Why hypnotherapy doesnt work

Yes and no. Hypnosis is a tool that can be used for therapeutic treatment. Hypnotherapy is the use of that tool. To put it another way, hypnosis is to hypnotherapy what dogs are to animal therapy. During hypnosis, a trained hypnotist or hypnotherapist induces a state of intense concentration or focused attention. This is a guided process with verbal cues and repetition.

When the session is complete, your therapist will wake you from the trance-like state, or you will exit it on your own. Researchers at Harvard studied the brains of 57 people during guided hypnosis. They found that:. Distinct sections of the brain are visibly altered during hypnosis. The areas that are most affected are those that play a role in action control and awareness.

Like hypnosis, the placebo effect is driven by suggestion. Guided conversations or behavioral therapy of any type can have a powerful impact on behavior and feelings. Hypnosis is just one of those therapy tools. Hypnosis rarely causes any side effects or has risks. As long as the therapy is conducted by a trained hypnotist or hypnotherapist, it can be a safe alternative therapy option. However, hypnosis used for memory retrieval is a controversial practice.

People who use hypnosis in this way are more likely to experience anxiety, distress, and other side effects. You may also be more likely to create false memories. Research to support the use of hypnosis is getting stronger, but not all doctors embrace it. That leaves a great deal of misunderstanding about this possible therapy among healthcare professionals.

Hypnosis is promoted as a treatment for many conditions or issues. Hypnotherapy can be an effective method for coping with stress and anxiety. In particular, hypnosis can reduce stress and anxiety before a medical procedure, such as a breast biopsy. Hypnosis conducted by a trained therapist or health care professional is considered a safe, complementary and alternative medical treatment.

However, hypnosis may not be appropriate in people with severe mental illness. Be cautious when hypnosis is proposed as a method to work through stressful events from earlier in life. This practice may cause strong emotions and can risk the creation of false memories.

You don't need any special preparation to undergo hypnosis. But it's a good idea to wear comfortable clothing to help you relax. Also, make sure that you're well-rested so that you're not inclined to fall asleep during the session. Choose a therapist or health care professional who is certified to perform hypnosis. Seek a recommendation from someone you trust. Learn about any therapist you're considering.

Start by asking questions:. Your therapist will explain the process of hypnosis and review your treatment goals. Then the therapist will typically talk in a gentle, soothing tone and describe images that create a sense of relaxation, security and well-being. When you're in a receptive state, the therapist will suggest ways for you to achieve your goals, such as reducing pain or eliminating cravings to smoke.

The eye movements are the visible sign of the activation of a specific brain circuit, known as ponto-genicula-occipital PGO waves. It was sleep research pioneer Michel Jouvet, now emeritus professor of experimental medicine at the University of Lyon, who had the extraordinary insight that it is during REM sleep that instincts are programmed into us from our genes.

We return to it every time we dream and, as the expectation fulfilment theory shows, this is what maintains the integrity of our instincts. For dreams are metaphorical translations of emotionally arousing expectations not acted upon in the previous waking period.

Dreams deactivate the emotional arousal, freeing the brain to respond afresh to each new day — thus maintaining the integrity of our instincts. In the human givens approach, we refer to trance as the REM state because of the clear physiological similarities with the state of REM sleep.

Deep trance, when induced by hypnosis, mirrors many aspects of REM sleep, such as imperviousness to outside sensory information, less sensitivity to pain, muscle paralysis, etc. In addition, aspects of how the REM state functions when we dream parallel methods used for inducing trance.

Many hypnotherapists may use rhythmic movement to help generate trance for instance, making repetitive hand movements or getting people to stare at spinning optical illusions , which links back to the primitive fish brain that we evolved from. Focusing attention mirrors absorption in a dream.

Another similarity is in the orientation of attention: making a loud noise or sudden movement can put a person into trance, as that instantly captures their attention and involves electrical brain activity known as the orientation response — the same PGO waves as seen in REM sleep.

When we first start to dream, the orientation response fires furiously. The expectation fulfilment theory of dreams explains that this is the mechanism for alerting the brain to the presence of unexpressed emotional arousals that need discharging in a dream. There are yet more similarities. The deep relaxation, which psychotherapists use as an induction into trance, parallels what happens as we start to fall asleep.

As we know, metaphor is extremely powerful in therapy, when given to a person in trance; and dreams are metaphors. Research has shown that the same brain pathways are active in both circumstances. In addition to this, phenomena that can be induced in trance are also spontaneously experienced in dreaming, such as amnesia for the dream , anaesthesia and analgesia, body illusions, catalepsy, dissociation and time distortion.

Just as hypnosis is not the trance, however, so the REM state is not the dream. It is, in effect, the theatre where the dream takes place.

The REM state, then, is active in all types of trance. It is active. It is involved in programming innate and learned knowledge — all kinds of learning, academic or otherwise including therapy, conditioning and indoctrination — and also when we daydream and solve problems.

When we are being traumatised, the REM state is the medium through which the traumatic event is captured by the brain and becomes a learned part of the survival templates. So the REM state is critically important to understand, especially if we are involved in delivering therapy. A half-truth is just as dangerous as a lie, even if offered with the best of intentions. Unfortunately a great many half-truths are spouted about hypnosis, and practitioners need to be careful not to promulgate them.

They include the following. As I have described, it is an artificial means of accessing the REM state, which can even be done violently by capturing attention with a sudden loud noise or startling movement. It is an extremely powerful process and anything powerful can be used to do harm as well as good. Some people feel dizzy or uneasy, even after a relaxing session. The literature is full of unpleasant or even dangerous effects that have been experienced after hypnosis.

When people go into a deep trance, they often have no memory of what the therapist said. There are many modern day incidents, some of which are recorded on CCTV cameras, such as cashiers being hypnotised and handing over the money in their tills because they were put into a trance state, or people being shocked into trance and robbed in the street. Indeed, we have only to think of advertisers and politicians and rabble-rousers and gurus — all artificially induce the REM state in the people they wish to influence.

The unconscious is not necessarily wise at all. It is very much influenced by how we are brought up, our life experiences and the culture we live in and so on: our conditioning. All users are urged to always seek advice from a registered health care professional for diagnosis and answers to their medical questions and to ascertain whether the particular therapy, service, product or treatment described on the website is suitable in their circumstances.

The State of Victoria and the Department of Health shall not bear any liability for reliance by any user on the materials contained on this website. Skip to main content. Complementary and alternative care. Home Complementary and alternative care. Actions for this page Listen Print. Summary Read the full fact sheet. On this page. Disorders helped by hypnosis The hypnotic state Hypnosis - you are in control Risks of hypnosis Results of hypnosis Methods of hypnosis Special considerations for hypnosis Finding a therapist Where to get help Things to remember.

Hypnosis, also known as hypnotherapy, is a method of inducing a trance or a dream-like state of deep relaxation in order to treat disorders of a mainly psychological or emotional origin. It has been practised in various forms for thousands of years by many cultures including Druid, Celtic and Egyptian. Today, hypnosis is recognised by the scientific community as an effective healing tool, although how it works is still something of a mystery.

It is not a treatment in its own right, but is used as a part of medical, psychological and dental treatments. Disorders helped by hypnosis Hypnosis can help you change attitudes, perceptions and behaviours. The hypnotic state The brain has different levels of consciousness, or awareness, ranging from fully alert to drowsy to fully asleep, with variations in between.

Hypnotic states occur naturally and spontaneously.