Compulsive Behavior and Hypnotherapy

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                Compulsive behavior can affect hypnotherapy by increasing the client’s resistance to modifying behaviors or habits that enable him or her to repress “unacceptable” feelings that may produce a secondary gain. Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder John Kappas, Ph.D. observed that obsessive-compulsive behavior can even impede therapy because the client may not be able to evaluate or accept the need to change the compulsive behavior that is helping to achieve specific goals. Furthermore, the person may also wonder how he or she will be able to resist the urge to repeat the compulsive behavior outside of the therapist’s office.

                Treating someone with an obsessive-compulsive issue is often a long-term process. While the client is completely dominated by thoughts about the presenting issue (e.g., fear of being alone), he or she may also have a strong abreaction (resistance) to any suggestions about changing the compulsive behavior (e.g., repetitive hand-washing). Therefore, it is important for the client to perceive that he or she will direct the progress of the therapy before the individual goes into hypnosis. “Tell the client what the problem is, where it came from [and] what you (the hypnotherapist) plan to do, and give the person options for treatment,” Dr. Kappas recommended.

                As the individual begins to change behavior, he or she must face unknowns in accepting the hypnotherapist’s suggestions for modifying those behaviors or belief systems that are no longer working. Furthermore, the possibility that the compulsive behavior garners a secondary gain, such as being identified as/receiving attention for someone who possesses a particular trait. Such identification may increase the client’s subconscious desire to resist letting go of the compulsive behavior, the hypnotherapist warned.

                Most important to facilitating a successful therapeutic process is for the hypnotherapist to accept the client and to provide unconditional positive regard for him or her, regardless of the presenting issue. Meanwhile, the hypnotherapist should gently direct the client toward recognizing which behaviors no longer work for or in that person’s life, and replace these with beliefs and actions that do.

                “If you don’t do anything in moderation, you won’t take pain in moderation, either,” Dr. Kappas said. “You’ll develop a mechanism of feeling how you want to feel, now. You don’t have to hold onto that pain.”

 

 

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

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