Hypnosis for speech therapy

The voice is so telling. Obviously a person uses their voice to say something, but again, how that voice sounds says a lot about the person, regardless of the words that come out.

For a speech therapist, it will come as no surprise that many emotions affect a person's neck and tongue, affecting voice tone, voice volume and how easily a person gets out of words.

Those feelings all come from somewhere, and resolving that can be the key to neck relaxation and normalizing the voice.

Hypnosis can be an effective way to reduce stress in clients, allowing them to use their voice normally again. In addition to the hypnotic state, hypnosis techniques can also be used.

As early as the 1990s, speech-language pathologists were already using hypnosis to help people with their voices[1]. Hypnosis was used to help clients relax and improve their self-confidence. For speech-language pathologists, it did not matter whether the problems were emotional in nature or caused by neurological issues—they used hypnosis regardless.

Hypnosis and stuttering

Hypnosis can also be used to address stuttering. A study involving 30 people who stutter found that for those with a mild form of stuttering, hypnosis alone can help resolve the problem. Has someone been struggling with stuttering for a long time and is dealing with the stigma and other emotional problems that result from it? In that case, the combination of speech therapy and hypnotherapy can also be incredibly valuable[2].

For example, hypnosis techniques can help people relax, manage anxiety, mentally rehearse what they want to say, and practice self-hypnosis when they feel nervous[3].

Vocal cord dysfunction syndrome and hypnosis

People suffering from vocal cord dysfunction syndrome may benefit from hypnosis in the diagnostic process. In a case study of a 9-year-old boy, hypnosis was used to trigger a “spasm” of the vocal cords the moment the camera was positioned near his neck. With hypnosis, you can suggest that such an episode is occurring. The vocal cords responded to this, and the suggestion to relax them also worked well. Because vocal cord dysfunction syndrome is often confused with asthma, hypnosis can be a useful tool for quickly making the correct diagnosis[4].

Hypnosis and ADHD in children

ADHD can greatly affect children and the way they talk. That's why some children with ADHD end up seeing a speech therapist. Even if children's writing and reading skills are affected, speech therapy can help improve the development of language skills, both verbal and written.

In a study in which hypnosis was added to the treatment of an 11-year-old child with ADHD, it was found to help improve phonological skills, reading comprehension and self-confidence[5].

In this way, hypnosis can also help children with dyslexia.

Hypnosis for people with aphasia

Strokes can have major effects on people, such as aphasia. That's when the part in the brain that helps you with language is damaged, making it harder to speak.

Then, too, a speech therapist can help them master it all again.

Research shows that hypnosis helps improve emotions when aphasia causes you to become depressed or even anxious about doing anything with language. As a result, it can support treatment[6].

Hypnosis at the Globus Feeling

The Globus feeling is the feeling you get when you think there's something in your throat or when the lump just doesn't want to come out of your throat after experiencing a violent emotion.

It can feel like something is stuck in your throat, which also keeps you coughing.

If treatments do not work against these symptoms, hypnosis can be used to reduce the Globus feeling and even become completely symptom-free[7].

People with these symptoms can also come to the speech therapist.

Hypnosis techniques for speech therapy

As a speech therapist, there are several techniques you can use to help clients with their voice and language skills. Some examples.

Relaxation

One of the most important steps to help people with their voice in relaxation. A lot of emotions and stress can hit the voice by causing tension in the body, such as in the neck and shoulders.

With relaxation exercises, you can then get much further than if you just do voice exercises.

The hypnotic state in itself is more relaxing than if you were simply working on a daily basis. You can use hypnosis and self-hypnosis to enhance that relaxation and maintain it for a longer period of time.

This is often the first step in hypnosis. You often help clients with relaxation by having them imagine a nice space where they can relax.

Visualizations

While you're at it with imagination and visualizations. Then you can use them for voice as well. For example, you can give people a suggestion about voice functioning and about "cleaning" the neck area that will make people feel freer to speak.

As if there is something in the neck blocking normal speech, which can then be fantasized away with the mind.

Visualizations can also be used to deal with problems symbolically. Especially if someone finds it difficult to talk about his/her problems, visualizing the problem in some way and then doing something with it can help to still solve the problem.

Regression

Sometimes emotions are a bit harder to resolve than with visualization alone, and in those cases, regression may be necessary. For example, if someone has a loud voice and finds it difficult to speak at a normal volume, there may be more going on.

For example, people may have experienced problems in their lives with being heard, which was then solved by the subconscious by simply speaking louder.

But of course, if this causes the vocal cords to be damaged, it won't help at all in the long run.

With regression, you can go back to the moment when the belief that created wrong voice use occurred. These are often moments from childhood, because that is the period in life when your unconscious comes up with "rules" about how the world works and how best to function then.

With a regression, you update that memory that created such a rule. This repairs the limiting belief[8]. This can already be very relaxing, allowing unconscious changes to already take place.

Suggestions

In addition, you can also provide suggestions in the form of affirmations that encourage your clients' self-confidence, these can include suggestions such as.

"I get to drop silences to think about what I'm saying."

"People hear me."

"My natural voice is my radio voice."

The suggestions you then give do depend on the symptoms your client has. These are just examples. You can customize the suggestions for each client.

Learning hypnosis for improving treatments

For professionals who use hypnosis as support for their continued treatment, basic knowledge of hypnosis is sufficient. After all, you are not entirely working as a therapist, but to resolve people's complaints.

The basic knowledge of hypnosis can then be enough to support your standard treatment with hypnosis techniques.

In the introductory courses offered by the Hypnosis Institute of the Netherlands , for example, you’ll learn how to put people into a hypnotic state, help people relax using hypnosis, utilize symbols, perform regression, set anchors, and use rapid techniques to resolve fears.

These techniques alone will go a long way to support standard speech therapy treatments.

Would you like to learn more about hypnosis and how you can use it to help people? Then join a free online masterclass to get started.

Or sign up right away for one of our seminars or training courses. The courses are taught live online with ample support to ensure one-on-one attention.

In addition, they are ideal to attend alongside your job, as training days are mainly on Fridays and Saturdays. So it doesn't have to get in the way of your standard work.

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