Abstracts from the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis 71st Annual Conference

Abstract

s from the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis 71 Annual Conference Virtual conference which took place October 14–18, 2020 Paper Abstracts and Session Descriptions Overall Meeting Co-Chairs: Ciara Christensen, PhD and David Reid, PsyD Scientific Program Scientific Program Co-Chairs: Barbara S. McCann, PhD and Vivek Datta, MD, MPH Presidential Symposium Hypnosis to Enhance and Augment Treatment Outcomes Faculty: Janna Henning, PsyD, JD; Mark Jensen, PhD; Gary Elkins, PhD, ABPP Discussant: Donald Moss, PhD The theme of this year’s conference is hypnosis to enhance and augment treatment outcomes. In this symposium, ways in which hypnosis enhances the treatment of traumatic stress, pain, and sleep problems are presented. The evidence base for these interventions will be examined as well. Specific presentations within this symposium include: ● Hypnotic Interventions to Enhance Evidence-Informed Treatment for Traumatic Stress Disorders (Janna Henning, PsyD, JD) ● Using Hypnosis to Enhance the Benefits of Cognitive Therapy on Pain Outcomes (Mark Jensen, PhD) ● Hypnosis Intervention for Sleep Disturbance: Surprising Results from a Clinical Trial (Gary Elkins, PhD, ABPP) Keynote Exploring the Neuroscience of Suggestion: From Words to Higher Vision Amir Raz, PhD, Professor, Director, Institute for Interdisciplinary Brain and Behavioral Sciences, Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences; Psychology School of Pharmacy, Chapman University, Orange, CA, USA Cognitive science has scantily exploited suggestion as an experimental tool. This keynote address will outline how, for example, we can use suggestion to hinder lexical processing, language-based processing, and the modulation of speech parameters. This approach challenges dominant views (i.e., that word recognition is obligatory for proficient readers) and provides dramatic insights into top-down influences of suggestion on cognition, emotion, thought, and action. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL HYPNOSIS 2021, VOL. 69, NO. 1, 162–167 https://doi.org/10.1080/00207144.2020.1858392 © 2021 International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis Invited Address Hypnosis and the Sunken Place: How Jordan Peele’s 2017 Movie, Get Out, Illustrates the Dehumanization and Silencing of Black Americans by White Society Amanda Calhoun, MD, MPH, Yale Child Study Center/Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA This presentation will discuss the movie, Get Out, and its use of hypnosis and the Sunken Place as a symbol of the silencing and dehumanization of Black Americans by the white majority. The presentation will go on to discuss the effects of racism on the mental and physical health of Black Americans and ways in which the mental health-care system plays a role in promoting institutionalized racism. Finally, the presentation will discuss actionables for mental health providers seeking to promote anti-racism in their clinical spaces. Keynote Making Clinical Hypnosis a Mainstream Component of Health care For Physical Problems: Perspective and Lessons from 25 Years in GI Hypnosis Olafur Palsson, PsyD, Professor of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA Hypnosis is perhaps the most powerful psychological tool known to humankind for directly influencing physical symptoms, but it is extraordinarily under-utilized for that purpose. It remains a rarely used exotic intervention technique for most medical problems. A notable exception is the treatment of functional gastrointestinal disorders, where clinical hypnosis has become a recommended option for patients with certain characteristics in standard clinical treatment algorithms and guidelines and is supported as effective by multiple systematic reviews in leading journals in the field. Evidence-based hypnosis treatment for gastrointestinal problems is now practiced in most of the top US GI specialty centers, and also offered by hundreds of therapists in the community across the nation and internationally. Reaching this level of mainstream utilization has been a long and meandering path for GI hypnosis. It is vital for the future success of hypnosis as a clinical tool for medical problems to achieve similar mainstream integration for other major health problems where it has shown therapeutic promise. In this presentation, Dr. Palsson will summarize key lessons from GI hypnosis regarding how this can be brought about, and will discuss how it could be achieved much faster in the future. In the process, he will also give the audience insights into how clinicians can best achieve reliable therapeutic impact on physical disorders with hypnosis. Research Presentation Survey of Clinicians’ Attitudes and Interest in Hypnosis Madeline Stein, MA, Saybrook University, Denver CO and Barbara S. McCann, PhD, University of Washington, Seattle, WA USA Hypnosis has a long history of use among health-care professionals. Yet, at the time of this publication, the major hypnosis professional organizations are experiencing a decline in membership and event attendance. This begs the question “are health-care providers no longer interested in hypnosis?” This survey examined health-care provider’s attitudes, experiences, interest, and knowledge concerning the use of hypnosis in clinical practice. Participants (n = 41) were physicians (31.7%), social workers (12.2%), physician assistants (2.4%), psychologists (7.3%), and professional counselors (12.2%) in Washington state who INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL HYPNOSIS 163