Should all Cognitive Behavioural Therapy include Hypnosis for better results?
Some may consider it a big question, but should cognitive behavioural therapy be making use of hypnosis as a means to increase the likelihood of positive therapeutic outcomes?
Perhaps we should start with this from Kirsch, in his meta-analysis of ‘Hypnosis as an Adjunct to Cognitive-Behavioral Psychotherapy’, in which he analysed existing studies in which cognitive behavioural therapy was compared with the same therapy supplemented by hypnosis. He wrote:
“The results indicated that the addition of hypnosis substantially enhanced treatment outcome, so that the average client receiving cognitive behavioral hypnotherapy showed greater improvement than at least 70% of clients receiving non-hypnotic treatment.”
Pretty impressive stuff there in his analysis across a range of issues including weight loss, anxiety and insomnia.
So why isn’t hypnosis part of the mainstream CBT therapy process if the evidence suggests that it is likely to help people get better results?