Hypnosis has been known and studied for centuries, but only in the last few decades and with discordant opinions has it been accepted in a therapeutic environment, and in particular psychotherapeutic, in the control of pain, in the treatment of psychosomatic disorders, in the treatment of neuroses, in the elimination and correction of behavioral disorders, etc.
It is a model that gives the therapist the instruments to intervene with methodological rigor at a deep, tacit, unconscious and implicit level in the patient. It allows you to access and modify things for which the patient cannot find the words. Helps in a situation of emotional suffering for which neither explanations nor knowledge of the alleged causes have been helpful. In this Psychology-Online article, you will see What is hypnotherapy and what is it for?
What is hypnotherapy?
Hypnotherapy is the therapeutic application of hypnosis. In general, it must be remembered that it is situated among the so-called short therapies, although within it the possibility of going deeper into psychotherapeutic work is considered.
The hypnotherapist uses hypnotic trances and facilitates therapeutic hypnotic experiences in the patient so that he can reorganize, from the inside, his personal meanings and his own experiential world. Therefore, it is a therapy in which the patient is active, especially when he is in a trance, because he is the one who activates his personal unconscious search for meanings.
What is hypnotherapy for? It is generally used for complex psychological problems and to treat psychopathological disorders, as well as to intervene more deeply when a simple approach to symptom resolution has not been successful. The therapeutic procedure consists of using spontaneous or induced hypnotic trance states so that the patient can reorganize new knowledge and new perspectives within themselves. In hypnotherapy the change occurs mainly in and, only at a later stage, the patient may need to consciously analyze the change that has occurred.
Now we have seen what hypnotherapy is and, next, we will tell you what hypnosis is for.
What is hypnotherapy for?
The psychopathologies in which hypnosis is considered a treatment are psychological problems characterized by a substantial psychogenic modification of the state of consciousness. Among the most serious are multiple personality disorder, amnesia and psychogenic fugues.
The power of hypnosis has proven to be just as effective for post-traumatic stress disorders and for all those psychopathologies in which moments of depersonalization or dehumanization are evident. For example, bulimic attacks or obsessive rituals, among others. In general, all psychopathologies that have an obvious traumatic origin respond very well to trance treatment.
What is hypnotherapy for? For all anxiety disorders, mood disorders such as depression, eating disorders and the , in addition to real psychosomatic disorders. Another level also refers to the use of hypnosis for couple problems and in family therapy.
On the other hand, hypnotizations are used in psychotherapyin medicine and in odontology for the treatment of pain due to its natural characteristics and because it facilitates the production of unconscious contents.
What happens in hypnotherapy?
Most hypnotherapy sessions last an hour, but some maybe only 30 minutes depending on the depth of hypnosis being done. What happens in hypnotherapy? Each therapist runs their sessions a little differently, but in general this is what you can expect in a hypnotherapy session.
- Beginning: When the session begins, you will come in, chat with the therapist and perhaps have some tea to begin the relaxation process. The hypnotherapist can play some relaxing music and can keep the lighting low in the office to promote relaxation.
- Pre-hypnosis phase: how to hypnotize? When you feel comfortable and relaxed, the hypnotherapist will begin to hypnotize you. Typically this involves using one of different techniques that resemble those used during meditation. You will often be asked to visualize, either crossing a bridge over flowing water in a quiet field or descending a series of steps. The hypnotherapist may use a tape recording of himself conducting this talk for hypnotization.
- Hypnosis: what happens in hypnosis? Once hypnotized, the therapist will begin to give you hypnotic advice that encourages you to adopt different behavior to adapt or erase negative associations from your mind. This is the critical part of the therapy and can take up to thirty minutes or more, depending on the purpose of the therapy.
- Post-hypnosis: After the therapist has given you the necessary hypnotic suggestions to change your behavior, you will slowly begin to come out of the deep hypnotic state. This is always done slowly so that your subconscious has a chance to accept the hypnotic suggestions that have been given and so that the conscious mind becomes acclimated to being active again instead of resting.
What happens after hypnosis? It may take you a few minutes to come out of the hypnotic state and become truly alert again. Often people experience a state of relaxation so deep that they are reluctant to go back to full speed because they are enjoying the relaxation segment so much. Although you are never unconscious during hypnosis, you may want to take a nice nap after the session.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
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Bibliography
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- CPCPIE (2018). General information on ipnosi and ipnoterapia. Retrieved from: https://centroipnosi.it/area-clinica/informazioni-generali-su-ipnosi-e-ipnoterapia/
- CPCPIE (2018). Ipnosi and ipnotherapy. Retrieved from: https://centroipnosi.it/ipnosi-e-ipnoterapia/
- Master, A. (2019). I secreted the ipnosi. Impara a sfruttare la potenza dell’ipnosi. Giochidimagia Editore.