Dealing Life Hassles' with Hypnotherapy: Case Studies

1. Dr. Shruti Khare Dealing Life Hassles' with Hypnotherapy: Case Studies

2. Hypnotherapy • Regardless of the efforts of researchers, doctors and therapists, hypnosis has been wearing a cloak of mysticism for centuries. The way hypnosis helps in therapy makes this phenomenon an immensely important instrument, despite the fact that erroneous beliefs continually hinder its use. • There is a difference between Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy. Hypnosis is a mental state of heightened suggestibility, characterized by trance. Hypnotherapy is basically the use of hypnosis as a medium for psychotherapy. • Hypnotizability is ability to enter a state of hypnosis regardless of depth. • Trance is a deeply relaxed and focused state with increased suggestibility and lower critical abilities.

3. Myths Related to Hypnosis • The concepts like black magic and necromancy also spoil the perceptions of hypnosis in common people. The myths pertaining to hypnosis are clarified here: • Hypnosis is Not Sleep. • A hypnotized person hears everything that is going on and is capable of responding to their surroundings appropriately. • No one can be hypnotized against his/her will. • A hypnotized individual is not paralyzed, incapable of taking care of him or herself, or incapable of refusing to carry out the hypnotist’s suggestions or commands. • Hypnosis is not a truth serum. • Hypnosis is NOT like alcohol or drugs that lessen some one’s inhibitions to the point where they might be more likely to do something fanatical.

4. Hypnotherapy is an excellent tool to deal with problems whether independently or along with other therapeutic methods. Hypnosis cannot be explained by any single factor (e.g., hyper-suggestibility, atavism, regression, death-feint, dissociation, goal striving, role-playing, regression, or transference) because, like any behavioral process, it cross-fertilizes with many areas of human thinking. • In meta-analysis of hypnosis as an additional treatment to cognitive-behavioral psychotherapies (Kirschet al.,1995) found that the addition of hypnosis substantially enhanced treatment outcomes in clients. • In fact, the average client receiving hypnosis as an adjunctive treatment showed greater improvement than at least 70% of clients that did not receive hypnosis with cognitive-behavioral treatment.

5. Stress and Anxiety in Daily Life • Presently everybody is living in a world that creates evidently increasing stress and anxiety for individuals. Several people suffer symptoms of stress evidencing in a kind of physical symptoms, of diverse levels of severity, e.g.. headaches, bodily aches and pains, anxiety, and incapability to cope with life generally (Jackson, 1993). • Contemporary definitions of stress regard the external environmental stress as a stressor (e.g.., work or school, family conflicts, commuting), the response to the stressor as stress, and the notion of stress as a thing that involves psychological, physiological behavioral and biochemical changes. • The fundamental element in any therapy aimed at reducing stress is relaxation. Relaxation has been shown to be beneficial for a various symptoms and health problems such as reduction of nervousness; promotion of performance; promotion of self-control/self-actualization and reductions in psychosomatic complaints (Krampen, 1996; Carter, 2006).

6. Relaxation Technique • The relaxation process is generally considered to counter balance the stress and anxiety process. As ongoing stress and states of anxiety and tension are associated with health problems, many methods have been developed and practiced to promote relaxation that often is used in stress management programs and to treat medical conditions (Eisenberg et al., 1998). • Hypnotherapy can be the most accurate choice induces genuine relaxation in mind. The paper presents two case examples where the patients / subjects profited from treatment of daily life stress and exam anxiety with two different techniques of hypnotherapy: Use of Hypnotic Script and Creative Visualization.

7. Hypnosis Scripts and Creative Visualization • Hypnosis Scripts are a written transcription of the verbatim hypnotherapist uses during a therapy. It contains every specification needed to be suggested to the subject. These hypnotic scripts are very useful for the subjects for ensuring that subject gets detailed and every suggestion. • However, Creative Visualization empowers patients by encouraging them to develop their own strategies for managing stress. it is the course of utilizing thinking power to deliberately imagine, create and attract that whatever one intend to experience.

8. Hypnotherapy Session • Before initiating hypnotherapy session, it is important for the therapist to take detailed information of clinical history and spot the essential aspects of the patient’s behaviors. • Establishing rapport with the patient is of crucial importance. • After establishing rapport with the patient, it is important to educate and reassure the patient about these misconceptions. • After debunking the myths and misconceptions of hypnosis, it is advisable to provide your patient with ‘facilitative information’ about hypnotherapy. • Patient’s hypnotic suggestibility can be screened. • Then comes induction of the trance. • Inducing the trance into the subject, trance ‘Deepeners’ are provided. A deepener is used to intensify trance depth. • Further subjects were tested on Arons Depth Scale of the depth of trance. And the therapeutic suggestions were given.

9. Case Studies Case I • Hypnotherapy for Exam Anxiety Using Script • Female, age 17.5 years, studying in school, described herself as “normal, studious girl, but get scared and uncomfortable around exams and tests”. • Subject was reported to have anxiety and fear, with loss of confidence because of performance apprehension prior her educational tests. • Hypnotic Script was used to comfort her from anxiety. Follow up with similar sessions were given to her in every 7-10 days for two months. Later, the sessions were given at every 20 days for three and a half month.

10. Case Studies (Contd. …) Case II • Hypnotherapy for Stress Relaxation Using Creative Visualization. • Male, age 42 years, teacher in high school, married, two kids; described himself as cool minded, hardworking fellow” on asking the purpose of the visit, the response was stress due to work, unable to manage things due to work load. On asked last time when he was out with family for vacation, response was 5 years ago. • Subject experienced Creative visualization in trance state and reported an imaginative scene, which was relaxing to him.

11. Conclusion • Sapp (1990) noted that there are two major features of hypnosis: the first is a cognitive component; and the second is a relaxation component. It is a combination of these two components that may make hypnosis effective in reducing exam anxiety. • Now days with the increasing competitiveness and fast paced life, most people remain tensed and keep on complaining about some problems or the other. • Hypnotherapy is a very good therapeutic option which is practical, safe and successful. This paper attempts to clarify the vague idea of hypnotherapy so as to make its presence even stronger in the coming times.

12. I can be reached at: Dr. Shruti Khare Agra, Uttar Pradesh Email: dr.shruti.in@gmail.com Skype ID: dr.shruti.in