Hypnotherapeutic Techniques to Facilitate Psychotherapy with PTSD and Dissociative Clients

Abstract

describe some of the more helpful hypnotherapeutic techniques to incorporate into psychotherapy as the clinician works with dissociative clients [and those with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)] / the degree of dissociation, the therapeutic task at hand, and the comfort level between the therapist and the client will help determine the hypnotic techniques most useful throughout therapy / beyond describing techniques, examples of how to use these skills with particular clients will be illustrated / specific words for hypnotic treatment are included diagnosis / understanding trance in the client's life / therapeutic tasks for each phase of treatment of trauma victims [ideomotor signals, safe place, affect modulation and toleration, containment techniques, age progression and age regression (hypnotic time distortion), hypnotic distancing techniques] / more advanced hypnotic techniques [advanced ideomotor signaling, fractionation, deepening of trance, mobilization of affect and cognition, age regression, penetrating or creating barriers in DIDs (dissociative identity disorders), contracting for safety] / complex hypnotic techniques [processing the memory in reverse, combining memories, working with 'decision makers,' dividing a memory through several therapy sessions, examples of hypnotic techniques found helpful in processing the existential crises and promoting cognitive restructuring, examples of other special hypnotic techniques found helpful with trauma survivors during the processing of a memory] (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)