Hypnosis Series: Types of Hypnosis

The use of hypnotic trance dates back thousands of years but its scientific use began to grow during the late 18th century when work began to emerge from a physician named Franz Mesmer. Mesmer believed that hypnotism was made possible by a force he termed “animal magnetism” that flowed through the hypnotist into the subject. Although Mesmer was discredited by other physicians, many continued the practice without much knowledge of how it worked.

During the 19th century, another physician named James Braid took over the study which he coined hypnotism and hypnosis after the Greek God of sleep, Hypnos.

Over the years, many researchers have come up with differing theories on what hypnosis is and how it should be understood, but there is still no generally accepted explanatory theory for the phenomenon.

As the use of hypnosis for medical treatment has flourished, there have become a number of different specialized types of hypnotherapy from which to choose from. Choosing one depends on your specific goals and what you’re most comfortable with.

Listed below are a few of the most popular.

Ericksonian Hypnotherapy

Milton Erickson is considered the father of modern hypnotherapy. He was a psychiatrist who specialized in family therapy and medical hypnosis.

Ericksonian hypnotherapy works through 3 methods - indirect suggestions, metaphors, and storytelling. It relies heavily on the unconscious mind doing its work in the background.

In traditional hypnotherapy, direct suggestion is used to promote positive change in behavior or thoughts. However, some people can consciously and unconsciously reject these suggestions, whether they are aware of doing it or not.

In Ericksonian hypnotherapy, indirect suggestions made through storytelling and metaphors are used instead. Most of the time, the approach is so subtle that most patients don’t realize the treatment has even begun. The hope is by using this technique, you will be less likely to reject suggestions and instead internalize positive suggestion to bring about long lasting change in your life.

Cognitive Hypnotherapy

This branch of hypnotherapy uses 4 combined theories - positive psychology, neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, and neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). Using these theories, the hypnotherapist can create a personal, tailored approach with the patient.

Cognitive hypnotherapy teaches a fear or negative reaction is your own unconscious mind “trancing” you to perceive the situation in a certain way to keep you safe. Cognitive hypnotherapy focuses on “de-hypnotizing” the patient to change the way they think and respond to their particular problem. This helps them regain control over aspects of the problem they are having.

The main goal of this hypnotherapy is to change how you perceive the world around you, and to work on changing your thinking patterns. It works to “update the subconscious” with the conscious mind and its understanding of reality to help you live a more productive and happier life.

Hypno-psychotherapy

Hypno-psychotherapy is a merged type of treatment model that uses both hypnosis along with psychotherapy to help alleviate the problem you are having. This type of hypnotherapy is more focused on understanding the clients way of thinking.

Psychotherapy works to trace problems or issues back to a cause. The hypnotherapist will help you in trying to find the root causes or tensions that are causing your psychological problems or disorders.

The types of psychotherapy used in this model of treatment can range from CBT, NLP, psychoynamic, Humanist, Gestalt, to mindfulness.

Overall, this type of treatment is to help with problems that cannot be addressed by hypnotherapy alone.

Past Life Regression Hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapists that use past life regression believe we all have past lives or reincarnations. This is a hypnotherapy based on the idea that the consciousness doesn’t die when the body does. This type of hypnotherapy is based on a more holistic approach, where the practitioner works with your spirit too.

It is believed recovering past life memories or experiences can help reveal why you are struggling with a current issue and help explain who you are now. During past life regression hypnotherapy, you are helped into a meditative state where you will then begin to recall past lives you’ve lived. These experiences can be recalled through seeing, hearing, or feeling what you’ve experienced in your past lives. The goal is to identify experiences in your past that could be causing the problems in your present life. A hypnotherapist may also note that you have energies attached to you that aren’t your own and will work will you on clearing these energies.

The experiences you recall may not always be negative ones, sometimes you will experience or recall positive moments from past lives that will inspire and help you live a positive, more fulfilling life today.

Clinical Hypnotherapy

This is a type of hypnotherapy that is used in a clinical environment.

The main focus of clinical hypnotherapy is treating conditions and illnesses that more traditional medicine approaches have not been able to heal or cure.

Some of these include: anesthesia during surgery, during childbirth, pain from medical procedures along with smoking, pain relief, and habit disorders.

Behavorial Hypnotherapy

This type of hypnotherapy focuses on behavior changes that the patient is looking to make for things like quitting smoking or weight loss.

Both the hypnotherapist and the patient take some time to review the negative behaviors or actions that the patient has been exhibiting. They then agree on positive behaviors and helpful changes that the patient can make. Hypnosis is then used to solidify these behavior changes and new actions.

Usually, at the end of treatment, the hypnotherapist will suggest ongoing self-hypnosis to help manage the behavior and to help keep up the positive changes.

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy

As suggested by the name, this type of hypnotherapy is solution focused and generally believes that diving into past issues and problems is ineffective.

In this type of hypnotherapy, the hypnotherapist will ask you what your goal is for the treatment. The hypnotherapist will then use hypnosis to help you tap into your own inner resources and your own capabilities. You generally will then be given homework to act on outside the session to move you towards your goals.

This type of hypnotherapy generally takes more motivation and commitment than other types of hypnotherapy due to the level of work you need to do outside the appointments for the treatment to be effective.

Regression Hypnotherapy

This style of hypnotherapy focuses on taking the client back to the original moment when their issue or problem was formed.

In regression hypnotherapy, the hypnotherapist uses hypnosis to guide the client back through memories or experiences with their problem. By doing so, they have them re-experience the event or cause all over again. This time, however, they will review the self-limiting beliefs and emotions surrounding the event. Once that is completed, the hypnotherapist can help reinterpret those beliefs and emotions with a more reasonable mindset.

This type of hypnotherapy focuses on the past in an effort to improve your future.

Integration Hypnotherapy

Integration hypnotherapy is combined with a type of therapy known as Parts Therapy. In this approach, the hypnotherapist believes your personality is composed of different various parts. The different parts have been formed due to good and bad memories and a reaction or need that develops due to those memories. These parts serve specific functions in the inner mind.

With integration hypnotherapy, the goal is to help these different parts work together cohesively and help each part get a chance to speak freely about their desires and needs.

Using hypnosis, the hypnotherapist is able to help guide the client through understanding these different parts and helping to resolve inner conflict related to their distinct needs.

Analytical Hypnotherapy (Hypnoanalysis)

This type of therapy looks to identity a cause or trigger event that led to the current problem you’re having. By identifying the root cause, the hypnotherapist helps to reduce negative associations and resolve continuing problems.

Analytical hypnotherapy uses the techniques of free association and direct regression. Free association is essentially letting your mind run free until the subconscious moves in the direction of what is causing your issue. Direct regression uses hypnosis to access someone’s past. This technique is used by taking your memories to find where the original problem started, and healing from that point.

This hypnotherapy is reliant on building a trusting relationship with the hypnotherapist and can take several sessions to get to the root of the problem. The goal is to naturally build a rapport that allows you to discuss things from your past that you would not usually discuss with someone. Once the root cause is found, it can be addressed. This leaves room for new, healthy ways of thinking to take control.

Self-Hypnosis

If physically meeting with someone is not an option for you, self-hypnosis is another way to utilize hypnosis for yourself. This version can be free or comes with minimal cost, depending on where you get your content from and what your intentions are.

Just like other forms of hypnotherapy, self-hypnosis helps you reach a state where you are highly focused and your awareness of the external stimuli around you is diminished. You enter into a hypnotic trance that opens up your subconscious mind to new possibilities and patterns of thinking.

Self-hypnosis allows your mind to achieve a deep state of relaxation, during this time you either make suggestions or set intentions for yourself, and then use some form of audio to help you reach the goals you are aiming for.

Self-hypnosis can also be used in conjunction with another form of hypnotherapy for added benefits.

Finding the best type of hypnotherapy that meets your specific needs can feel overwhelming. In my upcoming blog post, I’ll be discussing how to determine if hypnosis is right for you!

In the meantime, check out my first post in the series if you haven’t already: Hypnosis Series: My Personal Experience!

Have you tried hypnotherapy? Leave a comment below with your experience with any of these types of hypnotherapy!