Hypnotherapy: In the media, hypnosis is often depicted as a control strategy of magicians, wizards, and enchanters to drive people into action–whether that’s to steal something, fall in love, or do a crazy act. While all these may seem funny and bizarre, hypnosis isn’t all about that. In fact, with the right guidance, clinical hypnosis can bring positive effects to your overall health.
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What Is Hypnosis?
Harnessing the abilities of the mind has always been a fascination among scientists and researchers alike.
Hence, they continue to look for credible ways to train the mind and unlock more of its gifts. On the therapists and clinician’s end, all these science-backed studies can help complement traditional therapy treatments and methods.
Hypnosis is a powerful activity commonly done during psychological treatment. It’s initiated by a licensed psychologist, hypnotist, or physician to guide the patient in recalling unpleasant events, memories, and feelings that might be blocking the patient from attaining recovery.
These deep-seated experiences may also be the culprit behind unhealthy coping strategies.
Past life regression therapy uses hypnosis to return to prior life spans to resolve and restore deeply-held trauma. You can also look into what is past life regression and freely explore how this can help you.
How Does Hypnotherapy Work?
Medical hypnosis, commonly denoted as hypnotherapy, is performed by a trained hypnotist or a psychotherapist together with another clinical method.
Alternatively, hypnosis may be used as a standalone treatment during counselling sessions.
Trained professionals will provide their clients with a set of instructions, verbal cues, as well as breathing and relaxation practices to help the client fall into a trance-like state of improved concentration.
As stated by the American Psychological Association, the practice of hypnotherapy is bounded by rules and confidentiality limits so it won’t be abused.
Considering all these, look for a licensed professional who has been adequately trained to execute hypnotherapy as not all psychologists specialized in this area.
Moreover, here are some benefits you may gain through hypnotherapy:
1. Help Promote Deep Sleep
According to the American Psychiatric Association, among different types of sleep-wake disorders, insomnia has been regarded as the most common.
Insomnia is defined as a persistent difficulty with sleep initiation, duration, or quality. When not treated immediately, this can hurt your social, occupational, and other life areas.
Insomnia may also be triggered or aggravated by certain medical issues and lifestyle habits.
Richard Barker, the professional hypnotist, claimed that worrying about insomnia can cause insomnia.
However, if you remove the familiarity of insomnia and replace it with an image of how you slept well in the past, you may start to witness progress.
Through mental pictures induced during hypnosis, Barker reported that the patient will begin to remember how they were able to get adequate sleep and eliminate the anxiety and fear brought by insomnia.
Additionally, Swiss researchers, lead by Maren Cordi of the University of Zurich, conducted a study to gauge the effects of a hypnotic suggestion tape taken by a group of young women.
In the study, the researchers were monitoring the brain activity of the subjects during their 90-minute nap after listening to the tape.
After their successful experiment, researchers have claimed that hypnosis may be beneficial for older adults suffering from sleep problems.
Cordi also stated that hypnosis brought no harmful side effects to the subjects.
Considering this, hypnotherapy may be a helpful resource that can address recurring and persistent problems of falling and staying asleep.
With clinical hypnosis, you may enter into a relaxing space and experience more quality sleep.
2. Ease Pain
Research performed by the National Library of Medicine claimed that medical hypnosis may help decrease chronic pain linked to numerous health conditions, such as cancer, arthritis, and fibromyalgia.
However, the researchers did reveal that only a few psychologists were applying the method in conjunction to traditional psychotherapy.
Moreover, hypnosis may also relieve minor to moderate pain, such as headaches, migraines, and lower back pain. Through your hypnotist’s guidance, you may be able to manage the annoying pain and gain more self-control over it.
3. Reduce Feelings Of Anxiety
Most people experience anxiety from time to time. However, persistent anxiety that’s already crippling you and causing you distress already requires medical attention.
More so, clients who are experiencing severe anxiety can be diagnosed with an anxiety-related mental disorder if they met the clinical criteria.
Melinda Beck, a columnist from The Wall Street Journal, states that hypnosis may work similarly with the placebo effect.
During anxiety-inducing medical procedures, patients have certain expectations about the procedure that impacts how they perceive and feel about it.
Fortunately, with a couple of relaxation and breathing techniques, patients may be able to successfully deal with those feelings, reducing their apprehension.
Hypnosis has been reported to manage the anxiety that’s rooted in a chronic health illness, life-altering medical procedure, phobia, and other similar events that don’t pose any definite threats.
However, more studies have to be done to determine whether or not hypnosis can benefit those who are diagnosed with anxiety-related mental illnesses, such as generalized anxiety disorder.
If you’re about to give birth, will undergo an operation, or attend chemotherapy, you may freely explore how hypnotherapy can aid you.
During your therapy sessions, your clinician will instruct you to do slow breathing and intense focus to lower your blood pressure and help you relax.
This heightened state of awareness, also known as trance, may help you focus on specific thoughts that’ll help you overcome your fear and anxiety brought by the upcoming medical procedure.
Final Thoughts
Because of surging studies and science-backed claims, medical hypnosis or hypnotherapy has been reported to do wonders on your physical and mental health.
Given its set of benefits, you may become interested in trying it out to see how the treatment can improve the quality of your life.
However, make sure to work with a trained medical professional who has been performing hypnotherapy for years.
This is to ensure that you’ll be able to witness its benefits, debunk its myths, and be free from potential harm.
