Hypnotherapy for Anxiety and Depression

By, Norman Plotkin, CHt

Hypnosis can be seen as a waking state of awareness, in which a person’s attention is detached

from his or her immediate environment and is absorbed by inner experiences such as feelings,

cognition and imagery.

Hypnotic induction involves focusing of attention and imaginative involvement to the point

where what is being imagined feels real. By the use and acceptance of suggestions, the clinician

and patient construct a hypnotic reality.

Everyday trance states are part of our common human experience, such as getting lost in a good

book, driving down a familiar stretch of road with no conscious recollection, when in prayer or

meditation, or when undertaking a monotonous or a creative activity. Our conscious awareness

of our surroundings versus an inner awareness is on a continuum, so that, when in these states,

one’s focus is predominantly internal, but one does not necessarily lose all outer awareness.

Hypnosis could be seen as a meditative state, which one can learn to access consciously and

deliberately, for a therapeutic purpose. Suggestions are then given either verbally or using

imagery, directed at the desired outcome. This might be to allay anxiety by accessing calmness

and relaxation, help manage side effects of medications, or help ease pain or other symptoms.

Depending on the suggestions given, hypnosis is usually a relaxing experience, which can be

very useful with a patient who is tense or anxious. However, the main usefulness of the hypnotic

state is the increased effectiveness of suggestion and access to mind/body links or unconscious

processing. Hypnosis can not only be used to reduce emotional distress but also may have a

direct effect on the patient’s experience of pain.

Hypnosis and hypnotherapy have long been looked down upon by western medicine, which is

evidence based, seen as largely anecdotal and attributed mostly to the persuasive abilities of the

hypnotist instead of physiological processes. According to Dr David Spiegel at Stanford

University “There’s never been a brain signature of being hypnotized, and we’ve identified one.”

Hypnosis works by modulating activity in brain regions associated with focused attention, and

there are compelling details regarding neural capacity for hypnosis.

Results of a 2012 Stanford study provided evidence that altered functional connectivity in the

dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex may underlie

hypnotizability.

In his research, Spiegel found that about 80 percent of people can be hypnotized. But a person’s

hypnotizability is not linked with any specific personality trait, rather he said the work confirms

that hypnotizability is less about personality variables and more about cognitive style, a neural

trait.

In ten years and 12,000 hours of hypnotherapy, I have not encountered anyone I couldn’t

hypnotize. If you want to be, you can be!

Anxiety

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health illnesses in the US affecting more than 40

million people.

According to the National Institute for Mental Health, Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

affects 6.8 million adults or 3.1% of the U.S. population, yet only 43.2% are receiving treatment.

Women are twice as likely to be affected as men. GAD often co-occurs with major depression.

Panic Disorder (PD) affects 6 million adults or 2.7% of the U.S. population. Women are twice as

likely to be affected as men.

Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) affects 15 million adults or 7.1% of the U.S. population. SAD is

equally common among men and women and typically begins around age 13. According to a

2007 ADAA survey, 36% of people with social anxiety disorder report experiencing symptoms

for 10 or more years before seeking help.

Specific Phobias affect 19.3 million adults or 9.1% of the U.S. population. Women are twice as

likely to be affected than men. Symptoms typically begin in childhood; the average age of onset

is 7 years old.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are closely

related to anxiety disorders, which some may experience at the same time, along with

depression.

And these numbers continue to increase year over year.

It’s not uncommon for someone with an anxiety disorder to also suffer from depression or vice

versa. Nearly one-half of those diagnosed with depression are also diagnosed with an anxiety

disorder.

Depression

Worldwide, 264 million people live with depression. In 2017, about 17.3 million adults age 18 or

older in the US had experienced at least one major depressive episode in the previous year

(6.7%).

Depression is the leading cause of disability in the United States among people ages 15-44 and

around 39 percent of adults with major depressive episodes did not receive treatment.

Losing a loved one, getting fired from a job, going through a divorce, and other difficult

situations can lead a person to feel sad, lonely and scared. These feelings are normal reactions to

lifes stressors. Most people feel low and sad at times. However, in the case of individuals who

are diagnosed with depression as a psychiatric disorder, the manifestations of the low mood are

much more severe and they tend to persist.

Depression occurs more often in women than men. Some differences in the manner in which

how the depressed mood manifests have been found based on sex and age.

In men, it manifests often as tiredness, irritability and anger. They may show more reckless

behavior and abuse drugs and alcohol. They also tend to not recognize that they are depressed

and fail to seek help. In women, depression tends to manifest as sadness, worthlessness, and

guilt.

In younger children depression is more likely to manifest as school refusal, anxiety when

separated from parents, and worry about parents dying.

Depressed teenagers tend to be irritable, sulky, and get into trouble in school. They also

frequently have co-morbid anxiety, eating disorders, or substance abuse.

In older adults, depression may manifest more subtly as they tend to be less likely to admit to

feelings of sadness or grief and medical illnesses which are more common in this population also

contributes or causes depression.  

Hypnotherapy Can Help

Hypnotic communication and the hypnotherapist-patient relationship can cultivate an expectation

of recovery through the utilization of the patient’s unconscious resources. Either with direct

suggestion or metaphorical allusion, the hypnotherapist can encourage a depressed patient to

maintain contact with important relationships and look forward to an uncertain future with

curiosity. Each of these behaviors has an anti-depressant effect.

Anxiety, as a set of symptoms and experiences by itself, or, as is frequently found, along with

symptoms of depression, can also be treated with hypnotic approaches. Simply put, the natural

state of hypnotic trance, when invited or induced by a hypnotherapist, leads the patient to a more

easeful physiological state and a more comfortable mental state.

These states of trance, contemplation, prayer, meditation, focused attention and, as well,

therapeutic dissociation from pain and fear, reduce anxiety. They are available through self-

hypnosis when the patient listens to session recordings between sessions with professionals. Self-

hypnosis, aided by a recording of the therapeutic session itself, functions as an adjunct, to

interrupt the buildup of anxiety and agitated depression in the patients’ experience. The patients

begin to feel more “like themselves again.”