What is hypnosis?
Hypnosis, also referred to as hypnotherapy or hypnotic suggestion, is an altered state of consciousness. This state of consciousness is usually achieved with the help of a hypnotherapist and is different from your everyday awareness. When you're under hypnosis your attention is more focused leaving you more responsive to the suggestions given to you by the hypnotherapist.
The purpose of hypnosis, as a therapeutic technique, is to help you gain more control over your behaviors, emotions, or physical well-being.
It's not clear how hypnosis works. However, it appears to affect how your brain communicates with your body through nerve impulses, hormones and body chemicals, such as neuropeptides. Hypnotherapists say that hypnosis creates a state of deep relaxation and quiets the mind. When you're hypnotized, you can concentrate intensely on a specific thought, memory, feeling or sensation while blocking out distractions. You're more open than usual to suggestions, and this can be used to change your behavior and thereby improve your health and well-being.
Who benefits from hypnosis?
Hypnotherapy has the potential to help relieve the symptoms of a wide variety of vocational and avocational behaviors. It can be used independently or along with other treatments. For example, it's one of several relaxation methods for treating chronic pain that has been approved by an independent panel convened by the National Institutes of Health.
According to preliminary studies, hypnotherapy may be used to:
* Change negative behaviors, such as smoking, bed-wetting and overeating.
* Reduce fear, stress and anxiety.
* Eliminate, or decrease, the intensity of fears and phobias
* Help reduce or eliminate pain
* Help improve job and sports performance.
* As well as other behaviors and conditions.
Although hypnosis may have the potential to help with a wide variety of conditions, it's not a magic bullet. It's typically used as one part of a broader, more comprehensive treatment plan rather than as a stand-alone therapy. Like any other therapy, hypnosis can be very helpful to some people and fail with others. It seems to work best when you're highly motivated and your therapist is well trained and understands your particular problem.