Let's Talk About Hypnotherapy

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There are many myths, stereotypes, and misconceptions about hypnosis.

Perhaps you've seen videos of hypnotists making people "cluck like a chicken," say embarrassing things, or do things they would not normally do.  This is stage hypnosis, used for entertainment.  

Clinical Hypnotherapy is different because it uses hypnosis as a tool for the psychotherapy process.  

A licensed mental health provider must administer clinical hypnosis for the purpose of mental health. There are legal and ethical guidelines for the use of clinical hypnosis in a mental health setting.

Have you ever been at a movie theater and you were so engrossed in the plot, characters, scenery, and in the moment that you no longer saw individuals walking up and down the side stairs and going to and from their seats?  Or maybe you’ve taken a daydream trip to your favorite spot, could not remember the last few miles you drove, or stared at a television screen for an unknown amount of time.  This mental state is known as a trance.

Hypnosis is a natural state of mental and physical relaxation where someone’s conscious mind is bypassed and a person becomes more open to positive suggestions for change. In this highly suggestible state, it is also possible to alter perceptions of pain, create natural anesthesia, and manage chronic pain symptoms.  You are awake, still in control, and you would not do anything outside of your comfort or against your values.  

Hypnotherapy is the applied use of hypnotic trance to facilitate therapeutic change. Some of the central concepts of hypnotherapy include a person’s suggestibility and the connection between mind and body to produce hypnotic phenomena. It can be used as stand-alone treatment, or alongside other treatments and therapies, like cognitive behavioral therapy for chronic pain (CBP-CP), a research-proven therapy also offered by Dr. Armstrong.

Physical pain is often accompanied by unpleasant emotions such as fear and anxiety. These emotions can exacerbate pain symptoms and create a kind of feedback loop of discomfort creating significant mental health problems for chronic pain patients.  

Hypnotherapy is recognized and accepted as a highly safe and successful method for transformational change in the area of pain management and doesn't involve pharmaceuticals. 

A personalized plan will be used to ensure alignment with your goals to deliver a focused approach through natural service-based techniques. 

Pain can seriously affect a person’s quality of life. Therefore, it is important to explore all options available when attempting to manage pain. Mainstream medicine often relies heavily on medications to treat pain symptoms. As evidenced recently, this approach can lead to unexpected and unwanted consequences such as addiction, overdose, and even death. Hypnosis is an alternative treatment to pain that does not rely on potentially addictive drugs.

People who could benefit from hypnosis for pain management include:

• Chronic pain patients
• Persons suffering from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
• Migraine sufferers
• People with arthritis or fibromyalgia
• Cancer patients
• Those wanting a non-pharmaceutical treatment

Many medical providers recognize and use hypnotherapy services as a supporting, complementary, and alternative service approach for addressing different conditions and symptoms. 

Of the many prestigious health care providers, a few include:

• Mayo Clinic
• UCLA Health, Clinics and Dentistry
• Stanford Health Care
• MD Anderson Center
• Penn State Health
• Northwestern Medicine

Dental professionals and various other provider types have also chosen to integrate hypnosis and hypnotherapy services as a recognized service alternative.  Dental and medical schools, such as Harvard Medical School, are now including hypnosis methods as part of their standard curriculum. National and worldwide associations have acknowledged for years the evidence based value of hypnotherapy.

• The American Medical Association, the American Dental Association, and the American Psychological Association recognize hypnotherapy as a valid service approach.
• Since 1995, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has recommended hypnotherapy as a service for chronic pain.
• The British Medical Association found that hypnosis is frequently effective in relieving pain, improving sleep, and alleviating many functional ailments.
• A British Psychological Society report stated hypnotherapy is a proven therapeutic medium for a wide range of conditions and problems encountered in the practice of medicine, psychiatry, and psychotherapy.

Hypnotherapy continues to be a growing and strong therapeutic, complementary and alternative service approach.

Applications of hypnosis for pain management and anesthesia have been well-documented since the mid 1800’s. By 1846, James Esdaile, a Scottish surgeon stationed in India, documented nearly 300 major surgeries where he used hypnosis for anesthesia. He also reported that these pain-free surgeries dramatically reduced death rates, especially from postoperative shock.

In more recent times, hypnosis for pain management has been studied extensively. Here are some results of recent studies:

• A 2015 comprehensive review of gastrointestinal disorders found that hypnosis treatment is highly effective for symptom relief for a large proportion of individuals unresponsive to typical medical interventions.(1)
• A 2016 study of women with multiple sclerosis, found that the participants who used self-hypnosis reported dramatically lower pain scale numbers.(2)
• An article for the Annals of Palliative Medicine published in 2019 details the effectiveness of hypnosis for a wide range of pain issues including acute back pain, chronic pain, and pain from surgery.(3)