Other Uses of Hypnotherapy: All the “S’s”

Self-healing

Self-healing is perhaps a less well-known use of hypnosis and is sometimes linked in people’s minds with faith healing. It differs from faith healing in that people themselves, through self-hypnosis, deal with disease or disorder through positive suggestions and creative imagery.

Faith healing is a passive process in which the person submits to the will of the healer and allows healing to occur. This can work, just as self-hypnosis can work, but in either case not for everyone.

There has been a great deal of research into the use of hypnosis in healing, and hypnosis has been shown to be very effective. A hypnotherapist will usually guide the person through the procedures until they feel confident enough to practise self-hypnosis. Self-hypnosis for relaxation and focus can be particularly effective.

Some knowledge of the immune system is helpful, as it plays a central role in healing. This knowledge need not be detailed. There is no need to fear being overwhelmed by science.

There is the case of a boy treated at a cancer hospital in Bristol who used his understanding of the immune system in a unique way. He imagined white blood cells as marshmallows circulating around his body, searching for and devouring cancer cells. While this may seem far-fetched, it demonstrates how the subconscious mind responds to imagery. That part of the mind is creative rather than logical, and it is where healing processes are influenced.

Although the hospital treated patients thought to be terminal, the boy experienced remission. While remission is not the same as a cure, a permanent remission has the same practical effect.

Disease, metaphor, and the body

There is also the idea that disease or disorder forms part of a person’s life story and can act as a metaphor. The body often believes what the person repeatedly says.

For example, referring to someone as a “pain in the neck” may be linked to developing neck pain or torticollis. Similarly, using the phrase “a pain in the butt” might, according to this idea, contribute to haemorrhoids. Using hypnosis for pain control can be effective.

A well-trained hypnotherapist has some understanding of physiology and the immune system. One of the most advanced areas of research in this field is psychoneuroimmunology (PNI).

PNI suggests that the mind, brain, nervous system, and immune system all interact. Acute stress may have little long-term impact, but chronic stress can contribute to physical illness such as heart disease or cancer.

The immune system and hypnosis

The immune system deals with anything foreign entering or growing in the body, such as viruses, bacteria, or cancer cells (antigens). Antibodies attach to these antigens and destroy them. They are produced by lymph glands such as the thymus and lymph nodes, which can swell during illness.

White blood corpuscles produced by bone marrow clear debris from the bloodstream and can engulf diseased cells. In some conditions, such as lupus, the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy cells.

Because the mind, nervous system, and immune system work together, it is possible to influence disease through the mind. Effective visualisation requires some understanding of how the disease functions in the body.

A television programme demonstrated this power in children aged five or six. After watching a cartoon showing how antigens invade the body and how antibodies defend against them, the children practised relaxation and visualisation. Saliva samples taken afterwards showed increased antibodies compared to samples taken before the exercise.

This illustrates the power of the mind even in very young children.

Sport and hypnotherapy

Hypnosis is increasingly used in sport. There are five main applications:

• Strengthening neural patterns and neuromuscular coordination through mental practice
• Altering unhelpful emotional states such as anxiety
• Improving sleep before important events
• Creating post-hypnotic cues for relaxation and focus during competition
• Allowing skills to be performed at the level of unconscious competence

This last point helps avoid “paralysis by analysis.” Performance often improves when the subconscious mind takes over, allowing skills to be executed without conscious interference.

I have worked with athletes from a wide range of sports including golf, darts, pistol shooting, athletics, rugby, boxing, and ten-pin bowling.

In sports like golf, limits are often mentally imposed. Hypnotherapy helps the athlete focus on the task rather than perceived limits. Each stroke or movement is treated as if it were the first, avoiding fixation on scores or past performance.

A well-known example involves Dr Milton Erickson, who hypnotised a golfer to believe he was playing only the first hole and was alone on the course. The golfer later achieved tournament-level performance without anxiety.

Study and exam problems

I have extensive experience teaching from A-level to university and post-doctoral level. Hypnotherapy has been used successfully with students at all stages.

Self-hypnosis is taught to improve concentration. Individuals may choose personal symbols such as a book or the word “concentrate.” I often suggest the symbol of the third eye.

Time distortion can be used so that more work is completed in less time. Time perception naturally changes depending on mental state, and hypnosis makes this effect useful rather than accidental.

I also encourage techniques such as:

• mind-mapping
• PQRST reading method
• mnemonics and method of loci
• chunking and reconstruction
• flow charts and rhyming

For exam anxiety, visualisation is used alongside self-hypnosis. The person imagines being calm and relaxed in the exam room. This is a form of systematic desensitisation, reducing sensitivity to the exam environment.

Familiarity with the exam room can also help recall, as memory is often linked to environmental cues.

Sexual problems and hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy should be viewed as one option among many for sexual problems, alongside medical and mechanical treatments.

A useful book is Valerie Austin’s Hypnosex: Self-Hypnosis for Greater Sexual Fulfilment. Hypnosis can help not only with difficulties such as impotence or vaginismus, but also with enhancing sexual enjoyment and revitalising long-term relationships.

The brain is the primary sexual organ. Much of sexual experience is driven by imagination, which is why hypnosis can be effective. Passion often fades when long-term suggestions replace novelty, but hypnosis can help reframe beliefs and restore desire.

Beliefs begin in the mind. If you believe you can do something, you can. If you believe you cannot, you cannot. The subconscious mind responds to belief and suggestion.

One common issue is difficulty with penetrative sex despite physical health. I treated one man using reframing, an hypnotic technique that allows the mind to generate multiple solutions. He eventually chose to form a relationship through a dating agency, which proved successful. Follow-up confirmed long-term improvement.

Conclusion

Four areas have been covered in this chapter:

• self-healing
• sport
• study and exams
• sexual problems

If your particular concern has not been covered in detail, I apologise. The key point is that every problem is personal. What matters deeply to one person may not matter at all to another.

It is the therapist’s role to recognise this and to help the individual overcome what is important to them. Find out the realistic limits of hypnotherapy.