Attitudes to Hypnosis and Some Hypnotherapy Misconceptions To Be Aware Of

One of the main reasons I always invite you to come for a free initial consultation is so that we get a chance to chat about what hypnosis and hypnotherapy involve and how it can help you with things such as overcoming anxiety, increasing confidence and taking control over eating habits (and, of course, if we are going to be working together then it’s always great to meet face to face at the outset too).

There can be a lot of mystery, misconceptions and uncertainty about hypnosis, how it works and what it involves, all of which we clear up at the outset so we have solid foundations to increase the likelihood of a positive outcome for you. Some of that confusion and uncertainty comes from portrayals on TV and in film. As I’ve written about before, most of this stuff is pure garbage that generally just helps the plot move along and is far removed from the reality.

Sadly though, a lot of the confusion and mystery is perpetuated by hypnotherapists themselves waffling on about communicating with your subconscious and how change happens at a different level of your conscious awareness and so forth. Little (if any) of this is based upon the scientific evidence and the wealth of knowledge we have about combining hypnosis and psychological processes. Rather than being something done to you, hypnotherapy should always be about helping you to develop your own awareness, ability and control over directing the thoughts, feelings and behaviours that you experience.

Hypnosis is about using psychology to help you to take control over what goes on inside of your own mind. We draw upon your thoughts, feelings, imagination, self-talk, motivations, beliefs and expectations to put you in the driving seat of your life and to help you maintain that even after the sessions are completed and your therapy goals have been achieved.

Rather than being thrown from one thing in life to another and just having to struggle on, you can start to direct your habits and patterns of thinking, feeling, acting and reacting in the kind of ways that will please you in your life.

Attitudes Towards Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy

Sadly, I suspect some people with issues like anxiety and low self-esteem will be put off seeking help by all of the mysterious talk of the subconscious mind and the worry about things happening outside of their awareness during the hypnosis. It can kind of carry suggestions of being controlled or coerced in some way and that you are at the mercy of the hypnotist as they communicate with this mysterious part of your mind that you can’t access yourself. It creates a misguided attitude towards hypnosis and hypnotherapy. As I’ve mentioned, a well trained hypnotherapist is unlikely to be suggesting this sort of stuff and much more likely to talk about utilising normal psychological processes to help you achieve positive changes.

Of course, the many people who have come to see me and then submitted some lovely feedback afterwards definitely have a positive attitude towards hypnosis and hypnotherapy! Yet, we can’t go around asking everyone what they think so luckily we do have a little bit of research that has investigated people’s attitudes towards hypnosis.

For example, a 2017 research paper studied thirty one peer reviewed journal articles which included research into people’s perceptions of hypnotherapy and attitudes to hypnosis (Krouwel, Jolly and Greenfield, 2017). Most people were positive towards hypnotherapy and would consider it under the right circumstances. In this study, most people believed hypnosis is an altered state which requires collaboration to enter, that once hypnotised your perception changes and that hypnotherapy is beneficial for psychological issues and is supportive of medical interventions.

This is naturally great news for mental health hypnotherapists like me and perhaps suggests that not everyone is affected by negative media representation or the kind of stuff that appears in films and on TV. However, some people did mention concern about being controlled during hypnosis, which links to what I’ve mentioned above about hypnotherapists themselves spreading misconceptions because of their own limited understanding of hypnotherapy.

Within the USA, research suggests that most people have a positive or neutral view of clinical hypnosis, with very few people viewing it negatively. Hypnosis was deemed to be moderately or very useful by about half the population in major areas of therapeutic application like treating psychological problems, extinguishing negative habits such as smoking, or improving physical health problems, and just about half of all adults said that they would consider undergoing hypnotherapy if they needed it (Palsson, Twist and Walker, 2019).

However, a study of undergraduate and graduate students suggested that hypnosis is perceived in being low in credibility, despite the relatively strong evidence base for it’s application and effectiveness (Green, Green and Carroll, 2020). This seems to suggest that there is still plenty of work to do around attitudes to hypnosis, and that there is benefit to be achieved by sharing and highlighting the growing scientific evidence supporting the use of hypnosis with things such as anxiety, stress and pain. Needless to say,  those hypnotherapists who hark on about communicating with the subconscious mind continue to offer ill-conceived notions of hypnosis that are devoid of any scientific basis and which damage the opportunity for people to find the effective mental health and psychological help that they need.

Hypnosis Effectiveness

In my articles on this site I continue to seek to highlight the scientific evidence supporting the use of hypnosis for various issues and problems. I’ve discussed anxiety, depression, stress, IBS, happiness, sports improvement and much more. And there is still a lot more to come! All of this research seeks to counter any false notions of the how the mind works, about being controlled during hypnosis or the possibility of getting ‘stuck’ in hypnosis and being unable to wake up.

As well as the poor understanding of hypnosis and it’s evidential base amongst most hypnotherapists, sadly some of the marketing claims made by hypnotherapists are enough to make me want to sigh and hold my head in my hands. I’ve seen promises of success and guarantees that, on closer reading, are usually less about a successful outcome than you might think on first impression. I’ve heard claims that one particular process or hypnotherapy approach can fix everything (it can’t) and which is then used as a reason for not seeking further professional training and development. I’ve heard and read all sort of ‘success stories’ from the use of hypnotherapy that don’t seem to stack up and that are never supported by a real review (and don’t get me started on the fake reviews out there!).

I’ve even come across hypnotherapists who claim to offer ‘award winning hypnotherapy’ because they trained with someone who had won awards for their work, despite the fact they themselves haven’t ever won anything and that sometimes the awards are from the trainer’s own organisation and seem to have been awarded to themself (indeed in the near future the Dan Regan Hypnotherapy Association may well be awarding hypnotherapist Dan Regan an award or two, or three or….!!!). I don’t know about you but if I went to a physiotherapist , a doctor or even a brain surgeon who claimed to offer an award winning service, I might be a little suspicious if it turned out that it was someone they trained with that received some sort of award it rather than that person themselves (and I might take my body or brain elsewhere, thank you!). I guess if we were to all follow this approach then I could go and watch a documentary by Usain Bolt about his training and sprinting and then start advertising myself an Olympic medal winning runner…Boom!

To your hypnotherapy success,

Dan Regan

Anxiety Hypnotherapy in Ely & Newmarket

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References:

Green, O.J., Green, J.P. and Carroll, P.J., 2020. The Perceived Credibility of Complementary and Alternative Medicine: A Survey of Undergraduate and Graduate Students. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 68(3), pp.327-347.

Krouwel, M., Jolly, K. and Greenfield, S., 2017. What the public think about hypnosis and hypnotherapy: A narrative review of literature covering opinions and attitudes of the general public 1996–2016. Complementary therapies in medicine, 32, pp.75-84.

Palsson, O., Twist, S. and Walker, M., 2019. A national survey of clinical hypnosis views and experiences of the adult population in the United States. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 67(4), pp.428-448.