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Thursday, October 5, 2017

Hypnosis Is Not a Cure for Paranoia and Schizophrenia

(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/.

Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Inner Resources: Redux

“In the midst of change we often discover wings we never

knew we had.” – Ekaterina Walter

Photo by Rick Hustead

On Sunday, October 1, 2017, a lone gunman allegedly adapted an automatic rifle to open fire on thousands of attendees at the Route 91 Harvest Festival at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada. At the time this blog was posted, more than 500 people were injured and 59 people died of injuries they sustained. This event has been called the worst single-shooting in modern American history, surpassing the carnage at Pulse Night Club in Orlando, Florida on June 12, 2016. Even before Sunday's shooting, however, various attacks ranging from a terrorist bombing during pop star Ariana Grande’s concert in Manchester, England, in May 2017 to vehicle and knife attacks on European streets have claimed countless lives.

These tragedies have required us to change not only an attitude or belief system, but our very way of life. If we can't be, let alone feel, safe at a concert or meandering down the street in a populated location, where can we go? It’s not an impossible thing to do, but at the moment tragedy strikes, it certainly seems that way. How do we go on after something like that?

Grief comes in many different forms, and each one of us grieves and mourns in different ways for the loss we have experienced. There is no time limit or restriction when it comes to feeling sadness, anger/rage or even in disbelief about the specific tragedy we have experienced. These emotions can feel overwhelming and often come in waves (versus “stages”). In one moment we laugh while we think about the special, loving, fun times with the person who has died; in the next, we can’t stop sobbing, inconsolable.

But it also at times like this that we usually discover, eventually, inner resources to keep on going, keep on living and keep on loving. With the love and support of other friends, relatives and social resources, we re-discover that source of inner strength we forgot we always had, the one that helped us get through a previous challenge or loss. Sometimes, it feels like learning how to walk for the first time: step by step, one foot in front of the other. Baby steps. And then, one day, we wake up and experience maybe one moment, an hour, or just a few seconds of optimism about something in our lives. It may not be complete happiness or joy, but just a flash of brightness—a sensation of lightness or collateral beauty—that reminds us that those other, positive, long-forgotten emotions are still possible.

Maybe not today or even tomorrow, but someday. And on days like these, that possibility is cause for hope and even motivation to take those steps.

Many people reading this blog know someone who was at the concert on Sunday when the gunfire started; some of you may have been there and was injured or even lost a friend or loved one on Sunday. I would like to offer my deepest condolences to all of the victims, survivors and family members and friends of this shooting. These senseless and tragic losses of life will always be remembered.

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

When Denial Causes Sleep Problems

(This blog was originally posted on September 13, 2016)

Photo by Rick Hustead

Have you ever had problems sleeping after ending a romantic relationship? If so, you are not alone. According to Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder John Kappas, Ph.D., continuing to hold onto the former partner and unresolved grief about the ended relationship is often the cause of this problem.

Sleeping problems can take the form of interrupted sleep or insomnia. The hypnotherapist deduced that denial of the emotional and even physical pain an individual can experience at the end of a relationship produces this sleep pattern. Indeed, this behavior may be a subconscious defense mechanism to interrupt a dream that would confirm the relationship is really over. “Denial covers up depression, and you’re really covering up depressive sleep,” Dr. Kappas explained.

Sometimes, it is only until some time has passed after a relationship has ended that a person truly realizes that it is over, the hypnotherapist explained. Continuing to “hang onto” an emotional attachment to the former partner inhibits or even prevents going through the grief and depression stages of loss that would facilitate letting go of the relationship. In this situation, the person is likely to get stuck in the denial stage of this process.

“As long as you’re in the denial stage, it’s next to impossible to replace [the lost relationship]. You have to go through the stages of loss in order to go forward and start developing another relationship,” Dr. Kappas said. To facilitate this process, he advised giving a client specific suggestions to have a venting dream that will allow the person to release, or “vent out,” unresolved feelings and work through the end of the former relationship: “You’re going to sleep soundly and deeply throughout the night, and the reason you’re going to sleep soundly and deeply is that you’re going to prepare to let something go. You’ve made a decision that you’re going to relax the denial mechanism on [the specified date].”

Dr. Kappas said it is important to include a specific date by which the client has the venting dream, such as to coincide with the next (follow-up) hypnotherapy session, to start working through the various stages of loss. This process should help reinstate the person’s normal sleeping pattern and come to terms with the end of the previous relationship, he explained.