Presenter: Lynda Dolan

Creative uses of hypnosis in therapy

Presenter:Lynda Dolan

MAPS, FCCLP, MASH, MISH, SCEH

www.lyndadolan.com email: [email protected]

In memory of…

… our creative teachers and mentors…

� Prof/Dr Eugene Hlywa

� Prof/Dr Wendy-Louise Walker


Webinar plan: Creative uses of hypnosis

� Hypnosis defined

� Hypnosis and treatment: Practitioner model

� Principles of psychotherapy: conditions, relationship

� Hypnosis in practice

� Hypnotic phenomena

� Music and hypnosis

� Conclusion

� Questionswww. lyndadolan.com email: [email protected]

Hypnosis: being creative

� "Hypnosis is variable, imaginative and very creative”

� "During hypnosis, the practitioner works with certain characteristics of the altered state of consciousness - suggestibility, increased imagination and dissociation - to facilitate the learning of new skills or the integration of different views.”

(Walker in Sydney Morning Herald, 2004).


Hypnosis defined

� The process of narrowing the focus of attention and reaching an altered state of awareness (Spiegel, 2007)

� A state of consciousness involving focused attention and reduced peripheral awareness characterized by an enhanced capacity for response to suggestion(APA, 2014)

� “Inherent, enhanced potentiality of human beings, which spontaneously appears in human life, and which is also tapped by certain procedures known as hypnotic induction” (Hlywa & Dolan, 2010-2011)


Hypnosis & spontaneity

� Defining hypnosis as “inherent, enhanced potentiality“ (Hlywa & Dolan, 2010-2011, p.91) embraces the spontaneity and naturalness of the experience of hypnosis and emphasizes the person’s inherent and unique potential

� Milton Erickson (1967) emphasized this uniqueness of each person and was noted for his creative approaches including utilizing the person’s natural and spontaneous capacity as opposed to reading scripts (Erickson, Rossi & Rossi, 1976).

� opportunity to be in control of oneself and make decisions for oneself every moment of one’s life (Hlywa, 2013).


Hypnosis and treatment

� Adjunctive/integrated with different modalities and/or method of intervention itself (Yapko, 2019)

- client-centered therapy (Hlywa, 2009)

- CBT, psychodynamic, IPT, psycho-education, acceptance & commitment therapy, mindfulness (Valentine et al., 2019; Ramondo et al., 2021)

- hypnoanalysis (Dolan, 2009; Hlywa 2008b, Watkins & Barabasz, 2008)


� Know your model: importance of understanding your approach as a therapist

� Using one’s inner voice can be empowering as a therapist

� Eugene Hlywa encouraged tapping into one’s inner creativity and using one’s own voice as a therapist when applying hypnosis in treatment (Hlywa & Dolan, 2010)


Practitioner paradigm/model

Hypnosis & the therapeutic relationship

� Using hypnosis in treatment can enhance the therapeutic relationship by creating an environment where the client feels more at ease and becomes more receptive to treatment (Brown & Fromm, 1986; Erickson et al., 1976, Hlywa & Dolan, 2009; Spiegel & Greenleaf, 2005, p. 19; Meares, 1967; Spiegel, et al., 2020).


Hypnosis as a dynamic art

� Ainslie Meares (1967) refers to the ideal interpersonal psychotherapeutic relationship when the patient and doctor come so close together that there is no “space between”. He shows how hypnosis is a work of art achieved only by detailed attention to the space between. The art of hypnosis is a dynamic art; it is ever-changing.

� Meaning is conveyed by more than mere words, a form of communication. Like the lover we use it to tell the patient all those things which are so simple and so basic to our humanity that they are quite beyond expression by the cold logic of words (Meares, 1967, p. 156)


Principles of psychotherapy

� Flexible methods of interviewing with listeningcarefully to the patient facilitates a therapeutic environment of trust, security and hope. Often the deeper concerns are revealed when the patient has established a positive therapeutic relationship.

� Be authentic – patients will sense this and respond accordingly


Hypnosis in practice

� Know your client/patient

� When working with a patient it is important to bear in mind the person’s specific situation, diagnosis (if there is a diagnosis), nature of the referral and what the goal of treatment is.

� Deciding on the type of treatment will depend on each person’s individual needs including the medical or psychotherapeutic setting within which the patient is being treated.


Hypnotic phenomena

� Considering the phenomena of hypnosis can help us be creative and understand how hypnosis can be viewed as much more than relaxation therapy with reading a script and repeating verbal suggestions.

� Hypnosis involves many complex aspects of human experience, including the senses, thoughts, actions, memories, sleep, emotions, and even the perception of time and space. Hypnosis truly utilizes and demonstrates the potentiality and phenomenon of the human being


Some hypnotic phenomena� Suggestibility and posthypnotic suggestion

� Sensory phenomena – imagery, hallucinations (visual, tactile, olfactory, auditory, gustatory)

� Motor phenomena – automatic writing, somnambulism, catalepsy

� Memory phenomena - amnesia, hypermnesia, age regression, revivification

� Perception phenomena – dissociation, depersonalization, time distortion

(Kroger, 1963)


Music and hypnosis

Utilizing music creatively in hypnotic interventions (use carefully with proper research & knowledge)

� Walker (1992) - live music in the whole hypnotic treatment session

� Walker, W-L. & Diment, A.D. (1979) - live music as a deepening technique

� Hlywa (2008a) - pleasant music without lyrics to facilitate prolonged hypnotic rest


Music and hypnosis

� Kelly (1993) illustrated a method using imaginal music to show how music can be used to shape emotion. In hypnosis, he suggested that the patients vividly recall this music and the accompanying feelings outside of trance when it would be desirable to help them to change their behaviour by influencing their emotional state.


Music in hypnosisSome suggested examples of music

� Contrapuntal and polyphonic music and fractionation (bringing the person in and out of trance to deepen the trance)

� Baroque music as deepening (Walker, 1992, p.5) suggests that the person “feels the rhythm of the slow drone, resonating piece and relaxation through the body, while focusing attention on the melody” e.g., Pachelbel’s Canon (CD playing continuously)

� Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring; Sleeper’s Awake


Music in hypnosisBaroque (1685 -1750)

� J.S. Bach Suite for Cello no.1 in G Major - Slava Grigoryan (classical guitar) OR Yo-Yo Ma (cellist)

Classical period (1730 – 1820)

� Second movement of Mozart’s Flute & Harp Concerto – single main melody, lifts mood and thus is useful to treat depression, maintains light or moderate trance; can be used to bring the person out of trance


Music in hypnosisSome suggested examples of contemporary music

� Bruce & Brian Becvar – Vata CD (2 cd’s – Morning and Evening) – pleasant continuous new age music which is polyphonic and rather neutral.

� Ludovico Einaudi: pleasant piano music – available on YouTube: I Giorno (The Days); Fairytale; Love is a mystery

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uffjii1hXzU

� Yiruma – piano music which is classical crossover. He is classically trained and writes lighter music that can lift the mood, very subtle, and yet relaxing e.g., Room with a view (Preludio al vento); Yellow room

� Ola Gjeilo – Reflections for string quartet and piano


References

� Dolan, L.M. (2009). An integrated approach to the psychotherapeutic treatment of vaginismus incorporating hypnosuggestion and hypnoanalysis. Australian Journal of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis, 37(1)60–73

� Erickson, M.H. (1967). Advanced techniques of hypnosis and therapy. New York: Grune & Stratton.

� Erickson, M.H., Rossi, E.L. & Rossi, S.I. (1976). Hypnotic realities: The Induction of Clinical Hypnosis and Forms of Indirect Suggestion. New York: Irvington Publishers, Inc.

� Hlywa, E. (2008a). Protracted Hypnotic Rest. Australian Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 36(1), 50-63

� Hlywa, E. (2008b). Spontaneous and Induced Abreaction, Australian Journal of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis, 36(2), 78-92

§ Hlywa E. (2009). Hypnosis and Client-Centered Therapy. Internal Security, No.1, 61-68


References

� Hlywa, E. & Dolan, L.M. (2010). A New Approach to the genesis of hypnosis: A gift of love and security, Australian Journal of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis, 38(1) 25–43.

� Hlywa, E. & Dolan, L.M. (2010-2011). Spirituality, Hypnosis and Psychotherapy: A New Perspective, Australian Journal of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis, 38(2)/39(1), 111-127.

� Hlywa, E. & Dolan, L.M. (2016). Hypnotherapeutic Intervention into the Depths of the Human Mind: The Origins of Internal Trauma and its Influence upon the Human Being. Australian Journal of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis, 41(3), 16-39.

� Kelly, S.F. (1993) The Use of Music as a Hypnotic Suggestion, American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 36:2, 83-90.

� Kroger, W.S. (1977). Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott

� Meares, A. (1967). The Space Between. International Journal of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis, XV(4), 156-159.

� Ramondo, N., Gignac, G.E., Pestell, C.F. & Byrne, S.B. (2021). Clinical Hypnosis as an adjunct to cognitive behavior therapy: An Updated Meta-Analysis, International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 69:2, 169-202.

� Spiegel, E.B., et al., 2020. Hypnosis and the therapeutic relationship: Relational factors of hypnosis in psychotherapy, American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 62:1-2,118-137.


References

� Spiegel, E.B., Baker, E.L., Daitch, C., Diamond, M.J. & Phillips, M.(2020). Hypnosis and the therapeutic relationship: Relational Factors of hypnosis in psychotherapy, American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 62:1-2, 118-137,

� Sydney Morning Herald, (2004). Hypnosis opens doors to healing. Retrieved from https://www.smh.com.au/national/hypnosis-opens-door-to-healing-20040318-gdikbd.html,

� Valentine, K.E., Milling, L.S., Clark, L.J., & Moriarty, C.L. (2019). The efficacy of hypnosis as a treatment for anxiety: A Meta-Analysis, International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 67:3, 336-363,

� Walker, Wendy-Louise. (1992). Combing music and words as a pathway through hypnosis: Practical guidelines. Australian Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 20, 117-132

� Watkins, J.G. & Barabasz, A. (2008). Advanced Hypnotherapy: Hypnodynamic Techniques. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

� Yapko, M. (2019). Trancework: An introduction to the practice of clinical hypnosis (5th ed.). Routledge.


CONCLUSION

� Questions

Thank-you for your participation today


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Presenter: Lynda Dolan