Services - Clinical Hypnotherapy

The following represent our primary therapeutic approaches to formulating a plan that is best for you:

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About Clinical Hypnotherapy

History:
Precursors of hypnotherapy have been seen in the sleep temples and mystery religions of ancient Greco-Roman society, though analogies are often tenuous. Some parallels can be drawn between hypnotism and the trance-inducing rituals common to most pre-literate societies.

In the mid-18th century when Franz Anton Mesmer introduced the concepts and techniques of "animal magnetism", Mesmerism became an influential school of esoteric therapy and important Mesmerists like James Esdaile and John Elliotson helped maintain its popularity in medicine until the end of the 19th century when it experienced a kind of resurgence in the work of Jean-Martin Charcot, the father of modern neurology.

In the 1840s, Scottish physician James Braid, pioneered the concept of hypnotism as an opposing tradition to Mesmerism, based upon basic psychological and physiological mechanisms rather than the occult theories of animal magnetism. Braid's work was of limited influence in the UK but in France his ideas were developed into a more sophisticated psychological treatment. Hippolyte Bernheim began as a sceptic but became converted to the importance of hypnotism by observing the work of the celebrated country doctor Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault who rejected the theory of Mesmer and followed Abbé Faria. Emile Coué, a former clinical assistant to Liébeault, proposed a more collaborative and educational alternative to hypnosis called "conscious autosuggestion" which became very popular as a form of self-help in the 1920s.

In the mid to late 1880s American Surgeon-Physician, Rufus Osgood Mason supported the idea of the use of hypnosis for "Theraputic Applications", and wrote articles and authored a book on the subject as a concept. He was also a supporter of early parapsychology and psychical research.

An important rivalry and debate developed between the Salpêtrière school of Charcot, which focused on physiological phenomena induced by Mesmeric practices, and the Nancy school of Bernheim which placed more emphasis upon psychology and verbal suggestion, following the later writings of Braid. However, Charcot's ideas on hypnosis were almost entirely discredited and Bernheim's school effectively won the debate, becoming the most significant precursor of modern psychological hypnotism.

Sigmund Freud was originally a proponent of hypnotherapy. He traveled to France to study hypnosis with the two great teachers of his day, Charcot at the Salpêtrière and Bernheim's Nancy School. Freud wrote several articles on hypnotherapy and translated two of Bernheim's books on the subject from French into German. He originally employed hypnotherapy with a small number of clients in the 1890s. By about 1905, he had largely abandoned the procedure in favor of his newly-developed free association or "talking" technique. However, Freud's description of the basic rule of free association still bears a striking resemblance to certain modern methods of hypnotic induction. Struggling with the great expense of time required for psychoanalysis to be successful, Freud later suggested that it might be combined with hypnotic suggestion once more in an attempt to hasten the outcome of treatment:

“It is very probable, too, that the application of our therapy to numbers will compel us to alloy the pure gold of analysis plentifully with the copper of direct suggestion.” (S. Freud, Lines of Advance in Psychoanalytic Therapy, 1919)

However, only a handful of Freud's followers were sufficiently qualified in hypnosis to attempt the synthesis, which resulted in a gradual resurgence in popularity of "hypno-analysis" or "hypnotic regression" methods of hypnotherapy.

Milton H. Erickson, M.D. is considered one of the most influential modern hypnotherapists. Erickson pioneered the clinical use of hypnosis and wrote many books, journals and articles on the subject, and his accomplishments are well-documented.
During the 1960s, Erickson was responsible for popularizing an entirely new branch of hypnotherapy, which we now call Ericksonian hypnotherapy, characterized by, amongst other things, indirect suggestion, confusion techniques, metaphors and double binds.

About Regression Therapy

Regression therapy has a holistic view of the mind, body and.  Healing involves reconnection with the root cause of the problem and allowing the client to understand deeply the issues associated with the problem before they are resolved at both physical, emotional and a spiritual level. Sometimes the root cause is a traumatic experience below the level of conscious awareness and has been affecting the client’s well being. Client experiences may go back to early childhood and prenatal experiences or into stories from the subconscious that may appear to be a past life. Any client experience is treated in an accepting and authentic way.

Regression therapy has been found helpful in dealing with issues of self-esteem and personal empowerment and residual scars from sexual abuse. It has provided swift and effective release of deep emotional blockages, states of anxiety, depression, phobias, unexplainable chronic pain and persistent symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder.

As early as the 1950s J. L. Moreno saw regression as an opportunity for clients to gain new insights and to transform them in his group therapy that was successfully used in clinical outpatient groups and the mental health organizations in the United States. Early pioneers and authors in regression therapy include American Dr. Morris Netherton, Dutchman Dr. Hans TenDam, and Englishmen Dr. Roger Woolger.

Regression therapy has been taken into the traditional medical world. This includes the work of Professor Mario Simoes in the Facility of Medicine in Portugal and Terumi Okuyama M.D., the first medical doctor in Japan to integrate regression therapy as part of medical treatment. Other pioneers are Dr. Pavel Gyngazov, a medical doctor who uses regression therapy in Russia, Dr. Newton Kondavati M.D. in India and Julio Peres M.D. in Brazil.

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