As a psychologist, developing yourself is always nice to help your clients get better and better. One of the techniques that can make you better as a psychologist is hypnosis. The nice thing about hypnosis is that you can continue to use techniques you already use, but while your client is in hypnosis.
How does hypnosis for psychology work?
In psychology, cognitive behavioral therapy techniques are often used. Research shows that when hypnosis is added to this it enhances the effect of treatment.
This includes treatments for depression symptoms, pain and treating obesity[1].
So the difference in the treatment then is mainly in the effect that the client is in hypnosis during the conversation with the psychologist, otherwise the treatment is the same.
So you then begin the session with the client by explaining what hypnosis is. You ask permission to put your client into hypnosis and then you induce the hypnosis.
When the client is in hypnosis, you can continue the normal treatment. The difference, however, is that the client then has their eyes closed and is completely relaxed.
You can then also still use the client's body language to see if there is a particular issue that you can expand on, just as in a normal psychology session.
Benefits of hypnosis for psychology
The modern version of hypnotherapy is based on the knowledge of Milton H Erickson. Treatment then focuses on the individual and compassion for the client.
As with regular treatment, communication, rapport and compassion are important. In addition, observation is also important.
The induction of hypnosis ensures that your client is relaxed and focused on what you are saying.
You respond to the client's needs and beliefs, and you do this by creating a safe environment so that the client feels free to talk about his/her problems.
Research also shows that hypnosis causes changes in the brain that explain why it enhances psychological effects. Brain plasticity is enhanced making it easier to "update" thoughts and beliefs during treatment.
This even helps to interpret pain in a different way.
Ideal if you have someone with unexplained pain symptoms who has otherwise already undergone all the medical tests to find out where the pain is coming from.
As a result, the suggestions you give as a therapist can change the client's beliefs. This changes the way of thinking, which in turn can change the client's behavior and the interpretation your client has about certain situations that are currently causing problems[2].
Hypnosis uses parts of the brain that also play a role in empathy. Hypnosis also does something for the interaction with the therapist, the client's view of themselves, understanding that the view a person has of themselves is a created view and that this view can be changed[3].
Medical hypnosis
For medical problems, hypnosis can also serve much purpose. These include allergy, dermatology, oncology, rheumatic complaints, neurological complaints, obesity, bowel problems, surgical procedures, high blood pressure, pain issues (think childbirth as well), nausea and weight loss.
It is also used to treat stress, anxiety, post-traumatic stress syndrome and depression (source 2).
These are also complaints for which people go to a psychologist. Some complaints we can highlight and how hypnosis can play a role in treatment.
Burnout and hypnosis
When people suffer from burnout, psychological treatment often consists of coping with the crisis, recovery, determining how to prevent future burnout and post-burnout growth.
This allows you to encourage the client to call in sick, or to take on fewer tasks and to inform the social circle about the burnout.
In addition, you teach your client to relax through certain relaxation exercises, such as with mindfulness and determine with the client when they can take on small tasks again.
To prevent the client from going back into burnout, you can work with your client to analyze what situations are currently causing stress. What thoughts your client has then. How he can deal with stress. How he can arrange his work so that it suits him better and you can teach the client to make choices that are good for him in terms of work and social environment.
In terms of growth, you help the client set certain goals and how to monitor these limits[4].
Research shows that this process can be supported with hypnotherapy combined with cognitive behavioral therapy[5].
Eating Disorders
Overeating, undereating, vomiting after eating, all are eating disorders where a psychologist can treat. But what is the best way to treat is not always clear yet. Anorexia, for example, is a disorder where specialist treatments are not always better than regular treatment, but neither are they worse[6].
A case study of a woman combining age regression and self-hypnosis for ego strengthening with cognitive behavioral therapy found that it worked well to help her regain a healthy weight[7].
For people who overeat, hypnotherapy is a way to help people approach nutrition in a more normal way that makes losing weight and achieving and maintaining a healthy weight easier[8].
Sleep Problems
Sleep problems are common among people who also suffer from mental problems. Usually people then get advice on sleep hygiene, but that does not always solve the problem[9]. Hypnosis is then a good addition to overcome sleep problems.
Researchers indicate that hypnosis either improves sleep or at least does no harm. Treating insomnia with hypnosis is something they do want to explore further, especially since it costs nothing except for the treatment. No drugs are then needed to fall asleep.
In the studies reviewed, other problems were often treated with hypnosis that caused the sleep problems, such as pain or post traumatic stress[10].
Fears
Fears can have a lot of impact on people's lives. Consider, for example, driving anxiety that causes people to avoid going anywhere by car, thereby limiting their range of motion. These also reduce the opportunities you can take in your life for work and even maintaining or building your social life.
Treating anxiety is often done by confronting someone with the fear under supervision, and later without supervision.
So by driving a car for a bit, for example. By driving to a place 10 kilometers outside your comfort zone, for example.
In the case of social anxiety, you can encourage someone to eventually engage in improvisational theater so that they will find it less scary to improvise in new situations 😊.
For anxiety, hypnosis can also be an addition, as you can use hypnosis to teach people to control the physical reaction to fear and to practice confronting the fear in advance in fantasy. In addition, you can address beliefs that cause the fear[11].
Gloom
Suffering from a lot of gloom can be a stage toward depression[12] and it is therefore important that if someone seeks help at all then to give help for it.
One way to treat gloom is to teach people more mindfulness and gratitude to improve mood.
In addition, it is also good for people to realize that gloominess is part of life. This allows them to think about it less, possibly making them feel better again unnoticed, because they are not thinking "I'm gloomy, how bad" all the time.
Hypnosis can also help clients figure out what beliefs are currently causing them to be gloomy about life and how to look at your life in a different way.
Addiction
Addictions come in all shapes and sizes. For example, many people are familiar with hypnotic treatments to quit smoking[13]. Even online sessions help 86% of smokers still quit smoking 6 months later, and those who still smoke smoke more than 30% fewer cigarettes than before hypnotherapy.
But you have more addictions than that, and they can create a mindset where people blame themselves and therefore cannot get out of the cycle of addiction.
Most psychological treatments aim to restore addicts' confidence that they can change. One way this is done is by treating the underlying reason for addiction and changing the way people think about it. In this way, people can gain a growth mindset[14].
When it is actually not entirely clear to a client why an addiction began, regression, a hypnotic technique, can help find the moment when the problem arose that ultimately created the addiction. And in thought, this moment is then fixable[15]. In this way, it has less grip on the addict and the addict can more easily overcome the addiction.
Research shows that hypnosis can be a valuable addition during the journey for someone seeking to overcome drug or alcohol addiction[16].
Psychologist: Adding Hypnosis to Your Skills
If you are a psychologist and want to broaden your skills, then training in hypnotherapy could be a great addition to your practice.
Join the free online master class for an introduction to hypnotherapy.
Or register directly for one of our seminars or trainings. Training courses are available live online or in a classroom format. Choose a format that suits you.
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