American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis最新文献

Depression is a complex, multi-dimensional disorder that is recognized as a leading cause of human suffering and disability. A wide variety of treatments, both physical and psychological, have been developed to lessen the burden on depressed individuals and those they may affect. Hypnosis has been shown to be an effective vehicle for delivering psychological treatments for alleviating depression in a number of studies, but it is always a challenge to increase the effectiveness of suggestions given in hypnosis. The addition of music to enhance hypnotic approaches has been studied and received substantial support for its potential effectiveness. This article explores the merits of incorporating music into the delivery of hypnosis sessions and offers specific recommendations for the use of rhythmic methods as a means of deepening hypnosis and increasing the impact of one's suggestions for reducing depressive ruminations. Five case examples are provided to illustrate the successful use of this integrative approach to treatment.

The national conversation continues to focus on the negative impact of social media on teens/young people. The lingering effects of the pandemic revealed sharp increases in the common practice of "compare and despair" as well as higher rates of loneliness, isolation, depression, and self-harming behaviors. In May 2023, the US Surgeon General warned that social media "is the defining public issue of our time" and is driving the teen mental health crisis. These concerns for the mental health of humans across the globe are real and dramatic. Social media's impact on young people can be neutral, negative, positive or shades of each. The hypnosis community has an opportunity to be a more vital presence in helping young people navigate, manage, and reduce negative social media impact and to harness social media's very positive contributions, many of which are well documented. This article focuses on assessing social media use in teens and young adults, identifying developmental tasks being practiced on social media, and how factors such as time spent on social media and social media experiences have promoted trauma, stress, depression and anxiety. In addition, it will consider some of the ways in which the isolating effects of COVID-19 have further impacted well-being. Finally, the article will discuss how hypnotherapists can leverage social media to foster stronger ego strengthening using therapeutic interventions that employ hypnosis, hypnotherapy techniques and interventions, hypnotic scripts, and social media to lower mental health risks in teens/young adults.

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.

This article explains the method of treating depression with an intervention called Self-Image Building. Several antecedents or correlates of depression are briefly discussed as they form a gestalt backdrop for the many therapeutic approaches that have been researched and promoted as treatment or solutions to depression. The rationale and construction of the intervention is illustrated with a brief case example. Self-Image Building is discussed in the context of other theories of self-image, over-generalization, negativity bias, and as an internal discriminative stimulus for performance. Self-Image Building is used to construct an actual referent and not a cognitive abstraction about how people make conclusions about themselves.

People struggling with depression are burdened by losses they can't and won't accept. They find themselves at odds not only with their circumstances, but also with symptomatic expressions of their exhausting efforts to shelter from, gird against, and contend with their pain and desolation. Their embattled sense of self gets no respite: Everything, including the depression itself, feels threatening, a violation, other. This article investigates why, and demonstrates how, hypnosis is particularly well suited for treating such self-referential, adversarial entanglements. Fundamentally associational in both structure and function, hypnosis resonates with other long-established, connection-based traditions for altering suffering. In keeping with Taoist, Sufi, and Buddhist ideas and practices, hypnosis introduces a quality of acceptance into the relationship between self and other, between self and pain. Clinical hypnosis establishes and maintains a context of interpersonal and intrapersonal security, a protective space and a relationship in which avolitional experience is not felt to be out-of-control or uncontrollable, but rather not-in-need-of-being-controlled. It thus becomes safe for clients to become curious about, approach, and engage with what in other settings would have the potential of producing a fearful, even panicky, reaction. By altering the boundary between clients and their suffering, clinicians facilitate an effortless rapprochement, making possible the shifting, repurposing, and unraveling of symptoms.

Depression in children and teens has been on the rise for several years. Recent increases in anxiety and loneliness, both contributors to the development of depression, are putting more young people at risk for chronic and comorbid mental health struggles. The use of hypnosis with depressed children offers the opportunity to target the identified skills depressed and anxious children need and is a modality clinicians should embrace. This article describes how to create hypnotic interventions focusing on improved emotional and cognitive management, better sleep, and the ability to make positive social connections. Such interventions serve to not only build the resources depressed children need for recovery, but also support a paradigm shift toward prevention in children and families.

Helplessness and hopelessness are common key dynamics of depression that often inhibit therapeutic progress and client recovery. Based on a case example, this article examines the processes for effectively communicating therapeutic interventions aimed toward building hope when other approaches have failed. It explores the use of therapeutic metaphors including assessing for positive outcomes, building the PRO Approach for creating therapeutic metaphors and using Hope Theory as an example of an evidence-based process for facilitating both hope and enhanced treatment outcomes. It concludes with an illustrative metaphor within a hypnotic model and a step-by-step process for building your own hope-enhancing metaphors.