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Using Depth Hypnosis to Treat Mood Disorders and Raise Well-Being: A Pilot Study (Is.30)

by Joanna Foote Adler, PsyD and Isa Gucciardi, PhD[1]

Depth Hypnosis is a manualized integrative spiritual counseling model that combines elements of transpersonal psychology, hypnotherapy, earth-based wisdom, Buddhist psychology and mindfulness, energy medicine, and exposure therapy. The study examined in this paper provides preliminary efficacy research for the use of Depth Hypnosis in the treatment of the symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety, as well as the effects of treatment on well-being. Data were gathered pre-, mid-, and post-treatment from subjects engaging in eight sessions of Depth Hypnosis, as well as from a non-randomized wait list control group. Seventy-three participants consented to the study, including 40 in the experimental group and 33 in the control group. The sample was predominately female (92.3%), with an average age of 37.92 years old (SD = 6.77). Treatment and control groups did not differ in terms of age or baseline symptoms, ps > .05. Across all measures, there was a significant main effect for treatment, all ps < .05, indicating that those who received Depth Hypnosis had a significant reduction across all negative symptom sets, and an increase in experience of well-being. The largest effect sizes were seen in the treatment of depression (-1.049) and well-being (.700), with anxiety (-.544) and PTSD (-.464) effect sizes still in the medium range. Preliminary evidence indicates that Depth Hypnosis is effective in treating the symptoms of anxiety, depression, and PTSD and raising well-being. These results suggest that Depth Hypnosis is a promising treatment for a range of disorders, and future research recommendations are discussed.

 

[1] Joanna Foote Adler, PsyD and Isa Gucciardi, PhD, Foundation of the Sacred Stream, Berkeley, California. The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Joanna Adler, 33 Mount Foraker Dr., San Rafael, CA 94903. Email: [email protected] and [email protected]

Reframing: The Magic of Change – Tibor Magyar (Is.16)

Tibor Magyar, Ph.D.

(aka Russell C. Davis, Ph.D.)

Reframing is a simple but potent technique that may be used by a therapist to gain resolution to “unfinished” issues which continue to traumatize a client/patient. Although the term “reframing” came into the vocabulary of therapists through the work of Bandler and Grinder in the late 1970s and early 80s, the author points out that the technique itself actually was being used in some form or other much earlier. One example cited involved the use of reframing by a Veterans Administration therapist who was using this technique when working with Vietnam veterans who were hospitalized for PTSD.

The Magic of Words

 Of all the words of tongue or pen,

none is more sad than these:

“It might have been.”

 There is magic in words and their meanings. With the exception of English, most of the world’s major languages still retain a full subjunctive mode of expression which allows the speaker to express a thought or idea which is clearly contrary to fact. Unfortunately for the speaker of modern English, there are only small remnants of this mode of expression still to be found, such as “If I were king.”

Alas, these, too, are rapidly disappearing and it has become acceptable in all but the most formal of circumstances to say “If I was king…,“ further blurring the distinction between what actually did occur and what you wished had happened. Still, we generally understand the intent of the speaker, though because English lacks this fully developed and separate mode of expression, we often fail to fully appreciate the emotions and implications which underlie that utterance.