In pharmacology, adjuvants are drugs that have few pharmacological effects when used individually , but may increase thepotency or efficacy of other drugs when given at the same time . In the metaphorical language favored by hypnotists we can consider hypnosis to be a type of adjuvant for all types and styles of healing.
Hypnosis consists in the establishment of a focused, shared relational attention between the practitioner and the patient . Within this relationship, hypnotic conversation, rich in metaphor, image and story , is utilized to help unfold the patient’s own inner resources for calm, focus and cooperative healing.
In medicine and surgery , hypnosis is utilized to calm vital functions, focus preparation for procedures, and mobilize patients to recovery. In hypnotic states , patients routinely exibit lower blood pressure, less anxiety, good circulation and breathing , and less troubled sleep. They can learn to trust, rather than to fear , their own bodily healing responses and immune function . More rapid recovery from surgery and better cooperation with rehabilitation are effected within the hypnotic relationship. Emergency medicine benefits by rapid induction of focused attention as well . And nursing, which eases treatment for both patient and doctor , is made easier with the patient’s full conscious and unconscious cooperation. Importantly, pain management is also eased by hypnotic techniques, aiding recovery and healing from illness and injury .
Advanced Hypnotherapy Training
Within the varieties of psychotherapy, hypnosis can be used to amplify cognitive-behavioral exercises and instructions . Hypnosis can help modify experiences for the highly anxious patient and help with the depressed ones as well. In all psychotherapy, the building of trust between patient and therapist is paramount. Hypnotic exercises, experiences and conversations – shared trances of patient and therapist – lead to trust between them and in a patient’s trust in their own unconscious decisions, resources and ways of being. This result is both unexpected and frequent . As a patient of mine once said, “You’re talking to me, but you’re not talking to me. You’re talking to all of me. I love it.”
Emotion-focused therapists can employ hypnotic imagination approaches to enable patients to safely experiment with communication and feelings , as one does in dreams. And dynamic or analytic therapists can employ the approaches of hypnoanalysis, developed by analysts ever since Freud’s time . Specialists in addiction can benefit their patients by incorporating mindfulness, relaxation and peaceful sensations into their therapies . Again, all patients can benefit from relaxation of the body, greater ease with their emotions and with difficulties in their lives and a benign approach to the uncertainties of living.
Feldenkrais, Trager, Rosen , and other therapeutic bodyworkers, like other mental and medical health professionals, have styles, protocols and expert vocabularies related to their training and practice with patients. Hypnotherapeutic language and what I’ll call “Thinking like a hypnotist,” can accompany hands-on treatment to mobilize motivation, practice, healing and change . I once saw Ida Rolf demonstrate Rolfing with a volunteer, and as she expertly pressed and poked the body, sometimes in painful ways incidental to treatment, she accompanied her work with a comforting, gentle patter, suggesting to the patient himself a surgeon that he was “feeling better already. That’s right, that’s very good, feeling better already.” When he stood after the treatment, his body matched the Rolfing chart’s first session outcome exactly, and he declared himself pleased.
At the Milton H. Erickson Institute of the Bay Area www.miltonherickson.com we teach experiential and practical ways within Ericksonian hypnotherapy to employ hypnosis as an adjuvant in the practices of medical, mental health, social work and bodywork professionals.
