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Hypnotherapy

The Black Fox

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The Black Fox
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Jan 20, 2006
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I was wondering how many (if any) of you have used hypnosis to eliminate a habit/phobia and how effective you found it to be?
 
I had hypnotherapy once, and I'd say there was a positive effect. However, it was in the area of relaxation and reducing anxiety. I rather doubt its ability to "talk" to the subconscious in such a way as to influence subconscious behaviour or desires.

Rolfe.
 
I've used self hypnosis for pain, and to jog my memory. I think an idividual's response would be...individual? I know it won't work for things that don't have a large psychologocal component- it can't cure snoring. So, relaxation, memory, pain, personality, habits, phobias all could have a hypnotic relation. Infections, neurological problems won't be helped. But it's all variable between individuals.
 
I attended a medical hypnosis seminar one or two years ago. Total Quackery. I did a podcast about it (rss feed = rationalthought.podbus.com)

One of the speakers quoted a 99% success rate in having people quit smoking. Yeah, right. In order to quit smoking, you'd pay for 5 sessions. If you quit mid-way through the sessions, then he either didn't count you (because you didn't finish the sessions), or if you managed to quit, he did count you. If you attended all five sessions and still didn't quit, then he said that you weren't ready to quit and didn't count you. So basically, he only counted people who quit and ignored all others.

I am agnostic about whether some aspects of hypnotism actually work (hallucinations as an example)... but I do not have much confidence in hypno-therapy. Forget the hypnosis. Come up with a realistic plan for improvement and implement it!

I quit smoking about five years ago. I quit cold-turkey. I went to a local fitness center and hopped in the sauna. I brought a gallon of gatorade (watered down to half-strength). When I started to sweat, I hopped out of the sauna and showered off (cooled down). I then hopped back into the sauna. Repeat, repeat, repeat. I finished the gallon of gatorade and went home. I think I remember hearing that nicotine stays in your system for 4 days. I think I sweated it out in one hour. The next day, I was a total basketcase. Emotionally labile, stressed, etc. The day after that, I was much better.
I started an exercise program... starting with easy exercises and mild aerobic activity and slowly increased. I changed my diet and concentrated on drinking plenty of water, eating tons of fresh fruit and veggies. I went to bed earlier than usual.
I had a much easier time of it than what I thought I would. Of course, it wasn't so easy that I'd want to go through it again, but still.
 
Imrational said:
I quit smoking about five years ago. I quit cold-turkey. I went to a local fitness center and hopped in the sauna. I brought a gallon of gatorade (watered down to half-strength). When I started to sweat, I hopped out of the sauna and showered off (cooled down). I then hopped back into the sauna. Repeat, repeat, repeat. I finished the gallon of gatorade and went home. I think I remember hearing that nicotine stays in your system for 4 days. I think I sweated it out in one hour. The next day, I was a total basketcase. Emotionally labile, stressed, etc. The day after that, I was much better.
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Not to be alarmist, but that almost sounds Scientologist. And I love sauna.
 
Interesting. I've had mixed experiences with it myself: One 10 minute self hypnosis session (the first one I ever tried) completely eliminated a 16 year long nail biting habit, apparently permanently, and with no concious effort on my part. On the other hand I tried for nearly a year to get rid of my arachnaphobia, with negligible effect!
 
The Black Fox said:
I was wondering how many (if any) of you have used hypnosis to eliminate a habit/phobia and how effective you found it to be?
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It is to say the least rather questionable, it can be usueful as Epepke states in the realm of self improvement, it can be used to strenthen the relaxation techniques a person uses.

However when it comes to 'recovering' lost memories , it is abuse of the clients and highly immoral and unethical. [soapbox] The practice is widepsread and somewhat like female gentital mutilation, it is socialy and culturaly acceptable, but very harmful. With no benefit in exchange for the damage.[/soapbox] The last thing a person whose habits already cause cognitive fragmentation needs is further fragmentation.

There are other alleged uses for hypnotherapy, none of them are research based and are pure snake oil.
 
Not on myself, but I have seen it used twice on others, both times for anxiety reduction- once also to help suppress a gag reflex.
Both cases had positive results. Whether this was a result of hypnosis or of forcing the person to concentrate on fixing the problem himself I don't know.
I suspect using self hypnosis for almost anything is just thinking about the problem till you get used to it so it goes away. As for helping memory, any prolonged concentration on a subject helps you remember it, hypnotised or not.
 
brettDbass said:
What about this tapping technique that's becoming all the rage?
http://theamt.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=229

I'd consider a treatment to help cure me of my belonephobia, except that I see it as totally sensible to be afraid of needles - I just have an extreme case of a natural fear in my eyes.
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It seems interesting to me that,according to the person writing the article, the only way you can truly learn the method is by reading *her* book or booking a session with a practitioner (whom she trains). I'm a little leary of the group name "The Association For Meridian Energy Therapies", also. I don't trust any person who uses the term 'meridian energy' seriously.
 
Hypnotherapy & EFT - two subjects I've made a study of over the the past few years - fancy them both cropping up in the same thread!

My conclusions (brief version):

Hypnotherapy:
The utilisation of "hypnosis" to hopefully change the thoughts, feelings and behaviour of either oneself or another. So what does "hypnosis" actually amount to? In my opinion (based on my research) it's basically not much more than suggestion. I suppose "ritualised suggested" might be nearer the mark given that the procedure employed appears to lend an air of mysticism to it. But ultimately it boils down to making the suggestion that something either is or will become true, such as "you are now a non-smoker" or "from now on you feel completely comfortable if you see a spider", etc. What counts is the degree to which the hypnotisee chooses to believe the suggestions, so I suppose it could be argued that hypnosis is a kind of deliberate, self-conscious placebo.

The most sensible book on the subject that I've come across is "They Call It Hypnosis" by Robert Baker, a former psychology professor.


EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique):
This originated out of a similar technique called TFT (Thought Field Therapy), which was developed by a Californian psychologist called Roger Callahan. The story goes that Callahan's wife at the time had a severe phobia of water, and Callahan had for many years tried to treat her using standard cognitive techniques but to little effect. He happened to be studying chinese meridians in the early eighties so just as an experiment asked his wife to tap on a certain point and - miracle upon miracles - she got an instant "cure". TFT is still actively promoted by Callahan today and is championed by none other than Britain's most well known TV hypnotist Paul McKenna.

One of Callahan's early students was a certain Gary Craig, who for various reasons had a falling out with Callahan and decided to form his own version, EFT. This has become the much more widely known of the two, mainly because it utilises an easier to remember procedure than TFT and so is more accessible to those who want to try it out (and Craig encourages people to try it out, whereas Callahan is more selective in who gets to train in it).

Are they effective? I have no knowledge of any controlled studies that demonstrate the efficacy of these techniques. I am aware of lots of anecdotes, and even have a personal one in that EFT was performed on me for a fear of heights and it did seem to have a beneficial effect. I strongly suspect that any effect that occurs will most likely be for similar reasons that hypnosis might work - i.e the power of suggestion. I certainly don't buy in to the "meridian energy" system that seems to be the standard explanation.

Links:
Roger Callahan's TFT site: http://www.tftrx.com
Gary Craig's EFT site: http://www.emofree.com
 
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Diabolos said:
The utilisation of "hypnosis" to hopefully change the thoughts, feelings and behaviour of either oneself or another. So what does "hypnosis" actually amount to? In my opinion (based on my research) it's basically not much more than suggestion.
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I think that hypnosis is just a way of getting to be halfway asleep.

Once you're halfway asleep, it's up to you what to do with that. You can do suggestion. However, suggestion doesn't tend to work very long, usually around five days.

What I found self-hypnosis useful for was perceiving the parts of my brain that aren't dominant when I am fully awake. It turned out that there was stuff there (fears and so on) that I wasn't aware of when fully conscious.
 
brettDbass said:
What about this tapping technique that's becoming all the rage?
theamt.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=229

I'd consider a treatment to help cure me of my belonephobia, except that I see it as totally sensible to be afraid of needles - I just have an extreme case of a natural fear in my eyes.
Click to expand...

My dad uses Gary Craig's EFT and says it works wonders but I haven't noticed any improvements.
I have watched some of Gary's dvds and he is defiantly a very charismatic induvidual and claims that his technique works 100%, and if it doesn't work for you, you are not doing it right ofcourse. I think it's too good to be true.

Gary, despite being an engineer, has some problems understanding physics. Here: w!ww.emofree.com/building/building13.htm (remove !) he claims that Einstein’s E=mc^2 has everything to do with emotional healing.

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Btw Hi!, great forum you have here. :)
 
Hacken and Diabolos - thanks for the info.
I didn't know it was supposed to be connected with "meridian energy" and the like :rolleyes: - I'll look at those links for more info too.

And welcome here Hacken! :D


ETA: emofree.com - I so wanted it to be a site dedicated to the mockery of self pitying teenagers and their musical tastes! ;)
 
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