Potential Benefits of Hypnotherapy
There is growing evidence of the value that hypnotherapy can bring to a number of common health concerns. Take a few minutes to review these excerpts from a recent article written by health and fitness writer Lauren Bedosky for Everyday Health and medically reviewed by Justin Laube, MD. (To read Ms. Bedosky's entire article, click here.)
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Hypnotherapy may be a helpful tool for treating some health concerns. This complementary therapeutic technique uses a hypnotic, heightened state of concentration and guided focused attention — with the help of a certified hypnotist or hypnotherapist — toward making healthy changes in your thoughts and behaviors, per the Cleveland Clinic.
The idea behind hypnosis is that it's a means of tapping into the subconscious or primal parts of the brain that seek to protect us from pain. While the conscious, rational parts of our brain tend to dominate our everyday lives, the more emotional subconscious regions tend to take over when we’re stressed or anxious, according to a 2019 editorial in the journal Palliative Care: Research and Treatment. And all too often, the subconscious mind encourages us to repeat unhelpful thoughts or behaviors we’ve relied on in the past.
1. May Help Relieve Chronic & Acute Pain
“Hypnosis is a very effective analgesic or pain reliever,” says David Spiegel, MD, a hypnosis researcher and the medical director of the Center for Integrative Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine in California. It may help you manage the fear and anxiety you feel related to pain by first helping you into a relaxation state and then redirecting your attention to something else, per the Arthritis Foundation.
Research suggests hypnosis may help with various types of pain. For example, after reviewing 18 studies of hypnosis and pain, the authors of one meta-analysis concluded that hypnosis has moderate to significant pain-relieving effects in patients with burns, cancer, headaches, and heart conditions.
2. May Soothe Anxiety Symptoms
“One of my favorite things to work with people on through hypnosis is to help them overcome the symptoms of anxiety,” says Ginger Gibson, a certified hypnotherapist based in New Jersey. Hypnosis might ease people into a relaxed and calm state. In this state, people may be able to direct their attention away from the issue causing their anxiety and toward a sensation they want to feel instead, Gibson says.
For example, in one study, scientists took brain scans of 57 people (36 who tested as high, 21 with low hypnotizability) who were undergoing hypnosis and discovered changes in areas of the brain that allowed for greater focus and emotional control. Fostering these self-management skills may help people with anxiety recognize unhelpful thoughts and beliefs and replace them with supportive ones.
3. May Help With Smoking Cessation
Hypnosis may be a complementary approach for people interested in quitting smoking. As Dr. Spiegel explains, hypnotherapy may provide the opportunity to introduce different messages about smoking to your brain. For example, your hypnotherapist may encourage you to think about smoking cessation as a way to respect your body. “That enables a fair number of people to feel good from the moment they decide to quit, because the cravings don’t bother them when they think about being a good parent to their own body,” Spiegel says, of his experience with patients.
4. May Improve Sleep
Sleep hypnosis, or hypnotherapy to address sleep issues, may be effective in changing challenging thoughts or habits that could interfere with sleep.
For example, if someone continuously thinks they can’t sleep, their brain may eventually recognize the belief as truth. “When we think certain thoughts in our conscious mind, it’s like a seed being planted in the subconscious mind, and the more we think something, the more the subconscious will produce that behavior on its own,” Gibson says. This may promote unhealthy sleep habits and behaviors, and even create anxiety surrounding sleep in some people. Hypnosis may help people recognize these unhelpful beliefs and replace them with thought suggestions to support healthy sleep.
5. May Assist in the Treatment of PTSD Symptoms
According to a past review, hypnosis may help people with PTSD unlock traumatic memories hidden from their conscious brain. But instead of reliving the trauma, people with PTSD who undergo hypnosis may be able to view it in a different context and reframe the memory in a healing way, per the review.
One past meta-analysis of six studies involving 391 people with PTSD found that hypnotherapy had a positive effect on PTSD symptoms such as avoidance and intrusion. Intrusion refers to intrusive thoughts such as flashbacks, whereas avoidance is when someone steers clear of people, places, and situations that may trigger distressing memories, per the American Psychiatric Association.
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