Hypnotherapist

A hypnotherapist is a skilled and trained professional who help clients increase motivation or change behavior patterns by inducing a trance state using use guided relaxation, intense concentration and focused attention. In addition, hypnotherapy has been shown to help people affect and control physical functions that are usually involuntary. Whereas other therapists use drugs or techniques such as behavior modification, a hypnotherapist focuses on the role of subconscious behaviors and influences on their clients' lives.

Practitioners use clinical hypnosis in several ways. They often encourage the use of their client's imagination. For example, patients with asbestosis may be asked to imagine what their lungs looks like. If they imagine them as having very red, inflamed surfaces that are scarred and rough, patients may be encouraged in hypnosis and in self-hypnosis to visualize this image changing to a healthy one.

A second way in which clinical hypnosis is used is to suggest ideas to the patient, which often seem to have a more powerful impact when presented to patients who are in a state of concentrated attention as in hypnosis. This can be useful in effecting behavior changes such as quitting smoking, and it can also help patients alleviate chronic pain such as that associated with cancer.

In the U.S. hypnotherapy is an unregulated field. However, the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis and the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis are national organizations for licensed health care professionals who use hypnosis in the course of treatment they provide.

'Hypnotherapist' Sources:
  1. Hypnosis Motivation Institute. "Hypnotherapy Terms and Definitions". http://www.hypnosis.edu/glossary/h.asp. 11 August 2007
  2. American Society of Clinical Hypnosis. "Information for the General Public". http://asch.net/genpubinfo.htm. 11 August 2007
  3. Find Counseling. "Hypnosis, Hypnotherapy, and Hypnotherapists".
    http://www.findcounseling.com/journal/hypnosis-hypnotherapy/hypnosis-hypnotherapy-hypnotherapist.html. 7 August 2007
  4. National Institutes of Health. "Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) Clinical Trials for Symptoms: Development of Appropriate Interventions". http://www.cancer.gov/cam/attachments/expert-panel-report.pdf. 11 August 2007
  5. The Cleveland Clinic. "Clinical Hypnotherapy". http://www.clevelandclinic.org/health/health-info/docs/3700/3779.asp?index=9930. 11 August 2007

 

 

 

 

 
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