The role of hypnosis in hypnotherapy: why use hypnosis at all?

Hypnotherapists often say that hypnosis is not, in itself, a therapeutic treatment– rather, it is a wrapper or vehicle for the therapy. If this is true – and I believe that it is – then we need to ask ourselves why we use hypnosis at all.

Why don’t we just offer all the various types of therapy e.g. cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT); interpersonal psychotherapy; compassion-focused therapy (CFT); supportive psychotherapy etc. without the complications of bringing hypnosis in?

There must be some positive reasons for using hypnosis and I hope that this article will help you to understand why that is the case.

What is hypnosis when used in hypnotherapy?

There are a number of articles on Hypnotherapy Directory that address this, but this is the way that I look at it. Hypnosis is a natural state. It is the same kind of thing as is experienced in these everyday situations:

• when you are daydreaming
• getting lost in thought
• losing the sense of remembering how you got to a familiar destination exactly when you are driving
• getting really absorbed in a piece of music or a film and losing track of time etc.

These kinds of experiences happen frequently in life – they generally occur spontaneously because the circumstances allow it – we are bored or there is nothing active to occupy our minds. They’re not usually gone into deliberately, neither are they deepened or altered deliberately. They come and go naturally and we don’t really think much about them.

However, a hypnotherapist will help a client to begin, deepen and end this kind of daydreaming state – so it is deliberate and intentional. And the therapeutic content is woven into the hypnotic session – again deliberately chosen (and hopefully skilfully and collaboratively too!).

Benefits of using hypnosis in hypnotherapy

Here are some of the advantages of using hypnosis in hypnotherapy:

• It strengthens the relationship between the client and the therapist – the therapist has to pay detailed attention to the client before, during, and after the session. This is felt by the client and appreciated.
• It engages the client’s past experiences and view of the world and their place in it – this makes the hypnotherapy particularly personal and focused.
• It incorporates the clients’ existing strategies and skills when done properly – again this is appreciated by the client and they start to feel better about themselves and more hopeful about the future.
• It enables a sense of curiosity about the future and a sense that they can “try out” diverse ways of being in the world in a way that is comfortable and reassuring. This, in itself, helps the person to become “less stuck” in how they feel now, and more positive about the future.
• It allows traumas and negative experiences to be processed comfortably and often without having to go through a lot of potentially disturbing memory content.
• It builds up a strong sense of self-esteem and self-confidence explicitly
   And most importantly hypnosis, when used skilfully and appropriately, is an enjoyable and creative process for most people.

Why does hypnosis offer these benefits?

Hypnotherapists use various aspects of the hypnotic state to deliberately bring about the above advantages. Sometimes these aspects are called hypnotic phenomena – while they do occur in everyday non-hypnotic life – they are easier to identify and use productively in hypnosis.

Here are just some of these aspects and how they help:

1. Time distortion

This relates to the alteration in the subjective experience of time and how it flows.

Time expansion – the time that is experienced is longer than “clock time“. Its uses include:

• athletic performance
• chronic pain – experiencing times of comfort can be increased

Time contraction – the time that is experienced is shorter than “clock time“. Its uses include:

• chronic pain – times with discomfort experienced as shorter
• medical investigations which are uncomfortable or anxiety-provoking
• childbirth

2. Dissociation

This is when one part of the experience (mental or physical) becomes separated from the rest of the experience. Its uses include:

• Functional Neurological Disorder (FND) – learning to control the degree of dissociation
• insomnia (separating worry time from sleep time)
• depression
• dealing with preoccupying thoughts/rumination

3. Anaesthesia/analgesia

In the past, hypnosis has been used as the sole anaesthetic (this is now very rare). Its uses include:

• dentistry
• childbirth
• pain – both acute and chronic

There are many other uses of hypnotic phenomena in clinical hypnotherapy – and skilful hypnotherapists will use them creatively to make the therapy quicker, more enjoyable more sustainable and sometimes more effective than would be possible without using hypnosis.