What is clinical hypnotherapy?

Clinical hypnotherapy is the use of the hypnotic state to facilitate easier communication with our inner self for the purpose of enabling beneficial changes.

This can help us to overcome certain emotional, psychological and physical challenges that prevent us from reaching our true potential or impair quality of life.

It is a safe, natural therapy, which utilises the power of the subconscious mind to effect long lasting positive changes. Studies estimate that about 85% of the population are responsive to hypnotic techniques and it has been shown to be effective where other methods have not succeeded.

How does it work?

A hypnotherapist will normally discuss your situation with you and agree on a desired outcome. The hypnotherapy part of the session will typically include you being guided into a state of hypnotic relaxation with the result that the subconscious mind is more open to receiving beneficial suggestions for change.

Often the hypnotherapist will teach you self-hypnosis techniques as well to help you to practice and accelerate the process of change. In this way the power of your own unconscious mind is utilised to enable you to make the changes in your life, which are important to you. Download some instructions for Self Hypnosis here.

When carried out by a professionally trained and skilled hypnotherapist, the benefits are usually long lasting and often permanent. It is completely natural and safe, with no harmful side effects.

Prerequisites for successful therapy

In my experience I have noticed that there are a number of factors which are needed for successful hypnosis and therapy:

• the subject’s talent for hypnosis and a desire to change
• good communication between the hypnotherapist and the subject
• the subject’s trust in the hypnotherapist
• the skill and experience of the hypnotherapist

Clinical applications
The main criteria for the use of hypnotherapy is that the cause of the problem lies within the subconscious mind. Sometimes this can be as a result of a traumatic event or series of events or is a ‘learned behaviour’.

It is perhaps interesting to reflect on the fact that the subconscious mind always acts to protect the subject which means that unwanted or unhealthy fears, phobias, habits and behaviours are a form of self-preservation or mis-placed coping mechanism. Left to themselves these can develop to such a point where they interfere in a negative way with everyday life.

The British Medical Association and Hypnotherapy

In 1955 the Psychological Medicine Group of the BMA commissioned a Subcommittee of experts to deliver a second report (the first had been in 1892) which was published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) the same year under the title of ‘Medical use of hypnotism’.

The 1955 Subcommittee endorsed the original BMA report and remarked that its conclusions ‘showed remarkable foresight and are mainly applicable today.’

In the report they conclude that the phenomenon of hypnotic trance is genuine and is ‘a proper subject for scientific enquiry.’ They also provided an extensive statement on the potential uses of hypnosis in a medical context and concluded that it offers an effective technique in the psychotherapy of neurosis, psycho-somatic conditions and in the control of physical pain:

‘The Subcommittee is satisfied after consideration of the available evidence that hypnotism is of value and may be the treatment of choice in some cases of so-called psycho-somatic disorder and psychoneurosis. It may also be of value for revealing unrecognised motives and conflicts in such conditions. As a treatment, in the opinion of the Subcommittee it has proved its ability to remove symptoms and to alter morbid habits of thought and behaviour. […]

In addition to the treatment of psychiatric disabilities, there is a place for hypnotism in the production of anaesthesia or analgesia for surgical and dental operations, and in suitable subjects it is an effective method of relieving pain in childbirth without altering the normal course of labour.’ (BMA, 1955)

They also noted the nature of the phenomena induced in hypnotism’, and accepted that ‘profound and easily measurable changes of physiological function can be induced under hypnotism’, and stressed ‘the relative simplicity and brevity of hypnotic techniques’ when compared to other forms of therapy.