapy is a more focused and therapeutic version of hypnosis. In fact, if you were to undergo hypnosis, chances are you wouldn’t experience long-term benefits, because it wouldn’t have been targeted to your specific needs.
In addition to these distinctions, there are several others that set hypnotherapy apart from hypnosis. They include:
Hypnotherapist vs Self-Hypnosis
Hypnotherapy is performed by a certified hypnotherapist. In general, hypnotherapists are required to complete more advanced training, and therefore, they offer a more complete and therapeutic hypnosis experience. Hypnosis can be conducted via a 1-on-1 session, but it’s also self-administered, through recordings and scripts.
Tailored to Your Needs
Each patient seeking hypnosis has his or her own subconscious thinking patterns. And these subconscious thoughts are what keep a negative behavior in place. For hypnosis to be effective, the experience must be tailored to reversing this “root cause.” In general, hypnotherapy seeks to understand the root causes of addiction, phobia, or compulsion, and deliver therapy that is designed to reverse the subconscious source. Hypnotism, on the other hand, may not provide such a personalized approach. In fact, many hypnotists offer a generalized, one-size-fits-all approach.
Specialized Care
Hypnotherapists are trained to address a variety of conditions – including overeating, food addiction, substance abuse, smoking, weight loss, phobias, and negative thinking. In other words, their training provides the tools to address a much longer list of conditions. Plus, hypnotherapists have a much broader toolbox of techniques to work with, including visualization, neuro-linguistic programming, root cause analysis, and reframing. With more tools, hypnotherapists can provide an approach that’s tailored to each individual’s needs. Hypnotists tend to offer much more general service and may specialize in just one technique.
Effectiveness
Ultimately, hypnotherapists want you to succeed. Yet, hypnotherapy tends to empower clients more effectively. The reason? Hypnotherapists are trained to recognize change resistance behaviors and uncover the root cause. Additionally, hypnotherapists encourage follow-up appointments to reinforce positive behaviors. Therefore, results may be longer-lasting and achieved more quickly.
What Can Hypnotherapy Help With?
Hypnosis is all about reframing the subconscious thinking patterns that control our daily lives. Some of these automatic patterns are necessary for survival, but there are many that can have a negative impact.
In other words, virtually any condition that’s driven by subconscious thinking can be reversed or improved using hypnotherapy.
Ultimately, the goal of hypnotherapy is to identify the root cause, provide suggestions for overcoming or reframing that negative behavior, and ultimately, reinforce the behavior during follow-up sessions.
In particular, hypnotherapy can help you overcome:
Compulsive behaviors
Compulsions like overeating or procrastination tend to be rooted in faulty subconscious thinking patterns and associations. We associate overeating with rewards or celebration, and therefore, we continue to do it. Hypnosis can help you identify these negative associations and develop strategies for overcoming them.
Phobias and Fears
Phobias and fears – i.e. claustrophobia, fear of flying, or fear of the dentist – can control our lives. Yet, often they’re the result of automatic, irrational thinking that has hijacked our conscious thought processes. Hypnosis provides a means for quieting these irrational thoughts and replacing them with new more helpful associations.
Addictions
Over time, addiction transforms our subconscious mind through repetition. Smokers, for instance, have specific rituals, i.e. smoking while driving or smoking after eating, that activate subconscious thoughts and reinforce the addiction. Through suggestion therapy, hypnosis can help us begin to untangle and reframe these automatic thoughts and overcome a range of addictions, including gambling, smoking, drugs, and alcohol, and even shopping or binge eating.
Depression and Anxiety
Conditions like depression control our subconscious thoughts, and the result is that the voice in your head becomes a feedback loop of negativity. Hypnotherapy can help us isolate the root cause of our depression or anxiety and provide strategies to help quiet these negative thinking patterns.
Stress
Stress is a poison on the body, and it causes a number of adverse health effects, including weight gain, hypertension, depression, anxiety, and rage. Controlling stress can help us live happier, healthier lives. Yet, stress is amplified by our subconscious thoughts. Therefore, through hypnosis, we can begin to gain a firmer grasp on stress and reduce the number of stressors in our lives.
This is just a shortlist of the most common conditions hypnosis can be used to help. There are many more. If you’re curious if hypnotherapy can help you, reach out to us now.