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Del Morrill, M.S. C.C.H

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A Center for Counseling & Hypnosis
Tacoma, Washington, USA
(253) 752-1506

Alternative Medicine

Question
I am a graduate student in Health Administration and am researching forms of alternative medicine and their use in a traditional health care facility. I am interested in a professional's opinion - what do you think?

Answer
I appreciate you writing to me. I'm going to include a few resources here that, hopefully, will explain enough of my stance on hypnosis and therapeutic care. This can apply just as well in any hospital situation. Frankly, if I ran the hospital system across our nation, I would hire a qualified full-time hypnotherapist who was trained in pain management and other medical hypnosis, whose job would be to be available throughout the hospital complex, including preparation for surgical procedures. The work a hypnotherapist does can be called by other names, if it's helpful in terms of people's images and misunderstandings of the hypnotic processes. Here are just a few of the reasons hypnotic procedures are helpful in a hospital setting: (1) Hypnosis helps calm people before surgery, helps most patients require less anaesthetic during surgery, and assists them in more rapid recovery and requirement of less medication for pain control. (2) Hypnosis helps ease childbirth considerably, making the whole process more pleasant for the patient and for those around her. The birthing process is often much shorter than her labor might ordinarily have been, and less anaesthesia or other invasive routines are required. I would really like to see a controlled study done by a single hospital using hypnosis with all births, to see how it affects the number of caesarian sections needed. So far, I've not seen such a study, but I'm convinced there would be a significant difference. (3) Hypnosis helps medical staff individually, and as a group. If it were applied for a few minutes before a staff went on shift, I'm convinced there would be a difference in energy, stamina, and attitude as they went through their day of intensive work. For many people, it is more helpful to them than meditation because hypnosis is more specific (less abstract), and gives a very practical and easy way to focus, due to the guidance given. (4) Hypnosis helps patients, and those who serve them, relax more easily, filling them with a sense of calmness and peacefulness. This makes all procedures experienced as less invasive, and more easily handled. (5) For people who have a fear of doctors or needles, hypnosis can get at the origin of the fear and release it very quickly, for the most part. (6) Children are easily hypnotized, making little distinction between "real and unreal", so hypnosis can be wonderfully affective in children's wards, as well as in their being handled by doctors and nurses, especially for difficult or uncomfortable procedures. (7) Hypnosis helps patients sleep more easily, often without medication that they might "normally" have had to receive. I hope this gives you enough information to at least get down the road relative to the power and value of the hypnotic processes in helping with hospital services. I wish I had time to go further, but I'm just quickly responding off the top of my head right now with what I'm convinced of. I'm including three of the several articles I've written that I feel apply more directly to the medical/mental health world of professionals and patients. You'll also find these on my web site in the ASK DEL archives, should you wish to download from there.

 
 

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