How hypnotherapy can heal you

"There’s nothing much to photograph you know," jokes Dr Vanit Nalwa, when asked if she could be photographed in the chamber where she conducts her hypnotherapy sessions. “No candles or swinging pendulums!” Dr Nalwa, well-known Delhi-based hypnotherapist and neuropsychologist, isn’t far off the mark. For many people, the word hypnosis conjures images that have more to do with magic than medicine.

But the truth is that hypnotherapy is a scientifically-acknowledged discipline that can be used by itself or in combination with other types of therapies to help patients achieve their goals, says Reema Shah, Mumbai-based psychologist and hypnotherapist. Approved by the American and British Medical Associations, hypnosis is “scientifically researched and can even be seen on a brain scan,” claims Dr Dayal Mirchandani, a Mumbai-based psychiatrist.

Using the subconscious

According to Shah, hypnotherapy is very effective with anxiety disorders, phobias and traumas. Addictions like smoking and drinking and even kleptomania can also be cured effectively through hypnotherapy, though results may vary from person to person. Dr Nalwa, who trained in the UK and has had patients ranging in ages from six to 60, says that generally people come for various phobias as well as marital and work-related problems. She encourages people to try hypnotherapy only if they have an open mind about it and says that often, people approach hypnotherapy as a last resort due to lack of awareness.

Dr Mirchandani says that hypnotherapy can work very well for pain control. “It has been used during labour and works very well,” he says. He mainly uses hypnotherapy for medical conditions like asthma, painful arthritis, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, etc. “It could also be used on people who are grossly overweight to help them lose their appetite,” he adds. Shah says it’s also an effective therapy for insomnia.

Hypnosis is a state of relaxation. “It’s the state between being fast asleep and being alert,” Dr Nalwa says. Shah tries to explain it. “It’s like a daydream, where you are conscious and aware, yet you are oblivious to external distractions.”

A daydream-like state may sound magical but most hypnotherapists would suggest it only if required. “If clients specifically ask for hypnotherapy, the first session is spent assessing whether they really need it,” says Shah. Therapists usually decide if hypnosis is required depending on the kind of problem, the extent of it and also their assessment of the client’s personality.

It doesn’t always work, says Dr Nalwa who restricts her sessions to six. “If it’s not working with six sessions, then it is not the therapy the client needs,” she believes. Shah says hypnotherapy can take anything from three sessions to 10 to be effective, particularly if it’s a deep addiction.

Working it

Hypnotherapy works with the subconscious mind. According to Shah, the brain operates on four measurable frequency cycles: Delta, Theta, Alpha and Beta. Theta is the subconscious part where all emotional experiences are recorded, while Alpha is where dreaming and daydreaming takes place. Beta is the conscious region for reasoning and daily activities. When we sleep, the brain automatically cycles down from Beta to Alpha and hypnosis takes advantage of this natural phenomenon. “It causes the brain to cycle down into Alpha without going to sleep. The subconscious mind is open to suggestive input and unlike the conscious mind, it doesn’t think or reason and responds to what it is told. Suggestions are then made into real behaviour changes by the mind,” Shah says.

Dr Nalwa says hypnotherapy goes into stored memories in the brain. “It’s like accessing your database in the brain and making changes at that level.” Dr Mirchandani thinks that most people go into a naturally occurring state of trance without realising it, while reading a book or watching an interesting movie. He teaches self-hypnosis to people with chronic painful conditions or those with anxiety disorders, an area where hypnosis is very effective. “It helps them calm down, whether before a meeting or an interview,” he says.

Bangalore girl Subha Narayan would sweat before interviews and group discussions and be anxious to the extent of walking out rather than go through the ordeal. “Hypnotherapy helped me to deal with my fears and techniques I learnt from my counsellor helped me calm down before an interview session,” says Narayan, who now works for a pharmaceutical company and is comfortable giving a presentation to a roomful of people, a fearsome prospect earlier.