Is hypnotherapy for PTSD effective?
October 10, 2022 2:49 PM Subscribe
I'm looking for a new therapist, and found a qualified, clinical hypnotherapist. I can't find much literature or personal experiences on treating complex PTSD with hypnotherapy. Does anyone have any successes (or failures) with it? Any literature or helpful information I might look into that talks about its effectiveness/safety (or lack thereof)?
YANMT, YANMD, but I wanted to ask since I'm struggling to find any research or information on this. I've read that hypnotherapy can be legit and effective for things like quitting smoking, phobias, pain management, etc if done properly and with a qualified practitioner (or at least that's what google and the NHS website told me.) However, I can't find much info for PTSD that isn't either from a hypnotherapy website itself selling courses, or random reddit threads.
The therapist himself seems warm and approachable, and has years of clinical psychology experience to back him up. He's also trauma-informed, and knew a lot about the biology and internal mechanisms of it. He does seem to have extensively studied NLP (neuro-linguistic processing), though, which seems a little iffy according to google—but he never mentioned it in session, so maybe it's a background thing for him. In any case, when I asked him how hypnosis treats PTSD, he said that we can "play with imagination" and essentially try to unlink the intense emotions from the memory; to make it less overwhelming, by changing the colors, by rescuing my past self from the situation, making it safer, etc.
This sounds somewhat reasonable, and like some sort of gradual processing work and internal safety-making, but I also don't like the idea of messing with my own perception and memory like that. Maybe I'm misunderstanding the theory? He also said that hypnosis is very gentle, so I don't have to worry too much about being overwhelmed or retraumatizing myself. Again, I hope that's true but I worry about getting overwhelmed in these hypnosis exercises anyway with no guardrails in place.
So... Personal experiences? Research? Articles? I don't want to discount this therapist entirely, since hypnosis does seem to have a solid foundation for other issues, and my area is pretty thin on trauma-informed therapists; but I also don't want to waste my time/money if I could instead work with someone who works with a more known methodology like IFS, EMDR, CPT, PE, etc, even though they might be harder to find. I know that the therapist-patient is usually the most important thing in successful treatment too, but methodology and its validity do play a part, at least IMO. Thank you so much!
YANMT, YANMD, but I wanted to ask since I'm struggling to find any research or information on this. I've read that hypnotherapy can be legit and effective for things like quitting smoking, phobias, pain management, etc if done properly and with a qualified practitioner (or at least that's what google and the NHS website told me.) However, I can't find much info for PTSD that isn't either from a hypnotherapy website itself selling courses, or random reddit threads.
The therapist himself seems warm and approachable, and has years of clinical psychology experience to back him up. He's also trauma-informed, and knew a lot about the biology and internal mechanisms of it. He does seem to have extensively studied NLP (neuro-linguistic processing), though, which seems a little iffy according to google—but he never mentioned it in session, so maybe it's a background thing for him. In any case, when I asked him how hypnosis treats PTSD, he said that we can "play with imagination" and essentially try to unlink the intense emotions from the memory; to make it less overwhelming, by changing the colors, by rescuing my past self from the situation, making it safer, etc.
This sounds somewhat reasonable, and like some sort of gradual processing work and internal safety-making, but I also don't like the idea of messing with my own perception and memory like that. Maybe I'm misunderstanding the theory? He also said that hypnosis is very gentle, so I don't have to worry too much about being overwhelmed or retraumatizing myself. Again, I hope that's true but I worry about getting overwhelmed in these hypnosis exercises anyway with no guardrails in place.
So... Personal experiences? Research? Articles? I don't want to discount this therapist entirely, since hypnosis does seem to have a solid foundation for other issues, and my area is pretty thin on trauma-informed therapists; but I also don't want to waste my time/money if I could instead work with someone who works with a more known methodology like IFS, EMDR, CPT, PE, etc, even though they might be harder to find. I know that the therapist-patient is usually the most important thing in successful treatment too, but methodology and its validity do play a part, at least IMO. Thank you so much!
While I don't know the efficacy rates for clinical hypnotherapy applied to CPTSD, I can tell you that if you have parts like most people, and those parts have slightly stronger dissociative barriers between them than there are for people without trauma, then you're probably easily hypnotized. So, getting into the state where the magic happens should come easily (control issues common in CPTSD notwithstanding).
posted by crunchy potato at 10:33 AM on October 11, 2022
posted by crunchy potato at 10:33 AM on October 11, 2022
Also, you might want to check this therapist finder before you assume someone with this certification is hard to find in your area.
posted by crunchy potato at 10:35 AM on October 11, 2022
posted by crunchy potato at 10:35 AM on October 11, 2022
I was surprised to find many great (gentle) self-hypnosis materials on youtube, specific to the PTSD issues that were affecting my C-PTSD (e.g. recovery from narcissistic abuse in relationships)
posted by tiburon at 12:03 PM on October 11, 2022
posted by tiburon at 12:03 PM on October 11, 2022
Here is the APA's summary page on the state of the evidence for PTSD treatments. I hope this is helpful in evaluating your treatment options and wish you the best.
posted by soonertbone at 1:46 PM on October 11, 2022
posted by soonertbone at 1:46 PM on October 11, 2022
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As an adult I no longer "rub the magic circle" and I can definitely still be triggered (by tv and movies as well as occasional fainting if I don't lie down while taking a shot or having a blood draw). However, I can take injections and have blood draws without panicking and attacking the nurse, which I couldn't as a child. I don't know whether my situation is relevant or analogous to yours, but hypnotherapy helped me a great deal.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 5:58 PM on October 10, 2022 [1 favorite]