Hypnotherapy is the application of
hypnosis as a form of medical treatment, particularly for conditions largely related to the person's state of mind.
Practitioners believe that when a client enters a trance state, or believes to do so, the client's resistance to beneficial change will be lowered significantly, and so various means of therapy will be easier to deliver and more successful. Examples of methodologies are:
- Hypnoanalysis: The client relives moments from his/her past and releases the emotions that are attached to these moments. Related to psychoanalysis. It typically takes between 1 and 20 sessions.
- Suggestion therapy: The client receives positive suggestions that are "programmed" directly into the psyche and last for all time if accepted by the psyche.
- Regression therapy: Same as hypnoanalysis, though the client (or therapist!) may choose to follow just one or more specific thought-trains, rather than arbitrary memories selected by the psyche.