From: anonasar@khijol.UUCP (Anonymous poster for alt.sexual.abuse.recovery)
Newsgroups: alt.sexual.abuse.recovery
Subject: Suggestions on hypnosis (long)
Date: 16 Oct 92 17:46:27 GMT

X-ANON-Version: 0.5


Here are some thoughts that you may wish to consider if you
are thinking about hypnosis as an aid to your healing.

Hypnosis is really just a guided introduction to an altered
state of awareness.  The state most resembles a "runner's high"
or when you are just dozing off to sleep.  Most people pass through
the state twice a day, once going to sleep and once waking up.
The most common statement made by people when they finish their
first hypnosis session is "but I wasn't really hypnotized".

Well, contrary to what television and movies would like you to
think, hypnosis is not an awe inspiring, mystical, magical thing
that causes you to do unbelievable things.  The fact is that you
are really not likely to do anything in a hypnotic state that you
wouldn't really do anyway (sorry to shatter what may have been a myth).
If this were really the case then the hypnotic weight-loss and stop
smoking programs would have a success rate near 100% (they do NOT).

Things that hypnosis (with a good hypnotist, more on that later) CAN do
to assist you are to allow you to be in a guided, relaxed state that
may allow you to slip by a barrier or two that you mind has set up in
the past.  However, PLEASE, PLEASE, *PLEASE* use this with caution and
hopefully under the guidance of an experienced professional.

If you are considering hypnosis I would like to suggest that you find
a professional that has experience with either survivors or with people
that have had traumatic incidents in general.  The reason is that as you
explore events you may react in a very REAL manner to the memory and it
would not be a good time to find out that the hypnotist was timid and
confused about what to do.  One point to remember that while you should
be able to be VERY comfortable with your hypnotist, if you are reacting
to a bad memory then the hypnotist may have to become very assertive
in their instructions for you to move away from the memory.

It would be good for you to set a goal for each session (with the hypnotist)
so that while you are in the relaxed state the hypnotist can guide you to
deal with the specific issue that was agreed upon for this session.  Please
try and resist the temptation to "do it all at once".  After one or two
successful sessions some people tend to try to get more and more done each
time, I would like to suggest that this would be the time to be gentle with
yourself.  You may want to agree with the hypnotist beforehand at what point
you want to be removed from a bad memory.

You may want to have your session tape recorded.  I suggest that you think
carefully about this, it is a good protection for both you and the hypnotist,
but it can have a drawback.  The major drawback is that you may well uncover
memories (or fragments of memories, remember this is not magic) that you
are not fully "ready" to remember (your mind blocked them for a reason).
My experience, and those that I have talked with, is that you remember what 
happens right after the session ends, but like a dream when you wake up the 
memory fades FAST.  So you may want to use caution if you listen to those tapes!

The amount of information that can be retrieved by you and a skilled
hypnotist in a session is amazing.  But, you must realize that you do not
defeat ALL of your minds defenses.  You may extract a memory one time and the
next you get the same memory, but the details are different.  Does this
invalidate the first memory?  NO, it does not.  Just like the memories that
you have now they come out in stages.  Hypnosis can relax you so that you
and the hypnotist can get at them sooner than you would otherwise, but it
is not magic so you can not go right to the end (geee, not magic, where have 
I read that before :))

You may want to ask your hypnotist for a "post-hypnotic" suggestion to help
you relax when a particularly bad time happens.  What a "post-hypnotic" 
suggestion does is allow a word or phrase (called a trigger word) to activate
conditioning to help you relax.  The suggestion is given during the session that
when you deliberately use this word (the trigger) that you will feel your body
relaxing, etc (or whatever is appropriate).  This is one of the more useful 
aspects of hypnosis and can help a lot.

O.K. this is long enough.  If there are any question that you have you
are welcome to email me and I will do my best to answer them.

Synopsis:

1. Check with your therapist (if you are seeing one) BEFORE trying 
   hypnosis, PLEASE!  If you are working on something specific, you may 
   harm your progress by "forcing" something before you are "ready" and then 
   there will be more trauma for you to deal with.

2. Search for a good, experienced hypnotist that you will be comfortable with

3. Consider taping each session (talk with the hypnotist about this)

4. Ask for a post hypnotic suggestion for helping in a specific area
   (again, please resist the possible temtation to try and help ALL situations,
    only one or maybe two at most).

5. Try and limit your expectations.  If you try hypnosis you will most likely
   get an idea of what can and can not be accomplished in a session and the
   sessions themselves may vary!

- Taylor

************************************************************************
* Taylor W. Mohrle   (214) 245-6793  datasink!twm@europa.lonestar.org  *
************************************************************************


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