Hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness with focused attention, increased suggestibility, and reduced awareness of the outside world.
It is an awake state of deep relaxation and concentration, in which the mind moves away from everyday worries. In this relaxed state, the subconscious can respond creatively to suggestions, allowing the client to change unwanted patterns. In this deeply relaxed state, you decide for yourself whether to accept a suggestion or not. The solutions you find on your own in such a deeply calm state are the most effective.
The term medical means that hypnosis is used for healthcare purposes, i.e., to relieve and resolve psychological and psycho-physical difficulties, and it is performed by a professionally trained therapist who has completed additional training. In contrast to medical hypnosis, there is stage hypnosis, which, by eliciting many hypnotic phenomena, is intended primarily to entertain an audience and is performed by laypeople, self-taught practitioners, and magicians.
The Society for Medical Hypnosis recommends caution when choosing a hypnotherapist and advises against hypnotherapy being carried out by inadequately trained professionals. You can view a list of some DMHS medical hypnosis therapists here.
Hypnosis is therefore a complex psychological method that, under the guidance of an experienced, professionally trained therapist and with targeted suggestions tailored to the client’s difficulties, can be very effective. Children enter hypnosis faster and more easily than adolescents or adults. Because they have a vivid imagination and strong ability to visualize, they also use this in the hypnotic state. Self-hypnosis (a person hypnotizes themselves) is used to reduce performance anxiety, break bad habits, reduce stress, and change behavior, values, and motivation.
The history of medical hypnosis.
Uses of medical hypnosis
- States of anxiety and apprehension (anxiety), blushing, excessive sweating,
- fears, phobias, panic attacks, obsessions (flying, the dentist, visiting the doctor, spiders, enclosed spaces…)
- ego strengthening, boosting self-confidence, stage fright, before exams,
- headaches, migraines,
- insomnia,
- emergency situations,
- pain relief, preparation for surgical procedures,
- increasing effectiveness and motivation for sports training,
- psychosomatic conditions: asthma, stomach ulcer, chronic inflammation of the large intestine (Crohn’s disease), neurodermatitis, various allergies, PMS, etc.,
- addictions: smoking, obesity, support with alcohol addiction,
- speech disorders: stuttering, blocks, speech disorders after brain injuries and hemorrhages (aphasia), speech tics and habits,
- *excessive irritability, aggression, restlessness,
- bedwetting (enuresis), involuntary stool leakage (encopresis),
- *depressive states,
- recalling past events in everyday life (for example, when you forget where you put something),
- *eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, orthorexia (excessive concern with healthy eating),
- *forensics: recalling specific details of an event, describing an object (license plate number, the shape and features of a car, etc.).
Although (medical) hypnosis is versatile, not every hypnotherapist covers all areas.
Medical hypnosis can also be very helpful for cancer patients, either as part of palliative care, to increase comfort/reduce pain, or as a method to ease medication side effects, strengthen the ego, and provide supportive therapy during radiation treatment…
Hypnosis is also used to prepare for childbirth and parenthood, for difficulties during pregnancy, for difficulties conceiving, and for non-hormonal relief of menopausal symptoms.
Preparing for childbirth and parenthood
Hypnosis as preparation for childbirth and parenthood helps you experience pregnancy as calmly as possible, approach birth with confidence, have a positive birth experience, and navigate the postpartum period. It can help:
- make birth easier, at just the right pace, with less discomfort and fewer complications,
- boost your self-confidence and trust in yourself,
- help you form positive beliefs about the start and course of labor and the birth of your baby,
- reduce fears and worries,
- help you start and continue breastfeeding more easily.
Thanks to its positive effects, postpartum blues and depression occur less often.
3–5 sessions are recommended, so plan the first session around the 30th week of pregnancy, unless you will be using hypnosis already during pregnancy. You will also learn self-hypnosis.
Difficulties during pregnancy
Many difficulties can be psychosomatic. The goal is to keep stress hormones as low as possible. Hypnosis during pregnancy can help with issues such as:
- severe nausea and vomiting,
- various fears (fear of congenital anomalies, miscarriage, examinations, procedures…),
- threatened preterm labor,
- high blood pressure, especially during check-ups,
- coping with more challenging situations.
Difficulties conceiving
Hypnotherapy can help infertile couples before, during, and after fertility treatment:
- by keeping stress and anxiety as low as possible,
- by increasing self-confidence and trust in yourself,
- by reducing feelings of guilt, inferiority, and inadequacy,
- sexual dysfunction,
Non-hormonal relief of menopausal symptoms
- reduce hot flashes,
- improve your sex life,
- relieve insomnia,
- improve concentration,
- change your lifestyle,
- reduce sadness and feelings of being unnecessary or rejected,
- lose weight and
- break habits and addictions.
Hypnosis is a harmless procedure with no side effects, provided it is performed by a properly trained hypnotherapist. The number of sessions depends largely on the nature of the client’s difficulties, their motivation, and their trust in the therapist.
Hypnotherapy is not recommended for people with psychotic disorders, personality disorders, or epilepsy.
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Misconceptions
- Being unable to come out of a hypnotic trance: we always come out of trance when we want to, so there is no need to fear this. Even in cases where the hypnotist leaves their subject or becomes unable to communicate with them, the hypnotized person notices the change in state and automatically comes out of trance.
- A person in a hypnotic trance reveals secrets: a misconception that is quite widespread. A person only shares what they want to share with the therapist.
- Hypnosis works better on less intelligent people: the opposite is true.
- Only certain people can be hypnotized: this is not true. Most people can reach a hypnotic state if they are properly motivated and have the right attitude toward hypnosis. In fact, hypnosis is a naturally occurring phenomenon that almost everyone has experienced in everyday situations such as watching TV, listening to music, or driving on autopilot.
- A person in a hypnotic trance loses free will: this is, of course, not true. What the hypnotized person does with the suggestions given by the therapist is entirely up to them. They can accept them, ignore them, discard them, or resist them. Every hypnosis is essentially self-hypnosis, and you can think of the therapist as someone who brings suggestions to you on a tray, while you choose the one you want to take.
- Hypnosis reduces our rationality: completely false. We are in a hypnotic trance many times in everyday life (e.g., when we watch a film that absorbs us, read an interesting book, stare out the window and relive a nice holiday memory, etc.), so hypnosis is actually part of our lives and does not affect our rationality.
- The hypnotist has special powers: which is not true. Anyone who can communicate with others can learn to perform hypnosis.
- In a hypnotic trance, we are asleep: although hypnosis was named after the god of sleep (Hypnos), a hypnotic trance is not sleep. Communication with a sleeping person is not possible. In hypnosis, a person’s brain is in a similarly active state as when awake.
