Dealing Life Hassles' with Hypnotherapy: Case Studies

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Dealing Life Hassles' with Hypnotherapy Case
Studies

• Dr. Shruti Khare

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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.

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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
  hypnotists suggestions or commands.
• Hypnosis is not a truth serum.
• Hypnosis is NOT like alcohol or drugs that lessen
  some ones inhibitions to the point where they
  might be more likely to do something fanatical.

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• 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.

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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).

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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.

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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.

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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 patients 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.
• Patients 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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• I can be reached at
• Dr. Shruti Khare
• Agra, Uttar Pradesh
• Email dr.shruti.in_at_gmail.com
• Skype ID dr.shruti.in