The role of hypnosis and hypnotherapy in Psychology
As the role of the mind in health, a number of researchers explored the role of hypnosis and hypnotherapy in the fledgling science of psychology.
Two famous schools were established where hypnotherapy was studied, the Paris School and the Nancy School.
One of the most famous students of hypnosis and hypnotherapy was the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud.
Freud opened the way for modern psychology and psychotherapy, and hypnosis was one of his original tools for treating patients suffering from what we would nowadays call stress (but which Freud called hysteria).
A patient lying on Freud’s famous leather couch would be put into a hypnotic state (which, experts say, is not a form of sleep but a form of highly concentrated consciousness where the mind is focussed on one thing only and shuts out all distractions).
In this hypnotherapy trance, the patient was more able to relax and to open their mind to the repressed memories that often formed the root cause of their stress or other mental problem.
Even today, hypnotherapy is often used for “regression�, allowing the patient to bring up memories of his or her past in order to deal with present issues.
According to Freud’s theories, unwanted thoughts – be they painful memories or desires of the “Id” (the primal, untamed part of human nature) that are considered unacceptable by the “Ego” (the more sophisticated, rational and moral side) – are pushed beneath the threshold of consciousness, but are able to affect the individual’s behaviour via troubling dreams,
Another early pioneer of psychology who explored hypnosis and its uses in therapy was Pierre Janet.
Janet came up with the idea of “dissociation”, where a person’s consciousness withdraws from the present emotions and sensations, often in response to trauma.
In a curious interplay, Janet saw a hypnotic trance as a form of dissociation (certainly, when in a trance state, a person certainly becomes less aware of his or her environment) that could be used to diagnose the root cause of a mental disorder – even though this disorder often manifested itself as dissociative behaviour.
Another early pioneer of hypnotherapy and suggestion to change behaviour was Émile CouÊ.
Coué investigated auto-suggestion and self-hypnosis (he called it “conscious autosuggestion”), with his main idea being that if you repeat something to yourself often enough about your own behaviour or habits, you will bring about the desired change.
Coué’s most famous autosuggestion was that people should repeat the phrase “Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better,” to themselves before going to sleep (a state very similar to a hypnotic trance).
CouĂŠ is considered to be the founder of the self-help movement, and laid the groundwork for works such as The Power Of Positive Thinking and the like.
By using Hypnotherapy, NLP, EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) you take advantage of "Possibly the fastest and most effective method of recovery and change therapy available in the world today"
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