Hypnosis is the process by which a person induces an altered state of attention or degree of awareness in another person. The process may result in a variety of phenomena, which occur spontaneously or in response to verbal or other stimuli. These phenomena include: alternations in consciousness and memory; increased susceptibility to suggestion; the production of responses and ideas unfamiliar to the person in the normal state of mind; or changes in behavior, perceptions, or psychological processes.

Hypnosis can also occur naturally when a person has become totally absorbed in what they are doing. Thus, like day-dreaming, hypnotic-like states may occur in people regularly.

Hypnosis is not the same as sleep. It is not like an anaesthetic. You do not "pass out" and you are not unconscious when you are hypnotised. You do not lose control over your mind or your feelings. You do not weaken or surrender your will to any other person. In fact, your will-power may be strengthened with hypnosis.

In hypnosis, it is usual to feel relaxed, at ease, and you may well enjoy a special peace of mind. Many people comment on their feeling of comfort and security, or the sensation of lightness or floating. What is particularly pleasant about hypnosis is the fact that it is natural and safe when used by trained professionals, and almost everyone can learn to use it by themselves and be helped by it. It can be learned and used by adults, adolescents, and children alike.

Where hypnosis can be used:

Hypnosis is particularly useful for helping people change their behavior, symptoms, and attitudes. It is one of the most powerful psychological methods for mental and physical relaxation. Thus, hypnosis is useful for anxiety and stress control, and phobias. It is also useful in dealing with attentional deficits, motivation, assertiveness and confidence building, ego-strengthening and enhancing psychotherapy and counselling.

People vary in their susceptibility to hypnosis but research clearly shows that even light trance can significantly help individuals address their concerns and problems.

Medical Applications:

Treatments for most conditions including asthma, enuresis, hypertension, migraine, obesity, smoking cessation, gastrointestinal disorders and anxiety. It is also used extensively for labour and childbirth, minor surgical procedures, and pain control.

Psychological & Psychiatric Applications:

Include anxiety control, motivation training, attitude change, depression, eating disorders, fears and phobias, memory training, nail biting, panic and performance anxiety, sexual dysfunction, sleep disorders, stuttering, study problems, trauma counselling, thumb sucking.

Dental Applications:

Include anaesthesia, anxiety control, bleeding control, bruxism, dental phobias, fainting, gagging, nausea, orthodontic problems, pain control, salivation control, temporo-mandibular joint dysfunction, thumb sucking.

Hypnosis for Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)

Hypnosis has been approved by the American Medical Association as a valid medical treatment since 1958, though the concept of using a state of hypnosis to alleviate both physical and mental ills has recurred throughout the history of medicine from ancient times. By reaching the subconscious level of the mind, hypnotherapy can be used to alter the way a person consciously perceives health problems, and also promote new manners of response to them. Hypnosis and self-hypnosis have been repeatedly proven to be highly effective means of alleviating all of the various symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS, or "spastic colon"), including pain, diarrhea, constipation, bloating, nausea, and gas.

Hypnosis is often thought to be therapy that only affects the mind, but as mind and body are inseparably joined (particularly with IBS, given the brain-gut dysfunction current research has pinpointed), hypnosis can also help physical ailments. During a state of hypnosis, consciousness is not lost, it becomes more selective, and typically a hypnosis patient becomes aware of internal processes rather than the outside world's distractions.

Most people report the actual experience of being hypnotized as pleasant, comfortable, and extremely relaxing. However, hypnotherapy is beneficial not only for the relaxation it induces, but for the state of suggestibility that characterizes it. In this state, the mind is open to receiving ideas and suggestions that promote positive thoughts and healing changes.[2] During normal waking hours, the window between the conscious and subconscious minds is closed, but any state of relaxation that results in alpha brain waves will open it. Typically, this happens during sleep, and dreams result. Hypnotherapy induces this same state of relaxation while the patient is awake, and allows helpful suggestions (such as those aimed at controlling health problems) to be directed into the subconscious mind.

Only ten percent or so of the population is not susceptible to hypnosis – the rest of us can turn to this therapy for relief of symptoms from disorders as wide ranging as: asthma, allergies, strokes, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, cerebral palsy, high blood pressure, nausea and vomiting, irregular heartbeat, muscle spasms, paralysis, and, with well-documented success rates, Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

Hypnotherapy has in fact been proven successful at reducing or even eliminating all Irritable Bowel Syndrome symptoms.[3] Over 15 years of solid scientific research has demonstrated hypnosis to be an effective, safe and inexpensive choice for IBS alleviation.[4] It has been so overwhelmingly successful in this regard that Adriane Fugh-Berman, MD, chair of the National Women's Health Network in Washington, DC, has said that hypnosis should be the treatment of choice for Irritable Bowel Syndrome cases which have not responded to conventional therapy. Since the "conventional therapy" offered to most IBS patients ranges from nothing at all to a lifetime prescription for semi-effective anti-spasmodic drugs, I take this statement as the closest thing to a whole-hearted endorsement an alternative therapy can hope to get from a mainstream medical spokesperson.

For Irritable Bowel Syndrome, one of hypnotherapy's greatest benefits is its well-established ability to reduce the effects of stress. Your state of mind can have a direct impact on your physical well-being, even when you're in the best of health. If you're struggling with IBS, the tension, anxiety, and depression that comes from living with an incurable illness can actually undermine your immune system and further compromise your health.

Hypnosis can reduce this stress and its resultant negative impact by placing you in a deeply relaxed state, promoting positive thoughts and coping strategies, and clearing your mind of negative attitudes.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome in fact is almost uniquely suited to treatment by hypnosis or self-hypnosis, for several reasons. First, as just noted, stress-related attacks can be significantly reduced. Second, one of the most impressive aspects from hypnotherapy, and of tremendous benefit to IBS sufferers, is its well-documented ability to relieve virtually all types and degrees of pain.[5] Finally, because IBS is not a disease at all but a syndrome, if you can relieve and prevent the symptoms, you have effectively cured yourself of the disorder. The underlying dysfunction may still be present but if you suffer no noticeable effects from it, you will be living an IBS-free life. This outcome is a definite possibility from hypnotherapy treatments.

As with other alternative therapies, though there is solid evidence that hypnotherapy can provide lasting health benefits for many patients, there is uncertainty about precisely how and why the treatments work. Most scientists believe that hypnotherapy acts upon the unconscious, and affects the body's regulation of involuntary reactions that are normally beyond a person's control. Hypnosis puts these autonomic responses under the patient's power. Happily, treatment is suitable for people of all ages (children as well as adults), for males and females, and there are no risks or side effects.