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| Photo courtesy of Microsoft Hypnotherapy is a great adjunct with medical and mental-health therapies to treat clients who suffer from PTSD. |
Some
people become very traumatized by their experiences in a war or while fighting
a war, Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder John Kappas, Ph.D. observed. “Any
time a person goes into an extremely stressful situation, you start to
anticipate the stress or danger,” he said. Even though soldiers receive specific
combat skills, their survival depends on their ability to fight and kill as
well as to deal with the horrors that they have experienced or witnessed on the
battlefield: i.e., the fight/flight/freeze response.
Dr. Kappas
warned that whenever a person represses the stress and emotions (e.g., fear,
sadness, anger) experienced during combat, he or she is vulnerable to suffering
“post-war depression” or, Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder. The Diagnostics and
Statistics Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, defines PTSD as an extremely complex disorder that includes
psychological as well as physical symptoms of distress. These include:
insomnia, bad dreams or flashbacks of the war experience, explosive anger, survivor’s
guilt and difficulties integrating with or back into society. Job performance
at work may and personal relationships with the spouse/lover, friends and family
may also be negatively affected. Even if the stress is repressed when the
traumatic event occurs, eventually these symptoms surface and must be dealt
with, he warned. “Some guys 20 years out of the Service are fine and then suddenly
break,” the late hypnotherapist warned. “After you survive in the military/war,
if it’s the only thing you know, it can be a shock to face the real world,” Dr.
Kappas said. Treatment for PTSD entails desensitizing the client to the stress
of war and reintegrating the person back into his or her “old” life, including
relationships and work.
On January 1,
2013, I earned a certification to use hypnosis to help people who are
experiencing PTSD to reduce stress and symptoms in order to improve their
quality of life. I use hypnosis, relaxation/breathing and therapeutic guided
imagery techniques to teach these clients how to manage stress. I also employ cognitive
behavioral-therapy techniques and exposure therapy to help the person separate
(un-pair) the association between triggers of fear about the previous traumatic
event and what is going on in their current environment. Because PTSD is such a
complex disorder, I require a referral from both
a licensed medical doctor and a
licensed psychotherapist for me to provide hypnotherapy as a complementary
therapy to alleviate, manage and control these symptoms.
I
would also like to thank each of the men and women who have risked and continue to
risk their lives—and those who have sacrificed their lives—to protect and defend
our country. I will not forget you.
California law allows access by California
residents to complementary and alternative health care practitioners who are
not providing services that require medical training and credentials. The
purpose of a program of hypnotherapy is for vocational and avocational
self-improvement (Business and Professions Code 2908) and as an alternative or
complementary treatment to healing arts services licensed by the state. A hypnotherapist
is not a licensed physician or psychologist, and hypnotherapy services are not
licensed by the state of California. Services are non-diagnostic and do not
include the practice of medicine, neither should they be considered as a
substitute for licensed medical or psychological services or procedures.
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®, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.
© 2014
