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Hypnosis 'eases cancer op pain'.
Breast cancer patients need less anaesthetic during operations if they have been relaxed by hypnosis beforehand, US research suggests.
Patients in the study of 200 women by the Mount Sinai School of Medicine also reported less pain afterwards.

Breast cancer surgery patients often suffer severe side-effects such as pain, nausea and fatigue during and after their operations.

UK experts said more research was needed to prove hypnosis worked.


The side-effects from breast cancer surgery can sometimes mean a longer stay in hospital, extra drugs, or even a return to a hospital ward when patients should be recovering at home.

The Journal of the National Cancer Institute paper is just the latest to conclude hypnosis can help with operations.

Dr Guy Montgomery, who led the research, recruited 200 women to receive either 15 minutes of hypnosis or just a conversation with a psychologist before their surgery.

The women undergoing hypnosis were given suggestions for relaxation and pleasant mental images, and instructions on how to use hypnosis themselves.

Patients who had received hypnosis needed less anaesthetic than the others, and reported less pain, nausea, fatigue and emotional distress after the operation.

Money saving.

The researchers said this was not just better for the patients, but it added up to cash savings for the hospital, as operations took less time on the hypnotised patients, and less was spent on medication and readmission of patients.

Dr David Spiegel, from Stanford University School of Medicine, wrote in the journal: "You have to pay attention to pain for it to hurt, and it is entirely possible to substantially alter pain perception during surgical procedures by inducing hypnotic relaxation, transforming perception in parts of the body, or directing attention elsewhere.

"The key concept is that this psychological procedure actually changes pain experience as much as many analgesic medications and far more than placebos."

Dr Sarah Cant, from Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said: "This is an interesting study and anything that can help reduce the side-effects of breast surgery for breast cancer patients is to be welcomed.

"However, further, larger studies are needed before we can come to any firm conclusions about the benefits of hypnosis prior to breast surgery.

"Anyone interested in using hypnosis should discuss this with their breast care team first and ensure that they are using an appropriately trained and experienced hypnotherapist."

Hypnotherapy May Boost Quality Of Life And Health For Ulcerative Colitis Patients.
One of Laurie Keefer's patients was afraid to be a bridesmaid in a friend's wedding, others worried about traveling with the boss or even going to parties in peoples' homes.

The patients have ulcerative colitis, a nasty gastrointestinal disease that flares without warning and makes it vital for them to find a bathroom fast. The disease is often diagnosed when people are in their late 20s and early 30s. The flare-up is like having a severe stomach bug that can drag on for weeks. It ruins vacation plans, causes lengthy absences from work and generally messes up peoples' lives at a time when they are trying to build careers and meet a romantic partner or marry.

But some of Keefer's patients are less fearful these days and starting to embrace activities they once avoided. They've been taking part in a new National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded research study to test whether hypnotherapy can extend the time between their flare-ups. Currently, the treatments for ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease, include a fistful of pills -- up to a cumbersome 12 a day that reduce the risk of flares but that many forget to take, as well as steroids or surgery to remove their colon.

In an early look at the data for the ongoing study, Keefer, a clinical health psychologist and an assistant professor of medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, is finding that treatment with hypnotherapy enabled some subjects' to socialize more and get involved in activities such as eating at restaurants, exercising and road trips. Some subjects feel less impaired by their disease and are better at remembering to take their pills.

The patient who was afraid to stand up at a friend's wedding is now going to be a bridesmaid. The patient who was nervous about getting on a plane with the boss is now taking business trips with him.

The study will be enrolling a total of 80 patients over three years and will track the progress of each patient for one year. Thus far, 27 subjects have enrolled in the study and completed the required eight weeks of hypnotherapy sessions. As a part of the study, subjects also listen to special relaxation tapes up to five times per week.

While it's too early in the study to know if the hypnotherapy has prolonged their remissions, only two of 12 subjects who have participated in the study for a full year have experienced a relapse, whereas based on their history, all 12 subjects would have been expected to have had two or more relapses within the year.

"These numbers are encouraging because the study specifically targets individuals who flare a couple times a year," Keefer said. Subjects are also expected to take their routine maintenance medication during the trial.

Keefer presented her findings recently at the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America's 13th Annual Medical Symposium and 14th Annual Patient and Family Conference in Chicago.

The goal of the trial is to see if hypnotherapy can help subjects learn to manage their stress and develop a sense of control over their health, explained Keefer, who is director of the Center for Psychosocial Research in Intestinal Bowel Disease at Northwestern's Feinberg School.

"Managing stress is really important for managing inflammatory bowel disease," Keefer said. "We see young adults about to get married, pregnant women, people worried about losing their jobs in this difficult economy. The body doesn't differentiate between good stress and bad stress. When people are under stress, their disease flares up."

In the experimental hypnosis sessions, Keefer suggests to subjects that they closely monitor their stress and be aware of how it's affecting them. "If they're not getting enough sleep, part of the hypnosis is encouraging them to know this is a trigger and make an effort to take naps and take it easier, " she said. "I also tell them your body can detect slight changes in stress and can adapt easily and not be affected."

The key issue is how confident subjects feel in their ability to manage their disease. "There is quite a bit of data in a variety of diseases that shows people who have a higher sense of control over their health feel better and have fewer symptoms than people who don't," Keefer said. "This is a proactive approach."

Keefer said the trial is one of the few NIH-funded behavioral studies for inflammatory bowel disease, which affects between 250,000 to 500,000 people in the U.S.

Her preliminary data on the overall quality of life for 27 subjects after eight weeks of hypnotherapy showed that 80 percent of them reported an increased belief that they could affect and manage their disease versus 50 percent of subjects in standard care (no hypnotherapy.) In addition, subjects reported a 76 percent increase in the quality of their lives (the improvements were most notable in their bowel symptoms) compared to a 25 percent increase for standard care. In another measure, 73 percent of the subjects experienced a general improvement in their health and well being compared to a 25 percent increase for standard care.

"The preliminary results on the improved quality of life for the 27 subjects in this ongoing study (aiming for a total of 80 subjects) look positive so far," Keefer said.

Once the eight weeks of hypnotherapy are completed, subjects are expected to listen to the relaxation tapes or practice relaxation twice a week to maintain the benefits. They are also encouraged to "step up their practice" of relaxation tapes if they think they are at risk for a flare, Keefer said.

Currently the treatment for the disease is a maintenance medication called 5-ASA. "The problem is most people forget to take the full dose," Keefer said. If that doesn't work steroids are often the next treatment, but long-term use can cause joint problems and other side effects such as anxiety and insomnia. When doctors try to taper the patient off steroids, symptoms tend to flare again.

Is Hypnosis a Distinct Form of Consciousness?
Studies confirm that during hypnosis subjects are not in a sleeplike state but are awake.
The hypnotist, dangling a swinging pocket watch before the subject's eyes, slowly intones: "You're getting sleepy ... You're getting sleepy..." The subject's head abruptly slumps downward. He is in a deep, sleeplike trance, oblivious to everything but the hypnotist's soft voice. Powerless to resist the hypnotist's influence, the subject obeys every command, including an instruction to act out an upsetting childhood scene. On "awakening" from the trance half an hour later, he has no memory of what happened.
In fact, this familiar description, captured in countless movies, embodies a host of misconceptions. Few if any modern hypnotists use the celebrated swinging watch introduced by Scottish eye surgeon James Braid in the mid-19th century. Although most hypnotists attempt to calm subjects during the "induction," such relaxation is not necessary; people have even been hypnotized while pedaling vigorously on a stationary bicycle. Electroencephalographic (EEG) studies confirm that during hypnosis subjects are not in a sleeplike state but are awake though sometimes a bit drowsy. Moreover, they can freely resist the hypnotist's suggestions and are far from mindless automatons. Finally, research by psychologist Nicholas Spanos of Carleton University in Ontario shows that a failure to remember what transpired during the hypnosis session, or so-called posthypnotic amnesia, is not an intrinsic element of hypnosis and typically occurs only when subjects are told to expect it to occur.
The Consciousness Question
The iconic scene we described at the article's outset also raises a deeper question: Is hypnosis a distinct state of consciousness? Most people seem to think so; in a recent unpublished survey, psychologist Joseph Green of Ohio State University at Lima and his colleagues found that 77 percent of college students agreed that hypnosis is a distinctly altered state of consciousness. This issue is of more than academic importance. If hypnosis differs in kind rather than in degree from ordinary consciousness, it could imply that hypnotized people can take actions that are impossible to perform in the waking state. It could also lend credibility to claims that hypnosis is a unique means of reducing pain or of effecting dramatic psychological and medical cures.
Despite the ubiquitous Hollywood depiction of hypnosis as a trance, investigators have had an extremely difficult time pinpointing any specific "markers"-indicators-of hypnosis that distinguish it from other states. The legendary American psychiatrist Milton Erickson claimed that hypnosis is marked by several unique features, including posthypnotic amnesia and "literalism"-a tendency to take questions literally, such as responding "Yes" to the question "Can you tell me what time it is?" We have already seen that posthypnotic amnesia is not an inherent accompaniment of hypnosis, so Erickson was wrong on that score. Moreover, research by Green, Binghamton University psychologist Steven Jay Lynn and their colleagues shows that most highly hypnotizable subjects do not display literalism while hypnotized; moreover, participants asked to simulate hypnosis demonstrate even higher rates of literalism than highly hypnotizable subjects do.
Other experts, such as the late University of Pennsylvania psychiatrist Martin Orne, have argued that only hypnotized participants experience "trance logic"-the ability to entertain two mutually inconsistent ideas at the same time. For example, a hypnotist might suggest to a subject that he is deaf and then ask him, "Can you hear me now?" He may respond "No," thereby manifesting trance logic. Nevertheless, research by the late Theodore X. Barber, then at the Medfield Foundation, and his colleagues showed that participants asked to simulate hypnosis displayed trance logic just as often as hypnotized people did, suggesting that trance logic is largely a function of people's expectations rather than an intrinsic component of the hypnotic state itself.
Brain Changes
Still other investigators have sought to uncover distinct physiological markers of hypnosis. Under hypnosis, EEGs, especially those of highly suggestible participants, sometimes display a shift toward heightened activity in the theta band (four to seven cycles per second). In addition, hypnotized participants frequently exhibit increased activity in their brain's anterior cingulate cortex (ACC).
Yet neither finding is surprising. Theta activity is typically associated with states of quiet concentration, which frequently accompany hypnosis. The ACC is linked to the perception of contradictions, which many hypnotized participants experience as they imagine things-such as childhood experiences in the present-that seem to conflict with reality. Further, psychologists have reported similar brain changes among awake subjects. For example, the ACC becomes activated during the famous Stroop task, which requires subjects to name the colors of ink (such as "green") in which competing color words (such as "blue") are printed. Thus, these brain changes are not unique to hypnosis.
Fueling the perception of hypnosis as a distinct trancelike state is the widespread assumption that it leads to marked increases in suggestibility, even complete compliance to the therapist's suggestions. Nowhere is this zombielike stereotype portrayed more vividly than in stage hypnosis shows, in which people are seemingly induced to bark like dogs, sing karaoke and engage in other comical behaviors in full view of hundreds of amused audience members.
Yet research shows that hypnosis exerts only a minor impact on suggestibility. On standardized scales of hypnotic suggestibility, which ask participants to comply with a dozen suggestions (that one's arm is raising on its own power, for example), the increase in suggestibility following a hypnotic induction is typically on the order of 10 percent or less. Moreover, research demonstrates that a formal hypnotic induction is not needed to produce many of the seemingly spectacular effects of hypnosis, such as reduction of extreme pain or various physical feats, popular in stage hypnosis acts, such as suspending a participant horizontally between the backs of two chairs. One can generate most, if not all, of these effects merely by providing highly suggestible people with sufficient incentives to perform them. Stage hypnotists are well aware of this little secret. Before beginning their shtick, they prescreen audience members for high suggestibility by providing those people with a string of suggestions. They then handpick their participants from among the minority who comply.
We agree with Lynn and psychologist Irving Kirsch of the University of Hull in England, who wrote in 1995 that "having failed to find reliable markers of trance after 50 years of careful research, most researchers have concluded that this hypothesis [that hypnosis is a unique state of consciousness] has outlived its usefulness." Increasingly, evidence is suggesting that the effects of hypnosis result largely from people's expectations about what hypnosis entails rather than from the hypnotic state itself. Still, it is always possible that future studies could overturn or at least qualify this conclusion. In particular, research on potential physiological markers of hypnosis may elucidate how hypnosis differs from other states of consciousness. Although hypnosis poses fascinating mysteries that will keep scientists busy for decades, it seems clear that it has far more in common with everyday wakefulness than with the watch-induced trance of Hollywood crime thrillers.

Hypnosis has 'real' brain effect.

Hypnosis has a "very real" effect that can be picked up on brain scans, say Hull University researchers.

An imaging study of hypnotised participants showed decreased activity in the parts of the brain linked with daydreaming or letting the mind wander.

The same brain patterns were absent in people who had the tests but who were not susceptible to being hypnotised.

One psychologist said the study backed the theory that hypnosis "primes" the brain to be open to suggestion.

Hypnosis is increasingly being used to help people stop smoking or lose weight and advisers recently recommended its use on the NHS to treat irritable bowel syndrome.

It is not the first time researchers have tried to use imaging studies to monitor brain activity in people under hypnosis.

But the Hull team said these had been done while people had been asked to carry out tasks, so it was not clear whether the changes in the brain were due to the act of doing the task or an effect of hypnosis.

In the latest study, the team first tested how people responded to hypnosis and selected 10 individuals who were "highly suggestible" and seven people who did not really respond to the technique other than becoming more relaxed.

The participants were asked to do a task under hypnosis, such as listening to non-existent music, but unknown to them the brain activity was being monitored in the rest periods in between tasks, the team reported in the journal Consciousness and Cognition.

In the "highly suggestible" group there was decreased activity in the part of the brain involved in daydreaming or letting the mind wander - also known as the "default mode" network.

One suggestion of how hypnosis works, supported by the results, is that shutting off this activity leaves the brain free to concentrate on other tasks.

Study leader Dr William McGeown, a lecturer in the department of psychology, said the results were unequivocal because they only occurred in the highly suggestible subjects.

"This shows that the changes were due to hypnosis and not just simple relaxation. "Our study shows hypnosis is real."

Dr Michael Heap, a clinical forensic psychologist based in Sheffield, said the experiment was unique in showing brain patterns supporting the theory that hypnosis works by "priming" the subject to respond more effectively to suggestions.

"Importantly the data confirm that relaxation is not a critical factor.

"The limited data from this experiment suggest that this pattern of activity then dissipates (at least to some extent) once the subjects start to engage in the suggestions that follow."

But he said the small study, which needed repeating in other populations, did not prove that people being hypnotised were in an actual "trance".

Work related stress affects the employed and unemployed.

by Hannah McLaverty-Williamson.
The global economic downturn has caused the levels of work related stress to soar in the UK.

According to a new report from the British Academy, those who kept their jobs during the recession are as affected by stress as those who were left jobless.

Author Tarani Chandola, a sociologist from the University of Manchester, said in each of the last two years, work stress levels rose by more than 4 per cent. That's much higher than previous annual rises of between 0.1 per cent and 1 per cent from 1992 to 2009. Professor Chandola complied existing evidence from peer reviewed journals and major UK surveys which allowed him to obtain a comprehensive overview of work related stress.

The report states that severe stress could trigger depression, anxiety, workplace injuries and even suicide in employees. Those suffering from stress and anxiety also face a greater risk of heart disease. Worries about job security and unemployment were found to go hand in hand; when one of these factors were seen to rise, so did the other.

Professor Chandola told BBC News that employees, employers and the government should all work together to decide how to deal with work related stress because "there are economic consequences of work stress".

"It's likely to continue to increase because of the determinants of work stress: changes in working conditions and the government spending," he added.

Any employers that are worried their staff may be suffering from stress should consider offering free or subsidised hypnotherapy sessions for employees. Hypnotherapy is an increasingly popular stress and anxiety treatment as it helps clients find new ways to manage their feelings of stress.

Hypnosis Cuts Hot Flashes for Breast Cancer Survivors.



Breast cancer survivors who suffer from hot flashes can reduce these attacks significantly with hypnosis, a new study finds.

Hot flashes are a problem for many women who survive breast cancer. Not only do they cause discomfort, but they interrupt sleep, cause anxiety and affect a woman's quality of life.

"This is a very encouraging study of hypnotherapy as a treatment for hot flashes in breast cancer survivors," said Dr. Ted Gansler, director of Medical Content at the American Cancer Society, who was not involved in the study. "This is an important topic because of the high prevalence of these symptoms in breast cancer survivors, and because few other treatment options are both safe and effective for this population," he added.

There have been some other studies of hypnosis and cancer that indicate that the treatment is useful, but currently underutilized, Gansler noted.

The report was published in the September issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

For the study, researchers led by Gary Elkins, a professor of psychology at Baylor University, randomly assigned 60 breast cancer survivors who suffered from hot flashes to five weekly sessions of either hypnotherapy or no treatment.

During each session of hypnotherapy, women were given mental imagery and suggestions for relaxation and coolness. They were also told to disassociate themselves from hot flashes. In addition, they were taught to use positive suggestions and imagery during self-hypnosis.

Women who underwent hypnosis had an average 68 percent decrease in the frequency and severity of hot flashes, the researchers found. In addition, these women said they experienced less anxiety and depression. They also had significant improvements in sleep and their ability to perform daily activities, compared with women who received no treatment.

"Women are interested in alternatives to traditional hormone therapy and pharmacologic interventions, and this study demonstrates the feasibility and potential effectiveness of hypnotherapy as an alternative treatment," the researchers concluded.

But since the control group received no treatment, it's difficult to say whether some or even all of the improvement represents a "placebo effect," Gansler noted. "However, the researchers reasonably suggest that the improvement is so substantial that it is unlikely to be due entirely to a placebo effect," he said.

Nancy E. Avis, a professor in the department of social sciences and health policy at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, and author of an accompanying journal editorial, agreed that hot flashes are a symptom of cancer treatment that needs to be paid attention to.

"We don't have good interventions for hot flashes," Avis said. "We know that hormone therapy treats hot flashes, but women who have had breast cancer don't want to take hormone therapy," she said.

Many mind-body approaches are promising, Avis said. "The hypnosis study has impressive results, but we need more research," she said. "Based on these small studies, we are not ready to say they work."

Avis believes alternative approaches such as hypnotherapy are appealing to a lot of women. Many other approaches such as meditation and yoga are available at cancer centers, she noted.

"There is no reason to think they are not safe," Avis said. "The advice is -- try it -- there is no harm in trying. As long as you do it with somebody who knows what they're doing, there are no downsides," she said.

Hypnotherapy Found to Be Effective in Preventing the Recurrence of Ulcers

by Steve G. Jones, M.Ed.

An ulcer is a wound that develops inside the body where acid and digestive juices eat away at the mucous lining. Duodenal ulcers are ulcers in the duodenum which is the upper part of the small intestine that connects to the stomach. Symptoms of a duodenal ulcer include heartburn, burning in the throat, and abdominal pain. These symptoms are most likely to occur a few hours after eating and are more likely to occur when acidic foods are ingested.

Treatment of duodenal ulcers is highly effective with the use of drugs such as ranitidine, H2 receptor antagonists, and tripotassium dicitratobismuthate. However studies have shown that anywhere from 60% to 90% of people who suffer from duodenal ulcers relapse within one year of treatment.

In an article published in the U.K. medical journal, The Lancet , a study was performed to test whether hypnotherapy would play a role in preventing relapses in people who suffered from duodenal ulcers. The study consisted of 30 people of which 14 were female, 16 were men, and the average age was 40. All participants had been diagnosed with the disease through an endoscopy. They also experienced relapses with the most recent relapse being within the past six months.

Treatment for the thirty participants included taking the drug ranitidine. The ulcer was given time to heal and was shown to have healed through an endoscopy. All participants continued to take the drug for ten more weeks. The patients were divided into two groups. One group received seven hypnotherapy sessions and was given a recording of the sessions to listen to on their own. The other group did not receive hypnosis during their sessions. The participants were taken off the medication and follow-up reviews (with hypnotherapy sessions for the hypnosis group) were performed every three months for the next year.

The hypnotherapy sessions consisted of an induction to promote relaxation. The participants in the hypnosis group were told to focus their attention and relaxation on their abdomen. They were told to imagine feeling a sense of warmth over their abdomen and the warmth was to control the secretion of stomach acid. They were asked to visualize this process.

All participants were reviewed after one year. The relapse rate in the hypnosis group was 53% compared to 100% in the control group. Statistically this comparison was significant. The study showed that hypnotherapy can help those who have frequent duodenal ulcers. Hypnosis was shown to be a successful form of treatment along side of medication.

I lost a stone through hypnotherapy after my Love Island humiliation, says former Atomic Kitten Liz


As Atomic Kitten's curvy blonde bombshell it seemed that Liz McClarnon wasn't short of confidence.

But her participation in reality show Celebrity Love Island told a different story.

Competitive weigh-ins with fellow stars left the 27-year-old humiliated and self-conscious alongside the rakish frames of fellow islanders Lady Isabella Hervey and Rebecca Loos.

'I was uncomfortable the whole time and hunched my shoulders to hide my body.' Liz told Now magazine. 'When I got home and saw the pictures, I knew I had to do something.

'It wasn't just my weight that bothered me, but my lack of confidence. I didn't want to be that hunched, shy girl.'

And do something she did. Liz turned to her hypnotherapist mum in her bid to quit her junk food habit.

Liz said: 'Before I tried hypnotherapy I'd eat four bags of crisps a day and lots of chocolate.

'But soon after my first session my eating habits changed. It was easy to drop the junk food. Within two weeks the weight was falling off'.

The singer, who is preparing for the release of a new single this Christmas, has lost a stone since starting the regime in October, dropping from a dress size 12 to a size 8.

Liz's newly slender frame is set to be gracing our screens sooner than that however, as she'll be taking part in Celebrity Masterchef.

Hypnosis birth preparation cuts caesarean rate

As the NHS is funding research into the use of hypnosis and birth (the SHIP tirial), a detailed survey of more than 1250 women who learnt self hypnosis as part of their birth preparation, indicates that these techniques will lead to a significant reduction in caesarean sections. The findings from the online survey are being presented at the 1st World Congress of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Andrology (WCOGA 2011) to be held at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, London, during March 20-23.

The results of the survey of 1251 mothers, including 853 first time mums, who listened to the Natal Hypnotherapy CDs during their pregnancy, indicates that women using these techniques are likely to have a more positive, less painful, often less interventionist birth with a significantly lower caesarean rate with only 15% requiring a caesarean compared with the national rate of almost 25%.

A staggering 89% said using the techniques had enabled them to overcome any fears connected with giving birth; 72% reported feeling calm during the birth with 61% feeling able to manage the pain in labour. Overall, 95% of women felt they had benefited from learning self hypnosis as a way to help them have a more positive birth experience.

As the popularity of hypnosis in birth continues to grow in the UK, it is a significant move forward for the NHS to back clinical trials into the use of these techniques as a low cost, safe and practical antidote to the drug-dependent labour management culture that has developed in the UK over the last fifty years.
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Self-hypnosis eases the labour.
After a traumatic Caesarean section birth three years ago Magan Hall of Rosebank in Cape Town could not imagine herself going through another childbirth.

Her disappointment at not giving birth naturally to her daughter Holly, now three, left her feeling powerless and to a certain extent like a 'failure'.

'I was so looking forward to having a natural birth and I went through 16 hours of labour thinking that eventually the baby would come down. When the midwife told me that I was going for an emergency C-section as the baby wasn’t coming down, I felt so aggrieved. I was so disappointed with how things turned out that I constantly blamed myself for everything. The experience left me with this fear of giving birth,' she said.

But after much contemplation, Hall decided to try for a second baby. This time, however, she wasn’t going to let her first birthing experience get the better of her.

She started doing research on birthing options, having decided that a C-section would not be an option.

After a visit to her midwife she was advised to try hypnobirthing. It was the first time that she heard of this birthing method, but decided to give it a go.

'I remember attending my first class and thinking how will this help me give birth naturally? Because of my bad experience with my first birth I had become very sceptical of everything,' she said.

Little did she know she was in it for the long haul. She attended the full antenatal course and used the techniques in

November last year when she successfully gave birth naturally to her son Huw within two hours of going into labour.

While Hall feels the second birth was probably just nature taking its course, or plain luck,she feels she was helped by the techniques she learnt through hypnobirthing.

Hypnobirthing is described as a childbirth method that uses self-hypnosis to help expectant mothers manage the tension caused by fear and anxiety during labour, through visualisation and relaxation.

It uses different breathing techniques to help the body reach a deep, relaxed state similar to 'daydreaming', thereby allowing the expectant mother to manage her labour pains. The techniques are also taught to birthing companions, who learn to help the mother reach deeper levels of relaxation.

Still a relatively new method in South Africa, hypnobirthing was developed in the US by Marie Morgan, a hypnotherapist who said she uses self-hypnosis on pregnant women to help their body’s muscles work the way they should during childbirth.

Today it is widely used in countries such as the US and UK, with available research suggesting that it can reduce the standard first labour from 12 hour to eight hours.

According to Kim Young, a hypnobirthing childbirth educator in Cape Town, the 'horror stories' that pregnant women are told by friends, family, and other sources, including the media, about childbirth has resulted in many being scared of giving birth even though many are physically capable of giving birth comfortably.

Young, the only hypnobirthing instructor in the city and one of five in the country, said many women 'failed to enjoy the experience of giving birth, (and) instead get so overwhelmed with fear'.

'The body’s response to fear is to release adrenaline. This causes the muscles to tighten, therefore diverting the oxygenated blood from the uterus, where it’s needed the most, to the major survival organs such as legs and arms to prepare them to run. This causes muscles that help with the birthing of a baby to work against each other and cause pain. The release of lactic acid due to the lack of oxygenated blood in the uterus increases the level of pain even further,' she said.

Young, who offers classes in both the northern and southern suburbs, said hypnotherapy techniques were taught while expectant mothers were fully conscious and aware in class, and then practised at home to help the mothers prepare for birth and to bond with their newborns.

Describing hypnobirthing as a philosophy of labour rather than a technique, she said although the method was not completely pain-free, it helped expectant mothers achieve easier, faster and more comfortable birth without unnecessary medical intervention such as painkillers.

'It’s about a mother and baby getting the best experience and this includes being relaxed and calm. When you are relaxed your body releases endorphins, which is the body’s natural relaxant. These endorphins, which are released at the onset of labour, help the birthing process as they act as a supplement to hormones that are specifically released to allow a woman to birth the baby easily,' said Young.

Hall believes that had she not used the hypnobirthing techniques during her second labour, she probably would have had a C-section.

'This time around I refused to be distracted by people telling me negative stories about birth. Somehow I was very involved with what was happening inside me and I wasn’t frightened of the birth. I had the attitude that I’d been there and done that, but I also accepted that it might not work. It gave me a sense of satisfaction about myself,' she said.

While the idea of hypnobirthing is largely supported by midwives, some doctors have also come out in support of it.

Dr Douglas Dumbrill, a gynaecologist at Vincent Pallotti Hospital is one of them.

Dumbrill, who works with several independent midwives, said he supported 'any technique that makes labour manageable'.

'I haven’t seen many hypnobirthing clients personally as they mostly deal with the midwives I work with, but I know that many moms who engage in it are generally very happy about it. As a gynaecologist, I believe it should be a woman’s choice to choose birthing options that are suitable for them, and I think every woman in labour should have access to pain relief – be it hypnobirthing, acupuncture or water birthing.'

Dumbrill said with the shortage of staff and trained midwives in hospitals, any intervention that strived to make labour more manageable was welcome.

'Many of the mothers I deal with always feel they don’t get proper support in a hospital environment. So if using relaxing techniques makes their pain during labour more manageable, I don’t see a reason why we shouldn’t support that.

'Surely that goes a long way in easing the workload of midwives and other support staff.' - 2011

Hypnotherapy helps panicky learners pass driving test.
Every time 35-year-old Nikki Durrant tried to take her driving test she suffered from panic attacks – until she received hypnosis.

Nikki, from Rowardennan in Scotland, found her fear of taking the test was so severe she would burst into tears as soon as she was behind the wheel. Each time she failed a test her phobia and attacks worsened – sometimes they left her barely able to breathe.

Nikki said: "It got to the point where on my third driving test I just froze halfway through and started crying. I turned the car around and refused to go on it... On one test the instructor even slammed the brakes on before I had got out of the car park. It was horrible."

However, after failing her fourth test her husband suggested she had a session with a hypnotherapist.

After just two hours of therapy Nikki felt she was ready to take her fifth test. It turned out to be her last as she passed with flying colours.


Hypnotherapist Caroline Tyler, explained how she helped Nikki.

"She was anxious so I took her through her driving test in her head so when she did come to take it again she could associate it with a relaxed memory." Tyler also taught her breathing exercises to see her through the test.

Nikki says that being able to drive has changed her life: "Hypnotherapy has worked wonders for me, I don't think I would ever have passed my driving test without it.

"I don't normally go in for that kind of thing, but now I use it whenever I am stressed."

Hypnosis combined with local anesthesia during surgery reduces hospital stays.

Using a combination of hypnosis and local anaesthesia (LA) for certain types of surgery can aid the healing process and reduce drug use and time spent in hospital, anaesthesiologists have found. The combination could also help avoid cancer recurrence and metastases, according to new research.

Professor Fabienne Roelants and Dr. Christine Watremez, from the Department of Anaesthesiology at the Cliniques Universitaires St. Luc, UCL, Brussels, Belgium, studied the impact of using hypnosis with local anesthesia in breast cancer surgery and in thyroidectomy. "In all of these procedures local anaesthesia is feasible but not, on its own, sufficient to ensure patient comfort," says Professor Roelants.

In their first study, 18 women out of 78 had hypnosis for a number of breast cancer surgical procedures – quadrantectomy (partial mastectomy), sentinel node biopsy (examination of the first lymph node or group of lymph nodes likely to be reached by metastasising cancer cells) and axillary dissection (opening the armpit to examine or remove some or all of the lymph nodes) – while the rest had general anaesthetic or the same operations. Although the patients who were hypnotised spent a few minutes more in the operating theatre, opioid drug use in the first group was greatly diminished, as was time in the recovery room and hospital stay.

In the thyroid study, the researchers compared the outcomes of 18 patients in the local anesthesia/hypnosis group with 36 who had general anaesthetic. Both groups had video-assisted thyroidectomy, in an attempt to decrease the invasiveness of the procedure without reducing patient comfort. Once again drug use, recovery room and hospital stay times were greatly reduced among the local anaesthetic/hypnosis group.

"In addition to reducing drug use and hospital stay time, being able to avoid general anaesthesia in breast cancer surgery is important because we know that local anaesthesia can block the body's stress response to surgery and could therefore reduce the possible spread of metastases," Professor Roelants will say.

"Together with other anaesthesiologists at the hospital, we are specialised in hypnosis," says Dr. Watremez. "Although there are special precautions to be taken – for example, only the hypnotherapist should talk to the patient during the procedure and should avoid negatives, which unconsciousness cannot handle, and the surgeon needs to be gentle, avoid any tugging in his movements, and be able to remain cool in all circumstances – it is a straightforward procedure and appreciated by the patients.

"Imagine you are driving your car. You suddenly realise how far you have driven, but for a long time your mind has been elsewhere. This is extremely common, and is nothing more nor less than a mild hypnotic trance – a modified state of consciousness, with a different perception of the world. The principle of hypnosis is to focus one's attention on one particular point," she says.

That point may be eye fixation, progressive muscle relaxation, or the retrieval of a pleasant memory. That hypnosis works in reducing the perception of pain has been shown by a number of studies, including by imaging the brain with position emission tomography (PET). Similar effects have been shown by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Exactly how hypnosis works in this respect is still under discussion. Some researchers believe that it prevents information from reaching the higher cortical regions that are responsible for the perception of pain. Others believe that it permits a better response to pain by activating pain-inhibiting paths more effectively.

"There is still a lot of debate around the exact mechanism that allows hypnosis to reduce pain perception," says Professor Roelants," but what it absolutely clear is that it does so. The result is that one third of thyroidectomies and a quarter of all breast cancer surgery carried out at the UCL hospital are performed under local anaesthetic with the patient under hypnosis."

There are no sex or age differences relating to susceptibility to hypnosis, the researchers say. If the patient is motivated, ready to co-operate, and trusts the doctors, hypnosis will work. In addition to use in breast cancer surgery and thyroidectomy, the practice can be used in a number of other surgical procedures, for example carotid artery surgery, inguinal hernia, knee arthroscopy, gynaecological surgery, ophthalmology, ear nose and throat, plastic surgery and egg retrieval for fertility treatment.

"We believe that our studies have shown considerable benefits for the local anaesthetic/hypnosis combination, and that such benefits are not only for patients, but also for healthcare systems. By using hypnosis combined with local anaesthetic we can reduce the costs involved in longer hospital stays, remove the need for patients to use opioid drugs, and increase their overall comfort and satisfaction levels. To date there are few publications about the use of hypnosis in surgery, and we hope that, by contributing to the body of evidence on its efficacity, our research will encourage others to carry out this procedure to the advantage of all concerned,"

Hypnosis not just for celebrities.
Hypnotherapy is being used by just about everybody. From celebrities overcoming addictions to the unemployed gaining self esteem.
One of the latest celebrities to use hypnosis is Sarah Furgeson, The Duchess of York. Who is reportedly using hypnotherapy to help her overcome feelings of low self worth.
Using hypnosis she is learning how to come to terms with the guilt of her parents marriage split as well as her own from Prince Andrew in 1996.

If it's good enough for Jessica Alba, it's good enough for everyone.
Actress Jessica Alba has publicly said that using hypnosis for childbirth is something all mothers should be doing. Not only has it been shown to create a quicker delivery, but also a healthier baby. All because the Mother can learn how to deal with the stress of the birthing process. Using hypnosis for childbirth has been around for decades and although sets to create the same outcomes, less pain, decreased use of forceps, quicker deliver, better APGAR scores, it often is talked about under different names. Hypnosis for childbirth, Hypnobirthing, Easibirthing, and has been proven to be hugely succesful. But don't just take Jessica's word for it. Professor Soo Downe of the University of Central Lancashire has recently been awarded an OBE for undertaking research into childbirth and admits that hypnosis is exactly what expectant Mothers need as it really does work.

BBC's Evan Davis Addicted To Hypnosis.
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Jack Dee uses Hypnotherapy.
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He says "I was on various anti-depressants, but not for long – I didn’t function very well on them. I felt sort of flattened out. Plus I found another way" Hypnotherapy.

"It’s very good." He says "I mean it’s only really talking. I always think of it as being a bit like a brain massage. It just sort of resets you. Sometimes you have to switch the computer on and turn it back off again. I try and do it once a month and no more, because you can end up depending on things. I don’t want to come off stage and think I did a good gig just because I was wearing red socks. Life would become intolerable."


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