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Therapy Definitions
Hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy is the treatment of a variety of health conditions by hypnotism
or by inducing prolonged sleep.
Pioneers in this field, such as James Braid and James Esdaile discovered that
hypnosis could be used to successfully anesthetize patients for surgeries. James
Braid accidentally discovered that one of his patients began to enter a hypnotic
state while staring at a fixed light as he waited for his eye examination to
begin. Since mesmerism had fallen out of favour, Braid coined the term hypnotism,
which is derived from the Greek word for sleep. Braid also used the techniques
of monotony, rhythm, and imitation to assist in inducing a hypnotic state. As of
2000, these techniques are still in use.
Around 1900, there were very few preoperative anaesthetic drugs available.
Patients were naturally apprehensive when facing surgery. One out of four
hundred patients would die, not from the surgical procedure, but from the
anaesthesia. Dr. Henry Munro was one of the first physicians to use hypnotherapy
to alleviate patient fears about having surgery. He would get his patients into
a hypnotic state and discuss their fears with them, telling them they would feel
a lot better following surgery. Ether was the most common anaesthetic at that
time, and Dr. Munro found that he was able to perform surgery using only about
10% of the usual amount of ether.
Hypnotherapy is used in a number of fields including psychotherapy, surgery,
dentistry, research, and medicine. Hypnotherapy is commonly used as an
alternative treatment for a wide range of health conditions, including weight
control, pain management, and smoking cessation. It is also used to control pain
in a variety of conditions such as headache, facial neuralgia, arthritis, burns,
musculoskeletal disorders, childbirth, and many more. Hypnotherapy is being used
in place of anaesthesia, particularly in patients who prove to be allergic to
anaesthetic drugs, for surgeries such as hysterectomies, caesarean sections,
certain cardiovascular procedures, thyroidectomy, and others. Dentistry is using
hypnotherapy with success on patients who are allergic to all types of novocaine
drugs. Hypnotherapy is also useful in helping patients overcome phobias.
Hypnotherapy is used for non-medical patients as well as those who wish to
overcome bad habits. Hypnotherapy has been shown to help those who suffer from
performance anxiety, such as in sports, and speaking in public. In academic
applications, it has also been shown to help with learning, participating in the
classroom, concentrating, studying, focusing attention span, improving memory,
and helping remove mental blocks about particular subjects.
In more general areas, hypnotherapy has been found to be beneficial for problems
such as motivation, procrastination, decision making, personal achievement and
development, job performance, buried or repressed memories, relaxation, and
stress management.
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