July 5, 2009 by Susan Gold
See Steve G. Jones’ 5/18/09 Natural News article, “Hypnosis Improves Academic Performance and Reduces Text-Anxiety.”
Included in the article is the result of a 1990 study on the effectiveness of hypnosis for test anxiety and achievement:
Sapp (1990) studied the role hypnosis plays on treating test-anxiety in college students. The participants in the study were randomly divided into two groups. One group served as the control group and received no form of treatment. The other group received cognitive-behavioral hypnosis. The researcher evaluated the effects of hypnosis in improving academic performance and decreasing test anxiety.
Both groups were enrolled in a demanding psychology course. All students were evaluated based on their midterm grade and anxiety levels. The hypnosis group reported a significant reduction in test anxiety and improvement in academic achievement. Both groups were evaluated 6 weeks after the end of the course and the hypnosis group was found to have maintained their hypnosis treatment gains in achievement and reduction in anxiety. Cognitive behavioral hypnosis is a highly effective form of treatment that helps students improve performance and reduce anxiety.
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July 4, 2009 by Susan Gold
Tonight I was reminded of a story that I heard Sandra Ingerman tell on Caroline Casey’s KPFA radio show, The Visionary Activist (4.26.07). The story, from indigenous traditions, is included in her book How to Heal Toxic Thoughts:
“A grandfather was talking to his grandson about many things. He said, ‘I feel as if two wolves were fighting in my heart. One wolf is vengeful, angry, violent, and the other is loving, compassionate and strong.’ The grandson asked the grandfather, ‘Which wolf will win the fight in your heart?’ And the grandfather replied, ‘The one I feed.’”
I love this story because it demonstrates our nature as multifaceted beings. From time to time we all face internal conflicts in which the best part of us goes head to head with the not-so-best part of us. We can choose to “feed” or cultivate the part that speaks to our highest interests, and hypnotherapy is a wonderful tool for this.
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July 1, 2009 by Susan Gold
I was thrilled to hear that Franken won the senate seat. I marvel when I think it was he who taught me everything I once knew about affirmations—mainly that they were to be made fun of. Back in the early 90s—or was it the late 80s?—I watched his popular Saturday Night Live skit, “Daily Affirmation with Stuart Smalley” and would recite with his character, I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me.
As a hypnotherapist, I have a new appreciation for the power of the affirmation. In hypnotherapy, affirmations are used as hypnotic suggestions. Through my work, I have learned that if an affirmation doesn’t ring true at all, then it will be rejected as a suggestion and ineffective. For an affirmation to have the power to create change, some part of the affirmer has to believe in its potential—even if it is only a small part.
I work with my clients to craft suggestions/affirmations that I can use in the direct suggestion part of the session. It’s so important to use their language in order to come up with statements that they can embrace and imagine. Once I suggested the word happy to a client as a part of an affirming statement. The client said, “Not happy but joyful.” I suggested the word joyful as a part of an affirming statement for another client, and she said, “Joyful isn’t the right word. I’d say happy.”
The other day a client emailed me to let me know that our session had been successful. She wanted to know what she could do to reinforce the success. I suggested repeating an affirmation while in self-hypnosis, and I provided a statement as an example. She wrote back and said that reading that statement brought tears of joy to her eyes. I was moved by this, but not surprised; it was her language that I had used.
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June 28, 2009 by Susan Gold
As a part of my continuing education as a hypnotherapist, I am taking a class through the Core Strengths Coaching Program at San Francisco State’s College of Extended Learning. The class is called Cultivating Core Strengths, Resilience and Optimism.
One of our homework assignments was to take the “Via Signature Strengths Survey” at authentichappiness.org, a site developed by Martin Seligman, Ph.D., Director of the University of Pennsylvania Positive Psychology Center, and author of the book Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment.
After analyzing your responses to 240 multiple-choice questions, the survey identifies your “signature strengths.” While it is not a perfect instrument, I do feel it is worth taking. Whether or not you agree with the results, you are sure to engage in meaningful self-reflection.
To take the test, you must first register with authentichappiness.org. (It’s free.) Once you are registered, look for the “VIA Signature Strengths Survey” under “Engagement Questionnaires” in the center column of the home page.
Upon completing the survey, the site will generate your top five strengths. If you would like to see your ranking for all 24 strengths, go to: http://www.authentichappiness.org/all24/.
Seligman’s book also includes the survey and instructions for scoring:
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June 6, 2009 by Susan Gold
From ScienceDaily’s June 6, 2009 article, “People Who Wear Rose-Colored Glasses See More, Study Shows:”
A University of Toronto study provides the first direct evidence that our mood literally changes the way our visual system filters our perceptual experience suggesting that seeing the world through rose-coloured glasses is more biological reality than metaphor.
‘Good and bad moods literally change the way our visual cortex operates and how we see,’ says Adam Anderson, a U of T professor of psychology. “Specifically our study shows that when in a positive mood, our visual cortex takes in more information, while negative moods result in tunnel vision. The study appears in the Journal of Neuroscience. Read the rest of the article here.
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May 19, 2009 by Susan Gold
Below are a few highlights from Helen Pilcher’s fascinating article, “The Science of Voodoo: When Mind Attacks Body,” which was published on NewScientist magazine’s website on May 15, 2009.
The idea that believing you are ill can make you ill may seem far-fetched, yet rigorous trials have established beyond doubt that the converse is true – that the power of suggestion can improve health. This is the well-known placebo effect. Placebos cannot produce miracles, but they do produce measurable physical effects.
The placebo effect has an evil twin: the nocebo effect, in which dummy pills and negative expectations can produce harmful effects.
***
Nocebo effects are also seen in normal medical practice. Around 60 per cent of patients undergoing chemotherapy start feeling sick before their treatment. “It can happen days before, or on the journey on the way in,” says clinical psychologist Guy Montgomery from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. Sometimes the mere thought of treatment or the doctor’s voice is enough to make patients feel unwell. This “anticipatory nausea” may be partly due to conditioning – when patients subconsciously link some part of their experience with nausea – and partly due to expectation.
***
This means doctors need to choose their words carefully so as to minimise negative expectations, says Montgomery. “It’s all about how you say it.”
Hypnosis might also help. “Hypnosis changes expectancies, which decreases anxiety and stress, which improves the outcome,” Montgomery says. “I think hypnosis could be applied to a wide variety of symptoms where expectancy plays a role.”
Read the whole article here.
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April 23, 2009 by Susan Gold
Below is an excerpt from “5 Ways to Cope with Money Stress,” Nancy Palmer’s article recently published in Oprah Magazine. At the top of the list is “Get Hypnotized.”
For years people have turned to hypnosis for help quitting smoking and losing weight, but the technique is also becoming popular among business types desperate to overcome financial stress, according to a November report in The Wall Street Journal. Generally, in hypnosis, a therapist uses verbal cues to put clients into a deeply relaxed state, where they become absorbed in their inner thoughts, then offers suggestions to shift an attitude so they can better tackle a problem. In this case, the suggestions might be “Money is energy that comes and goes” or “Your net worth doesn’t equal your personal worth,” to deflect the paralysis and insecurity that financial panic can cause. Ideally, clients learn the process on their own.
“Hypnosis is very similar to meditation,” explains Dwight Damon, president of the National Guild of Hypnotists, who recommends trying a professional session before using the method on yourself. “While it won’t make you richer, it will help you handle, and feel better about, the money you do have.” Click here for the article.
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April 19, 2009 by Susan Gold
Here is an excerpt from Alix Spiegel’s 4/6/09 article, “Willpower: A Game of Strategy.”
Willpower is a very familiar phrase, but what is it really and where does it come from? What happens in the mind when you resist your impulses in the face of temptation?
One person who has looked at this question in detail is a psychology professor at Columbia University named Walter Mischel. Mischel, who is sometimes referred to as the grandfather of self-regulation research, designed a series of very famous experiments in the 1960s now popularly known as the marshmallow tests.
To do the experiments, he put hundreds of 4-year-olds in a room, one by one, with a marshmallow or cookie on the table in front of each. He told them he was going to leave the room and that the child could either eat the treat immediately or, if they could wait until he got back, and have two instead. To read on, click here.
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April 19, 2009 by Susan Gold
Here is the opening paragraph of Joanne Silberner’s 4/19/09 NPR article, “Test May Determine Smokers’ Lung Cancer Risk.”
A new urine test appears to distinguish which smokers are likely to get lung cancer and which are not, by detecting whether smokers have a particular chemical in their urine that’s been linked to lung cancer.
The article points out that this does not mean it is safe for those who are at low risk to smoke:
Researchers say this test is no license to smoke; tobacco causes other health problems, such as emphysema, heart disease and other types of cancer.
But the test could be used as a signal that people with high levels of NNAL should be screened more frequently for lung cancer, says Tyler Jacks, the incoming head of the American Association for Cancer Research and a lung cancer researcher with MIT. That way, cancers can be detected early, when they’re more treatable.
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April 10, 2009 by Susan Gold
I was just on the National Guild of Hypnotists website and discovered that they have recently posted PDF archives of the Journal of Hypnotism, the organization’s quarterly journal. The first publication came out in 1951. (See above.)
As the NGH website says, the electronic archives serves as a “preservation of the history of the development of hypnotism as a profession in America since WWII.”
As a member of the National Guild, I always look forward to the Journal arriving in the mail. (Volume 24, Number 1 was just delivered yesterday.) It includes articles written by contributing professionals on topics including techniques, studies, marketing ideas, and legislative and governmental concerns. It will be interesting to go through the archives and see how much the profession has evolved. A quick look suggests we’ve come a long way!
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