PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder) often goes undiagnosed by the medical profession and even in the psychological community. Common examples of undiagnosed people with PTSD can be adults who, as children, grew up with parents who were alcoholic, where there was violence, yelling, fighting and bullying in the household. A person who was physically, emotionally or sexually abused during the formative years most likely has grown up with symptoms of PTSD without it ever having been recognized or treated as well. Familiarity with the principles of the mind through hypnotherapy gives us the most effective tools to truly recognize, diagnose, and then treat PTSD.
Hypnotherapy for PTSD is an evidence-based treatment and can effectively treat the symptoms as well as the underlying causes. Hypnotherapy can be a powerful treatment for PTSD because of the similarity between hypnotic phenomena and the symptoms of PTSD. Hypnotherapy provides controlled access to memories that may otherwise be kept out of consciousness. New uses of hypnosis in the psychotherapy of PTSD victims involve coupling access to the dissociated traumatic memories with positive restructuring of those memories.
Some of the unique ways that hypnotherapy is effectively used in the treatment of PTSD:
- Immediate installation of powerful stress reduction exercises that can be recorded so the person who has PTSD can replay recordings of these exercises daily or as often as needed after leaving the treatment facility
- Identification of the triggers so that the person who has PTSD experiences more control of situations in their life
- Titration of symptoms so that the person who has PTSD can slowly reduce their reactions to the common triggers
- Hypnotherapy can assist in identifying situations and individual memories of other, previous stressful events that may be adding fuel to the PTSD wildfire
- Hypnotherapy can help consolidate the memories into a more organized storage system in the subconscious so that the memories become less intrusive and less powerful
Hypnotherapy can be used to help patients face and bear a traumatic experience by embedding it in a new context, acknowledging helplessness during the event, and yet linking that experience with remoralizing memories such as efforts at self-protection, shared affection with friends who were killed, or the ability to control the environment at other times. In this way, hypnosis can be used to provide controlled access to memories that are then placed into a broader perspective. Patients can be taught self-hypnosis techniques that allow them to work through traumatic memories and thereby reduce spontaneous unbidden intrusive recollections.