Washington — The joint engineering center of Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp. in Washtenaw County is partnering with the University of Michigan to study “highway hypnosis” — a mental state in which a person can drive great distances without recollection of having consciously done so.

Engineers from Hyundai-Kia America Technical Center Inc. in Superior Township will work with graduate students and professors from U-M’s College of Engineering and School of Kinesiology measure driver brainwaves using electroencephalograph (EEG) sensors, which has the potential to detect early on when a driver is becoming drowsy. A physical and sound alert tied into an onboard system could then jolt the driver awake.

“Current methods of detecting driver drowsiness are noting changes in head position and eyelid activity, both of which require a longer time to determine potential danger; whereas EEG sensors may detect driver drowsiness prior to the driver’s behavioral change taking place,” the Hyundai-Kia technical center said. The two Korean automakers are controlled by the same conglomerate.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 3,331 people were killed in distracted driving-related accidents in 2011, and NHTSA estimates 387,000 were injured.

Another collaboration between the technical center and university will try to boost fuel economy using a dual pre-chamber lean-burn combustion system. This study focuses on combustion chamber and piston dome geometry development and will examine in-cylinder flows.

“Combining the unbridled enthusiasm and free-spirited thinking of graduate students from a world-class university with the talented technical minds found within HATCI, we can explore new ways in which to approach significant technological hurdles in the automotive industry,” said Dr. Sung Hwan Cho, president of the technical center.

Umesh Patel, senior director at U-M’s Business Engagement Center, said, “These new research collaborations with the Hyundai-Kia America Technical Center demonstrate the multi-disciplinary nature of automotive research and have the potential to catalyze further research at the University of Michigan as well as to inform our educational mission.”



From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130822/AUTO0104/308220105#ixzz2cnRI8J2o

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For well over a century, hypnosis has been used to treat a wide range of conditions including irritable bowel syndrome, post-traumatic stress and eating disorders. But now neuroscientists are using hypnosis to gain insight into medically unexplained paralysis such as hysteria, hallucinations and schizophrenia.


By Peter Halligan, Cardiff University

Despite long standing associations with mysticism and stage hypnotism, hypnosis has also been used for medical and scientific purposes. For well over a century, hypnosis has been used to treat a wide range of conditions. These have included pain, irritable bowel syndrome, post-traumatic stress, phobias and eating disorders.

More recently, hypnosis has began to attract notice from cognitive neuroscientists. They have become interested in understanding hypnosis, and using it to simulate unusual states of consciousness in the lab.

Hypnotic suggestion allows one to harness the effect of attention in the brain. This allows the enhancement, and even production, of a wide range of experiences. In many people, hypnotic suggestion can producecompelling changes in perception and cognition, including temporary paralysis, anaesthesia and blindness.

Hypnosis produces a highly focused state which allows “suggestions” – simple statements communicating changes in a person’s experience or behaviour – to take place, such as “your leg is becoming so stiff that you cannot move it”. It has also been long recognised that suggestions can be effective without a hypnotic induction procedure, but this is rare, only occuring in highly suggestible individuals.

In the labThe ability to experimentally manipulate subjective awareness in the laboratory could have major potential, as I describe in the latest issue of Nature Neuroscience Review.

Current interest in the area can be divided into two types of research. Some are looking to acquire a better understanding of the nature of hypnosis. Others are interested in using hypnotic suggestion to investigate certain aspects of normal and abnormal psychological functioning.

Employing a range of brain imaging technologies, both approaches are using hypnosis to explore the nature of consciousness. They are also gaining insight into the brain mechanisms underlying visual perception, pain, and the putative origins of some clinical symptoms. These include medically unexplained paralysis as seen in hysteria, hallucinations, delusions and alterations in control over thought and actions in schizophrenia.

Understandably, scepticism remains regarding the credibility of reports involving hypnotic suggestion. Participants, however, typically describe the perceptual and behavioural changes experienced as “real”, and beyond voluntary control.

Recent experimental studies support the case for hypnosis being a physiologically credible experience. This is particularly seen where suggestions disrupt well-established automatic, unconscious processes, such as reading.

The findingsThere is a now a growing literature which shows how hypnotic suggestion can be used to create temporary functional changes in a range of ways.

Hypnosis has also been used instrumentally to develop and test models for a number of specific psycho-pathologies including delusions, auditory hallucinations, functional paralysis and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

It can also be used to suggest subjective experiences that are similar to symptoms observed in neurological and psychiatric disturbances. These have included chronic pain conditions, and disorders of volition and motor control.

Hypnotic suggestions have been used to induce “synaesthetic” experiences – where one sense triggers the involuntary use of another. In colour-number synaesthesia, people experience colours associated with specific numbers. The reliable effects reported in naturally occurring synaesthesia are commonly considered to be outside a subject’s control. However, one study showed that hypnotic suggestion could be effective in abolishing the apparently automatic experience of synaesthesia.

There is clearly great future potential in this growing field. In addition to scientific advances, the ability to produce neurological symptoms of “virtual patients” in normal volunteers also provides a potential training value. Practitioners could have the possibility of experiencing these symptoms for themselves: through hypnotic suggestion.

Over the past 25 years Peter Halligan has received funding from MRC and other UK research councils and charities, although none specifically for research on hypnosis.

Putting patients into a hypnotic trance can be a boon to treating phobias, depression, stuttering, anxiety and many other conditions.

Hypnotism has been practiced for thousands of years, and for most of that time it was associated with magic, witchcraft, meditation, charlatans and entertainment.

Only in the past century have the medical and psychological benefits of hypnotherapy been documented, scientifically proven and significantly utilized to treat a gamut of problems from stuttering, bruxism (teeth grinding) and phobias to painful childbirth, anxieties and psychiatric diseases.

But the layman retains many misunderstandings and myths about hypnotism, and large numbers of people who could benefit have no access because the treatment is not included in the basket of health services.

There are 250 active members in the Israel Society of Hypnosis, chaired by clinical psychologist Dr. Udi Bonstein. Nearly 50 percent of licensed hypnotherapists are clinical psychologists like him, about 30% psychoanalysts/psychiatrists and the rest dentists. All of them have to take and pass a special hypnotism course to be licensed.

The society would like to see other professionals, such as nurses, clinical social workers, midwives and physiotherapists join, but the law would have to be changed – a very complex process.

Dr. Shaul Livnay , a Swiss-born, France-raised and American- and Israeli-trained senior clinical psychologist, licensed supervisor and trainer of hypnosis who has integrated hypnotherapy into his practice for the past 30 years, recalled its background and explained its uses.

In an interview last week with The Jerusalem Post, he said: “I have used it on many hundreds of patients for matters of parental guidance, treatment of children and adolescents, help for adults in their 20s through 50s and through retirement.”

IT CAN be used for hypnotic preparation toward birth; emotional adjustment and behavioral problems in the young; bed wetting; training children with serious illness to hypnotize themselves to reduce pain and anxiety; lack of concentration on studies; conflicts with parents; trichotillomania [hair pulling], fear of heights, flying and other phobias; difficulties with military service; relationships; stress; coping as grandparents; adjustment to aging and much more. However, Livnay admits that there are limitations: getting people to kick the smoking habit using hypnosis, for example, is “very complicated and can easily not succeed,” he says.

Hypnosis, derived from hypnos, the Greek word for sleep, is defined as a “special psychological state with certain physiological attributes, resembling sleep only superficially and marked by a functioning of the individual at a level of awareness other than the ordinary conscious state.” A leading founder was Franz Anton Mesmer, an 18th-century German doctor who suggested that there was a “natural energetic transference” that occurred between all animated and inanimate objects that he called “animal magnetism.” His theory was later called “mesmerism,” and “mesmerized” has long been accepted in the English language.

“He believed in ‘magnetic fluid’ that people had to balance against their illness,” said Livnay. “Mesmer made a special bathtub with rods immersed in it to treat mass hysteria.

He was thrown out of Vienna and went to France, where five investigative committees were set up, one of them headed by the American statesman and inventor Benjamin Franklin. But none of them found the device made any difference. They realized that hypnotism was connected to imagination and the power of suggestion.”

Performers claiming to hypnotize subjects, often “stooges,” gave hypnotism “a bad name” for centuries.

The great psychiatrist Sigmund Freud went to study hypnosis in France, said Livnay. “He was very rigid and saw that after hysterical blindness was ‘cured’ in a patient, the condition returned. He didn’t know what to do after the trance ended. Freud had a flirtation with hypnosis, and turned it eventually into free association, but sometimes disliked it because he thought he was not good at it. He also felt uncomfortable when patients stared at him, so he always sat behind the patient, whom he put on a couch. He always preferred that arrangement when dealing with patients.”

ONE OF the most veteran licensed hypnotherapists in Israel, Livnay attended his first hypnosis conference in Jerusalem in 1988. “I felt freed, much more open to patients when I learned it. I began to use it with other techniques, and today I am an integrative therapist.” Asked whether all patients can be “inducted” (urged) into a trance, Livnay said about 10% are not susceptible to it at all, 10% are “always in a trance,” while the rest have to be inducted. “We conduct tests and use scales to determine who can do it. There is no correlation to age, sex, culture, religiosity or other factors.”

Hypnosis, which is a kind of psychotherapy, was in 1892 recognized by a committee of the British Medical Association, the body of experts evaluated the nature and effects of hypnotherapy and decided that it is “frequently effective in relieving pain, procuring sleep, and alleviating many functional ailments.”

Only in 1955 did the BMA officially approve hypnotherapy, and stated that in the previous century that it could be “of great service in the treatment of patients.” The American Medical Association followed with a commission in 1958 that decided “hypnosis has a recognized place in the medical armamentarium and is a useful technique in the treatment of certain illnesses when employed by qualified medical and dental personnel.”

There is no such thing, said Livnay, as doing only hypnosis. “It is a tool to use within your specific specialty.

For example, it can be used on pregnant women to affect the fetus. Babies emerge very calm. Most courses for childbirth include hypnosis without saying so.

“Even though hypnosis has a strong influence on many patients, it doesn’t mean that I use it on everyone.

Some come only for hypnosis, for anxiety or psychosomatic problems, for example. It then takes six to 12 sessions. I tell them it’s part of therapy, even a major part, but never the whole treatment.”

But many people have “more complex problems.

Hypnosis for these conditions usually shortens the number of psychotherapy sessions they need,” he says.

However, he continued, if a person is very unstable “and an untrained therapist opens him up with hypnosis, he could go into psychosis. Untrained people have been sued for harming patients. There was a famous case a few years ago of a Florida high-school principal who tried to help pupils suffering from test anxiety, and a suicide was the result.”

The left brain hemisphere, he explained, controls reasoning and language. The right brain deals with imagery and imagination. “Inducing a hypnotic trance means that the patient leaves the generalized reality orientation and begins to drift, using free associations. He closes his eyes, concentrates and uses his imagination.”

Hypnotists used to use crystals as a pendulum to wave in front of the patient’s face. “We may use it to test the person’s ability to go under or do some investigative work. But today we often use individual colorful marbles; patients choose one and smile, because they have a warm feeling as they associate it with their childhood. When they touch it, it’s so relaxing. Induction can also be verbal. It can take a few seconds to a few hours to get there.”

There are several myths about hypnosis. “One,” says Livnay, “is that the therapist is in control. In fact, the patient is always in control. He might decide to give up conscious control of his left brain and open up the right hemisphere, but the therapist cannot control him like a puppet. A trance can not be used to force a patient to abandon his morals and principles.”

Another myth is that if a patient is inducted, there is a danger that he won’t be able to wake up. Most people close their eyes and become immobile, so they look asleep. But they are still conscious. Some patients fear they will lose their memory, said Livnay, “but they always remember what happened and remain in control during the induction, hearing the therapist and being de-hypnotized.

“If a stage is skipped, and the therapist claps his hands but all stages have not been performed, the patient may go out a bit mixed up and return to reality by themselves. Yet they may be frightened. The hypnotist must make sure to test the patient to ensure that he has ‘come back’ properly. Unless I’m working on a person suffering from insomnia, in which case I put them on a couch or they sit on a lounge chair with their feet up, I have people sit on a regular chair in front of me.”

Although he is not observant himself, he has ultra- Orthodox patients, who he says learn about his service by word of mouth. “I recently treated some yeshiva students who had all kinds of problems caused by their intensive study. I used hypnosis to get them to relax.

Teenagers are complicated, but I got a whole slew of problems yeshiva students who came to get relaxed.”

Phobias are very common. “People are afraid of small or large places [claustrophobia and agoraphobia] or of getting into a plane. There are some people, mostly women, who drive perfectly well in the city and never had an accident but are petrified by the idea of driving on intercity roads.”

Hypnotherapy is very useful for pure medical purposes, including preparing and calming patients before surgery so they are more cooperative with their doctors, Livnay said. For this purpose, many surgeons have learned to do hypnosis themselves.

Some hospitals are strong advocates of hypnosis; Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem, for example, has a hypnosis unit headed by Dr.

Eitan Abramovich.

“With hypnosis, recovery takes less time,” said Abramovich, “and there is less bleeding and less need for anesthesia and pain killers. There was a Scottish surgeon back in the 19th century who performed over 5,000 operations using hypnosis; 500 of them involved major surgery, all without anesthesia. But this use was largely replaced by modern anesthesia.

“I have a colleague in Turkey who performed a hysterectomy on a highly motivated woman. He put her into a trance, and a curtain was placed in front of her.

Fully conscious but with no pain, she talked to the surgeons about a recipe she had made.”

Hypnotherapy can help patients with skin conditions; psoriasis has a major psychosomatic element. So does irritable bowel syndrome; hypnosis is almost the treatment of choice. It can give cancer patients getting chemotherapy some relief from nausea. For pain, hypnosis can help no less and probably more than medical marijuana, Livnay said. “But the technique cannot be used on psychotic or other severely disturbed patients.”

Stroke patients, people with tinnitus (chronic ringing in the ears), hypertension, or those with kidney failure who are on dialysis also can benefit from hypnotherapy.

Many dentists use it to pull teeth, make fillings, treat bruxism and a gag reflex in their patients – or a complete dental phobia. One health fund, he concludes, “has had a hypnosis unit in its dental service for many years.”

DR. UDI Bonstein, a physician who studied hypnotherapy at Tel Aviv University Medical School and has practiced it for 15 years, said he would like to have a day at the Israel Society of Hypnosis national conference next May opened to physicians and other professionals who are interested. But some doctors are “still leery, especially as the therapy is not provided by the health funds free, so they don’t want to take the risk and establish a hypnosis institute. If it were included in the basket of health services, many more would do it. And it should be taught to medical students in their final years of studies.”

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Imagine a slimmer, healthier you that kicks unhealthy food cravings to the curb and fights her way past all the bad carbohydrates, starches, and trans fats. Wishful shrinking? Or a diet fad? Hypnosis weight loss programs can help a person lose weight when they are under hypnosis — a state of inner absorption and concentration — where a person is highly focused and more responsive to ideas about behavioral changes, in their eating habits for instance, says Mayo Clinic. With more than one-third of adults in the United States classified as obese, this diet fad provides a natural and quick-and-easy way for many weight loss hopefuls to shed the pounds.

Approximately $33 billion is spent on weight loss products in the U.S. by 45 million Americans who diet each year, reports Boston Medical Center (BMC). The fight for a fit, trimmer body is never-ending as Americans go on the alkaline diet, the baby food diet, the French woman diet, or even the Clean Program to lose the weight for good. What makes the hypnosis weight loss diet different from any other diet? Most importantly, is it effective and how can you think your way thin without the pills, diuretics, and cleansers?

Nancy B. Irwin, PsyD, C.Ht., speaker and author, uses hypnosis to help people become aware, first and foremost, of why they overeat. "My premise is that there is positive intent behind every bit of human behavior," she said to Medical Daily. "No one ever does anything to deliberately be bad or wrong, or even evil...similarly, no one chooses to be obese." Based on Irwin's clinical experiences, she believes the positive intent behind overeating is:

1) Numbing emotional pain

2) Thwarting unwanted sexual advances

3) To literally stand out/be seen.

Hypnosis weight loss programs are seen as a means to provide a healthy way to address these needs without damaging the body. In a study published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, researchers from the University of Connecticut (UConn) did a meta-analysis of the effect of adding hypnosis to cognitive-behavioral treatments for weight reduction. Additional data was obtained from two studies previously done where UConn researchers corrected the data for computational inaccuracies. The average weight loss of post treatment and follow-up assessment periods from all the studies was 6 lbs. without hypnosis and approximately 12 lbs. with hypnosis — double the weight loss. This study shows that hypnosis in addition to behavioral programs is effective in reinforcing a person's weight loss. This diet fad can be a psychological reinforcement for dieters to adapt positive eating habits and patterns for long-term results.

Dieters who participate in a hypnosis weight loss program are "reprogrammed" by hypnotherapists to follow proper nutritional habits so they can commit to an "appropriate exercise regime, and most importantly to manage their thoughts, which are self-hypnotic suggestions 24/7," said Irwin. Healthy eating and an exercise plan is supported by hypnosis — no magic pill included. The combination of hypnosis with coaching increases the effective of the diet fad, said fitness trainer and author of Mind Your Own Fitness Bob Choat to Medical Daily. "What I've discovered regarding weight loss is that simply using hypnosis alone is not enough."

"Immediate action after a hypnosis session is important. Also, special suggestions, such as eating healthy veggies or increasing walking is part of the solution," he added.

Bottom line — does a hypnosis weight loss diet work? Yes, with proper diet and exercise.

Hypnosis Weight Loss Program
In order for hypnosis to work effectively, a weekly consultation with a hypnotist for eight weeks or more is required, in addition to self-hypnosis, says Vanderbilt University Department of Psychology in Nashville, Tenn. It is a time intensive program that will require a considerable amount of effort and should be tailored to each individual.

The average cost of hypnosis per session is between $110 to $150 but the cost often varies between hypnotherapists, says Hypochix.net.

At-Home Self-Hypnosis Tips
If you want to try this diet fad without breaking the bank, you can with these at-home self-hypnosis tips to help you think thin. Self-hypnosis, similar to regular hypnosis, involves the use of books, videos, or audio recordings and the use of your own voice to form a close connection between your body and mind for a specific reason. Below you will find some helpful tips from Your Holistic Healthcare and Medical Daily to help you reach your goal.

1. Find a quiet place to practice self-hypnosis to minimize the amount of distractions for a minimum of five to 30 minutes.

2. Relaxation is essential in order to achieve an effective self-hypnosis.

3. If the body is tense, try to imagine the tension escaping your body starting with the head, the shoulders, arms, legs, and feet.

4. Inhale and exhale deeply to release any negative energy in the body and mind.

5. Picture what the intended goal is and imagine overcoming it slowly as your voice will be your guide.

6. Repeat the statement to reaffirm your confidence in accomplishing your goal.

7. Self-affirmation will allow you to get to the mountain top of your goal.

8. Slowly locate your body and mind back to reality and open your eyes.



Read more at http://www.medicaldaily.com/articles/16718/20130620/hypnosis-weight-loss-self-hypnosis-weight-loss-strategies-obesity.htm#yCglKkgvrbTypuor.99 

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According to The Telegraph in an article published on the 26 June 2013, anxiety and stress are the most popular reasons for missing time off work. An official major nationwide study looked at tens of thousands of sick notes issued by GP’s and found that 35 per cent were for reasons associated with mild to moderate mental health disorders. A spokesperson from the Department for Work and Pensions said:

“Sickness absence is a burden to business, to the taxpayer and to the thousands of people who end up trapped on benefits when they could actually work. Supporting people with mental health problems to return to work more quickly will be an important part of the new independent health and work advisory service.”

One way to help people deal with mild mental health disorders is by using complementary therapies such as hypnotherapy. The National Council for Hypnotherapy (NCH) gives members of the general public access to local hypnotherapist’s details from all over the UK which can be used to arrange hypnotism sessions. This can help a variety of issues including weight loss, phobias, habits like smoking and anxiety or stress. In this case, hypnotherapy could help the client reduce levels of anxiety and stress through discussing the issue and using hypnotic techniques to control and alleviate symptoms.

“This could help those who are absent from work due to anxiety and stress and reduce symptoms with the goal of returning the client back to the workplace ASAP,” added a spokesperson from the NCH.

The National Council for Hypnotherapy aims to highlight the variety of uses for hypnotherapy.

NCH represents over 1800 hypnotherapy professionals within the UK and is committed to ensuring the highest possible professional standards amongst our members. Those looking for help with smoking, weight, anxiety, panic attacks, habits and phobias may be helped by local NCH accredited therapists, look for the NCH seal of approval on their websites. As one of the largest registers of independent Hypnotherapists, the National Council for Hypnotherapy (NCH) is actively involved with the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC) and strives to develop standards for the benefit of the profession, now and into the future.



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I was interested to read in the Complementary & Natural Healthcare Council’s bulletin that there is now an MSc in Clinical Hypnosis which will give more credibility to the therapy and increase its use in a medical setting alongside more conventional treatments.

Some examples where it is being are in anaesthesia for dental treatment and in childbirth where the patient will be taught before the event to use to self-hypnosis to turn off pain.

While this does sound quite a leap of the imagination if you think of self hypnosis as like meditation it all starts to make sense.  In a meditative state we seek to separate the mind from the body to induce relaxation, and in the case of anaesthesia being relaxed then allows you to visualise better.

When I hypnotise someone I merely guide them into hypnosis and eventually they will learn how to do that themselves.  We are all capable going into a state of self hypnosis it is just that we might not realise it, like writers when they are working on a piece and find that the whole morning has passed.

In a clinical situation, during the hypnosis or self hypnosis you can imagine that your hand is in cold water so it feels numb.  If you hold this thought your mind will follow and your hand will start feeling numb and anaesthetised.  The more you practice, you will eventually be able to move the numbness to any part of the body that you want and that is why it is possible to feel no pain when you give birth.

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Craig A. Jackson, Professor of Occupational Health Psychology at Birmingham City University, asks if there is any scope for using clinical hypnosis in the modern workplace.


“For the past hundred years there has been an abundance of evidence that psychological and physiological changes could be produced by hypnotism which were worth study on their own account, and also that such changes might be of great service in the treatment of patients.” British Medical Journal, 23 April 1955

Hypnotherapy, and the ability to induce a relaxed and suggestible state, leaving the subject open to accepting and trying new attitudes and adopting new behaviours, is a phenomenon that has been written about since the Victorian era. Despite a historical and continuous interest in the area that captures the imagination of children and adults alike, it is probably the contemporary psychological practice with the longest record of being misunderstood. Despite the logic behind it and the evidence associated with its efficacy in a variety of conditions, it is too readily ignored by lay people. Unfortunately, having been hijacked by stage-hypnotists and illusionists, many people do not bother to explore the wide body of evidence that suggests hypnotherapy can be a useful tool in behavioural change.

There have been many reviews of the scientific literature over the last several decades to try and establish if hypnosis has a useful role to play in the management of common and rare conditions. Such reviews have usually been undertaken by independent review panels and have often adopted strict criteria in order to provide strong evidence, should it be found, about the usefulness of hypnotherapy. The British Medical Association (BMA) commissioned a review in 1892 to evaluate the effects of hypnotherapy. The review concluded that hypnotic states could genuinely exist, and hypnotherapy was frequently effective in remedying pain, sleep disorders, anxiety and functional disorders. A two-year review was again undertaken by the BMA in the mid-1950s entitled Medical Use of Hypnotism (1955), which concluded that hypnotism was of value and could be the treatment of choice in psychosomatic conditions, intrusive thoughts and neuroses. Further uses were suggested for analgesia in dental treatment and childbirth. These findings were repeated by a review by the American Medical Association less than five years later, and again by the US National Institute for Health in 1995, which expanded the list of conditions that could be aided by hypnosis to include irritable bowel syndrome, chronic pain associated with cancers, tension headaches and mandibular disorders. A clinical review by Vickers & Zollman (1999) also found the side effects of chemotherapy, panic disorders, primary insomnia, phobias and asthma could be aided. They found no evidence to support some claims that hypnotherapy could extend life expectancy. However, subsequent Cochrane reviews found no evidence to support claims that hypnotherapy can assist in tobacco cessation or in managing irritable bowel syndrome.

This article does not attempt to provide any argument about the evidence of the effectiveness of, or even the validity of, hypnotherapy as an approach to be used within healthcare or medicine. As a chartered psychologist who does not use hypnotherapy in any form of clinical or consultation work, I feel suitably independent from it, and therefore truly disinterested in the practice of hypnotherapy. What is of interest to me is that modern workplaces could be missing some helpful tools in the effort to convert and influence individuals and organisations towards safety-conscious working and healthy living. In the last decade we have seen the workplace become much more people and psychology-focused than they have ever been before.

It might be no coincidence that one of the reasons hypnotherapy never took off in mainstream healthcare, and has been associated with the alternative movement, crystals and homeopathy, is that the unfashionable and much-maligned Sigmund Freud (and Joseph Breuer) was a proponent of it when publishing Studies in Hysteria in 1895. The pairing of hypnotherapy with the unfair post-modern criticism Freud received may have consigned it to an early discontinuation. In essence, Freud’s suggested use of hypnotherapy makes sense: when we have psychological or behavioural problems, they are often because of unresolved conflicts within us of which we are unaware. As our true thoughts and desires are so dark and savage, according to Freud, our subconscious buries such conflicts and prevents us from assessing them or even being aware of them by defence mechanisms, in order to protect our own sanity. The only way around such defence mechanisms was to try and sneak around the consciousness, using word association, drugs, the analysis of dreams, or even subconscious notions of shape preference to allow us to get access to the true unguarded issues at the core of ourselves. Another way of doing this in Freudian therapy was through the use of placing an individual in a hypnotic state — docile and suggestible, but still able to communicate, yet without the defence mechanisms becoming involved. Ironically, the psychosocial conditions that Freud and colleagues often encountered at the time, under the label of “hysteria”, map neatly onto modern day complaints seen quite commonly in workplaces — anxiety, depression, sleep problems, habituation of negative thinking and substance misuse.

Clinical hypnosis does not involve placing individuals in vulnerable positions of unconsciousness or zombie-like states. Some individuals may feel so relaxed and at ease that they do fall into a brief sleep but are easily awoken by the therapist without any harm or danger to either party. A hypnotic state can occur normally in most people when the right environmental and psychological settings are provided, and with a skilled and experienced hypnotherapist it is possible to use this state to make both profound and prolonged changes to the way people think about things, their feelings and emotional responses to other situations, and ultimately their behaviours and actions. Old ways of “thinking and doing” can be challenged without resistance. This is a summary of the form of hypnosis provided by practitioners within the British Society of Clinical Hypnosis (2013). Hypnosis is a consultative process, with the practitioner assessing the client thoroughly in order to determine the nature of any problems, just as would be done with any other form of talking therapy, including cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). Clinical hypnotherapists will also prepare their clients by explaining to them how the hypnosis will work and what the clients can expect to feel like. The methods used are often individualised and based on the client’s levels of suggestibility and emotional state, and, where appropriate, therapists will train clients in self-hypnosis techniques.

The British Psychological Society (BPS) working party produced The Nature of Hypnosis in 2001 and concluded that, “Hypnosis is a valid subject for scientific study…and a proven therapeutic medium.” The report strongly concluded that, “Enough studies have now accumulated to suggest that the inclusion of hypnotic procedures may be beneficial in the management and treatment of a wide range of conditions and problems encountered in the practice of medicine, psychiatry and psychotherapy.” Areas of success for hypnotherapy included acute and chronic pain management and distress reduction in dental practices and childbirth; adjunct therapy in weight loss programmes; anxiety, tension and stress; insomnia and sleep disorders; and a range of psychosomatic conditions such as headaches, asthma, gastrointestinal problems and dermatological conditions.

The case of Esther shows how hypnotherapy can conveniently be accessed by working people. Esther was a 27-year-old administrative worker within a large insurance company. She was occasionally required to travel to other sites as part of her job. Esther had developed some difficulties in her early twenties concerning phobias and worries when near large man-made structures such as bridges, towers or pylons. She would feel terrified at the thought of driving towards or nearby such features in the landscape. This was becoming a problem at work as Esther would sometimes have to take long detours to avoid such features on her journeys. She was also struggling to concentrate behind the wheel on journeys when she did not know the local geography, as she was constantly fearful that large objects would surprise her. On one occasion she reversed back along the hard shoulder of a motorway to exit on a previous slip-road, rather than go forward towards a tower in the near-distance. There were obvious safety implications for her in these situations. Her company’s Employee Assistance Programme was able to provide Esther with access to a clinical hypnotherapist once a week over four weeks. The therapist was able to teach Esther self-relaxation techniques that she could practice as homework between hypnotherapy sessions. After assessing her in the first session and establishing her thoughts about the structures, the therapist was confident that a hypnotherapeutic approach would be suitable. In the second session, Esther was induced into a deeply relaxed state whereby the therapist was able to help her ascribe silly names and foolish characteristics to certain towers and landmarks from around the world. This allowed her to laugh at such constructions and find amusement in them, which prohibited her from feeling fearful of them at the same time. In the third session, Esther was induced into a relaxed state for the second time, and then ascribed comedy characteristics to the bridges and towers she would commonly encounter in her own routine. She was taught to view large objects in this way once she felt herself becoming fearful of any, which would help her push such fears from her mind by replacing them with absurdity. The fourth and final session was a refresher session, where the therapist checked that such new cognitions and behaviours were working well for Esther.

Hypnotherapy has been scrutinised by medical and healthcare experts for decades and seems to show that improvements in some conditions are more likely than not, and are usually higher than the effects of placebo. The level of scrutiny and review has justifiably been high, which has resulted in positive reviews about the efficacy of this clinical approach. In recent years, the quality of research involving hypnotherapy has been even higher, often using nothing less than randomised trials and quantifiable outcome measures, and this has not resulted in increased publications stating that hypnotherapy should not have a role. In fact it has been quite the opposite, in high profile journals such as The Lancet and the Journal of the American Medical Association. Two more factors would suggest that the use of hypnotherapy in workplaces is suitable. First, the range of conditions that have shown improvement when subjected to hypnotherapy is broad, and particularly seems to involve modern non-specific multiform somatic symptoms of the kind often encountered in workplace ill health. Second, the bio-psychosocial pathway evident in the relationship between job-dissatisfaction, distress, personality and subsequent ill health could be directly accessed in hypnotherapy, and attempts to instigate a sense of positivity and adaptive coping skills could be achieved, thereby alleviating symptoms and ill health at the “psychological source” before they become dominant.



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