Hypnosis for Psychologists: How hypnosis makes everything better

There are countless issues that lead people to seek help from a psychologist. These include, for example, anxiety, chronic stress, depression, sleep problems, eating disorders, addictions, chronic pain, trauma, and obsessive behavior. These are also issues for which many people seek out a hypnotherapist.

So how cool is it when you can go to a psychologist who can help you with mainstream care techniques as well as hypnosis?

In this blog, you're going to learn more about some of the problems people go to the psychologist for and how hypnosis can contribute there.

What is hypnosis and why is it useful in psychological treatment?

When you put people into hypnosis, you change their mental state. They become more relaxed and more focused on a single activity. By giving the right suggestion while inducing hypnosis, you ensure that your client focuses on your voice and, consequently, on the treatment.

In addition, hypnosis also reduces the activity of the critical mind. This is ideal with people who like to be critical of your treatment and what you want to do for them.

Ultimately, as a psychologist, you're there to help people, not make their lives worse. Then at least you don't have someone sitting in front of you who is afraid of that.

Do you notice that clients have trouble finding the right words? Or recalling memories? Do they often say they don’t know why something feels the way it does? Then hypnosis can help your clients connect more deeply with their subconscious. Then they’ll be able to say whatever first comes to mind after a question.

This then gives you a good entry point to help them with their thought process and coping with their problems.

Anxiety disorders and depression

Anxiety disorders and depression are generally treated with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) at the psychologist's office. Research also shows that this works better than having no treatment or unspecified treatment.

With this form of therapy, clients learn to cultivate a more relaxed mindset .

Between treatments, people often need to pay attention to situations that make them suddenly notice that they are becoming anxious. They may also be asked to recall these types of situations (the beginning of an anxiety moment) in their minds, along with the feelings and emotions they have at those times.

Indeed, by recognizing this, they can do something faster in everyday life to quell anxiety.

People who suffer from anxiety (and depression) are also often tense. Doing a relaxation exercise is a good way to become aware of tension in the body and to consciously relax it.

When it comes to thoughts, the focus is on how the person envisions the future, because that is often what the fears are about. Next, we check whether there is any evidence to support that thought. Then you help the client come up with thoughts that are more in line with reality and that offer a hopeful alternative rather than fear. People can then learn to apply this technique at times when they feel anxious outside the therapy room.

They can also practice with the above techniques in mind, making it easier to actually apply it in real life[1].

The great thing about hypnosis is, you can take all these steps with your client while they are under hypnosis. You integrate hypnosis into cognitive behavioral therapy. Research also shows that cognitive hypnotherapy works well for anxiety, and this form of therapy, like cognitive behavioral therapy, can be tailored to the individual[2].

Hypnosis reinforces what is therapeutic about treatment[3].

Sleep problems and trauma

When it comes to sleep problems , treatment often focuses on improving sleep hygiene and maintaining a consistent schedule for when you wake up and go to bed.

Relaxation exercises are therefore often given and this can also be done very well with hypnosis (source 3).

But sometimes there is more to it than that. For example, some people also sleep poorly because they suffer from trauma. In that case, therapy that focuses precisely on the trauma is often used[4].

For sleep problems, cognitive behavioral therapy can also be combined with hypnosis to overcome sleep problems[5]. Hypnosis combined with cognitive behavioral training can also play a role if those problems are due to trauma. This can improve the mindfulness of people suffering from trauma. They can also better accept what happened to them and gain the realization that the traumatic moment need not affect the rest of their lives[6].

Eating Disorders

Eating disorders are psychologically one of the most difficult problems to solve. Whatever eating disorder a person has, anorexia, bulimia or binge eating, cognitive behavioral therapy can be used in all cases.

However, meta-research shows that cognitive behavioral therapy is just as effective as bona fide psychotherapy. In the latter, you receive therapy from a therapist who is university-educated and draws on that knowledge to shape treatment[7].

Surveys of therapists also show that half of the therapists combine multiple techniques to provide the best therapy to fit the needs of the client suffering from an eating disorder. Very often this includes an element of cognitive behavioral training and sometimes even techniques appropriate for people suffering from addiction[8].

In that combination of theories, hypnosis can also play a role in helping the client in the best way possible.

Family issues often play a role in anorexia[9], and with hypnosis, you can work with the social landscape, giving people the space to view others in a different light. In this way, you can change the dynamics of the relationship[10].

You can also use visualizations and metaphors in hypnosis to deal with family problems, that way the client does not have to talk about the family directly (source 9).

Visualizations can also be used to normalize body image in people with anorexia so that they return to eating normally.

Age regression can also help take people to the source of the eating disorder, to when the beliefs began that created the eating problem.

What is also interesting is that people who suffer from bulimia are often also easy to hypnotize (source 9), which in turn can be very useful for treatment.

With bulimia, you can also perform an age progression in which you ask the client precisely to imagine a life in which they are healthy. In addition, you can also treat underlying problems, such as trauma, again with CBT techniques.

In eating disorders, ego strengthening at the end of treatment is also important (source 9).

Hypnosis can therefore support treatment in eating disorders in multiple ways.

Addictions

For addictions, treatment focuses on interrupting the use of whatever the addiction is. Restoring health and social behavior[11].

With many addictions, the psychologist's role is also to provide cognitive behavioral training, where, as with anxiety, you identify the triggers for the addictive behavior, thoughts that cause people to pick up their addiction, and to find alternatives to those thoughts and behaviors.

It is already well known that hypnosis can help with many addictions, such as quitting smoking and even quitting gaming.

Hypnotherapy can also be used with addictions to find the underlying cause for the addiction. For this, as with eating disorders, age regression can be used. Sometimes you can then suddenly find out that anxiety is actually a cause of the addiction, allowing you to adjust your entire plan of action[12].

Hypnosis for Psychology

Psychological treatment usually consists of cognitive behavioral therapy combined with the therapist's other knowledge of how to address certain issues.

Hypnosis can make normal therapy easier in many cases by enhancing therapeutic effects.

In addition, techniques such as regression and progression can give people insights and hope that make it easier for them to change their behavior.

Knowledge of hypnosis is a valuable addition to any psychologist's skill set to help their clients. Clients with all kinds of problems can be helped as a result.

Would you like to learn more about hypnosis and exactly how these techniques work? Then join the free online masterclass for an introduction to hypnosis.

Or register directly for one of our seminars or trainings. During seminars, you'll get demonstrations of hypnotherapy and learn the basics of putting someone into hypnosis.

During training, you'll get hands-on with techniques to help people get rid of their problems. Hypnosis Institute Netherlands' training courses are delivered live online from a professional studio and with plenty of 1-on-1 attention to ensure that you absorb the material well.

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