Hypnotherapy: Quick Fix or Serious Psychology?

By Kathryn Beam Troxler, M.A., LPC

Kathryn Beam Troxler is a National Board Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist in private practice in Greensboro. She has been trained in both Ericsonian and Heart-Centered Therapies and is a certified Release Therapist and Thoughtfield Therapist. In addition to being a psychotherapist she is a singer, poet and artist who experiences the healing power of creativity daily and nurtures creative development in her clients.

Entranced by the year's first snow, I begin this article. Back from a walk with my dog, I carry the hushed stillness, enhanced perception of my body's motion in relation to woods, fields and sky, hear inwardly the whisper of boots, their prints embroidered with playful paw prints. The wonder and connection of this moment is very like the focused, open awareness of trance and the connection I feel as a therapist with a client who is working from the core of the self.

Each new year and at the beginning of summer, I am flooded with calls from people who want to know if hypnosis can help them quickly realize goals or resolve long-standing problems. This article is a response to some of the commonly asked questions. The possibilities of hypnotherapy continually amaze me. From realizing creative potential to effective pain management and habit control, changing destructive relationship patterns to deep inner searching, hypnotherapy has proven an invaluable aid.

What is Hypnosis?

Hypnosis, the root of which comes from the Greek word for sleep, is not sleep. It is an intermediate state between alertness and deep sleep, a state of physical and mental relaxation accompanied by a simple shifting between the conscious and subconscious mind. This is a natural process that occurs about eighty percent of the time we are awake. Some everyday examples are highway hypnosis, day dreaming, reverie, or spacing out. Everyone experiences these states to some degree daily, and we experience the deeper hypnoidal states before going to sleep. Most of us are familiar with stage hypnosis, which is used for entertainment. It is important to note that all hypnosis is actually self-hypnosis. You cannot be hypnotized unless you are willing to be, nor can you be made to do anything you are unwilling to do in a fully alert state.

What is Hypnotherapy?

Hypnotherapy uses hypnosis and the hypnoidal states to help realize therapeutic goals agreed on by client and therapist. The therapist simply facilitates the process. Normally, clients are fully aware of what is happening in trance; sometimes, when deeper trance occurs, the client may not remember afterwards what has been said. If we consider unconscious behaviors – habitual reactions – as forms of trance behavior, it makes sense to use trance to change them. Because consciousness is more fluid in the hypnoidal states, hypnotherapy allows us to bypass the rational mind with its limited sense of what is possible and access the creative potential within each of us for further self-development and/or for problem resolution.

Types of Hypnotherapy

Hypnosis has been used for millennia for therapeutic purposes and inner guidance. There are many different approaches to hypnotherapy today, including certification programs, some of which do not require licensure as a psychotherapist as a prerequisite. Two approaches are familiar to me.

Ericsonian Therapy is based on the extraordinary work of the legendary therapist, Milton Ericson. It relies primarily on well-crafted therapeutic suggestion which can create major attitudinal shifts in clients, often in a remarkably short time.

A more recent approach is Diane Zimberoff's Heart-Centered Hypnotherapy, for which only licensed psychotherapists can be trained and certified. Zimberoff draws from many sources – Ericsonian, Neurolinguistic Programming, Gestalt, Cognitive Behavioral, Energy Psychology and meditation traditions – and weaves these elements into a coherent, integrated system. This approach is interactive, allowing both client and therapist to be cognizant of what is happening throughout the session.

By relating present to past experiences through "emotional bridging," the Heart-Centered approach can trace problematic response patterns back to their origins in experience. Once the emotional connections between experiences are fully grasped, it is easier to use the resources of the conscious mind to change negative behavior patterns and self-concepts and build self-esteem and self trust. In the hypnoidal states, one is better able to entertain and incorporate positive suggestions, replace old habits and recover a sense of self. Because the process goes to the core of emotional problems and allows the expression and release of pent-up feelings, deep self-acceptance and understanding often result. When this happens, a tremendous amount of energy, formerly engaged in repressing disturbing memories, becomes available to the conscious self.

Results

Sometimes the results of hypnotherapy are immediate. Here are some examples from my practice.

Overcoming Testing Anxiety

A young woman wanting to pass a demanding set of physical tests in order to qualify for her chosen profession called two weeks before the tests. She had failed them twice before and had recently injured herself. Nevertheless, after two or three hypnotherapy sessions, she passed the tests with a better score than she had hoped for. The same has been true for numerous students with test anxiety.

A young man, just out of high school, called with much embarrassment. He wanted to get into the Armed Services but had been unable to give a necessary urine sample. After two sessions, he went back to the military and passed.

Overcoming Skin Issues and Addictions

Certain skin problems also respond well to hypnotherapy. In one session, a woman with hives discovered the roots of her anger, and the hives vanished within a day. A boy with childhood eczema learned to manage it through self-hypnosis in three sessions.

Some smokers are also free of their habit after a single session; most take several.

With deep-seated problems – addictions, compulsive behaviors, anxiety, deep depression, long standing self-esteem and behavioral problems or abuse deriving from childhood – it is almost a given that treatment will be longer. However, in comparison to other long-term psychotherapies, it is generally believed that hypnotherapy shortens treatment. In my practice, I find hypnotherapy and self-hypnosis to be powerful aids to creativity, health and self-development. Inherently relaxing, hypnosis is a natural antidote to stress. It promotes greater focus and awareness, reconnects us to our deepest feelings, and restores the sense of enchantment we experienced in childhood.