Towards the end of the nineteenth century, some Spanish physicians sought to legitimize hypnotherapy within medicine. At the same time, hypnotism was being popularized among the Spanish population through stage hypnosis shows. In order to extend the use of medical hypnotherapy, some physicians made efforts to demarcate the therapeutic use of hypnotic suggestion from its application for recreational purposes, as performed by stage hypnotists. However, in the eyes of some physicians, the first public session to legitimize hypnotherapy turned out to be a complete failure due to its similarities with a stage hypnosis performance. Apart from exploring this kind of hitherto little-known historical cases, we explore the role of spiritists in legitimizing medical hypnosis. At a time when Spanish citizens were still reluctant to accept hypnotherapy, the spiritists sponsored a charitable clinic where treatment using hypnosis was offered. We conclude that the clinic was effective in promoting the use of hypnotherapy, both among physicians as clinical practice, and as a medical treatment for patients from the less privileged classes of Spanish society.

Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Stud Hist Philos Biol Biomed Sci. 2014 Aug 7. pii: S1369-8486(14)00082-X. doi: 10.1016/j.shpsc.2014.07.002. Graus A. Author information: Centre d'Història de la Ciència (CEHIC), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain. Electronic address: andrea.graus@uab.cat.

Dr. Gladding is a professor at Wake Forest University. He is the author of 41 books and is considered an authority in the counseling profession.

Hypnosis is making a comeback in all of the medical disciplines. But in a world where everyone wants to control everything and manage everything, it's helpful to know that hypnosis is a dynamic process that cannot be forced on anyone, a psychic reality, clearly demonstrated today by brain imaging. Hypnosis does not take any power over the individual. It is just one more tool to help ease patient's discomfort. It is also useful to avoid professional burnout to provide care without depleting our energy and without wasting our valuable time. Medical hypnosis is a real asset for providing comfortable orthodontic treatment and creating a serene atmosphere. It can be done simply and rapidly to take high quality impressions, to place braces comfortably on a patient who is sitting quietly. Orthodontic treatment requires cooperation and motivation, so let's give our patients a new sense of confidence and a willingness to cooperate.

© EDP Sciences, SFODF, 2014.

Orthod Fr. 2014 Sep;85(3):287-97. doi: 10.1051/orthodfr/2014015. Epub 2014 Aug 28. Simonnet Garcia MH.

by Tim Brunson, PhD

Many hypnotherapists and others who claim to include hypnotherapy in their range of talents regularly unknowingly mislead their patients and subjects. Today I want to focus on a couple misstatements that have come to be part of our clinical tradition despite being disproven a very long time ago.

During my initial hypnotherapy training I was instructed to tell new clients two important "facts." The first one was that a person absolutely cannot be hypnotized against his or her will. Secondly, a person cannot be influenced by a hypnotic suggestion to do something that is against their morals or values. Indeed, these comments are echoed in just about every hypnotist's pre-talk, by prestigious authors, who are published by mainstream New York book companies, and in hypnotherapy schools and courses, which are recognized by international associations. Early in my career I repeated these rules countless times to people who trusted my expertise and education. Yet, since I first heard them in an Atlanta workshop over two decades ago, I have completed numerous courses – all of which have been sanctioned by one or more of the same organizations just mentioned – in which I was taught numerous ways to create hypnotic effects and get people to unwittingly comply with my instructions totally without their knowledge or prior consent.

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OBJECTIVE: To examine correlates of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use in a pediatric population with chronic pain, and to determine whether CAM use is positively correlated with adaptive coping skills. METHODS: We examined patient data from 1175 children aged 7 to 18 years with chronic pain who completed the intake assessment at the time of initial evaluation at Boston Children's multidisciplinary Pain Treatment Service between 2003 and 2011. The intake assessment included validated measures of anxiety, depression, pain coping skills, and functional disability. Parents were also asked whether their child had tried CAM modalities in the past. We used a multivariable logistic regression model to determine correlates of CAM use and a multivariable linear regression model to determine the relationship between biobehavioral CAM (relaxation training, hypnosis, and biofeedback) and accommodative coping. RESULTS: In our multivariable model, we found that female gender (odds ratio [OR] 1.48, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 1.07-2.02), level of parental education (OR 1.11 per year, 95% CI 1.06-1.16), greater pain intensity (OR 1.06 per point on an 11-point numerical analog scale, 95% CI 1.01-1.11), and more functional disability (OR 1.19 per 10-point increment on the Functional Disability Inventory, 95% CI 1.06-1.34) were independently associated with CAM use. Biobehavioral CAM was found to have a statistically significant correlation with accommodative coping skills (? = 0.2, P = .004). CONCLUSIONS: In a pediatric chronic pain center, CAM users tended to have higher pain intensity and greater functional disability. Exposure to biobehavioral CAM techniques was associated with adaptive coping skills.

Copyright © 2014 Academic Pediatric Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Acad Pediatr. 2014 Sep-Oct;14(5):491-6. doi: 10.1016/j.acap.2014.04.003. Vinson R(1), Yeh G(2), Davis RB(2), Logan D(3). Author information: (1)Department of General Pediatrics, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Mass. Electronic address: rvmd2007@gmail.com. (2)Department of Internal Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Mass. (3)Department of Pain Treatment Service, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Mass.

Gerald Corey is Professor Emeritus of Human Services at California State University at Fullerton; a Diplomate in Counseling Psychology, American Board of Professional Psychology; a licensed psychologist; a National Certified Counselor; a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (Counseling Psychology); a Fellow of the American Counseling Association; and a Fellow of the Association for Specialists in Group Work. Dr. Corey taught undergraduate and graduate courses in group counseling, as well as courses in experiential groups, the theory and practice of counseling, and ethics in counseling. He is the author or co-author of 15 counseling textbooks currently in print and numerous journal articles. Along with his wife, Marianne Schneider Corey, Dr. Corey has conducted group counseling training workshops for mental health professionals at many universities in the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, Hong Kong, Korea, Germany, Belgium, Scotland, England, and Ireland. The two received the Association for Specialists in Group Work's Eminent Career Award in 2001. Dr. Corey earned his doctorate in counseling from the University of Southern California.

Summary Functional abdominal pain syndrome is characterised by frequent or continuous abdominal pain associated with a degree of loss of daily activity. It has a reported population prevalence of between 0.5% and 1.7%, with a female preponderance. The pathophysiology of functional abdominal pain is incompletely understood although it has been postulated that peripheral sensitisation of visceral afferents, central sensitisation of the spinal dorsal horn and aberrancies within descending modulatory systems may have an important role. The management of patients with functional abdominal pain requires a tailored multidisciplinary approach in a supportive and empathetic environment in order to develop an effective therapeutic relationship. Patient education directed towards an explanation of the pathophysiology of functional abdominal pain is in our opinion a prerequisite step and provides the rationale for the introduction of interventions. Interventions can usefully be categorised into general measures, pharmacotherapy, psychological interventions and 'step-up' treatments. Pharmacotherapeutic/step-up options include tricyclic antidepressants, serotonin noradrenergic reuptake inhibitors and the gabapentinoids. Psychological treatments include cognitive behavioural therapy and hypnotherapy. However, the objective evidence base for these interventions is largely derived from other chronic pain syndrome, and further research is warranted in adult patients with functional abdominal pain.

© The Royal Society of Medicine

J R Soc Med. 2014 Sep;107(9):347-354. Farmer AD(1), Aziz Q(2). Author information: (1)Centre for Digestive Diseases, Wingate Institute of Neurogastroenterology, Blizard Institute, Barts and the London School of Medicine & Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 2AJ, UK a.farmer@qmul.ac.uk. (2)Centre for Digestive Diseases, Wingate Institute of Neurogastroenterology, Blizard Institute, Barts and the London School of Medicine & Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 2AJ, UK.

by Tim Brunson, PhD

Formal hypnotic scripts have long been the backbone of the clinical hypnotherapy profession. Indeed, I can't imagine how difficult my early days as a practitioner would have been without the written materials provided by Topher Morrison, DCH, and Richard Nieves, PhD. Although it has been almost two decades since I've used a formal script during a session, I still value their existence. Indeed, as I seek ideas I still occasionally browse through my library – to include the Handbook of Hypnotic Suggestions by University of Utah psychologist D. Corydon Hammond, PhD. Nevertheless, whether you view formalized scripts as either a tool for neophytes or resources for veterans, their structure and content still remain as an indication of the state of thinking regarding the anatomy of a session – a phenomena that is seriously in need of modernization.

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by Tim Brunson, PhD

Advanced Neuro-Noetic Hypnosis^TM is designed as a system that is solidly supported by scientific research, which then logically progresses to specific protocols. The intent is to create a system with a strong evidence-based rationale that provides more efficient and effective techniques. Previously, I covered its origin and guiding principles. In this article I will continue my discussion by giving brief explanations regarding the five core concepts upon which it is based. These are patterns, balance, inhibition, plasticity, and entrainment.

Before getting into these I want to again give you some of my reasoning. During my initial certifications and the beginning of my doctoral courses, I was constantly exposed to a variety of script writing techniques, which were to be used to produce guided imagery for different things such as habit cessation and healing. The presented rules were rather simplistic. I was instructed to use positive words and phrases and a mixture of metaphor and direct suggestion. In turn, this was justified in terms of "whole brain thinking" clichés and even more advanced concepts such as Robert Sperry's left-right brain and the triune brain. From that point, it was hoped that the wonderful entity called the subconscious mind would somehow miraculously figure out a solution and change the subject's life. This was pretty much how I started my career as a clinical hypnotherapist. While I was pleased by the results that my clients experienced, later when medical doctors began challenging my rather anecdotal claims, it was through efforts to find research evidence and my pursuit of neurology, quantum physics, and energy modalities that my way of thinking suddenly changed.

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Introduction. Many breast cancer patients and survivors experience pain and emotional stress related to their disease, its diagnostic procedures, or treatment. Hypnosis has long been used for the treatment of such symptoms. The aim of this review was to systematically assess the effectiveness of hypnosis in women with breast cancer, breast cancer survivors, and in women undergoing diagnostic breast biopsy. Methods. PubMed, Scopus, the Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, and CAMBASE were screened through February 2014 for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of hypnosis in women with breast cancer or undergoing diagnostic breast biopsy. RCTs on postmenopausal women without a history of breast cancer were also eligible. Primary outcomes were pain, distress, fatigue, nausea/vomiting, and hot flashes. Safety was defined as secondary outcome measure. Risk of bias was assessed by 2 reviewers independently using the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool. Results. Thirteen RCTs with 1357 patients were included. In women undergoing diagnostic breast biopsy (3 RCTs), hypnosis positively influenced pain and distress; 1 RCT on breast cancer surgery found effects of hypnosis on pain, distress, fatigue, and nausea. For women undergoing radiotherapy (3 RCTs), hypnosis combined with cognitive-behavioral therapy improved distress and fatigue. In 3 RCTs on women with and without a history of breast cancer experiencing hot flashes, hypnosis improved hot flashes and distress. Three RCTs on women with metastatic breast cancer found effects on pain and distress. Conclusions. This systematic review found sparse but promising evidence for the effectiveness of hypnosis in breast cancer care. While more research is needed to underpin these results, hypnosis can be considered as an ancillary intervention in the management of breast cancer-related symptoms.

© The Author(s) 2014.

Integr Cancer Ther. 2014 Sep 18. pii: 1534735414550035. Cramer H(1), Lauche R(2), Paul A(2), Langhorst J(2), Kümmel S(3), Dobos GJ(2). Author information: (1)Department of Internal and Integrative Medicine, Kliniken Essen-Mitte, Faculty of Medicine, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany h.cramer@kliniken-essen-mitte.de. (2)Department of Internal and Integrative Medicine, Kliniken Essen-Mitte, Faculty of Medicine, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany. (3)Interdisclipinary Breast Cancer Center, Kliniken Essen-Mitte, Essen, Germany.

H. Norman Wright is a licensed Marriage, Family and Child Therapist. He has taught in the Graduate Department of Biola University. He was former director of the Graduate Department of Marriage, Family and Child Counseling at Biola University, as well as an Associate Professor of Psychology.

Dr. Perry is the MFT Director of Clinical Training at Northcentral University. He has more than 40 years of experience as a clinician and 20 years of experience as a supervisor. He focuses on research and advocates the use of the Internet to aid the delivery of quality supervision for students in clinical training programs.

Applied Kinesiology (AK) is a scientifically unproven method used in complementary medicine to recognize the (in)tolerance of dental materials. Test-retest reliability of AK was examined. The working hypothesis was the assumption that the reliability of AK would not exceed random chance. Two dentists qualified in AK examined 112 volunteers to determine individual (in)tolerance toward two dental composite materials. After the first examination, 31 subjects were excluded from further testing. At the end of the open test phase, 34 of 81 participants had been classified as "tolerant", and seven as "intolerant" to both materials. The remaining 40 individuals showed a combination of either tolerant (to material I)/intolerant (to material II), or the reverse (n = 20 each). Retrieval rate was tested under blind conditions. In 14 cases, the results of the open and blinded tests matched, whereas in 26 cases they did not (95% confidence interval, 21%-52%; p = 0.98). This outcome confirmed our working hypothesis.

J Dent Res. 2005 Nov;84(11):1066-9.

Staehle HJ, Koch MJ, Pioch T.

Department of Conservative Dentistry, University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 400, D-61920 Heidelberg, Germany. hans-joerg.staehle@med.uni-heidelberg.de

Full title: Using hypnosis to disrupt face processing: mirrored-self misidentification delusion and different visual media.

Mirrored-self misidentification delusion is the belief that one's reflection in the mirror is not oneself. This experiment used hypnotic suggestion to impair normal face processing in healthy participants and recreate key aspects of the delusion in the laboratory. From a pool of 439 participants, 22 high hypnotisable participants ("highs") and 20 low hypnotisable participants were selected on the basis of their extreme scores on two separately administered measures of hypnotisability. These participants received a hypnotic induction and a suggestion for either impaired (i) self-face recognition or (ii) impaired recognition of all faces. Participants were tested on their ability to recognize themselves in a mirror and other visual media - including a photograph, live video, and handheld mirror - and their ability to recognize other people, including the experimenter and famous faces. Both suggestions produced impaired self-face recognition and recreated key aspects of the delusion in highs. However, only the suggestion for impaired other-face recognition disrupted recognition of other faces, albeit in a minority of highs. The findings confirm that hypnotic suggestion can disrupt face processing and recreate features of mirrored-self misidentification. The variability seen in participants' responses also corresponds to the heterogeneity seen in clinical patients. An important direction for future research will be to examine sources of this variability within both clinical patients and the hypnotic model.

Front Hum Neurosci. 2014 Jun 18;8:361. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00361. eCollection 2014. Connors MH(1), Barnier AJ(2), Coltheart M(2), Langdon R(2), Cox RE(2), Rivolta D(3), Halligan PW(4). Author information: (1)ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders Sydney, NSW, Australia ; Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University Sydney, NSW, Australia ; Dementia Collaborative Research Centre, School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales Sydney, NSW, Australia. (2)ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders Sydney, NSW, Australia ; Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University Sydney, NSW, Australia. (3)School of Psychology, University of East London London, UK ; Department of Neurophysiology, Max Planck Institute for Brain Research Frankfurt am Main, Germany ; Ernst Strüngmann Institute for Neuroscience in Cooperation with Max Planck Society Frankfurt am Main, Germany. (4)ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders Sydney, NSW, Australia ; School of Psychology, Cardiff University Cardiff, UK.

This is an excellent video that reframes popular views of why we should avoid chronic negative stress and the positive role of oxytocin when it comes to mitigating those negative affects. She clearly states that research shows that our beliefs about stress may be more damaging than the actual adverse effects -- if any.

Full title: "Reality" of near-death-experience memories: evidence from a psychodynamic and electrophysiological integrated study.

The nature of near-death-experiences (NDEs) is largely unknown but recent evidence suggests the intriguing possibility that NDEs may refer to actually "perceived," and stored, experiences (although not necessarily in relation to the external physical world). We adopted an integrated approach involving a hypnosis-based clinical protocol to improve recall and decrease memory inaccuracy together with electroencephalography (EEG) recording in order to investigate the characteristics of NDE memories and their neural markers compared to memories of both real and imagined events. We included 10 participants with NDEs, defined by the Greyson NDE scale, and 10 control subjects without NDE. Memories were assessed using the Memory Characteristics Questionnaire. Our hypnosis-based protocol increased the amount of details in the recall of all kind of memories considered (NDE, real, and imagined events). Findings showed that NDE memories were similar to real memories in terms of detail richness, self-referential, and emotional information. Moreover, NDE memories were significantly different from memories of imagined events. The pattern of EEG results indicated that real memory recall was positively associated with two memory-related frequency bands, i.e., high alpha and gamma. NDE memories were linked with theta band, a well-known marker of episodic memory. The recall of NDE memories was also related to delta band, which indexes processes such as the recollection of the past, as well as trance states, hallucinations, and other related portals to transpersonal experience. It is notable that the EEG pattern of correlations for NDE memory recall differed from the pattern for memories of imagined events. In conclusion, our findings suggest that, at a phenomenological level, NDE memories cannot be considered equivalent to imagined memories, and at a neural level, NDE memories are stored as episodic memories of events experienced in a peculiar state of consciousness.

Front Hum Neurosci. 2014 Jun 19;8:429. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00429. eCollection 2014. Palmieri A(1), Calvo V(1), Kleinbub JR(1), Meconi F(2), Marangoni M(1), Barilaro P(1), Broggio A(1), Sambin M(1), Sessa P(3). Author information: (1)Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Pedagogy and Applied Psychology (FISPPA), University of Padova Padova, Italy. (2)Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialization (DPSS), University of Padova Padova, Italy. (3)Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialization (DPSS), University of Padova Padova, Italy ; Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Padova Padova, Italy.

Full title: Cross-evidence for hypnotic susceptibility through nonlinear measures on EEGs of non-hypnotized subjects.

Assessment of hypnotic susceptibility is usually obtained through the application of psychological instruments. A satisfying classification obtained through quantitative measures is still missing, although it would be very useful for both diagnostic and clinical purposes. Aiming at investigating the relationship between the cortical brain activity and the hypnotic susceptibility level, we propose the combined use of two methodologies - Recurrence Quantification Analysis and Detrended Fluctuation Analysis - both inherited from nonlineardynamics. Indicators obtained through the application of these techniques to EEG signals of individuals in their ordinary state of consciousness allowed us to obtain a clear discrimination between subjects with high and low susceptibility to hypnosis. Finally a neural network approach was used to perform classification analysis.

Sci Rep. 2014 Jul 8;4:5610. doi: 10.1038/srep05610. Chiarucci R(1), Madeo D(1), Loffredo MI(1), Castellani E(2), Santarcangelo EL(2), Mocenni C(1). Author information: (1)1] Department of Information Engineering and Mathematics, University of Siena, Italy [2] Complex Systems Community, University of Siena, Italy. (2)Department of Translational Research and New Technologies in Medicine and Surgery, University of Pisa, Italy.

Dr. Foa is an Isreali professor of clinical psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. There she as the Director of the Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety. She is an internationally renowned authority on the psychopathology and treatment of anxiety. She approaches the understanding and treatment of mental disorders from a congnitive-based perspective. Her research, aimed at determining the causes and treatments of anxiety disorders, has been extremely influential. She is considered an expert in post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Full title: Hypnotic induction is followed by state-like changes in the organization of EEG functional connectivity in the theta and beta frequency bands in high-hypnotically susceptible individuals.

Altered state theories of hypnosis posit that a qualitatively distinct state of mental processing, which emerges in those with high hypnotic susceptibility following a hypnotic induction, enables the generation of anomalous experiences in response to specific hypnotic suggestions. If so then such a state should be observable as a discrete pattern of changes to functional connectivity (shared information) between brain regions following a hypnotic induction in high but not low hypnotically susceptible participants. Twenty-eight channel EEG was recorded from 12 high susceptible (highs) and 11 low susceptible (lows) participants with their eyes closed prior to and following a standard hypnotic induction. The EEG was used to provide a measure of functional connectivity using both coherence (COH) and the imaginary component of coherence (iCOH), which is insensitive to the effects of volume conduction. COH and iCOH were calculated between all electrode pairs for the frequency bands: delta (0.1-3.9 Hz), theta (4-7.9 Hz) alpha (8-12.9 Hz), beta1 (13-19.9 Hz), beta2 (20-29.9 Hz) and gamma (30-45 Hz). The results showed that there was an increase in theta iCOH from the pre-hypnosis to hypnosis condition in highs but not lows with a large proportion of significant links being focused on a central-parietal hub. There was also a decrease in beta1 iCOH from the pre-hypnosis to hypnosis condition with a focus on a fronto-central and an occipital hub that was greater in high compared to low susceptibles. There were no significant differences for COH or for spectral band amplitude in any frequency band. The results are interpreted as indicating that the hypnotic induction elicited a qualitative change in the organization of specific control systems within the brain for high as compared to low susceptible participants. This change in the functional organization of neural networks is a plausible indicator of the much theorized "hypnotic-state."

Front Hum Neurosci. 2014 Jul 24;8:528. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00528. eCollection 2014. Jamieson GA(1), Burgess AP(2). Author information: (1)School of Behavioural, Cognitive & Social Sciences, University of New England Armidale, NSW, Australia. (2)Aston Brain Centre, School of Life & Health Sciences, Aston University Birmingham, UK.

Shawn began teaching NLP and Hypnosis in 2006 after completing a highly successful career in business consulting, including serving on the Board of Directors of a major international consulting organization. His experience in Business Consulting and consultative sales perfectly suits him to understand the needs of clients and students from the business world.