Hypnotherapy has been used therapeutically for hundreds of years. It began to be developed scientifically and stripped of superstitions about 160 years go by the British doctor, James Braid (1795 - 1860). Braid both separated the study of hypnosis from superstition and studied it as a neuropsychological state. The French neurologist Jean Martin Charcot (1835 - 1893) continued to develop hypnotherapy in its therapeutic uses, but at this stage, understanding of the phenomenon was still quite limited. By the time of the French psychologist Pierre Janet (1859 - 1947), our understanding of hypnotic states had become quite comprehensive, and by 1955, the British Medical Association published a report recommending that hypnosis should be used therapeutically by psychiatrists, anesthetists and obstetricians. Sadly, as they would have had to have undergone training in a whole new field, few practitioners took up the suggestion, and in the present day, hypnosis is mainly used therapeutically by counsellors, psychologists, psychotherapists and people who have done a course of training just in hypnotherapy. All FETT hypnotherapists are properly qualified practitioners who have undertaken a comprehensive training in theories and methods of hypnosis, counselling skills and theory, contra-indications and ethical concerns. They subscribe to the FETT codes of conduct and they carry professional insurance.

What is Hypnosis?

Hypnosis is a state of relaxation allied with fascination, where the body is unusually relaxed and the mind is focused upon the imagination. All people enter into the hypnotic state several times every single day and do not even notice it. This experience is commonly known as daydreaming. The only real difference between daydreaming and hypnosis is that in hetero-hypnosis (as opposed to self-hypnosis) the therapist or hypnotist enables and guides the daydream for therapeutic purposes.

The term hypnosis covers a range of naturally occurring states of altered awareness which range from momentary distractions and 'absences' through to highly enhanced states of relaxation and deep states of inward focus and awareness. The mental processes which can occur in any of these states may be skillfully utilized, as a flexible and powerful agent in effecting positive change than those we can usually achieve in most everyday conscious awareness. Hypnotic states may be induced formally or naturalistically, in a very subtle way, depending on the needs of the needs of the client. As well as helping alleviate a range of negative habits and certain physical ailments, hypnotherapy may also be used to help overcome deep-seated problems using techniques that are influenced by a number of branches of psychotherapy. Effective hypnotherapists tend to use a broad based and eclectic approach towards helping clients to understand and to overcome their emotional, interpersonal, psychosomatic and other presenting and underlying problems.

How does Hypnotherapy work?

Hypnotherapy works by utilizing the powers of suggestion and rapport to enlist the positive healing powers of the subconscious. The powerful subconscious mind can be empowered to help the individual move towards potential possibilities of self development and personal growth. Good hypnotherapists are skilled at utilizing these subconscious possibilities to aid the client to achieve their goals, be it with smoking cessation, confidence building or a host of other therapeutic possibilities. There is no doubt that effective hypnotherapy is a powerful agent for change and improvement in the human condition.

Is Hypnotherapy safe?

Hypnotherapy is not mind control and hypnotherapists do not (and can not) make people do things against their will, nor is hypnosis anything supernatural or occult. Hypnotherapy uses a safe and naturally occurring state of altered awareness. In the hypnotic state the client is still in control of their own mind and really will not do anything he or she does not want to. In effect, the state of hypnosis is simply a special type of daydream utilized by the therapist to enlist the positive healing forces of the subconscious.

Is Hypnotherapy Scientific?

Scientific researchers have come to different conclusion as to what the exact nature of the altered state of awareness popularly called hypnosis is. Some have related it to changes in the brainwaves during the 'trance state', whilst others have emphasized the power of suggestion in the development of the hypnotic state and because of this most hypnotherapists follow a working model of hypnotherapy that is based upon the principle of using techniques that have been repeatedly demonstrated (clinically or scientifically) to work and there is a wide range of strong and empirical scientific research that has supported the effectiveness of hypnotherapy in helping with a wide range of psychosomatic, emotional and other conditions. Therefore it is quite clear that when practised according to sound and proven techniques hypnotherapy has a sound scientific basis.

How many sessions will I need?

The number of sessions needed is variable according to a number of factors and the therapist's style of approach. As a general rule, for most clients, between three and eight sessions are sufficient.

What can Hypnotherapy Help With?

Hypnotherapy has proven effective in helping people overcome a wide range of problems. It is particularly popular for the help that it may provide in;

• Overcoming Anger Issues
• Overcoming Anxiety
• Confidence Building
• Overcoming Bruxism
• Overcoming Depression
• Healing Emotional Problems
• Overcoming Habit Problems
• Overcoming Insomnia
• Managing Irritable Bowel Syndrome
• Overcoming Nervousness
• Pain Control
• Healing Painful Memories
• Overcoming Panic Disorders
• Improving Personal Performance
• Overcoming Phobias
• Healing Self Identity Issues
• Self Esteem Building
• Smoking Cessation
• Overcoming Stress
• Weight Control

The Effectiveness of Hypnotherapy

Great numbers of satisfied clients can tell you that with a genuine hypnotherapist hypnotherapy is a wonderfully beneficial healing art that can help people cope with and overcome a large range of personal issues. Many hypnotherapists have observed that when a client comes into to the consulting rooms with an open mind and the desire to overcome their problem you can be pretty sure that they will benefit from their course of therapy to some degree (and typically to a great degree). Quite simply, when a genuine client and a properly qualified, skillful and sensitive hypnotherapist come together in the therapeutic alliance hypnotherapy is most certainly highly effective and powerful approach to human change.

There is a great consensus of personal experience and circumstantial evidence supporting the effectiveness of hypnotherapy in helping people overcome a wide range of problems, but this is not the only way that we know that hypnotherapy works, because the voice of empirical science has also spoken on the matter several times. From as early as 1892 the British Medical Association (BMA) commissioned a team of doctors to extensively evaluate the reality of hypnosis and they satisfied themselves of the genuineness of the hypnotic state. The Committee came to the conclusion that as a therapeutic agent hypnotism is frequently effective in relieving pain, procuring sleep, and alleviating many functional ailments (British Medical Journal, 1892).

Later research upon the effectiveness of hypnotherapy soundly demonstrated its effectiveness in helping clients overcome anxiety, insomnia, psychosomatic disorders, stress related illness and also help them in the area of pain management. In 1955, the Psychological Medicine Group of the BMA commissioned a committee, under Prof. T. Ferguson Rodger, to deliver a second report on hypnosis. and after two years of study and research the committee published a report in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), called 'Medical use of Hypnotism'. The report concluded that hypnotherapy was effective and of value and that it could be the treatment of choice in some cases of psycho-somatic disorder and psychoneurosis. It may also be of value for revealing unrecognized motives and conflicts in such conditions. The report also noted that according to the committee it had proved its ability to remove symptoms and to alter morbid habits of thought and behavior and that as well as its use in the treatment of psychiatric disabilities, there is a place for hypnotism in the production of anesthesia or analgesia and as an effective method of relieving pain during child birth (Medical use of hypnosis', BMJ, April, 1955 n 1958, the American Medical Association (AMA) commissioned another report that endorsed the 1955 BMA report and concluded that hypnoses was a useful technique in the treatment of certain ailments.

Research has repeatedly confirmed the helping power of hypnotherapeutic techniques and in 1995, the National Institute for Health (NIH), in the US, established a Technology Assessment Conference that compiled an official statement entitled 'Integration of Behavioral & Relaxation Approaches into the Treatment of Chronic Pain & Insomnia.' This report supported the use of hypnotherapy and commented that the evidence supporting the effectiveness of hypnosis in pain relief for cancer patients was strong and noted that the council had also been presented with data suggesting the efficacy of hypnotherapy with other chronic pain conditions, irritable bowel syndrome, oral mucositis [pain and swelling of the mucus membrane], jaw pain and tension headaches. (NIH, 1995)

In 1999, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) included articles on research that concluded that there is good evidence that hypnotherapy can relieve pain, that is effective in helping with panic disorders and insomnia (particularly when utilized in combination with cognitive therapy) and that hypnotherapy can enhance the efficiency of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) in the treatment of anxiety, obesity (over eating) and phobias. Furthermore the journal recorded how randomized controlled experiments had demonstrated hypnotherapy's values in helping with acute and chronic pain, irritable bowel syndrome, nausea and vomiting (cancer related) and even in helping with Asthma. Two years later the Professional Affairs Board of the British Psychological Society (BPS) commissioned a committee of respected psychologists to study hypnosis and they concluded that enough studies had now been accumulated to suggest hypnotherapy's benefits in the management and treatment of a wide range of conditions and problems encountered in the practice of medicine, psychiatry and psychotherapy.