American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis最新文献

Therapies, including those incorporating clinical hypnosis, occur in the context of consciously mediated interpersonal interactions. While the presence of the non-conscious and its content is often acknowledged, how non-conscious content is accessed and utilized in the training curricula to which clinical hypnosis students are exposed is under-emphasized. This article explores two phenomena - priming and the innate tendency of the human brain to engage in associative learning - that, when incorporated into the interpersonal process that constitutes clinical hypnosis, could expand and enrich outcomes for clients. The processes by which non-conscious processing shapes conscious experience, the role of the social environment in prioritizing and predisposing certain content that later makes its way into consciousness, and examples of how that content can be used to enhance clients' adaptive flexibility are discussed.

This paper reviews: The neuroscientific features of inner consciousness, including its role in suffering and in accessing states of mind that relieve suffering; details salient meditative and hypnotic approaches appropriate for palliative settings of care; discusses core principles and orientations shared by effective approaches; and proposes early integration of hypnotic training as a coping skill and a platform for spiritual exploration, as desired.

Patients experiencing psychosomatic symptoms frequently have difficulty obtaining correct treatment. They are often reluctant to partially attribute their symptoms to psychological factors and, as a result, delay referrals to mental health professionals. Furthermore, the dropout rate from therapy is high and relapses are common. Hypnosis is a complex psycho-physiological phenomenon. Hence, hypnotic psychotherapy may play an important role in managing and treating psychosomatic symptoms and disorders that involve both the mind and body. In the current study, we propose a clinically oriented, four-phase, hypnotic approach, the hypnotic associative-dissociative approach (HADA), which may be useful in encouraging more patients with psychosomatic problems to engage in psychotherapy, thereby achieving effective long-term effects.

When cure is not possible, suffering often takes form as pain and distressing symptoms, death anxiety, existential distress, and meaninglessness. This paper describes important elements connecting palliative care principles with hypnotic approaches designed to provide support, palliate symptoms, foster hope, and address existential and spiritual distress. We offer a developmental process for and examples of hypnotic suggestions customized to simultaneously ameliorate physical symptoms and address profound distress arising from physical, social, psychological, existential, and spiritual challenges commonly encountered in terminal illness. This process necessarily requires use of the patient's vernacular to hypnotically deepen inwardly focused attention in order to explore and access internal resources, reframe negative automatic thoughts, and create positive meanings for experiences that disinvite suffering. Effective delivery utilizes cognitive tools such as clinical and scientific principles, artistic forms such as poetry and haiku, and a thorough assessment of needs. This approach strategically addresses an overarching dimension of temporality through suggestions that sequentially address multiple sources of suffering that are layered throughout the various dimensions of self. This requires focus and presence in the present moment; it ultimately fosters a therapeutic relationship that can safely hold past painful experience as helpful new meanings emerge that build resiliency for that experience. This work benefits from inwardly focused concentration and a holding environment to identify and access helpful inner resources, which include an increasingly malleable relationship with temporal memories.

Rehabilitation Medicine and Palliative medicine have much in common as both specialties deal with loss and impending loss related to incurable medical conditions. Significant losses are encountered by patients in both rehabilitation and palliative care settings, and often threaten quality of life, hopefulness, and resiliency. The losses are related to what the patient has identified as self. In this article the author suggests a way of approaching loss and suffering that incorporates, mindfulness, Disidentification and Ego-State work to help preserve a sense of self that is not identified with what is happening to the body.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a rare, incurable, and ultimately fatal, devastating, progressive degenerative neurologic disease. It causes upheaval in the lives of patients and family caregivers alike. Palliative care can play an important supportive role in the care of patients and families dealing with the devastation of this illness. Clinical hypnosis has demonstrated benefits in treating the symptoms associated with severe chronic illness. There are, however, few studies looking at the benefits of clinical hypnosis in treating the symptom burden of ALS. This article describes palliative care and how it can provide an additional layer of support to seriously ill patients. A brief review of previous studies of hypnosis in the supportive, symptomatic treatment of ALS is provided, followed by a description of a case series of 30 Veterans who received clinical hypnosis and self-hypnosis training as a complementary treatment for the symptoms of ALS. Details of three case histories are included to highlight and discuss specific strategies and emblematic clinical responses. There is evidence that clinical hypnosis can benefit ALS patients and family caregivers struggling with this devastating illness.