Has anyone tried hypnosis?

[Deleted member 45408]

does it work

 

[joeylittle]

Work for what?

 

[Deleted member 45408]

to get rid of certain thoughts

 

[shatter eyes]

I made a post about this and got the idea it is BAD.

From my understanding now it is bad bcuz it can pull up memories we are not ready to deal with. The mind has locked up memories for reasons.

One the other hand i do see there can skepticism about look into my eyes...you are getting sleepy... you are a sleeper waiting to be activated... when i snap my fingers you will be remotely controlled.

If hyponotized i think it should be recorded for review and ethics..plus would be interesting to see what fukd up shit i say under the spell.

Its a risk..i was going to take..but from the feedback on my post...i decided to avoid it

 

[joeylittle]

i decided to avoid it

I think this was a good choice. :tup:

 

[flowerapple]

I learned in my classes that it was bad and can actually make it worse in some cases.

 

[Anarchy]

I learned in my classes that it was bad...

Always bad, or just under certain circumstances?

I played about with hypnosis as a teenager, and scared myself, mostly through ignorance of what I was doing.

In the right setting and with people who have a good idea of what they're doing, it's a very powerful tool.

Unfortunately the popular perception of hypnosis is derived from the wrong setting, for examples stage hypnotists and fiction

And people who haven't a clue what they're doing. One "hypnotherapist" who I met by chance was a character a lot like "flash Harry" the flasher in the st trinions girls boarding school comedies. He claimed to be able to cure cancer. Yeah, right. I wonder what he dangled in front of his female clients!

The popular books are little better, one claimed that emotional states could be transformed into air!

OK with that in the background, no wonder there's a poor popular perception of hypnosis.

I gather that one of the biggest reasons for hypnosis falling out of use in trauma therapy, was the whole controversy over "false memories"

A lot of people here will have first hand experience of doubting their own memories of serious abuse, and doubting the fragmentary memories that pop up.

In a court room situation, the defence will home in one any doubts.

This has resulted in therapists facing claims for supposedly planting "false memories" in their clients.

It's interesting that the leading lights of both sides of the "false memories" controversy are members of the same family.

The daughter is a (?the) leading researcher into dissociative amnesia

Her parents (in can't remember whether or not they've ever been convicted so I'd better say they're "allegedly abusive") are the leading lights in the campaign to claim that the memories are false.

With the potential to be pursued by client's abusers for allegedly brain washing and implanting false memories, it's little wonder that hypnosis tends to be avoided now.

On the question of "does it work (for ptsd)" I think that it is probably a very useful tool for a therapist to have available in their toolbox, so long as they know how to use it and when itsuse is appropriate.