Thread: hypnotherapy
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Old Jan 15, 2007, 02:11 AM
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Hey there. I am a big fan of guided imagery type exercises and also of mindfulness meditation with respect to promoting relaxation and a sense of calmness and well being. Both of those can indeed be thought of as forms of hypnosis or altered states of consciousness.

One concern that I have, however, is the use of hypnosis with respect to facilitating 'memories'.

This is extremely controversial...

But the majority of people agree that hypnosis shouldn't be used to facilitate memories. There is also this notion that hypnosis can be used to induce dissociative identity disorder (or creation of other parts of oneself).

The concern is how much the memories are accessed via hypnosis and how much they are created / implanted by hypnosis.
How much the alternative identities are accessed via hypnosis and how much they are created / implanted by hypnosis.

I guess I would want to know a lot more about my therapists views on hypnosis and on dissociation and on the accuracy (and the relevance of the accuracy) of traumatic memories before allowing them to hypnotise me. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure a lot of them mean well, the trouble is how misguided they are.

http://www.fmsfonline.org/hypnosis.html#hdham

The above is a good article in the sense that it contains a number of quality references and it avoids hyperbolic claims. The message is not that ALL hypnosis is terrible (and indeed we know it is not as it is really very helpful with respect to relaxation etc), the problem is rather that some people use hypnosis for things that hypnosis has shown not to be so very helpful with.

If I were you... I really would have a chat to your clinician about why she won't talk to you when you are in a regular state of conscious awareness but instead prefers to talk to you when you are in an altered state of consicous awareness. I would also ask her her thoughts on DID (and in particular how many DID clients she is currently seeing / has worked with). I'd ask her about what she thinks of dissociative spectrum disorders (or if they are DID in disguise). I'd ask if she thinks alters need to get more distinct (and behaviourally act up) before progress can be made. I'd ask her whether she thinks that hypnosis is useful for facilitating accurate memories. I'd ask her whether she thinks dealing with memories is more important than dealing with patterns of relating (which should be clear from the present moment with her if only she would let you talk).

Etc...