Psychotherapists use one of the oldest healing methods to help their patients. “Hypnosis was used in Egypt for treatment more than 2000 years ago. Sigmund Freud also worked with the method in the beginning,” says Wolfgang Schnellinger from the Kepler University Hospital in Linz. The psychotherapist teaches colleagues in hypnosis. The principle: the patient focuses on a pendulum or fixes on a specific point in space. This puts him in a trance state.
No willlessness
“Almost anyone can do that. The altered state of consciousness and the attention drawn to a certain topic can often lead to quicker insights. But hypnosis is not a miracle cure,” says Schnellinger about the experience-oriented therapy. “Experience is what causes change.” By the way, you don’t have to be afraid that you’ll lose your will in a trance or do things that you really don’t want to. Nevertheless, Schnellinger emphasizes that only well-trained people from health professions – doctors, psychotherapists and psychologists – are allowed to use the technology in therapies. One has to be mature, reflective and empathetic in order to be able to make good use of the trance states. “If the therapy is used in an ethical manner, the patient gains more control over himself and the images in his head,” says the expert. With him, patients are not only put under hypnosis, but they also learn to use the technique themselves – for example in difficult everyday situations.
Hypnosis is suitable for many questions: In pain medicine – for example at the dentist – it makes treatments easier. Anyone who suffers from an anxiety disorder learns to keep it under control. Depression, psychosomatic complaints, traumatic experiences and nightmares can also be treated well with hypnosis.
smoking cessation
The technique is now used in the classic way for smoking cessation, and good results are also being achieved in the case of eating disorders. In top-level sport, hypnosis helps to optimize performance. And those who want to relax will also benefit.
Source: Nachrichten
