Mindful hypnotherapy: a Combined force against Stress
One plus one must always equal two. The combination of mindfulness and hypnotherapy works, according to a recent study more efficiently against Stress, as if both approaches are separately used. Particularly strongly stressed-out people could benefit from the new therapy.
Researchers at the Baylor University in Texas have developed a new method to combat Stress by using hypnotherapy to make the foundations of mindfulness faster to use. The resulting “mindful hypnotherapy” was recently presented in the “International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis”.
Hypnosis and mindfulness in accordance
“In mindfulness, attention is directed to awareness of the present moment”, explains Dr. Gary Elkins from the research team, who is also the Director of Mind-Body Medicine Research Laboratory at Baylor University. Hypnosis involves the focusing of attention, but you set the focus more on mental imagery, relaxation, and suggestions for symptom reduction.
How is hypnosis used in therapy?
Hypnosis-interventions are usually short and are used in clinical practice, often for pain and symptom treatment. In the current study, hypnosis was used to teach the mindfulness of the Participants, in order to be able to implement mindfulness goals to avoid Stress better in everyday life.
One hour per week already showed effect
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“The combination of mindfulness and hypnotherapy in a single session, is a novel Intervention that may be equivalent to or better than existing treatments, with the advantage that it is time to be more effective and easier to apply,” says Elkins. The new therapy could be a valuable Option for the treatment of Stress and anxiety. As a short intervention, “mindful hypnotherapy could be applied” wide.
Mindfulness is a proven remedy against Stress and anxiety
According to Elkins mindfulness is also without the use of hypnosis already been a proven remedy against Stress and anxiety. Learn and Implement the principles, however, is quite simple. A course for Learning mindfulness may often include 24 hours of Therapy or more. This represents for many people the first hurdle. Mindfulness is not easy to quickly try out. But Skip this hurdle is worth it, because mindfulness-based treatments are consistently superior to the cognitive Standard of behavior therapy, emphasizes the head of research.
Objectives of mindful hypnotherapy
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The new mindful hypnotherapy aims to make the principles of mindfulness accessible to the masses by the entry-level difficulties can be reduced. The mindful hypnotherapy has been tested in the context of the study, 20 Participants who suffered from high Stress. All were given per week for a one hour session and 20-minute audio recordings for self-hypnosis. The following areas are to be promoted by the therapy:
- the awareness of the present moment,
- a judgment-free perception of the five senses,
- a judgment-free perception of thoughts and feelings,
- the ability to self-hypnosis,
- Compassion for self and others,
- the perception of personal values.
Participants were very satisfied with the treatment
At the end of the study, the test group reported a strong decrease of Stress and a significant increase in mindfulness. Most of the Participants were with the number of sessions, the ease of the Exercises and the clarity of content very satisfied, says Elkins. On a scale of one to ten, the Participants evaluated the new treatment on average with 8.9 points.
The therapy should now be at a greater number of persons tested. It is, according to Elkins is also conceivable that the therapy can help with other psychological problems such as depression or chronic pain. (vb)
Also read: “mindfulness: The patent recipe against Stress” and “hypnotherapy – application and effect”.