A Medical Perspective on Hypnosis
After using the substantial Healthy Healing Guide, written by Linda Page, Ph. D., Traditional Naturopath, for many years, I recently happened upon the Hypnotherapy page and decided to read it. It literally blew me away. Never had I seen such an accurate description of hypnotherapy written by someone with a medical background and perspective. It’s remarkable that Dr. Page, with no hypnosis training, could so astutely convey the scope, depth and breadth of hypnotherapy. Because she did so succinctly, yet thoroughly, I want to share it with all of you. The following are excerpts from her book.
The power of suggestion has always played a major role in healing. Today’s clinical hypnosis is an artificially induced mental state that heightens receptivity to suggestion. Hypnotherapy uses both suggestion and trance to access the deepest levels of the mind in order to effect positive changes in behavior. It maximizes the mind’s contribution to healing by producing a multi-level relaxation response – a state which allows enhanced focus to increase tolerance to adverse stimuli, ease anxiety, or enhance affirmative imagery.
Despite its stage performance history, clinical hypnotherapy does not lead to strange or unethical behavior, nor does hypnosis cause people to divulge deep secrets or do things they wouldn’t do normally. The vast majority of people respond to hypnotic suggestions in much the same way they would in their waking lives.
Physiologically, hypnosis stimulates the limbic system, the region of your brain linked to emotion and involuntary responses, like adrenal spurts and blood pressure. Habitual patterns of thought and reaction are temporarily suspended during hypnosis, rendering the brain capable of responding to healthy suggestions.
Research demonstrates that body chemistry does change during a hypnotic trance. The physiological shift can actually be observed, as can greater control of autonomic nervous system functions that are normally beyond one’s ability to control. Stress and blood pressure reduction are common occurrences.
In one experiment, a young girl was unable to hold her hand in a bucket of ice water for more than thirty seconds. Her body’s blood levels of cortisol were high, indicating she was in severe stress. Under hypnosis, she could keep the same hand in ice water for thirty minutes, with no rise in blood cortisol levels.
Hypnotherapy has healing applications for both psychological and physical disorders.
A skilled hypnotherapist can effect profound changes in respiration and relaxation to create enhanced well-being. Hypnotherapy techniques are widely used to help you quit smoking, stop snoring, lose weight, or get a good night’s sleep. It helps treat medical conditions like facial neuralgia, sciatica, arthritis, whiplash, menstrual pain and tennis elbow. Migraines, ulcers, asthma, tinnitus, eating disorders, bruxism, nail biting, tension headaches, and even warts, respond to hypnotherapy. Professional sports trainers use hypnotherapy to boost athletic performance. Hypnosis helps people tolerate pain during medical procedures, too. It’s useful in surgeries where regular anesthesia isn’t a good option, in cases like hysterectomies, hernias, breast biopsies, hemorrhoidectomies and Caesarian sections. For minor surgeries, patients who do not tolerate anesthesia well may even undergo surgery without anesthesia using hypnosis. Dentists regularly use hypnosis for root canal patients who can’t tolerate anesthesia. A recent study shows that burn victims heal considerably faster with less pain and fewer complications if they are hypnotized shortly after they are injured.
Hypnotherapy dramatically improves symptoms of stubborn Irritable Bowel Syndrome in 80% of people who use it. It’s so effective that Adriane Fugh-Berman, MD, of the National Women’s Health Network recommends that hypnosis be the treatment of choice for IBS cases that don’t respond to conventional therapy.
Scientists are now examining a new aspect of hypnotherapy: its effect on the immune system. Recent research shows that hypnotherapy can be used to train your immune system to fight diseases like cancer.
Surprisingly, while most people think they can’t be hypnotized, 90% of the population can achieve a trance state and another 30% have a high enough susceptibility to enter a receptive state.
Three conditions are essential for successful hypnotherapy:
• A comfortable environment, free of distraction, so the patient can reach the deepest possible level.
• A trusting rapport between the hypnotist and the patient.
• A willingness and desire by the subject to be hypnotized.
People who benefit most from hypnotherapy understand that hypnosis is not a surrender of personal control, but instead, an advanced form of relaxation.
Another short but powerful tribute to the healing power of hypnosis, from a “medically-attuned person” follows:
“If somebody told you there was a medication that could treat 100 different conditions, didn’t require a prescription, was free, and had no bad side effects, you wouldn’t believe them” says Harvard Medical School psychologist Carol Ginandes, PhD. “I don’t want to sound like a snake oil salesman, because hypnosis is not a magic wand. But it should be made available as a supplementary treatment for all patients who could benefit. Right now.”
Hugh Sadlier, M.Ed., BCCH, is a Board Certified Consulting Hypnotist who has been practicing in Maine since 1991 and is currently associated with the Integrative Health Center of Maine, in Portland. He has worked with people on over two hundred different issues and encourages his clients to become actively involved in the hypnotic process, thereby empowering them to achieve optimal mental, physical, and emotional well-being. He has given hypnosis lectures and demonstrations to medical staffs, club and organization members, health fair attendees, and high school, college and adult education students. To schedule a presentation for your group, contact Hugh at (207) 773-5200 or sadlier@hypno-health.net (website: www.hypno-health.net).
ELM™ | Maine
