hypnotherapy

Hi.

I have posted previously about the guided imagery that my therapist uses. It is very interesting and effective. I didn't expect therapy to be like this; this method is new to me.

So last session I was asking her more about it. I was also telling her that even though I like the guided imagery, it takes the majority of the session and doesn't leave much time for talking sometimes. We don't do imagery every session.

The last 2 guided imagery exercises we did together made me feel so good that I didn't want to open my eyes and have it be over. The end of the exercise was a little different in that I was just focusing on her voice and if I notices thoughts coming to mind I was to focus on my breathing so I could continue to focus on her voice. It is so relaxing... I can hardly describe it.

Well, she told me last session when I was talking to her about wanting more time for talking.. that the guided imagery would get shorter (only 20 mins that session) and eventually would be hypnosis. And that we are moving from a broad picture, a large circle.. to homing in, the center of the large circle. Makes perfect sense to me and I even thought that the guided imagery sounded like I thought hypnosis might be, and I've always been interested in trying hypnosis... but when she said it out loud... yikes!! it unnerved me! lol

I trust her and I feel safe and in good hands with her. I think this will be interesting.

But, nervous nelly that I am... I am wondering if anyone out there has had any experience with hypnotherapy? Can you tell me a bit about it?

Thanks for listening!

ECHOES

I would have to trust someone completely to do hypnotherapy and I don't know that I ever could. You're very brave!

Trust your instincts because it sounds like she's really doing great work with you!

Good luck and keep us informed?

KD

hey there.

have you checked out your therapists credentials?

what are you seeking treatment for?

aka: what is your t trying to use hypnotherapy for?

Thanks KD! I really do trust her. I don't feel like I'm brave; I feel like I'm well cared for and safe. I love being there with her.

I was talking somewhere else and that person, a trained therapist, just told me that just like in guided imagery you remain in full control but in a state of deep relaxation when doing hypnotherapy. Since my therapist and I have already been doing that, I think it will be ok. I am a little concerned what will come out though. I want to see yet I don't want to see what's 'there' if you know what I mean.

ECHOES

I do know what you mean...completely.

I did similar work with my ex-t, but in reverse...I got myself there.

Just remember that whatever you see is not now and that you wouldn't be able to comprehend it if you didn't have the skills now to deal with it. That might be hard to remember, but it's true. Maybe write that down in a few places.

Also, it sounds like you won't be alone to deal with what's there. How wonderful for you!

KD

Hi Alexandra,

She is a psychologist practicing pschodynamic therapy.

I am in therapy to 'get at the root of my anxiety and depression' (my words) which includes abuse. She is helping me learn relaxation for my anxiety and has introduced me to self-guided imagery and meditation as well as interactive guided imagery. It is very interesting (Google Interactive Guided Imaging for a bit of info) in that the subconcious keeps us stuck and repeating behaviors/thoughts and the guided imagery targets the subconcious. I would not have believed it without trying it and seeing the results.

ECHOES

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...

Echoes, I have not had hypnotherapy but I wonder about your desire to talk more at your sessions? It seems like your T said you would eventually have more time, but you wrote earlier that you wanted more time now, didn't you? Would your T be willing to do one guided imagery session for every two talk sessions, or some other ratio you propose, so that you can get adequate talk in? It sounds like your T has a certain plan in mind and is going with that. It's just very different from what I'm used to since my T has me set the plan for the sessions. I hope you will get what you need from your sessions. I'm glad your T has your trust.

My T uses EMDR for stuck traumas. I really like it and find it effective. When we come to a spot in the therapy where it seems EMDR would be useful, he invites me to do it. There was one time I didn't want it because I wanted to process the memory more cognitively instead. He was OK with that. I always feel like I get to choose.

sunny

Lots of people use hypnotherapy to quit smoking, lose weight, etc. If you have any bad habits, maybe go to a hypnotherapist, work on stress/relaxation, etc. for that particular habit.

Here's an interesting site: http://hypnotherapy.net/

Alexandra,

She talked at one of our first sessions about false memories. She doesn't work with someone unless they have definite memories, whether partial or full; complete pictures or snippets; but they must be the patient's own memories. Having someone else tell the patient that they experienced something is not acceptable to her. She was very clear on that and I have no worries about that. She is not looking for something that isn't there; she is helping me to get to where I can allow myself to see and talk about what is there. My worry has actually always been that she won't believe me or will think it is not important and I have shared that with her. She was wonderful about that. What's not to believe, she said? And she has tried to bring it out for discussion but I have not been able to do that.

I don't question her methods or her trustworthiness or her intentions. I'm just nervous because it is unfamiliar territory. But I am the one who is asking to go there. I'm tired of living with the fear, the shame, the general mistrust, the loneliness.

I don't think I'll go to your site because I don't think it woud be supportive or applicable, but thank you for sharing it with me.

ECHOES

Hey there. I guess the thing that most struck me was this:

> Well, she told me last session when I was talking to her about wanting more time for talking.. that the guided imagery would get shorter (only 20 mins that session) and eventually would be hypnosis.

So what concerns me is why she would rather talk to hypnotised you than non-hypnotised you.

Especially... If she is planning on getting you to recount / elaborate on your memory of traumatic experiences. Because every new recounting is a new encoding (a fact about human psychology). Whether a person is hypnotised or not every time we recount the story we alter our memory of the story. Hypnosis magnifies this effect, however.

It is such a shame (IMHO) that oftentimes the debate is set up between:
- All memories (including recovered ones) are 100% accurate to events
- No memories (including recovered ones) are 100% inaccurate to events
Clearly both those claims are false (and hence rather uninteresting). What is interesting is the variety of more moderate positions in the middle...

> I don't think I'll go to your site because I don't think it woud be supportive or applicable, but thank you for sharing it with me.

I'm sorry that you think I would post an unsupportive and inapplicable link. Typically one needs to actually have a look to find out (and typically one extends the benefit of the doubt) but whatever...

I'm not meaning to undermine your therapist...

Hypnosis for relaxation etc is fine...
But hypnosis for memory work????

IMHO not okay.

If you are having trouble telling her in an un-hypnotised state it is because you are still learning to trust her. To try and bypass your fears by hypnotising them out of you and getting you to talk anyway isn't the best strategy.

There is no quick fix...

Okay, I went to edit my post in order to clarify my message but the time has elapsed. My main message is this:

>> Well, she told me last session when I was talking to her about wanting more time for talking.. that the guided imagery would get shorter (only 20 mins that session) and eventually would be hypnosis.

> So what concerns me is why she would rather talk to hypnotised you than non-hypnotised you.

I don't think that hypnosis should be used as a short-cut way of getting the patient to disclose things that are hard because of the documented concerns with hypnosis especially as it applies to traumatic memories.

I'll leave it at that.

It isn't memory work though. My reference to memories was that what you have is enough for her to work with, she isn't looking for memories: that was in reference to your suggestion/warning about false repressed memories and that she does not look for memories: what a person brings to her is enough as long as they are the person's own thoughts/memories and have not been suggested by someone else. For example, if someone has some symptoms but no history of abuse, and another person suggests that the symptoms sound like a history of abuse--she would not accept that.

She isn't looking for a quick fix either. She does like to help produce quick results in some areas to promote and encourage further work. The guided imagery has helped me already and encourages me to continue. When I began with her I could barely make eye contact, couldn't talk about issues directly, would have never stated my needs, etc. It's helped with the therapy process as well as my life outside of therapy. Hypnosis is an extension of that and is nothing more than a deeply relaxed state where I can think and talk about things that are so upsetting to talk about that I defensively shut down. Being deeply relaxed will allow me to talk about experiences without the intense panic those experiences evoke. It will help me realize that we are talking about 'then', not now. It just relaxes a person to free up the mind; much like when sleeping relaxes the mind and we dream, or like when you have a time of relaxation after a particularly hectic time and thoughts come to you that haven't presented themselves for a while. (think of lying on a beach on vacation and realizing that you forgot how beautiful the sky is, the sky's blue color, the clouds floating by, the sounds of the seagulls squawking...)

It is a tool, like many tools used in therapy and elsewhere. We will not do all our talking while I am in that state. It is a vehicle to get to where we want to go; once there and I can get these issues out into the open, then I will be able to talk more freely about them.

I think whatever works... works. There are therapies I don't think would work for me and I have had therapies that didn't help (CBT and REBT) although I did learn some from them, even if that learning was that I didn't care for those treatments. ha! So, I look forward to this even though I get antsy about everything new . I will learn something from the experience and if that leads to a desire to learn more or to learn in a different way than hypnotherapy, then that is where I'll go from there.

I appreciate a good discussion and I really do appreciate your posts and link and concerns. I too like to do a lot of research and my post was part of my researching. I may use your link yet.. when I am feeling more objective maybe. Right now, for reassurance and support of how I have already decided to proceed with my therapist, I guess I am not ready to be totally objective; I just want support and reassurance. That's just me, at this point.

I hope that makes sense!

ECHOES

Hi sunrise,

Yes, she is willing to do that. She always asks if I want to do the guided imagery. She also asks what I would like to work on with the guided imagery. It is up to me and she would agree to a set schedule I suppose. I am not sure that is what I want though; and I am still finding my voice as far as expresing my needs and desires to her so just telling her I want more time for talking is a victory, if that makes sense.

Basically I am just nervous about trying something new, whether it is hypnosis or whatever. That's just me--don't throw too many new things at me, or I'll just duck!! lol

Thanks for your reply,
ECHOES

Hi ECHOES,
I think I do understand what you are saying! It is hard to say what we need and want in therapy. My T sometimes just wants me to work on saying something to him without being apologetic about it, lol. That can be hard for me!

I think the guided imagery sounds fascinating, I bet I would like it. I'm not so sure about the hypnosis, but that's just me and I would probably need a while to look into it before committing so I could assess whether the fit was a good one. I like trying new stuff in therapy. I have found EMDR really helpful for me, and I had never heard of it when my T first proposed it. (I promptly went out and read a book on it before saying yes, I'll try this.) And when it does work for you, the proof is in the pudding. Therapy is truly an adventure.

sunny