Hypnotherapy and Hypnosis articles

Channel 4's More 4 programme (Hypnosurgery Live)

By Jonathan Wootton MIAPH

Channel 4's More 4 programme (Hypnosurgery Live) on Monday April 10, 2006 raised a combination of debate and positive awareness in and outside the world of hypnotherapy and medicine.

Despite being a proven therapeutic aid for many years now, Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy continues to have its sceptics, no doubt largely derived from the antics of the common stage hypnotist.

The fact is hypnotherapy has been used as an adjunct to chemical anaesthesia for hundreds, if not thousands, of years with tremendous success and More 4’s programme Hypnosurgery Live can hopefully only but strengthen the credence of hypnosis and hypnotherapy.

The programme in question contained useful historical and background information on hypnosis, specifically related to surgical anaesthesia, all of which acted as a progressive build up to what the majority of viewers were doubtlessly tuned in for, a hernia operation performed with no chemical pain relief!

In the end the surgery was successfully completed by surgeon Tom Hennigan, with the essential help of hypnotherapist Dr John Butler, without complication and the patient in question was wheeled almost straight into the studio to answer questions from the programme presenter seemingly completely unaffected by the procedure - AMAZING? At this stage, under normal anaesthesia, the patient would be transported to recovery for the anaesthetic to wear off. Even then in all probability he would have usually felt nauseous and not quite himself for a day or so.

Common NHS information would list the following as very common side effects to chemical anaesthesia: (The following is taken from The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust as a patients guide to general anaesthetic).

• Feeling sick or vomiting after surgery.
  
• Sore throat.
  
• Dizziness or blurred vision.
• Headache.
• Itching.
  
• Aches, pains and backache.
  
• Pain during injection of drugs.
  
• Bruising and soreness.
  
• Confusion and memory loss.

These are just the very common ones and rightly so the NHS Trust in question has also listed uncommon and rare side effects but suffice to say the common ones are covered here.

Despite this (the Hypnosurgery Live procedure) seemingly bordering on the almost miraculous, there is nothing magical about hypnosis and it still is and always will be simply a natural manifestation of the mind at work. So it is not to be feared and equally not revered.

We humans are suggestible and it is fair to say that all hypnosis is simply suggestion.

If a person you know, trust and respect makes a suggestion to you, you are likely to take the suggestion on board, are you not?

In the state of hypnosis we became infinitely more suggestible as the critical faculty, our conscious deliberating thoughts, are reduced. (There any many different methods of induction to achieve this state).

In this state if a Doctor or hypnotherapist that you have put your trust in makes a positive suggestion you are likely to accept it.

Of course this is not ALWAYS the case and as fear has been mentioned it is prudent now to highlight that fear is arguably to biggest factor in the success, or lack of, the state of hypnosis taking place and that is why your chances of success are significantly increased by consulting a competent therapist with knowledge of all the forces involved, as an IAPH therapist does, significantly improves the chances of the hypnotic state being reached and then used to achieve positive results.

As a therapist in full time practice myself I never use the word hypnosis during an hypnotic induction as, rightly or wrongly, a lot of people, due to common misconceptions of course, can possibly interpret the word as something controlling or to be feared. We IAPH therapists, practicing to the highest ethics, know this isn’t the case of course but prefer pleasant and comforting reassuring words such as relaxation to achieve much better results.

When in a state of hypnosis you are not asleep but simply relaxed. The purpose of hypnosis is to reduce the critical faculty of the conscious mind and when in this pleasant state beneficial suggestions are far more likely to be accepted as you are not consciously thinking about it.

Look at it like this:

Imagine you are using a craft knife and you and engrossed in what you are doing when suddenly and by accident you sustain a deep cut to your finger. You feel something but don’t realise the damage until to see the blood pouring out of your finger.

Okay, now imagine you have made a conscious decision to slice your finger open in the same fashion.

Which cut would cause the most pain do you think?

Likewise, If the surgeon said as he began his first incision. “Brace yourself this will really hurt.” Do you think the incision would be painless? Of course it wouldn’t because a SUGGESTION was given that it WOULD hurt and so it did. The EXPENTENCY was there and in life you tend to get what you expect, don’t you?

As previously mentioned Hypnosis has been used for thousands of years and with recorded success for well over a century.

Learned men such as Dr Henry Munro and Dr James Esdaile led the way but their magnificent work never received the wide-spread credit it deserved and for reasons that we will not go into in this article. It can frustrating at times to the ethical and well trained therapist of today that the word hypnosis can often trigger thought of Little Britain’s Kenny Craig than that of a therapist who has changed the lives of thousands, as IAPH registered therapist have.

In the middle years of the last century American hypnotist Dave Elman worked extensively with Doctors and Dentists on hypnotic anaesthesia and his work, teachings and his classic book hypnotherapy is still referred to today.

Elman mastered the art of almost instant induction but it has to be said that this was chiefly designed to benefit medical practitioners without the luxury of time. Time that is used by IAPH therapists to gain essential rapport and trust, thereby ensuring that hindrances such as fear are all but eliminated.

The Hypnosurgery Live programme may well result in hypnosis being more commonly used by Doctors and Surgeons.

However, the hypnotic techniques evident and the programme have been used thousands of times by IAPH therapists for well over 20 years, with the organisations still leading the way in the therapeutic uses of hypnosis to bring about positive change.

In fact, certain conditions that can eventually result in surgery such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Ulcerous Colitis can be, in many cases, prevented with a course of Hypno-Analysis as practiced to the highest standard by IAPH practitioners.

It is an extremely successful therapy based on the doctrine of cause and effect, the effect (the symptom) being removed when the cause has been has been discovered and eliminated.