Hypnotherapy used to treat smoking, insomnia and grief

Many people are familiar with hypnosis as a stage act.

In a club or theater setting, a hypnotist brings volunteers on stage, puts them in a trance-like state, and has them perform potentially embarrassing acts for the amusement of the audience.

But hypnosis is much more than a form of entertainment. For some, it's a very real way to obtain relief from a variety of physical, mental and emotional conditions.

Hypnotherapy is used to treat such diverse conditions as gastrointestinal problems, skin disorders, seizures, alcohol and smoking addiction, high blood pressure, migraines, insomnia, asthma, phobias, pain suppression and grief, said Dr. Kristin Sturdevant, a psychotherapist who holds a Ph.D. in counseling and human development from the University of Iowa.

In her Iowa-City based practice, Sturdevant combines traditional psychotherapeutic approaches with alternative approaches such as hypnotherapy, yoga and reiki (energy balancing). She said she recently has seen increased interest in hypnotherapy.

'People are opening up to alternative therapies,” she said. 'If there is one thing people call for most frequently, it's smoking cessation.”

Sturdevant became personally acquainted with hypnosis while in graduate school. At the time, she was having difficulty with a statistics course and sought hypnotherapy as a way to deal with test anxiety.

'I got an A on the test for the first time,” she said. 'I was sold. It was quite a big deal for me.”

After her personal success with hypnotherapy, Sturdevant trained on how to use the technique in a holistic practice. Today, hypnotherapy accounts for about 25 percent of her practice.

According to the Society of Psychological Hypnosis, a division of the American Psychological Association, hypnosis is a relaxed state of heightened focus and concentration in which an individual is more open to suggestion. Hypnotherapy is the use of hypnosis to treat medical or psychological concerns by changing undesired behaviors, managing emotional distress or coping with physical symptoms.

'With hypnotherapy, we disengage the cognitive-thinking part of the brain and engage the subconscious brain,” Sturdevant said. 'This allows the person to relax and be open to suggestion without resistance from the conscious mind.”

A beautiful lake

There are two main ways in which practitioners use clinical hypnosis, said Larry Barsh, a life counselor and nationally certified clinical hypnotherapist who works out of Iowa City.

The first is through the use of guided imagery, which helps the mind bring about the result that is being imagined. For example, a client with eczema, a skin disorder, may be guided in hypnosis to imagine swimming in a beautiful lake with special water that makes the eczema go away.

'Guided imagery is like storytelling with significance,” Barsh said. 'The mind likes a good story and will respond to it.”

The second hypnotic method is to present explicit suggestions to the client while he or she is in a state of focused relaxation. The suggestions are targeted to meet the client's specific goals, which could range from no longer feeling anxiety in certain situations to no longer engaging in destructive behaviors such as self-cutting to improved athletic performance.

'The subconscious mind really runs the show,” Barsh said. 'When the mind has been taught a pattern of behavior over time, it thinks it is important to continue that behavior. With hypnosis, we approach the subconscious mind and redirect it.”

Barsh noted that hypnosis also may be used to explore the unconscious mind to recover lost memories or better understand whether current problems are rooted in past events or experiences.

As with Sturdevant, Barsh initially became interested in hypnotherapy for personal reasons. In his case, there were people close to him with physical and emotional conditions that were not relieved through conventional means.

To help them, the former college professor began looking at the role of the subconscious mind. His research led him to hypnotherapy, and he has been a certified hypnotherapist for 26 years.

'The mind has amazing powers to heal, but we've compartmentalized the body and the mind,” he said. 'Hypnotherapy works on the whole system.”

While Barsh and Sturdevant have encountered those in the medical profession who are skeptical of hypnotherapy, they reported growing acceptance of its value as an alternative or complementary treatment approach.

'I will often get physician referrals when medical treatment has reached the point where it is no longer effective,” Sturdevant noted.

Barsh added that many physicians are beginning to recognize the value of hypnotherapy in preparing patients for surgery.

'Hypnotherapy can be used to limit bleeding and promote a quicker recuperation with less pain,” he said, noting that he successfully used hypnotherapy to prepare his wife for ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) surgery.

One challenge for practitioners of hypnotherapy is overcoming the misconceptions people have based on how hypnosis is portrayed in movies and stage shows. One common misconception is that the person being hypnotized is under the hypnotist's control and can be made to say or do anything.

'Hypnosis is poorly represented,” Barsh said. 'People go on stage of their own volition and are extra-motivated to perform.”

Another misconception is that hypnosis only works on especially gullible people. Sturdevant noted that hypnosis can benefit many people, and is most effective on those willing to relax and respond to hypnotic suggestions.

'The more open we are to healing, the more likely we are to get to healing.”