Hypnosis: What It Is and Is Not
There seem to be few subjects in the field of healthcare that are surrounded by more misunderstanding and mystery than clinical hypnosis. This unfortunate reality deprives clinicians and clients alike from availing themselves of the many proven benefits that hypnosis and hypnotic processes have to offer. This blog is intended to address some of these misunderstandings: to set the record straight (or straighter, anyway), if you will.
Hypnosis, a term coined by Scottish physician, James Braid, in 1842, has a history that goes back much farther, probably having its origins in Egyptian and Greek temple practices thousands of years ago. While different labels were used to describe it, and different rituals surrounded its use, they all built on the basic truth that human beings are highly responsive to suggestions, both negative (nocebo) and positive (placebo). That responsiveness is wired into our physiology. It is an enduring legacy of our evolutionary heritage. That response to suggestion is an essential aspect of our capacity for resilience in the face of adversity. That response to suggestion is a core element enabling us to adjust and adapt to changing life circumstances. That response to suggestion is, at its core, what enables “hypnosis” (by whatever name we call it) to evoke the effect it does.
The essential point here, which I’ve written about in a number of peer reviewed journal articles, is that hypnosis is merely the modern name for an interactive, relationship-based process by which a person’s innate capacity for change is evoked through individualized suggestions. Hypnosis is NOT something magically done TO the person; it is NOT something that requires a person to give up their control or autonomy; it is NOT something that exists separate from what the interaction between client and clinician co-create together. (While self-hypnosis exists, the point often missed is that even in that context, a person is simultaneously the one offering the suggestion and the one listening to the suggestion - a fascinating example of people’s ability to be of two minds at the same time.)
The essential elements of a successful hypnotic interaction involve:
Creating a subjective sense of safety and security with the client, which reduces client defensiveness and enhances their mental flexibility in the context of open-minded curiosity
Creating suggestions that foster the client’s ability to turn their attention inward or, in the case of peak performance states (e.g., sports, musical performance, test-taking), outwardly but with a state of narrowed attentional focus
Creating the room and space for the client to become increasingly absorbed by the suggestions offered by the clinician and attuned to their internal cues that ratify their subjective sense that the suggestions are “landing”
Practiced utilization by the clinician of the client’s capacity to respond at both conscious and non-consious levels to suggestions for relevant and therapeutically beneficial sought after changes
What does trance have to do with it?
Trance, like hypnosis, is a word weighed down with lots of unnecessary baggage. Think of trance as simply describing a shift in attentional focus that is characterized by the experience of being absorbed in an altered state of mental awareness where ideas or responses to suggestion arise without deliberate intention. That does NOT mean against your will. There is NO loss of control. There IS a shift in how control is perceived. It DOES mean that the client typically reports that the new and helpful shift in responsiveness seemed to arise automatically, bypassing the usual obstacles to change that typically bring the person to therapy in the first place!
Conversation, Hypnosis, and Trance
Hypnosis is too often thought to require a deep, eyes closed, immobile body sitting still posture. Not true. People are responsive to suggestions in all sorts of mental states. While an eyes closed stance can be useful, relaxing, and comforting in the same way that people experience the savasana pose at the end of a yoga session, such a posture or pose isn’t necessary.
In my work with clients and the consultation training I offer for licensed health professionals, I make use of suggestions throughout the interaction. I incorporate “formal” hypnosis only when necessary or when requested by the client. Otherwise, the benefits of utilizing opportunities to suggest subtle shifts in thinking, experiencing, and responding exist throughout the session. Learning how to recognize and utilize these opportunities is the essence of conversational hypnosis.
The same way that you can come away from a special musical performance, an engaging theatrical production, an inspiring speech, a moving book, an absorbing movie, a star-filled cloudness sky, or most relevantly, an intimate conversation with a trusted friend, conversational hypnosis exists as a powerful, ever-present capacity for positive change that exists within each of us, no matter our personal history or struggles with personal growth.
As a famous Harvard cardioloist once said (paraphrasing here): Change is always possible. The challenge is in finding the door through which change can enter.
