Question:
I had two hypnotherapy sessions earlier this year to help with emetophobia. Beforehand, I had a fairly long phone call with the hypnotherapist and he came across as competent and trustworthy. My psychologist suggested I ask him to work on helping me be braver around nausea rather than avoidance behaviours, but when I raised this he laughed and said he doesn’t do hypnosis in the “standard” way, describing his approach as something he’d put together from different techniques and teachers.
During both sessions he played relaxation music, applied pressure to my forehead and then to my hands, and repeatedly had me think of something that made me anxious followed immediately by something pleasant. This was essentially the whole process, repeated in both sessions. He also told me not to talk to anyone about the hypnosis because it could affect the outcome.
I felt no difference afterwards and didn’t feel as if I was ever really in trance. I was also bothered by the fact that my main concern seemed to be laughed off. At the same time, he has many positive reviews online, especially for smoking cessation, which has made me wonder if the problem is me rather than the therapy.
Should I try hypnotherapy again with someone else, or is emetophobia something hypnosis doesn’t really help with? I’m also doing CBT and had hoped hypnosis might support that work.
Answer:
This sounds like a frustrating experience, and you’re not wrong in feeling this way.
The just laughing and saying that he’s not doing the standard way of hypnosis: Although it’s far from uncommon for hypnotherapists to create their own working methodology from different training and courses they have been on, to call it ‘scrambled together’ is a touch unusual.
Playing relaxation music and putting pressure on your forehead: Sounds like part of the Elman induction, it’s very common as an induction, but not as a treatment.
Putting pressure on your hands: This seems a little out of place. This sounds like a demonstration/convincer, something usually done before the hypnotic induction, not after. Are you sure that’s the order things happened?
Thinking of something that made me anxious, and then thinking of something happy: This could be using the Affect Bridge, but is more likely to be a swish pattern. If the latter, this can be (and normally is) done out of hypnosis. Both are solid techniques and often used in hypnotherapy sessions.
The process repeated over and over: Odd to just use this one method, a method that doesn’t even require hypnosis. Are you sure this guy is a trained hypnotherapist and not just a general talk therapist who read a little on hypnosis and NLP and decided to add it in?
Being told not to talk to anyone about the treatment: This does ring alarm bells.
Feel no difference or not feeling as if you were in a trance: This isn’t at all unusual. What hypnosis is and what people think hypnosis is are normally markedly different. What you see in movies and on TV shows is quite different from real-world hypnosis. In real hypnosis, you don’t become a mindless automaton that will blindly follow any instructions given.
Laughing off your wants and needs: That does concern me. Over the years I’ve had people come to me for some very odd things, but the fact it’s impacted their life enough to seek professional help, no matter how weird and wonderful it may seem, it’s NO laughing matter.
Many good reviews: Good reviews can be bought. They are something to take into consideration when looking for a professional, but shouldn’t be the only evaluation factor. I would say talk to the guy about your concerns first before rushing to bad review land. Don’t hold it over them as a weapon, just clarify what’s really going on and evaluate before pulling the trigger one way or another.
Try again with a different hypnotist? As I said, I’d recommend talking to this guy again first, that needn’t be in a paid session, just raise the points you made here and see if you want to continue working with him or go elsewhere. I’m not 100% convinced this guy actually is a hypnotherapist, even if that is how he’s billing himself, so please don’t let this put you off the idea altogether.
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