(This blog was originally posted on September 7, 2016)
John Kappas, Ph.D., conceded that
treating a client who has schizophrenia is a touchy legal issue in that
schizophrenia is a medical and psychological illness which is out of scope for
hypnotherapy. “You can spend all your time trying to cure the condition and it
won’t work,” the founder of the Hypnosis Motivation Institute told his hypnotherapy students. Indeed, many
physicians accept that schizophrenia is based on a neurochemical imbalance.
Medication can help control the symptoms but psychotherapy won’t “cure” the
person, he said.
The California Business and Professions Code 2908*
allows hypnotherapists to provide complementary and alternative health care to
these patients if they have a
referral from a licensed medical or mental-health professional. However, people
who have schizophrenia generally don’t come in for help in the first place, Dr.
Kappas said. However, those individuals who do allow themselves to be
hypnotized to deal with other issues in their lives may show good results in
terms of behavioral correction, he said.
The hypnotherapist found that many individuals who have schizophrenia
also had low
blood-sugar levels, which can induce hyper-suggestibility
and paranoia. Dr. Kappas said that explaining the relationship between low
glucose levels and suggestibility, and teaching the client how to control his
or her blood-sugar level through diet, could reduce panic and sensory
sensations caused by fear.
If the client has paranoid schizophrenia and reports hearing voices, it may be possible to use hypnosis to teach
the individual to control some of these thoughts, he said. “The behavior will
get rid of the voices for a long period of time, then they’ll come back and
stay there.” Ultimately, hypnosis and hypnotherapy cannot be employed as a cure of schizophrenia and the client must receive medical treatment.
*Business and Professions Code 2908: 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
alternative or complimentary 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® and to set up an
appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.
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