The British Society of Clinical Hypnosis states that "Even though our personal unconscious only ever seeks to promote our well being it can often be the seat of faulty learning from our childhood, leading to low self esteem, underachievement and sometimes worse. Often it attempts to protect us by raising our fears and anxieties to phobic levels to keep us from a particular activity or stimulus it sees as dangerous. Utilizing hypnosis this way in therapy often facilitates an unconscious relearning process," with the implication being that the "relearning process" supports a heightened state of health.

 

What then, are some of the elements of a "healthy lifestyle" which could be affected or supported through hypnotic suggestions? These include:

 

 

The method of hypnosis most often practiced to support those "healthy lifestyle choices" is called "Ericksonian Hypnosis," and is based on the life"s work of Milton Erickson. Erickson founded the "National Association for Clinical Hypnosis" in the USA and the Ericksonian Foundation continues his work.

 

Basically, Ericksonian Hypnosis seeks to build bridges from the subconscious to the conscious mind, to allow a patient, for example, to have more control over themselves.

 

According to the Duke University Integrative Medicine Center(IMC), hypnosis is a valid part of a comprehensive program which supports optimum wellness and health. The Duke IMC website states, "Integrative Medicine combines cutting-edge diagnosis and treatment, with appropriate complementary therapies. Whenever possible, it favors the use of low-tech, low-cost interventions."

 

One of the most strongly helpful things that hypnosis can do to foster health is to help a patient to manage stress. Everyone has stress in their lives; it"s how we manage it that determines how it impacts our health. A study of more than 73,424 people (30,180 men and 43,244 women) between the ages of 40 and 79 enrolled in the Japan Collaborative Cohort Study for Evaluation of Cancer Risk (JACC Study) found that women who report high levels of mental stress have double the risk for stroke-related and heart-related deaths than those reporting low stress levels (Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.)

Hypnosis can help a patient to circumvent their habitual response to stress, keep their blood pressure at normal levels, and has even been shown to help, for example, the healing of a diseased colon.

 

According to the Erickson Foundation, "Practitioners use clinical hypnosis in three main ways. First, they encourage the use of imagination. Mental imagery is very powerful, especially in a focused state of attention. The mind seems capable of using imagery, even if it is only symbolic, to assist us in bringing about the things we are imagining. A second basic hypnotic method is to present ideas or suggestions to the patient. In a state of concentrated attention, ideas and suggestions that are compatible with what the patient wants seem to have a more powerful impact on the mind. Finally, hypnosis may be used for unconscious exploration, to better understand underlying motivations or identify whether past events or experiences are associated with causing a problem. Hypnosis avoids the critical censor of the conscious mind, which often defeats what we know to be in our best interests. The effectiveness of hypnosis appears to lie in the way in which it bypasses the critical observation and interference of the conscious mind, allowing the client's intentions for change to take effect."

 

Without question, working with a properly trained hypnotherapist, or careful application of self-hypnosis, can go a long way toward supporting a state of health and well-being.