The Preventative Health Journal - Australia & New Zealand

The power of hypnotherapy

By Alistair Horscroft - 08 Nov, 2009

In April 1955, after eighteen months of intensive study, a subcommittee of the psychological medicine group of the British Medical Association reported the following:

1. Hypnosis is of value and may be the treatment of choice in some cases of psychosomatic disorders.
2. It is valuable for revealing unrecognised motives and conflicts.
3. As a method of treatment, it has proved its ability to remove symptoms and to alter morbid habits of thought and behavior.
4. Doctors do a disservice to themselves and medicine by making communications to lay audiences and the lay press in a manner inconsistent with medical ethics.
5. Descriptive, therapeutic possibilities, and limitations of hypnosis should be taught to medical undergraduates.
6. The clinical use of hypnosis should be taught to medical graduates, particularly psychiatrists, obstetricians, gynecologists, anti anesthesiologists, as well as to others who practice in any of the fields of psychological medicine, which actually includes all people in the therapeutic field.
7. University departments and research foundations should institute more research along clinical and experimental lines.

Fifty four years ago, when the working knowledge of hypnosis was still somewhat basic, one of the most esteemed medical boards in the world basically gave an overwhelming tick to the use of hypnosis as an effective agent of change.

It encouraged everyone in the therapeutic field to study and utilise hypnosis due to it’s proven effectiveness.

Unfortunately, this never happened to the degree that perhaps was hoped for and still to this day the lack of understanding on the subject is high.

Hypnosis is often taught as an add on skill to other prevailing therapeutic techniques in the field of psychology, psychiatry and counselling.

This is unfortunate as an in depth study of hypnosis will reveal that it’s working parameters, techniques, approaches and solutions to problems differ substantially from other therapeutic frameworks.

It is suggested (and I’m only a hypnotist) that hypnotherapists work to create a field of study and practice that separates itself from other modalities. Not to alienate, but instead to establish itself as what it really is: A field in its own right.

For example, the principles of counselling are fundamentally different  to that of a hypnotherapist, so to confuse or indeed to attempt to utilise  the two at the same time is folly.

Psychiatry, psychotherapy and  clinical psychology again have different working ‘modus operandi’.

There is enough research, study, skill sets, theories, methods,  techniques and strategies in modern hypnosis to last the practitioner a life time as well as potentially assist with any presented issue.

Perhaps it is time for the field of hypnosis to stop weakening its position by allowing itself to be seen as ‘another’ modality/technique for the therapeutic tool box and instead step up to the plate and  re-identify itself as what I believe it can be -perhaps the most  advanced psychological discipline we currently have available.