Hypno-psychotherapy

Hypno-psychotherapy is the most ancient method of psychotherapy, and its importance and effectiveness remain significant and irreplaceable even today. The founders of hypno-therapy were the ones who began to name and describe the method, and among them are Franz Mesmer, Paracelsus, Sigmund Freud, André Muller Weitzenhoffer, Ernest Hilgard, Ivan Pavlov, Vladimir Bekhtever, Karl Jung, Milton Erickson, Victor Kandiba, Jean Becchio, and others. In Latvia, a substantial investment in the development of hypno-psychotherapy was made by Dr Jānis Zālītis.

 

Hypno-psychotherapy uses hypnotism to intervene in the human subconscious, proposing changes in consciousness that are based on the patient's own resources. Hypno-psychotherapists make use of psychological phenomena such as dissociation, associations, sublimation, analysis of images and symbols, metaphors, suggestion and also regression.

 

The unknown part of a human's psyche records his or her development from the very beginning. This includes the history, causes, development and results of various specific problems. These unknown processes in and of themselves involve knowledge about an adequate solution in transforming and reversing the problem. The role for the hypno-psychotherapist is to help the client to liberate these self-healing processes.

 

Unlike many other types of psychotherapy, hypno-psychotherapy is seen as a short-term method, with the desired results evident after just a few séances. The process of hypno-psychotherapy can occur at the unknown individual and interpersonal level or at the analytical level. Hypno-psychotherapy is used individually, in group work or for couples.

 

(Prepared by Dombrovskis, A., Skrodelis, E., Savicka, I., Tula-Rijkure, A., and D. Rolava. Based on a survey of the literature cited at www.LHPB.lv.)

 

There are, to a certain extent, two genres of hypno-psychotherapy -- classical hypno-psychotherapy and Erickson's hypno-psychotherapy.