Hypnosis. Psychological and Physical Aspects of Hypnosis

| Hypnosis. Psychological and physical aspects of hypnosis. Hypnosis is a natural state of mind that can be used for many purposes, in different settings. Nowadays research in the field of hypnosis and associated areas has blossomed and there are valuable evidence that hypnosis has real and measurable affects on both body and mind. During this essay I will be describing what is hypnosis including what the psychological and physical aspects of hypnosis are, further I will be discussing the role of relaxation in hypnotherapy.

We experience the “hypnotic state” in everyday life and it often occurs without recognition as such. It is believed that our mind can drift from alert state into different level of consciousness whenever we do activities in automatic mode, like driving, jogging, taking a shower, walking, etc. These are hypnotic-like trances. The main differences between these sorts of trance and clinical hypnosis are specific motivation and suggestions to achieve some desired results. Therapist may use hypnosis to explore patient’s unconsciousness, to identity whether past events or experiences are associated with causing a problem.

One of the most accepted axioms of hypnotherapy that nothing can be done with hypnosis that cannot be done without. Barber (1969) offered considerable experimental evidence for “Anything you can do I can do... ” At the same time, since hypnosis occurs spontaneously in therapy as well as in ordinary life it is impossible to ignore the part played by hypnosis in the service of the patient. It is important to understand that no two individuals will have identical experience as they progress from the state of alertness to a deep trance.

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The impact of hypnosis on a person's subsequent actions is dependent upon how suggestible that particular individual happens to be, a quality that can differ from one person to the next. Each person experiences the hypnotic phenomenon in his or her own way. However, it has been recognized that suggestions during the hypnosis could influence the physical processes in the body and in the brain. The earliest references of hypnosis date back to ancient Egypt and Greece. Both cultures had religious centres where people came for help with their problems.

Hypnosis was used to induce dreams, which were then analysed to get to the root of the trouble. The man who most people associate with the beginning of hypnosis is an Austrian doctor Franz Anton Mesmer (1733-1815). Mesmer believed that a “cosmic fluid” could be stored in inanimate objects, such as magnets, and transferred to patients and cure them of illness. Eventually Mesmer discarded the magnets and regarded himself as a magnet through which a fluid life force could be conducted and transmitted to others as a healing force. He incorporated that into the theory of “animal magnetism”.

Despite the fact that no evidence supports the existence of that theory, he had tremendous success. Mesmerism became the forerunner of hypnotic suggestion. Meanwhile, the marquise de Puysegur, believed that the “cosmic fluids” was not magnetic, but electric, that generated in plants and animals. Puysegur used the natural environment to fill his patients with healing electric fluid. During that activity some of the patients entered a somnambulistic state (a deep trance). The marquis had discovered the hypnotic trance, but had not identified it as such.

Another forward thinker in the mid 1800 was a professor at London University, John Elliotson (1791-1868), who use the hypnotic state to relieve pain during the surgical operations. In India, a British surgeon, James Esdaile (1808-1859) recognised the enormous benefits of hypnosis for pain relief and performed hundreds of major operations using hypnosis as his only anaesthetic. This was accomplished by inducing the trance state to the patient weeks before the surgery and offering posthypnotic suggestions to numb the part of the body on which the operation was to be performed.

The next real pioneer of hypnosis in Britain in the late 1800s was James Braid (1795-1860), who gave mesmerism a scientific explanation. He believed mesmerism to be a “nervous sleep” and coined the word hypnosis, from Greek word Hypnos, meaning sleep. He discovered that getting a patient to fixate upon something was one of the most important components of putting them into a trance. The French scientists were also taking the interest in the subject of hypnosis, and many breakthroughs were made by Ambroise Leibeault (1823-1904), a neurologist Jean Martin Charcot (1825-1893) and Charles Richet (1850-1935).

Ambroise Leibeault and Hippolyte Bernheim (1837-1919) were the first who asserted that expectation is a most important factor in the induction of hypnosis and suggestibility is its essential symptom. The work of another Frenchman, Emile Coue (1857 - 1926), was very interesting. He is most famous for the phrase 'Day by day in every way I am getting better and better'. His technique was one of affirmation and his idea was that the imagination is always more powerful than the will. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was also interested in hypnosis at this time.

He was using it in his work, but eventually abandoned it in favour of psychoanalysis. With the rise of psychoanalysis in the first half of this century, hypnosis declined in popularity. Milton Erickson (1901-1980) is considered the leading authority of clinical hypnosis. Nowadays Erickson approach to hypnosis without question is the most effective. There are many physical and psychological problems can be effectively controlled by the use of hypnosis. Patients suffering with chronic illnesses such as cancer, arthritis, stroke and multiple sclerosis can benefits from hypnosis in many ways.

In all this entire spectrum of diseases, pain is one of the most common symptoms. The most distressing an aspect of pain is the loss of control the patient feels. Through hypnosis is possible to show patients how they can use their own mind to change the subjective feeling of pain, restoring that sense of control and make patient feel empowered. Increased self-esteem, developing more positive attitude may even decrease the use of pharmacological agents. When done properly, hypnosis holds several advantages over drugs. It has no side effects, while drugs can leave a sense of dependence for the patient.

Hypnosis not only gives the ability to relieve the pain, but removes the ever-present fear of pain’s return. For certain types of breast and thyroid surgery, a combination of hypnosis and local anaesthesia can aid in the healing process, and can reduce drug use and time spent in the hospital, according to studies reported at Euroanaesthesia 2011 in Amsterdam. According to the researchers, women who were hypnotized spent a few minutes more in the operating room (122 vs. 116 min), perioperative drug use was reduced, as was time in the recovery room and in the hospital.

No patient in the hypnosis group converted to general anaesthesia during surgery. The major benefit is that hypnosis is modifying the cognitive response to sensation points, changing the expectations and reducing stress. Hypnosis can be especially helpful when dealing with diseases that have psychosomatic aspects, such as psoriasis, eczema, asthma. Study reviled that using hypnotherapy can improve those conditions. It concluded that the greater the depth of hypnosis the patient achieved the greater the improvement in patient’s condition.

Using the relaxation techniques and post-hypnotic suggestion to discharge anxiety can significantly reduce the stress, which is a well known trigger for psychosomatic disorders. Hypnotherapy deals with psychological and physical disorders in variety of way. There are countless types of suggestion that can be given to patients while there in trance. Patients can even be age-regressed back to a time before they have been ill, injured or distressed and then received comfort and reassurance followed by relief. Imaginary, visualisation, metaphors are also the key factors in hypnosis.

Through training the mind to imagine the desired outcome can help bring the desired result. This technique has great success in sport and help to achieve the peak performance. Relaxation is the first resource in hypnotherapy intervention that enhances the process of healing and recovery. Researchers have shown that being to tense or living with too much stress has a significant negative impact on our life. It can lead to physical illnesses and many psychological issues. The effect from relaxation on our body and mind is enormous.

Relaxation in hypnotherapy helps in 3 ways; its completely turning off the sympathetic nervous system, changing our reaction to stressful events and build up our parasympathetic nervous system. The first goal in hypnosis is to achieve a very deep state of relaxation where our mind is more focused and the connections between our thoughts, emotions and behaviour are clearer. This type of therapy is very helpful to reduce anxiety, distress and fear. This is can be done in a trance state by guiding the patient through imaginary and visualisation.

Once a patient is able to get into that state, the goal becomes lengthening the period of relaxation and teaching the patient how to control these internal images on his own. Most people will feel certain degree of anxiety in everyday life. Such feeling are generally reasonable and appropriate and it is only if that anxiety is exaggerated in intensity or duration, prevents to perform a required task or interfere with person’s life to a significant degree, than it is begins to regard as pathological reaction.

Not surprisingly, using relaxation techniques can be very effective when patient get the rising heart and panic attack. This is another category of pathological anxiety reactions that includes phobic attacks to spiders, mice, rats, snakes, lizards and other creatures. Patients with such phobic reaction may be taught to rehearse so that every time they begin to get the racing heart signifying panic to that person, they begin to use their learned techniques of imagery to put their mind in a more relaxed place. The relaxation techniques can be used along with biofeedback instrument to increase the effectiveness of relaxation.

Biofeedback is a tool which gives immediate and objective evidence to the patient of his ability to control such processes as heart rate, breathing rate, skin temperature, skin resistance and blood pressure. To those patients who are able to response moderately well to hypnosis, it offers a means of achieving some degree of voluntary or self-mediated control over these pathological reactions. It is important to ensure that anxiety is not the expression of underlying depression or major psychiatric disorder that is not yet manifest.

Hypnosis has both a diagnostic and therapeutic role in eating disorders. For example, during hypnosis patients can uncover their past traumas or feeling of deserving self-punishment. Dr. Moshe S. Torem describes introducing hypnosis to eating disorders patient initially in the form of self-hypnosis, framed as a technique to improve calmness and relaxation. It appears that hypnotherapy is quite popular and sufficient way that could help you to illuminate negative behaviour patterns or bad habits.

Focused relaxation techniques are used to modifier person behaviour and change the way one thinks about addictions and habits that affect the quality of life. Hypnosis connects modern practice with practices that have been used by ancient Egyptian and enlightened Zen masters. It informs our understanding of how the mind connects with the body, as well as how conscious mind connect with the unconscious. Hypnosis can be applied in physical and psychosomatic disorders in many ways. First, it can be effective in reducing pain and discomfort.

Secondly, hypnotic techniques can contribute substantially to the reduction of distress, anxiety and fears. Thirdly, it can be employed to influence the psychological processes that can give the power and the ability to patients to improve their life in an infinite number of ways. Hellmut W. A. Karle and Jennifer H. Boys 2010. Hypnotherapy. A Practical Handbook Journals online. Journal of Health Psychology. The physical, Psychological and Social Impact of Psoriasis. Josie Hadley and Carol Staudacher 2002. Hypnosis for Change. Michael Heap and Windy Dryden.

Hypnotherapy. A Handbook Medscape CME Nursing. Journal online. Euroanaesthesia 2011. , Combination of hypnosis and local anaesthesia for certain types of breast and thyroid surgery. www. ibshypnosis. com Clinical hypnosis: Something for you? By Olafur S. Palsson, Psy. D. www. hypnosisexpert. co. uk Top 5 Most Effective Uses for Hypnotherapy. By Anna Aengel 2010 www. systemthinker. com Hypnosis Past, Present and Future: Its Medical and Psychiatric Applications by Howard Ditkoff M. D. www. innerhealhstudio. com Relaxation Therapy For Body and Mind. By Candi Raudebaugh.

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