Many people think of hypnosis as a special type of therapy — hypnotherapy. However, when it comes to psychological interventions like psychotherapy and coaching, I think that hypnosis can usually be better thought of as a tool that is used to facilitate therapy. Just like there are many different styles of psychotherapy which reflect the underlying theories of the clinician, so there are many different ways that hypnosis can be used to treat symptoms and facilitate change. A psychoanalytic psychotherapist would be likely to use dynamically oriented hypnotic techniques, while a cognitive psychotherapist who used hypnosis would be likely to use a form of cognitive hypnosis. » Read the rest of this entry «

David Godot is a licensed psychotherapist currently working in private practice under the supervision of a clinical psychologist in downtown Chicago. He can be reached by phone at (312) 869-2323, or by email at davidgodot@chicagopsychology.org

I recently had the great pleasure of attending the 2009 Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis conference in Reno, Nevada. My primary purpose in attending was to serve on the faculty for the Introductory Workshop in Clinical Hypnosis. I had spent the previous weeks helping workshop co-chair Dr. Edward Frischholz in preparing an updated curriculum for the workshop. Dr. Frischholz’ vision for the new training model is to enhance the workshop’s focus on empirically validated methods of assessment, treatment, and training.

Dabney Ewin presents on the treatment of warts, hives, herpes, and asthma

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Abstract

Clinical hypnotherapy has been soundly established as an effective treatment for the symptoms associated with cancer and its related therapies, including chronic and acute pain, nausea and vomiting, fatigue, insomnia, anxiety, and mood disturbances. Its use produces strong tendencies toward improvement of patients’ quality of life and of treatment cost. As the etiology and progression of various forms of cancer become better understood, the potential of hypnotherapy for increasing survival rates by improving medication response and even slowing or reversing the progression of the disease increases. Given the lack of risks to patients and the wide potential for benefit, additional research and clinical experimentation into this area are encouraged, and recommendations for this type of hypno-oncological exploration are discussed. An experimental hypnotherapy script which attempts to reverse the course of the disease while addressing multiple symptoms is included as Appendix I.
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