Modalities of Therapy that can be used in Hypnotherapy
By Jody Wood
The history of hypnosis is a bit like a history of breathing. Like breathing, hypnosis is an inherent and universal trait, shared and experienced by all human beings since the dawn of time. It’s only in the last few decades that we’ve come to realise that hypnosis itself hasn’t changed for millennia, but our understanding of it and our ability to control it has changed quite profoundly. The history of hypnosis, then, is really the history of this change in perception (History of Hypnosis, 2012). Although through the ages many rituals and practises from all over the world resemble modern day hypnosis, hypnosis from a western medical point of view started in 18th Century
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Gestalt Therapy is a humanistic therapy technique established by Laura and Fritz Perls in the 1940-1950’s. This therapy focuses on acquiring awareness of emotions and behaviours that exists in the here and now rather than delving into the past. Instead of the therapist interpreting experiences for the client, the therapist works with the client to develop an understanding of the world through the client’s eyes, thereby helping the client to gain a deeper understanding of him/herself. Clients are encouraged to recognise their current needs, address them and then let these needs fade into the background. The well-adjusted person is seen as someone who recognises their ongoing flow of needs and has the ability satisfy those needs (Falex, 2008).
I had the opportunity to experience a Gestalt technique with a therapist while in high school. I was having trouble committing to my studies and had a lot of anxiety about the imminent national School Certificate exams. My therapist brought out two chairs and asked me to sit in one and imagine that School Certificate was in the other chair and then let me dialogue my fears before swapping chairs and having me respond to myself as School Certificate. From my perspective, the best thing about this therapy is that by bringing the past or future problem into the current moment, it gives the client the opportunity to step into and experience both sides of the conflict. This gives them an
Gestalt is a fascinating approach to therapy with many unique techniques, interventions and goals that set it apart from other approaches. "Self-acceptance, knowledge of the environment, responsibility for choices, and the ability to make contact...are important awareness processes and goals, all of which are based on a here-and-now experiencing that is always changing" (Corey, 2009, p. 200).
Hypnosis, as a term and as a practice, is shrouded in centuries of mystery and surrounded by misconception. Even the word itself, derived from the Greek ‘hypnos’, meaning sleep, is misleading; most people today, even if they hadn’t experienced it themselves, would recognise that being in a hypnotic state is not the same as being asleep. In order to reach a satisfactory definition of hypnosis, it is necessary therefore to explore its origins,
Hypnotherapy has been acclimated for bags of years, in assorted forms, throughout a array of cultures. Modern hypnotherapy was accustomed as a medical action in the mid 20th aeon by both British and American Medical Associations. By 1995, the NIH issued a account that accurate affirmation advantaged the use of hypnotherapy for abiding pain.
Hypnosis is a natural psychological state of consciousness similar to a sleep state where the subject is vaguely aware of their surroundings. In this condition, subjects enter a tranquil state that allows them to easily reach into their subconscious and readily react to suggestion. While hypnosis has been widely used for entertainment purposes, it can also be used in a clinical setting to help relax the body and promote health through decreased heart rate and slowed breathing.
Hypnosis has been used for thousands of years in either a healing or religious capacity. The earliest record is from 1500 B.C. and was found on a papyrus in a Egyptian tomb. In the 18th century a man named Frank Mezmer started using hypnosis to help people but he claimed it was a special power he had. He was quickly discredited, and it wasn't until 1840 that hypnosis started to get a positive light shown on it. Doctors began to use hypnosis as anesthesia during surgeries and psychologists began using it to help treat their patients mental health problems. Sigmund Freud even used hypnosis for a while until he got frustrated that not all of his patients could be hypnotized. Today hypnosis is used all over the world and in many different capacities. People use it to lose weight, to quit smoking, to heal faster, to get over trauma, and still to this day it is used as anesthesia. It has shown great success and great promise but it is still not widely used and accepted by the medical community even with all the proof out there.
identifying the causes of the client feeling. Gestalts therapy focus on the here and now of the
Gestalt therapy, which was founded by Fritz and Laura Perls in the 1940s, teaches the therapists and their clients the phenomenological awareness method, where feeling, perceiving and acting are differentiated from interpreting and rearranging the pre-existing attitudes. Gestalt therapists and clients’ dialogue, thus communicating their phenomenological perspectives, and their differences in perceptions form the basis and focus of experimentation and continued dialogue. The desired outcome of the therapy process is for the client to become aware of their actions, how they are acting, and the ways they can change their actions and learn to accept and appreciate themselves. Here, the emphasis is mainly on the process rather
The Gestalt approach to therapy emerged during the 1950’s and was developed by Frederick Perls (1893-1970). The aim of Gestalt therapy is to increase awareness, so that the client comes to resolution of unfinished business and the integration of the thinking, feeling and sensing processes. In Gestalt therapy the emphasis is placed on the present experience, the perception of the individual as a whole and the direct awareness of emotions and action. Gestalt therapists believe that the emotional problems and frustrations that are experienced by individuals are attributed to the lack of recognition and understanding of their own feelings. In addition to this Gestaltist believe that many individuals lose
Hypnosis is nothing new, in fact it has been widely practiced since the early 1700”s
Gestalt therapy is a type of therapy used to deepen our awareness of ourselves. According to O’Connor and Braverman, (2009) “Gestalt" implies wholeness. “Gestalt therapy is a process-oriented, experiential therapy that is concerned with the integrated functioning of all aspects of the person: senses, body, emotions and intellect.”
In order for the Gestalt therapist to be well grounded and remain ethical, they must run the therapy by using self-awareness, acceptance, authenticity, and the here and now and being present (Spillman & Rosen, 2014, p. 204-205). Gestalt therapy focuses on all aspects of an individual and is able to do so through dialogue. Dialogue is an essential part of Gestalt theory, therefore Gestalt therapists emphasizes the importance of the relationship between the therapist and the client (Yontef, 1993, p. 127). As previously mentioned, one characteristic that sets Gestalt therapy from other therapies is Gestalt Dialogue.
Gestalt therapy is a therapeutic approach in psychology that helped foster the humanistic theories of the 1950s and 1960s and that was, in turn, influenced by them. In Gestalt philosophy, the patient is seen as having better insight into himself or herself than the therapist does. Thus, the therapist guides the person on a self-directed path to awareness and refrains from interpreting the patient’s behaviors. Awareness comprises recognition of one’s responsibility for choices, self-knowledge, and ability to solve problems.
Gestalt therapy is a type of therapy used to deepen our awareness of ourselves. According to O’Connor and Braverman, (2009) “Gestalt" implies wholeness. Gestalt can also be considered as the essence, or shape of a complete form. A theoretical opposite of structuralism, the entity constitutes more than the sum of its parts. Gestalt therapy is comprised of a complex psychological system that stresses the development of client self-awareness and personal responsibility through a process-oriented, experiential and phenomenological modality that addresses the totality of an individual in terms of senses, body, emotions and intellect.” In an active process, suppressed feelings can be explored in depth and through understanding of the how
This paper will carry out a comparative analysis of the two most important psychological therapies, the Adlerian Therapy and the Gestalt Therapy.
Hypnosis explained by the psychology community as an altered state of consciousness that leaves people in a more subjective state, or more likely to listen to verbal suggestions. The term of hypnosis came from the Greek root word for sleep. There have been records of Hypnosis going back 2,500 years in ancient China and Egypt, (Gurgevich, 2011-2015, para.1). Hypnosis or also known as hypnotherapy is said to be used to help you gain control over undesired behaviors or to help you cope better with anxiety or pain, (“Test and Procedures Hypnosis,”2015, Para. 2). An example of how a hypnotherapy session might go like this; a therapist comes in while a patient was in an relaxed state and proceeds to tell the patient that they will be cured from their illness when they came out of the relaxed state and then the patient may or may not be cured.