The role of hypnosis and hypnotherapy in Psychology

As the role of the mind in health, a number of researchers explored

the role of hypnosis and hypnotherapy in the fledgling

science of psychology.

Two famous schools were established where hypnotherapy

was studied, the Paris School and the Nancy School.

One of the most famous students of hypnosis and hypnotherapy was the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund

Freud.

Freud opened the way for modern psychology and psychotherapy, and

hypnosis was one of his original tools for treating patients suffering from what we would nowadays call

stress (but which Freud called hysteria).

A patient lying on Freud’s famous leather couch would be put into a hypnotic state (which, experts say, is not a form of sleep but a form of highly concentrated consciousness where the mind is focussed on one

thing only and shuts out all distractions).

In this hypnotherapy trance, the patient was more able to relax and to open their mind to the repressed

memories that often formed the root cause of their stress or other

mental problem.

Even today, hypnotherapy is often used for “regression”, allowing the patient to bring up memories of his

or her past in order to deal with present issues.

According to Freud’s theories, unwanted thoughts – be they

painful memories or desires of the “Id” (the primal, untamed part of

human nature) that are considered unacceptable by the “Ego” (the

more sophisticated, rational and moral side) – are pushed beneath

the threshold of consciousness, but are able to affect the individual’s behaviour via troubling dreams,

anxieties and phobias.

Another early pioneer of psychology who explored hypnosis

and its uses in therapy was Pierre Janet.

Janet came up with the idea of “dissociation”, where a person’s

consciousness withdraws from the present emotions and sensations,

often in response to trauma.

In a curious interplay, Janet saw a hypnotic trance as a form of

dissociation (certainly, when in a trance state, a person certainly

becomes less aware of his or her environment) that could be used to

diagnose the root cause of a mental disorder – even though this disorder often manifested itself as

dissociative behaviour.

Another early pioneer of hypnotherapy and suggestion to

change behaviour was Émile Coué.

Coué investigated auto-suggestion and self-hypnosis (he called it “conscious autosuggestion”),

with his main idea being that if you repeat something to yourself often enough about your own behaviour or habits, you will bring about the

desired change.

Coué’s most famous autosuggestion was that people should repeat the phrase “Every day, in every way, I am getting

better and better,” to themselves before going to sleep (a state very

similar to a hypnotic trance).

Coué is considered to be the founder of the self-help movement, and laid the groundwork for works

such as The Power Of Positive Thinking and the like.

By using Hypnotherapy, NLP, EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique)

you take advantage of "Possibly the fastest and most effective method of recovery and change therapy

available in the world today"

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