Melinda Beck’s, 4/9/12 Wall Street Journal article, “Medical Hypnosis: You Are Getting Very Healthy” cites a number of recent studies about hypnosis.
Archive for the ‘Hypnosis in the News’ Category
Article on Hypnosis in the Wall Street Journal
April 21, 2012Self-Hypnosis Reduces Symptoms of Tourette Syndrome
July 13, 2010
Below is an excerpt from the July 12, 2010 ScienceDaily article, “Children and Teens with Tourette Syndrome Find Relief with Self-Hypnosis.”
A new study of children and adolescents with Tourette Syndrome finds that self-hypnosis taught with the aid of videotape training reduced their symptoms and improved their quality of life.
Seventy-nine percent of the 33 research participants achieved enough improvement in tic control to report personal satisfaction with the technique, according to the study published online in the July issue of the Journal of Development and Behavioral Pediatrics. Read the rest of the article here.
Hypnosis and The Wizard of Oz
June 11, 2010
See CNN Medical Producer, John Bonifield’s, 6/10/10 article, “Health Lessons from ‘The Wizard of Oz’” for ways that nurses, psychologists, and hypnotherapists have used metaphors from the The Wizard of Oz in their work. Below is the excerpt on its use in hypnotherapy:
Hypnotherapists have even used the story of “The Wizard of Oz” to put kids into hypnosis.
When some 8-to-13-year-old children weren’t responding to traditional cognitive-behavioral therapy, hypnotherapists in Montana developed an individualized hypnotic treatment based on metaphors found in Dorothy’s adventures. According to a study in the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, to induce hypnosis the therapists suggestively told the children:
“In the Wizard of Oz, the Straw Man wanted brains, the Tin Man wanted a heart, the Lion wanted courage, and Dorothy wanted to take Toto and go home to Kansas. They wanted these things very badly. So, they went to the Wizard for help. At first the Wizard seemed bothered. He called himself the ‘great and powerful Oz’ and sent them away. Later, he sent them out to bring back the witch’s broom. When the Straw Man, Tin Man, Lion, Dorothy, and Toto returned with the broom, they were surprised with their own success. They discovered that the Wizard was just a regular man and wasn’t really a Wizard after all. They also discovered that they already had brains, a heart, and courage. Then, the Wizard gave them each something to show they were smart, loving, and brave. And Dorothy discovered she had within herself, the power to get her and Toto back to Kansas.”
After hypnosis, by applying the metaphors, the children were more capable of defining their goals and realizing they already had within them some of the things they thought they were missing. Read the whole article here.
Hypnotherapy for golf on ABC 12
April 14, 2010
See Marc Jacobson’s 4/13/10 video story, “Improve your mind, improve your golf game” on ABC 12—Mid-Michigan’s local station.
Here’s an excerpt from the online transcript:
The weather is warming up, and for many of us, that means it’s time to hit the golf course.
After a long winter, hitting the green isn’t necessarily an easy thing to do.
A potential solution could be hypnotherapy.
Hitting a little white ball straight down the fairway is easier said than done.
“It’s like Zen and the art of golf. When you’re totally relaxed, your mind relaxes and everything is easy,” said John Tomlinson from Tomlinson Medical Hypnotherapy.
Tomlinson is a certified medical hypnotherapist. His four-session Mental Side of Golf program is designed to break golfers free from their two most-common problems. “If you fix inconsistency and self doubt, the same thing with business, if you go into a sales meeting with self doubt, you’re not going to make that sale.” Read the rest of the transcript or watch the video here.
Hypnosis at the zoo!
April 8, 2010
See Gemma Jones 4/6/10 article in the Australian paper, The Daily Telegraph to read about the Taronga Zoo’s innovative hypnosis program that helps patrons get over their fears.
Here’s an excerpt from “It’s called ophidiophobia – the fear of reptiles can be cured:”
Now, in an effort to overcome their fears, those afraid of reptiles are undergoing hypnotherapy, mind, and neuro linguistic training at the zoo.
One participant was so scared of blue tongues her neighbor had to check her yard for her before she could hang clothes on teh line.
Warrick Angus, manager of the zoo’s Australian Fauna Precinct, said the woman and the other course attendees who feared reptiles like Jub Jub, a 60cm green iguana, were all cured of their problem – called ophidiophobia. Read the rest of the article here.
Hypnosis for Golf
April 8, 2010
In his 4/5/10 Time Magazine article, “Tiger at the Masters: An Ultimate Test of Toughness,” Sean Gregory discusses the challenge Tiger Woods faces as he returns to golf. He includes the advice of hypnotherapists in the excerpt below.
When Woods was a teenager, he worked with a hypnotist to help place his mind in the proverbial zone. And given his recent revelations that he’s reconnected with Buddhism, it’s fair to assume that Woods is doing a fair amount of quiet introspection. Do more of it, say the psychologists. With practice, you can enter an altered, hypnotic state on the golf course, though not to the point where you’re barking like a dog on command. “You are aware of what’s going on,” says Ken Grossman, a Sacramento, Calif.–based hypnotherapist who has worked with many athletes. “You’re not out in left field.”
For example, Jennifer Scott, a golf hypnotherapist from Phoenix, suggests staring at some object on the course — perhaps a leaf on a fairway tree — and taking a deep breath while waiting to take a shot. “Your eyes are very powerful,” she says. “If you’re darting your eyes back and forth, you lose focus.” Summon the subconscious and give yourself a mantra. “Think peace, harmony, relax, relax,” Scott says. “The golfers I teach love those words.” Denise Silbert, a hypnosis expert from La Jolla, Calif., recommends selecting a physical trigger, like holding a golf ball while walking down the fairway, which will signal your brain to slow down. “As I hold the golf ball, I feel a calm energy,” Silbert says. “I let go of the conscious riffraff, I’m reprogramming the unconscious mind. The verbiage in my mind is affirming: ‘Fairways of power, greens of solace.’” Are you in a trance yet? For Woods, Scott suggests a less hippie-sounding mental chant, perhaps, “I’m the greatest player in the world, see each shot as it lands.”
While affirming his greatness, Woods should also visualize his most triumphant moments. “I’d have him channel a mental movie,” says Grossman. “While he’s in that relaxed state, he should recall his 2008 U.S. Open championship win against Rocco Mediate. He would want to remind himself he won that with a broken leg, and here at the Masters, he’s not even feeling any pain.” Read the whole article here.
Hypnotherapy for Irritable Bowel Syndrome
March 20, 2010
See the 3/18/10 BBC article, “Hypnotherapy ‘can help’ irritable bowel syndrome.”
Here’s the opening paragraph:
Dr Roland Valori, editor of Frontline Gastroenterology, said of the first 100 of his patients treated, symptoms improved significantly for nine in 10. Read the whole article here.
ScienceDaily also carried the story on 3/18/10. See “Hypnotherapy eases irritable bowel syndrome symptoms, experts say.” Here’s the opening paragrah:
Hypnotherapy seems to be very effective for easing the distressing symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and in a goodly proportion of cases, clears up symptoms altogether, reveal experts during a wide ranging discussion of the condition in a Frontline Gastroenterology podcast. Read the whole article here.
Executive producer at ABC Action News loses weight with hypnotherapy
February 15, 2010
Shellie Nelson, an executive producer at ABC Action News in Kansas City is documenting her experience with hypnotherapy for weight loss. Here’s an excerpt from the report posted on the ABC site:
More than a month and several sessions later, Shellie says the thoughts planted in her subconscious are changing her behavior.
“I think it’s adjusting my attitude about myself and about food,” Shellie told us.
She added, “I’m not sitting at my desk thinking, ‘Boy, I’d like to go over to the snack machine and grab something real quick’.”
So far, she’s lost more than ten pounds.
“Now I’m just going through my day and when I’m hungry, I stop and eat and I eat something that I want. I don’t just sort of fill myself with whatever happens to be handy,” Shellie explained.
“I’m paying a little bit more attention to myself and taking better care of myself; I’m sleeping better at night and I’m a lot more at peace with things that would sort of bug me a little,” Shellie added.
“It may take a little bit longer to drop some of the weight that I would like to drop; but feeling better is a good exchange for a slower weight loss,” she said.
The whole article and video report can be found on the ABC Action News Site here.
Shellie Nelson’s ongoing blog about the experience can be found here.
Hypnosis can help in pediatric respiratory care
February 13, 2010
Below is the opening paragraph in ScienceDaily’s 2/13/10 article, “Hypnosis Can Relieve Symptoms in Children with Respiratory Diseases,” which offers a summary of a paper published in the medical journal, Pediatric Asthma, Allergy & Immunology.
Hypnosis has potential therapeutic value in children with respiratory disorders for alleviating symptoms such as habit cough or unexplained sensations of difficulty breathing and for lessening a child’s discomfort during medical procedures. Proper utilization of hypnosis as an adjunct to conventional treatment and its ability to use the mind-body connection to bring about physiological changes are explored in a provocative paper in Pediatric Asthma, Allergy & Immunology, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The paper is available free online. Read the rest of the ScienceDaily article here.
FOX 26 in Houston does a piece on hypnosis
February 3, 2010
See, “Fox 26 Anchor Hypnotized for Health” posted on 2/2/10. Here is a description the FOX site provides with the video:
Some people turn to different methods when they try to lose weight and get into better physical shape that go beyond diet and exercise. For some people, their preferred method is hypnosis.
Dr. Scott Lewis explains on FOX 26 Morning News Extra the difference between clinical or medical hypnosis and the kind performed at comedy clubs.
FOX 26 News anchor Tom Zizka also allows Dr. Lewis to perform hypnosis on him.
