1. health and fitness
2. therapy

XIII EUROPEAN CONGRESS
PRELIMINARY SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM
KEYNOTE ADDRESSES (45 min.)
SPECIAL KEYNOTE
Johan Vanderlinden (Leuven, Belgium)
The impact of trauma on mind and body: challenges for the pscyhotherapeutic approach
Consuelo Casula (Milan, Italy)
“La vita è bella” (Life is Beautiful). Ethics and Values in Hypnosis and Resilience
La vita è bella, despite wrongdoings and odds, pain and suffering, misfortune and injustice, was a value
that Erickson believed and taught to his patients. La vita è bella is what resilient people discover after a
trauma, recognizing ethics and values as motivational variables for living a meaningful life.
Resilience - with its components of optimism, benevolence, equanimity, coherence, humor, hardiness,
self-regulation- and hypnosis - with its strategies for enhancing hidden resources- are complementary in
helping patients to find their values and support the development of their
integrated true self.
Values developed by both resilience and hypnosis will be presented.
Julie H. Linden (Philadelphia, PA, USA)
Incorporating Hypnosis into Psychotherapy with Children and Adolescents to Promote Resilience
Many clinicians struggle with how to integrate their newly learned hypnosis skills into the practice of
psychotherapy. This address will explore why it is useful to think hypnotically and how to do so. It will
also illustrate how to use clinical creativity to find the opportunities to be hypnotic, adapting the tools of
hypnosis to fit the child’s psychotherapeutic needs.
Camillo Loriedo (Rome, Italy)
How to survive as a therapist
Nicole Ruysschaert (Antwerp, Belgium)
From empathy to compassion fatigue. How can health care practitioners develop resilience and keep their
positive engagement?
Health care professionals, psychotherapists, dentists are particularly at risk of burnout, compassion
fatigue, vicarious traumatization. As therapy/treatment involves an intense human interaction mirror
neurons also play an important role, quite often on an unconscious level. Some neurophysiological aspects
of “mirror neurons” will be reviewed and illustrated and their role in empathy. Another aspect of the
therapeutic relationship relates to ‘attachment’ styles. Realizing which ones are predominant and the
effects for the client and for the therapist adds on to consciously managing the relationship.
Ideas will be reviewed to manage the mirroring-un mirroring and pacing processes in therapy sessions
and utilize hypnosis for the benefit of the client and the therapist. As a therapist you can use hypnosis to
prepare yourself and to debrief after the work. Hypnosis is an interesting and efficient mean to reenergize
oneself, develop resources and resilience, learning to modulate distance, be well-tuned on the process of
therapy. Therapists can become more resilient and engaged the positive antidotes of burnout and
compassion fatigue. Only by consciously taking care of one self can health care professionals and their
clients benefit from a long-lasting and satisfying career.
Michael Yapko (Fallbrook, CA, USA)
Global Cognition and Mental Health: The Therapeutic Merits of Concreteness and Specificity in Applied
Hypnosis
Why does a grown adult need to be reminded by a therapist that he or she no longer needs to feel or act
like a helpless child? Why does someone treat a new boyfriend or girlfriend unfairly, as if he or she is the
same as the last one who hurt him or her? One answer: Global thinking. Most people – therapists included
– are global thinkers, people who ative effects of trauma. It’s also a basis for giving bad therapeutic
advice. What forms does global thinking take, and what can therapists who utilize hypnosis do to
effectively address this cognitive style? In this keynote address, we will consider the role of global thinking
on various symptom presentations and affirm how very important it is to be able to teach concrete and
specific skills – perhaps surprisingly sometimes through the use of abstract, metaphorical language in
hypnosis - in making important distinctions that can lead to improved decision-making and, subsequently,
better mental health.
Jeffrey K. Zeig (Phoenix, Arizona)
The symbolic use of hypnotic phenomena
Examples will be presented of multiple level communication to increase impact.
INVITED ADDRESSES (30 min.)
Arreed F. Barabasz (Washington, WA, USA)
Breakthrough Evidence: the manualized hypnosis cure for PTSD
A single manualized abreactive hypnosis session (5-6 hours) based on Ego State Theory (EST) [1] was
recently subjected to two placebo-controlled investigations meeting evidence-based criteria. Thirty-six
patients in study #1 and 30 patients in study #2 who met PTSD criteria were exposed to either 5-6 hours
of a manualized treatment or a placebo in a single session. Abreactive hypnosis emphasized hypnotically
activated “reliving” of the trauma experience to physical and psychological exhaustion. In study #1
hypnosis and control groups reduced PTSD checklist (PCL) [2] scores immediately post treatment
(placebo PCL score mean reduction 17. 34 and EST treatment PCL mean reduction 53.11). However, only
the hypnosis patients maintained significant treatment effects at follow-ups. Study #2 used the Davidson
Trauma Scale (DTS [3]), Beck Depression II( BDI – II), and Beck Anxiety Scales (BAI). Only the
hypnosis group showed significant positive effects from pretreatment to all post treatment measurement
periods. Abreactive EST was shown to be a highly effective and durable treatment for PTSD. Apparently,
EST works because it is emotion focused, activates sub-cortical structures, and because the supportive,
interpretive therapist reconstructs the patient’s personality to be resilient and adaptive.
Peter B. Bloom (Philadelphia, PA, USA)
Cultivating creativity in the therapist
Consuelo Casula (Milan, Italy)
The Hypnotic Approach based on Resilience
The presentation will focus attention on how hypnosis elicits patients’ naturalistic resilience through
absorbing attention on their hidden resources, talents and strengths.
The presentation will propose several hypnotic strategies for transforming traumas’ memories into
learning experience, for reducing affect dys-regulation and building positive states of consciousness
through which to see the future with optimism and solve problems developing healthy solutions.
The transformational experience elicited by the hypnotic process creates the foundation for patients’
hardiness so that become aware of their ability in committing themselves in what they want to achieve,
recognizing what they can control and how to overcome challenges.
Giuseppe De Benedittis
Challenging Intolerable, Refractory Widespread Pain: what we have learned from Hypnosis in
Fibromyalgia Patients
Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is a complex, functional pain syndrome characterized by chronic, intolerable
muskuloskeletal widespread pain and hyperalgesia, likely due to central hyperexcitability and loss of
descending inhibition, associated with fatigue, non-restorative sleep, cognitive/emotional dysfunction, and
compromised health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Pathogenesis of FMS is poorly understood, but an
increasing body of evidence supports the association of childhood/adulthood emotional, physical, sexual
abuse or neglect in a significant subset of FMS patients. Victimization may serve as a mediator variable
between trauma in childhood/adulthood and the development of chronic widespread pain in the long
term, suggesting that FMS might serve as a somatized equivalent of delayed post-traumatic stress
disorder. Management and outcome of fibromyalgia patients may be challenging, as FMS seems to be
refractory to most treatments. Pychological interventions have been claimed to be effective in cognitive
modulation of fibromyalgic pain. A few studies suggest that difficult, FMS patients might benefit from
hypnotherapy. In a recent study, we compared the long-term efficacy of hypnotherapy (H) vs standard
pharmacological treatment (C) in eighteen patients with FMS.Hypnotherapy consisted mainly of indirect
suggestions for modulating pain. Short-term mean pain relief for H and C pts. was 59% and 53.7%,
respectively (n.s.), whereas long-term mean pain relief for H and C pts. was 69.5% and 23.1%,
respectively (p=.0013). Our results indicate that hypnotherapy plus standard medical treatment produces
greater pain relief and improvement in quality of life (HRQOL) than standard medical treatment alone in
the long run, but not in the short run, thus suggesting that the pain reduction can be maintained and
even improved across time. Continued home practice (i.e., self-hypnosis) coupled with periodic “booster”
sessions possibly accounted for maintenance of gains. Safety of hypnotic treatment was excellent, as no
adverse events related to hypnosis/self-hypnosis were reported. In addition, hypnoanalytical approach
was used in three patients with FMS-associated physical abuse, resulting in a significant relief of pain and
psychopathological concomitants. In conclusion, hypnosis may be a useful and safe, adjunct tool to
manage chronic pain and dysfunctional symptoms in challenging fibromyalgic patients.
Betty Alice Erickson (Dallas, TX, USA)
Erickson--His work Now and in the Future
Erickson died three decades ago yet his work lives on and expands. Recognizable as a base for many
variations of psychotherapy, it remains timeless and highly relevant to today’s different world. His way of
connecting to others transcends technique. This and other facets of his ways of working will be briefly
discussed with numerous examples from both his professional life and his personal teachings.
Gaby Golan (Ramat Efal, Israel)
"Doctor, are you going to hypnotize me like in the movies? Hypnosis in Movies"
When we offer hypnosis to our patients, it is common that they have misconceptions about hypnosis,
mostly due to the hypnosis they saw in movies and TV series. Usually hypnosis is presented in movies as
a situation where the subject is losing his control, the hypnotist can do with him whatever he wants and
the subject can't resist the hypnotist’s suggestions. These misconceptions interfere with the hypnotic
therapy as the patient has fears of what the therapist will do to him when he will be under hypnosis. As a
result, his benefit of hypnosis will only be partial. During the intake the hypnotist should learn about the
patients’ misconceptions and be more familiar with its origins – the movies and TV series. Then he can
explain to the patient these misconceptions and prepare him to the hypnotic process.
The presentation will include movie scenes and explain the misconceptions that arise from those movies.
Jeffrey E. Lazarus (Menlo Park, USA)
"Self-Hypnosis for the Treatment of Nocturnal Enuresis"
This interactive workshop will include a comprehensive literature review including the current medical
therapies that are being used today. Pharmacological intervention and other behavioral techniques are not
as effective as clinical hypnosis is.
Often, these patients feel hopeless and helpless, because they have seen different clinicians and have
tried different approaches that have not worked. Clinical hypnosis is more effective than pharmacological
intervention and other behavioral techniques.
It can be a challenge for the clinician to give these patients the hope they need in order to allow them to
become resilient.
These patients frequently are surprised at how quickly they are able to improve, even after having the
problem for such a long time. In this interactive workshop, attendees will be taught an entire protocol of
how to help their patients attain dry beds, including how to rekindle their resiliency and encourage
positive expectancy before even meeting the patient.
An entire protocol of how to treat this condition will be taught, including how to including how to rekindle
resiliency encourage positive expectancy before even meeting the patient. Video clips of patients with this
disorder will be shown in order to demonstrate specific hypnosis techniques that will further enhance the
attendee's skills. The participants will also have the
opportunity to learn, discuss, and practice some new techniques, including the use of metaphors to help
treat this condition.
Dramatic improvement is usually seen after only two or three visits, plus, there are no side effects.
John D. Lentz (Shepherdsville, KY, USA)
Innovative approaches to Treating Sexual Abuse and innocent Bystanders
This advanced workshop shows ways to utilize hypnotic language in the treatment of sexual abuse, as
well as treating the innocent bystanders who are also injured, by simply being in the family whether they
knew or not, about the abuse. This approach involves evoking resilience in the victim and family members
who have been impacted by the trauma of abuse, and alters the negative trances that usually accompany
victimization. The proof of these approaches are demonstrated by the reduction of collateral problems the
victims and family members often display even when they have been “ healed”. Going beyond denial and
utilizing methods that enhance the person’s sense of self respect and esteem this approach is useful and
comes from the Author’s clinical experience of 30 plus years working with victims of sexual abuse.
This proposal would be addressing resilience and treatment options, and thus for both clinicians as well as
for patients
Julie H. Linden (Philadelphia, PA, USA)
Pathways to resilience- leading and fostering an hypnotic mindset in health care
As the health care field increasingly embraces the integrated care of the mind and body, hypnosis
practitioners are uniquely equipped to teach their clinical colleagues a variety of tools that foster
wellbeing. Specific suggestions will be made on how to build an hypnotic mindset among fellow
professionals.
Camillo Loriedo (Rome, Italy)
Hypnotic treatment of traumatic neglect
Maggie Philips (Oakland, Ca, USA)
Exploring Deep Wells of Resiliency with Hypnosis, Ego-State Therapy, and Somatic Experiencing
Susy Signer-Fischer (Basel, Svizzera)
Self Parenting Hypnosis and hypnotherapeutic methods
Often we meet children and adolescents whose parents are not able of adequate parenting, giving love,
and attention. Sometimes the improvement of the parents’ capacity of parenting is not possible by
educational councelling. Parents may not be willing or able to be receptive due to e.g. illness or material
poverty.
This lack of parenting can lead to suffering even in adulthood.
It is very important to help children, adolsecents and adults to parent themselves.
In the workshop hypnotherapeutic methods will be developed. The aim will be methods in order to show
children, adolescents, and adults how they can overcome the lack of parenting and what they can do for
themselves.
Bernhard Trenkle (Rottweil, Germany)
Medical Hypnosis: Techniques and Possiblities
In this address I will present a few case histories demonstrating the possibilities of using hypnosis in the
medical field.
Furthermore, it will give an overview about fields in which hypnotic techniques can be used: rehabilitation
after stroke or brain surgery, pain control, lowering high blood pressure, dysphonias, childbirth, faster
healing, influencing side effects of pharmaceutical treatment,etc.
INVITED WORKSHOPS (2 Hours)
Eva Banyai (Budapest, Hungary)
The use of hypnosis and suggestive techniques to mobilize inner resources of cancer patients
The workshop demonstrates the view and complex treatment method developed by the workshop chair
on the basis of her self-healing process after a diagnosis of metastatic cancer, and of her experiences in
helping cancer patients.
The process of working through the trauma caused by the life-threatening diagnosis of cancer, reframing
the illness as a chance for survival and a chance for improving the quality of life, the methods of
mobilizing inner resources, suggestive techniques to decrease pain and other unpleasant symptoms of the
illness and side-effects of chemotherapy treatment will be illustrated by vignettes of cases. The role of
hope will be discussed.
Interactive and experiential techniques will be used to yield an opportunity to practice and analyse the
special hypnotherapeutic methods used in mobilizing inner resources of cancer patients.
Norma and Philip Barretta (Lomita, CA, USA)
If any therapeutic technique needs a touch of creativity, it is Hypnosis.
There are probably thousands of hypnotic “scripts” beautifully crafted, yet none can match up with a
spontaneously delivered PERSONALLY relevant
Creative hypnotic intervention meticulously crafted specifically for the person experiencing the hypnosis!
This workshop presents a series of unusually stimulating activities designed to elicit each participant’s
own creative abilities.While we ordinarily think in logical,sequential ways,and patterns,these activities offer
an invitation to the creative side of the person….to think creatively!
Challenging,enjoyable,sometimes even frustrating,the practice of these “mind stretchers” will
intrigue,perhaps even ENTRANCE participants into their own altered states.
Peter B. Bloom (Philadelphia, PA, USA)
Enhancing the art of therapy
Susanna Carolusson (Goteborg, Sweden)
Brain Trauma and PTSD, through darkness and light
The presenter has experience from working with brain injured people and from having a son with
acquired brain injury at adult age. She will share her experience as a mother and a professional, how to
deal with families in acute crisis, their reactions to rehabilitation, how medical staff can improve their
communication skills, how to offer family support, why brain injured people react negatively to assistance
and support and typical reactions in family and injured. The presenter illustrates with detailed examples of
communication and hypnosis re PTSD flashbacks from traumatic accidents, near death experience, and
primitive defenses, psychotic reactions and spiritual experiences when a brain injury has caused organic
loss of functions such as: sleep rhythm, affect regulation, speech/secondary process & full verbal
communication and cognition. If time, she will also discuss how interpretation and ego strengthening
combined, can facilitate healing and recovery in periods of psychotic breakdown. Her books and CDs will
be for sale at the congress.
Consuelo Casula (Milan, Italy)
Seven Steps to Bounce back Stronger than Before
The workshop shows a hypnotic approach based on seven steps to bring the patient from the suffering
caused by an unresolved past trauma to a harmonious future.
The workshop overviews a model of resilience that plays an important role in eliciting empowering
emotions, reframing limiting beliefs into permissive and exploring attitudes, and eliciting hidden talents
and
resources.
The workshop demonstrates how hypnosis helps to enhance creativity in transforming 1) despair into
doubt, 2) confusion to search, 3) mistakes and regrets into learning, 4) obstacles into challenges, 5)
events into relationship, 6) destiny into choice 7) chaos and rigidity into harmony.
Giuseppe De Benedittis (Milan, Italy)
Hypnosis, Fibromyalgia and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: The Missing Link ?
Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is a complex, functional pain syndrome characterized by chronic, severe
muskuloskeletal widespread pain and hyperalgesia, associated with fatigue, non-restorative sleep,
cognitive/emotional dysfunction, and compromised health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Pathogenesis of
FMS is poorly understood, but an increasing body of evidence supports the association of
childhood/adulthood emotional, physical, sexual abuse or neglect in a significant subset of FMS patients.
Victimization may serve as a mediator variable between trauma in childhood/adulthood and the
development of chronic widespread pain even long after the traumatic event, suggesting that FMS might
serve as a somatized equivalent of delayed post-traumatic stress disorder. Management and prognostic
outcome of fibromyalgia patients may be challenging, as FMS seems to be refractory to most treatments.
Pychological interventions have been claimed to be effective in cognitive modulation of fibromyalgic pain.
A few studies suggest that difficult, FMS patients might benefit from hypnotherapy. The workshop will
provide a systematic review of clinical and pathogenetic aspects of FMS as well as the current evidence on
the role of hypnotherapy in these difficult pain populations. Participants will learn indirect, advanced
hypnotherapeutic techniques for FMS pain control as well as hypnoanalytical approaches in selected
cases.
Betty Alice Erickson (Dallas, TX, USA)
The Essence of Non-Directive Hypnosis
One of Erickson’s gifts to the professional world was his understanding that hypnosis is a natural state
and is a relationship between people. The relationship, rather than one person “doing something” to
another person, is part of what made Erickson’s work so dynamic and so memorable. This workshop will
provide examples, demonstrations and exercises for attendees to practice and refine ways of connecting
with people within the hypnotic relationship
Claire Frederick (Tahoe City, CA, USA)
Dreams and Hypnotic Dreams in Ego State Therapy
Our sleep, our dreams and our healing have been intricately connected over the millennia. Dreams also
have been recognized as a source of self knowledge, creativity, and problem-solving. They are innate
resources, present in every human, that contribute to resiliency and wellness. In this workshop the history
of dream utilization and theories of dreaming will be presented. The focus will be on the use of dreams
and hypnotic dreams (which are not identical) in Ego State Therapy. Ego State Therapy is a therapy that
utilizes a version of the polypsychic model Erickson believed to be a fundamental human structure and a
useful resource. To this end participants will learn how to do dream work with ego states using various
models. Techniques such as “dream incubation,” and Erickson’ “programming of dreams” will be taught
and demonstrated. Another workshop focus will be on the use of Ullman’s Experiential Dream work.
Participants are requested to bring clinical dream material to the workshop so that theory can be
transformed into clinical growth.
Frank Garden-Breche (Saint Malo, France), Stephanie Guillou (Pommeret, France)
Hypnosis and use of the parallel universes in therapy
Our experiences in professional healthcare has lead us to assist patients who share this common point :
exposure to trauma. Whether the trauma be physical, psychic or due to an accident or an acute illness it
always leaves the subject exposed to the reality of an unacceptable present and to a projection of an
imposible future. So, we decided to change this approach to consider the trauma itself as a necessary
resource for the cure and to use the bad for the good.
The fields of imagination are infinite and hypnosis is a tremendous tool to accompany our patient in an
unconscious exploration where past, present, future coexist in an another space-time, another dimension,
in other universes where everything is different and possible.
So, for you therapists, we have imagined several hypnotic techniques to enable the patient to discover his
or her own resources in those parallel universes and to build his or her new perception of a reality to
better face the trauma and use it as a healing source.
During this workshop you will learn these creative, easy applicable techniques, that we use everyday, but
at this time for the benefit of your next patients.
Objectives: You will be able to discover:
- Our concept of "type 3 change" in which the patient transforms the reality of the world that surrounds
him or her to reach his/her goal.
- Integrate past, present, future and all the possible responses- chosen or not- into an infinite range of
possibilities.
- Acquire our techniques of progressive dissociation to investigate the parallel universes which exist
uncounciously to bring out an internal solution from the patient and to allow him to live with a new
reality.
Gaby Golan (Ramat Efal, Israel)
The art of hypnosis: Principles of tailoring hypnosis to each specific patient)
Hypnosis is between science and art. Whether we work with Ericksonien hypnosis or formal-traditional
hypnosis, we have the option to work technically or as artists. A major objective of every hypnotist is to
find the best paradigm suitable for each patient. The more we succeed to tailor a specific hypnosis to the
particular patient, the bigger the chance that we will be able to help him solve his problem and achieve
his therapeutic objectives.
In the workshop we will discuss the principles of tailoring a specific hypnosis to each patient. Clinical
example cases will be presented and guidelines will be given.
Woltemade Hartman (Pretoria, South Africa)
Diamonds in the rough: polish your pride with unrecognized resourceful ego states
Ego state therapists nowadays look more like treasure hunters seeking the unrecognized gems and
resources in their traumatized clients’ lives and personalities. Ego state therapy is a powerful tool for
helping clients plumb for the best in their own personalities and assist directly to tap into their resources
of determination, survival, resiliency, hope, optimism, love and self-pride that ultimately allow them to
flourish again. In this workshop participants will learn more about Ego State Therapy as a Parts Therapy
Model and how therapists can discover and activate their self-pride and build their self-confidence by
discovering their unique and often times hidden resourceful ego states.
Jeffrey E. Lazarus (Menlo Park, CA, USA)
"Treatment of Tics and Habit Disorders with Training in Selfhypnosis"
Self-Hypnosis (SH) has been used successfully to treat tics and habit disorders. These techniques can be
effective in treating patients with Tourette Syndrome (TS) as well as thumb-sucking and trichotillomania.
TS is a complex neurobehavioral disorder characterized by multiple motor tics, as well as vocalizations,
which wax and wane. Many people believe that the tics and vocalizations are involuntary. Often, these
patients feel hopeless and helpless, because they have seen different clinicians and have tried
medications that have not worked. It can be a challenge for the clinician to give these patients the hope
they need in order to allow them to become resilient.
SH can be used either as a primary therapeutic modality, without the use of medication, or as an
adjunctive therapy in addition to medication. When used as an adjunct, medication can often be
decreased or even discontinued. Dramatic improvement is usually seen after only two or three visits,
plus, there are no side effects.
These patients frequently are surprised at how quickly they are able to improve, even after having the
problem for such a long time. In this interactive workshop, attendees will be taught an entire protocol of
how to treat these conditions, including how to encourage positive expectancy before even meeting the
patient. Video clips of different patients with these disorders will be shown in order to demonstrate
specific techniques that will further enhance the attendee's skills. The participants will also have the
opportunity to learn, discuss, and practice some new techniques, including the use of metaphors to help
treat these conditions.
John D.Lentz (Shepherdsville, USA), Teresa Lloyd (Louisville, Kentuky, USA) Enhancing Resilience for
Victims of Religious Abuse
Beyond actual sexual abuse many people have felt hurt, and humiliated by Church practices that left them
feeling ashamed, alone and blamed. The trauma experienced from how a person was treated or believed
they were treated by Church Officials, and Church Doctrines that eroded their faith in God as well as
organized religion took a toll on them in many different areas of their life. Because of the power of the
Church and how we may hear what people in power in the Church say it is easy to have been hurt
whether the very real human mistakes that were made were actually what we were upset about. The hurt
is still real for us and healing it is more than blaming anyone but about utilizing our experiences for our
health and deeper spiritual selves. The Authors offer methods of helping people reclaim their faith as well
as recover from a variety of religiously generated emotional difficulties is about generating resilience and
recognizing positive aspects of the person. Spirituality is a trance state and feeling hurt is as well
This workshop would be combining three themes. The first would be victims of trauma, the second would
be victims and survival, and the third would be enhancing resilience
Julie H. Linden (Philadelphia, PA, USA)
Treating Trauma in Children and Developing Resiliency
Trauma exists in the child and adolescent population although sometimes missed or misidentified. We will
review the nature and mechanisms of trauma in children, and the reasons that hypnosis is well suited to
its treatment.
Incorporating the techniques of hypnosis into a developmental model facilitates the identification and
treatment of trauma and these same techniques can be used to build resiliency. Demonstrations and
practice opportunities will be included.
Shaul Livnay (Tel Aviv, Israel), Yossi Adir (Tel Aviv, Israel)
Hypno-music: Non-verbal strategies & approches to the enhancement of hypnotic effects in working with
clients.
The workshop will enable the participants to learn & experience the introduction of various musical
stimuli, movement and using of voices in non-verbal ways, to discover how these can enhance the
hypnotic experience.
This will be an experiential workshop wherein we will exercise different hypnotic techniques using
exciting and inspiring music from around the world, with the introduction of various instruments (Gong,
Tibetan bowls etc.). The latter provide an object for externalization (therapeutic tertium as used by
Burkhard Peter) and, or transitory object (Winnicot), which offer opportunities to enrichen the therapeutic
process.
Camillo Loriedo (Roma Italy)
Resource Based Family Therapy: Using Naturalistic Hypnosis with Families
Matthias Mende (Salzburg, Austria)
Hypnotherapeutic approaches far trauma confrontation
Participants are expected to have some knowledge of hypnotic stabilizing techniques in trauma therapy.
They will study and apply some excellent means of hypnotherapy to confront affected patients with the
traumatic experience in a controlled way, preventing re-traumatization by being flooded with stressful
materials. This way, the trauma can be processed and integrated into the narrative of the biography.
Flexible utilization of the observer perspective, appropriate timing and the hypnotherapeutic control
over association and dissociation during work done with trauma, are presented as core elements of
confrontation work with trauma.
During the workshop I will address the particularities of different posttraumatic stress disorders (e.g.
simple vs. complex / old vs. recent). I will portray the restoration of the basic emotional needs to
experience feelings of orientation, autonomy, competence and relatedness as a significant criterion for
successful trauma integration.
Ali Esref Muezzinoglu Cetin E.Kaleli, Husnu Muezzinoglu, Vecihe Muezzinoglu, Burhan
Sevsevil, Goksu Trakyali (Istambul, Turkey)
Dental Cases "A to Z"
Theoretical comments as well as video displays on establishing communication with patients, tooth
extraction and other interventions on allergic patients, dental treatment on frightful cases, relieving
anxiety, orthodontic group therapy and replacement therapy.
Giorgio Nardone (Arezzo, Italy)
Strategic Construction of Resilience
Annamaria Rapone, Wilma Trasarti Sponti
Hypnosis in the elaboration of grief and losses, and for overcoming addictions
Nicole Ruysschaert (Antwerp, Belgium)
Resilience in the prevention and therapy of Burnout
‘Normal life’, with contemporary demands, time-pressure, and challenges in a fast changing environment
requires flexibility, hardiness, and sufficient positive motivation to keep oneself going.
A lot of contemporary research focuses on the concept of resilience. Why do some people ‘flourish’
keeping their optimistic attitude in difficult life situations? Do we need to select more and less resilient
people for certain stressful jobs? Is resilience innate, a genetic variety or a characteristic that can be
influenced: “nature” or “nurture”?
Resilience and engagement is the antidote for burnout. Resilience and engagement can be seen as
positive motivators to benefit a long-lasting and satisfying career and to improve the quality of life.
In the presentation I review the concept of resilience, and explain mechanisms and theories. I will review
the 10 ways to build resilience as worked out by the APA, and demonstrate how to integrate hypnosis in
this approach.
You will experience how hypnosis can be used to develop resources and improve resilience through
reliving personal experiences, suggestions, imagery, metaphors, symbols and inspiring models.
Participants will experience how hypnosis can enhance resilience and help recover from set-backs and be
better prepared to face adversity and gain proactive attitude to deal with life-events.
Susy Signer-Fischer (Basel, Switzerland)
The treatment of traumatised children, adolescents and adults. Hypnosis and hypnotherapeutic methods
In this workshop the possibilities of working with traumatised children, adolescents and adults are
shown.
Different interventions and approaches of treatment are presented matching age, developmental level,
child’s personality, social situation, family-system, and the peers.
The workshop includes theoretical and scientific findings, cases and as well short exercises.
Bernhard Trenkle (Rottweil, Germany)
"Self hypnosis and hypnosis in the treatment of anxiety and phobias..." .
This workshop will focus on the use of hypnosis and self-hypnosis techniques
in the treatment of phobias, anxiety and panic disorders. A new approach for self-treatment approach for
anxiety disorders will be adressed. Building hope and
diminishing helplessness are essential intervention strategies for achieving
psychotherapeutic goals. The presenter will address different ways in
achieving these objectives. A specific and very useful self-hypnosis
technique will be demonstrated during the workshop. Giving homework
assignments, pattern disruption techniques and stabilizing the treatment
results are further topics that will be explicated and discussed.
Learning Goals:
Describing at least 5 techniques for reducing helplessness and increasing hope.
Learning a new approach for teaching self-hypnosis and apply it for the treatment of anxiety disorders.
Describing at least 3 techniques for stabilizing treatment results.
Katalin Varga and Zoltan Kekecs (Budapest, Hungary),
The role of relational factors in oxytocin and cortisol in hypnotic interaction
The salivary oxytocin and cortisol changes in response to standardized laboratory hypnosis sessions were
tested in both participants of the hypnosis dyad.
With a within subjects design our study investigated the main effect of hypnosis on the endocrine
variables and also the moderator effects of hypnotic susceptibility and relational experiences reposted by
subjects and hypnotists on several paper and pencil tests (AIM, DIH, s-EMBU).
Cortisol levels decreased both in subject and hypnotist from pre- to post hypnosis (t(11) = 7.67; p <
.001; and t(11) = 2.51; p < .05 respectively. Our results indicated that changes in oxytocin levels are not
related to the hypnotic susceptibility, but to the relational experiences. The perceived harmony with the
hypnotist (DIH) was positively correlated with the increase in the salivary oxytocin concentration of the
subject (r(9)= .61; p < .05), while elevated oxytocin levels in the hypnotist were associated with the
subject having memories of less warm emotional relationship with his/her parents (s-EMBU)(r(7) = -.90; p
< .01).
The results are interpreted within the social psychobiological model of hypnosis.
The project was supported by the OTKA K100842 research grant (lead researcher: Anna Veres-Székely).
Claude Virot (Rennes, France)
Trance : a psycho-physiological process, heart of Mind-Body Therapy
Everyone using hypnosis knows, more or less, that during an hypnotic trance appear in the body several
changes called Ideo-Dynamic Process. Concerning the movements, the sensorial dimension, the
vegetative system and of course the sensitivity. The body is always implicated in hypnosis. And, if we can
describe hypnosis as a «modified state of mind», we always should remember that in fact hypnosis create
a modified state in the mind AND the body, and to speak of hypnosis as a psycho-physiological process.
This suggests strongly that activating the body during hypnosis would be fundamental to strengthen
resilience.
Here, we will work with the movements in the body during hypnosis. We know very well the general
catalepsia appearing in each trance, and the arm catalepsia which demonstrate it for the patient. We
know the levitation so comfortable and surprising. I will present the technics of Ernest Rossi using both
catalepsia and levitation, and with the 2 arms in the same time.
We will see how the body is deeply implicated in these trances, generating a better trance and getting
informations about the changes here and now in the inner world of the patient.
After an individual session with a volunteer, each attendee will practise and if possible - according to the
time -, we will do a group demonstration.
GOALS
1 : To think about hypnosis as a mind-body technics with several levels of physiological changes
2 : To activate the psycho-physiological levels to strengthen resilience
3 : To do several psycho-physiological experiences
Diane Yapko (Fallbrook, CA, USA)
Working Hypnotically and Strategically with Children to Facilitate Social Language
As neuroscience highlights the importance of relationships in our development it becomes increasingly
apparent that we need to help those children who do not develop these skills spontaneously. For most of
us, developing social language comes naturally. We don’t need to be taught how to make friends. But, for
those children who have been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, attention deficits, and social anxiety
disorders, we need to be specific and overt in teaching strategies for social engagement.
This workshop will describe how to integrate hypnotic and strategic interventions with visual strategies
and story telling to help children develop the skills for social interaction.
Learning Objectives:
Participants will list 3 symptoms common to individuals on the Autism Spectrum that impact social
language deficits.
Participants will list at least 3 strategies for intervening in social language deficits.
Participants will list at least 3 specific visual strategies that can be incorporated with hypnotic approaches.
Michael Yapko (Fallbrook, CA, USA)
How Expectancy Shapes Treatment Response to Interventions for Depression
The single most powerful factor shaping treatment response to interventions for depression is the quality
of the client’s expectations. How expectancy influences treatment response will be considered in some
detail, and a specific strategy for utilizing hypnosis as a tool for building positive expectancy will be
detailed and modeled in a structured group hypnosis experience.
Silvia Zanotta (Zurich, Svizzera)
Finding inner strength: Hypnosomatic Ego-State Therapy with children and adolescents.
This workshop focuses on the use of hypnosomatic Ego-State Therapy with children and adolescents with
a wide variety of symptoms. It includes the effective use of Ego State Therapy to not only regulate
anxieties, stress and body symptoms, but also strengthen the whole person by connecting with
empowering and conflict-free states. Clinical presentations and exercises will emphasize Ego-State
Therapeutic as well as somatic approaches to release tension and re-balance the body, in order to heal
mindbody difficulties and build resilience.
Jeffrey K. Zeig (Phoenix, AZ, USA)
Utilization: The Foundation of Solutions
We will explore the utilization approach as a "state" of the therapist. Utilization is the opposite of
psychological problems, which can be considered failures of utilization. Demonstration, lecture and
practice group. Intermediate level.
WORKSHOPS (2 hours)
Helen Adrienne (New York, USA)
Resilience: The “Seed” of Possibility for the Infertile Patient
Resilience – the ability to bounce back from trauma or Trauma – is integral to mental health; some would
call it the definition of mental health. But resilience is not a fixed commodity. It can be lost as physical
and mental challenges rise beyond a person’s accrued coping skills and regained as people seek guidance
to build coping skills that match the magnitude of the challenge.
The loss of resilience is virtually universal for those who find themselves in a fertility quest. Tossed out of
the family building mainstream, infertility patients find themselves in an existential, bio-psycho-sociospiritual crisis that may take years to resolve. No area of life is untouched. Levels of stress have been
measured on par with the life-threatening diagnoses of cancer, heart disease and HIV/AIDS. Medical
interventions (and thank God for them) feel like science fiction and are mentally and physically
demanding.
It’s virtually universal for this population to lose resiliency. Mind/Body interventions humanize the
technology and teach people who are faced with this adversity to ride the crest of what feels like a
tsunami without being swamped—while they await their miracle. Hypnosis is a boon to these patients; it
loosens the grip of anxiety and depression and facilitates connection with inner strength. Hypnosis and
other “letting-go” techniques have a statistically significant correlation with rates of pregnancy.
The comprehensive mind/body protocol presented in this workshop, returns the locus of control to the
patient and with it, resiliency.
Renzo Balugani (Savona, Italia)e Michele Vanzini (Modena, Italia)
Earthquake: at the heart of the art of caring
Stefanie Bandehorst (Strand, South Africa)
Resolving childhood trauma to facilitate healing
Unresolved emotional trauma that occurred early in life often result in adjustment difficulties or
psychopathology. Early therapeutic intervention can relieve symptoms and ensure emotional health and
effective functioning.
A theoretical overview of the impact of trauma will explain the resilience of ego-states in the process of
dissociation as a coping mechanism. The child dissociates from feelings and memories associated with
overwhelming trauma in order to survive emotionally. The dissociation is initially helpful and enables the
individual to cope, however eventually it can result in psychopathology and become destructive.
This workshop will focus on skills to resolve trauma and to allow healing. The process of empowerment
within a dysfunctional system where support is lacking will be explained. These skills can be utilized not
only for traumatized children but also for adults who experienced early childhood trauma. Case examples
and experiential learning will demonstrate the value of this treatment modality, which can prevent
symptoms or pathology in later life.
Betty Blue (Cypress, Ca, USA)
Illuminating Resilient Responses to Grief and Trauma by Turning on the “Trance-sending” Light of
Playfulness
This workshop will include power point images, theories, examples and group participation to display how
therapeutic playfulness may create “trance-like” states to awaken naturally resilient inner resources in
those experiencing grief, illness and trauma.
Hypnotherapeutic, Eastern Philosophical and Psychoneurological theories will emphasize how playfulness
may inoculate individuals against, negative and sometimes “deadly serious” states of “learned
helplessness”: “Trance-forming” them into states of “selfefficacy” as individual's playfully increase
sensations of personal empowerment.
Emphasis will also be placed on the soothing, aliveness enhancing and cathartic advantages of
experiencing the healing bonding that takes place while sharing therapeutic playfulness with others.
Udi Bonshtein (Gilon, Israel)
Hypnosis in martial arts
Most of martial arts have mental basis that advocating awareness, introspection and utilization of ideomotor responses. Higher levels of martial arts, are a series of mental-hypnotic processes interwoven with
physical work, control and regulation.
During the workshop we will use the martial art (especially Karate) as metaphoric space to work on two
levels:
At the personal level we will encounter the joy, anxiety, passion, competition, chalenges and limits that
working with our body Introduces.
At the academic/theoretical level we will practice and refine treatment relevent concepts (and we will
probably surprise to find at the end of the workshop that we know some basic techniques in karate, and
even the first kata).
We will walk these two levels, with a new, exciting and challenging experience of karate techniques and
hypnosis.
The workshop is suitable for anyone interested in working with removing barriers, growth, creativity,
flexibility, self-confidence, control issues, relaxation and devotion – in intriguing and unusual way.
There is no need for prior knowledge in the martial arts.
Please come dressed in comfortable sports attire.
Marie-Jeanne Bremer (Rodange, Lussemburgo)
Hypnotherapeutic techniques in the treatment of schizophrenia
The author of the workshop presents a clinical vignette of a schizophrenic patient with many suicide
attempts, which illustrates the hypothesis of Clancy D.Mc Kenzie, M.D. who considers that schizophrenia
is as a delayed PTSD after an early separation trauma in infancy. This hypothesis offers a large range of
possibilities for hypnotherapeutic interventions.
But it appears that the classical treatment, particularly during hospitalization, often bears the risk of
retraumatizations, so it is very important to be careful in the applications of the treatment. In the
workshop, we have the opportunity to take a closer look at possible (re)-traumatizing situations for
psychiatric patients and their family, so that resilience may be fostered.
Jenny Da Silva (Johannesburg, South Africa)
The Circle of Life: An Ericksonian and ego-state intervention strategy to help children process grief
As far back as Freud, grief theorists have tried to conceptualise grief and have suggested theories, tasks
and phases which the bereaved person must follow in order to process their grief. In this interactive
workshop, grief work with children will be explored by using an integrated Ericksonian and Ego state
intervention strategy. This strategy proposes a two-pronged approach where the child must come to
terms with the outer reality of the loss of their loved one and find a ‘new normal’ in life without the
deceased, whilst at the same time re-membering the loved one in their inner reality. This workshop is
presented in a unique and creative way that will give participants new insight into how grief and the
deceased can be used as a resource.
H.A.A. de Berk (Enschede, Netherlands)
Finding a safe place in hypnotherapy
Do you remember as a child playing at hide-and-seek? Did you find a place to hide? How did you feel?
How did it feel? Did you experience the place where you hid, as a safe place? Which place to hide was
your favourite?
A child needs feeling safe to thrive. First the parents and other caregivers offer safety by creating a
sheltering atmosphere at home, so the child is protected from danger. “Nothing can harm me.”
As one grows up, more and more emotional, intellectual and practical work needs to be done learning to
live a satisfactory and meaningful life. Do you remember where you liked studying, at school, in the
library, in your own room or your own study? Do you feel happy at your work-place, at your office? Do
you have a favourite playground to recreate? Or do you prefer relaxing at home? Are you able to come to
yourself again, wherever you are?
In hypnotherapy inviting the subject to find a safe place serves three important functions, that are
frequently interwoven: finding a shelter; finding a work-place, study or laboratory; and finding a
playground or resort.
After the trance induction a deepening technique is applied. While deepening trance, the therapist invites
the subject to find a safe place. “Let your unconscious help you to find a safe and suitable place, where
nothing can harm you and you’ll be completely safe (shelter), where you can carry out your task
successfully (study, work-place), where you can relax and come to yourself again (resort).”
The participants through practicing deepening techniques (going down or up the stairs, floating on a quiet
stream, etc.) will experience finding a safe place themselves and discover its unconscious powers.
Emanuele Del Castello (Capua, Italy)
The hypnotic trance: a secure place. Hypnotic techniques to coping with past, present and future
traumas.
The alteration of the state of consciousness, commonly called "trance", has always represented a resource
on which human beings may rely to cope with the challenges of everyday life, whether they involve
physical and psychological suffering. In the last two centuries, in Western culture, hypnosis represented
the main tool to induce a trance, exploiting a reliable relationship between therapist and patient.
The creation of a safe place through imagery and mental simulation indeed represents a mental strategy,
based on hypnosis, which can find useful application in many modern procedures for the treatment of
post-traumatic disorders. Nonetheless, these approaches often forgo the ideoplastic as well as the
relational potentialities of the hypnosis, oversimplifying his procedures.
The presentation means to investigate the possibilities offered by hypnosis to create protective mental
states towards past, present and future traumatic experiences. The hypnotic techniques of the “safe
place” can also find helpful applications in the exploration of unelaborated or dissociated traumatic
memories, as well as in the protection of the patient from present traumas implied by physical illness
(pain, invasive therapeutic and diagnostic procedures, side effects of treatment, etc.) and from what
people expect when they are forced to confront their fears.
After a review of the cognitive processes (namely attention, imagination and memory) implicated in the
creation of hypnotic reality, the role of the Motivational System of Attachment will be highlighted in the
context of the relational processes activated by the hypnotic induction, revealing the profile of the
hypnotic relationship itself as a safe place in which cognitive and emotional potentialities of the person
can find fully satisfying fulfillment. Clinical examples and practical demonstrations will accompany the
presentation.
Bruno Dubois (Rennes, France)
Body oriented hypnosis : an other way to create hypnotic state and mobilize patient resorces in chronicle
disorders
Chronicle process are often disheartening for therapist because of the difficulty to mobilise the
patients.Chronicle disorders are stable process with a stop of life cycle and comes along with an
impoverishment of creativity.
This impoverishment increase the difficulty for the therapist to use « classic way for hypnotic induction »
for example in chronic pain or chronic depression.
In this workshop, it will be exposed the way to increase the therapist observation capacity, the way to use
the body language, a way to use the body to create hypnosis with or without words, the work with touch
(not enough use by psychiatrists) and the « hypnotic shake in movement » to mobilize patients resorces.
Eva Ferstl (Terniz, Austria)
Unitedly Prepared: Effective Ego Sate Work with Pregnant Women
The desire to have children and the time of pregnancy often turn the inner system up-side-down. This
Workshop shows opportunities to help women during that time to settle their inner system and regulate
themselves through finding ressources in Ego State therapeutic work. During pregnancy the bounderies of
the system have to be newly defined. Creating positive Ego States and helping dissociated or weak Ego
States to cooperate can change the whole event of giving birth. We focus in this workshop on optimising
the relation between the Ego States in utilising the strengths and difficulties of each Ego State thus
helping them to feel unitedly prepared for what to come.
Tobi B. Goldfus (New York, NY, USA)
Using clinical hypnosis as the ‘search engine’. For adolescents and young adults lost in cyberspace
Hypnosis and strategic hypnotherapy can dramatically help adolescents and young adults ”unplug” from
cyberspace which has changed the world and how we communicate in a powerful and awesome way. This
has greatly impacted a young person’s definition of boundaries and confidentiality. Using target goals
that down-regulate physical, social and psychological affective states, this workshop will emphasize
resiliency skills to improve boundaries both “offline” and “online”. Being highly skilled and technologically
adept on the internet is required to navigate the world today. However, too much time, attention and
activity on social media sites have also been found to increase symptoms of depression and anxiety in
today’s youth. Strategic hypnotic techniques that connect with the “online” world and tools the offer
“outside the box” emotional impact for change will be used to create a healthier balance between “online”
realities and “in real life” (IRL). Utilizing both mobile devices (videos of cases) and scripts using
cyberspace language as metaphors, clinical hypnotic techniques tailored to these goals will be presented.
Integrating “online profiling and identities’ with a young person’s developing ego states with hypnotic
inductions and post-hypnotic suggestions will also be part of the course.
Philippe Houssel (Rennes, France)
Reification energetique
After the "objectification" of pain, a sensation of fear, it is proposed to the patient to change this "thing"
by setting in motion "the constituent particles;" This technique allows patients to recover and redistribute
energy and put themselves in a dynamic phase.
objectives:
• Chronic Pain
• Improvement of bodily sensations
• Implementation of patient movement
Regina Hunter (Schaffhausen, Svizzera)
School success – another term for resilience
School success is a first-rate factor of resilience, as has been proved again and again since the studies of
Kuawei. Göppel (2008) concludes the term resilience could be easily replaced by formation.
This workshop will show how school success is easily possible, if the conditions of psyche and brain are
taken care of. Positive feelings at learning are achieved through mastery, which is reached by radically
reducing the learning material and by granting minimal and regular time for learning.
In order to provide practical help for school success, Regina Hunter, author of the book “minimal lernen minimal learning” will show a coaching model on learning of only three sessions for psychotherapists and
will share her experience in the field of individual sessions, groups and the internet.
Yet learning is just a tool to open the way to go for the important goals in life.
Anke Jorger (Offenburg, Germany)
Resilience starts with us!
In our work, we psychologists and doctors are often exposed to serious sets of circumstances and high
demands on our performance. Our work proves especially successful and beneficial when we operate out
of a particularly energized state of mind to be powerful, competent and creative. Therefore, we need the
ability to even create an attitude in which our own resources and energy are used optimally.
Regardless of our methods and our field of activity, we then radiate a sense of safety, humanity and
competence. This then carries over to our patients, giving them confidence and empowering them. It also
protects us against secondary trauma and burnouts, preserving our resources and our enjoyment of our
work at hand.
In this workshop we aim to activate or create for each participant a resourceful and energized ego state –
one in which we would wish to find ourselves in, in our daily work. We use self-hypnoses methods, energy
psychology and other opportunities that bring us closer to our best qualities. Participants should bring
with them a joy of personal experience and active participation, and first experiences in self-hypnosis.
Pamela Kaiser (Menlo Park, CA, USA)
Children vulnerable to stress & anxiety: identifying indivudalized risk profiles and hypnosis themes
The goal of this presentation is to teach an approach to determine specific vulnerabilities to stress and
anxiety in children and teens, in order to design individualized hypnosis treatment. Participants will use a
worksheet (based on the research literature and a pediatric translation of Michael Yapko’s model) to
assess children’s risk profiles. Clinicians will score case vignettes (illustrated by patient videotapes) and
their own patients’ risk profile. This evaluation tool generates individualized hypnosis themes to address
each child’s particular stress vulnerability features.
Specific vulnerability factors include high reactivity, over-estimation of threat and risk, under-estimation of
internal resources, poor self-regulation, negative expectancy, intolerance of ambiguity, temperament,
catastrophic thinking, genetic predisposition and parenting style.
Joseph Meyerson (Kfar Yona, Israel)
Premeditatedly Induced Dissociation as a Therapeutic Resource in Hypnotic Psychotherapy and EST
Psychological dissociation is commonly perceived by mental health professionals as the pathological
splitting of consciences or as an impairment in adaptive integration. In hypnotherapy dissociation is considered
one of the most significant features of hypnosis, constituting a major therapeutic resource.
In the workshop, utilization of hypnotically induced dissociation (HID) introduced as an important and
useful therapeutic resource for treatment patients with various mental problems and disorders. Three
main areas of HID therapeutic implementation can be specified: 1. Rehabilitation or establishment of
natural/positive dissociations; 2. Utilization of temporary dissociation for therapeutic purposes; 3.
Regulation and control of existing pathological dissociation. Two first noted implementations will be
discussed and demonstrated during the workshop.
In summary, this workshop presents a healing and normalizing quality of dissociation and offers
a model of therapeutic intervention during hypnotic psychotherapy.
JBC Mertens (Sneek, Netherlands) and H.A.A. de Berk (Enschede, Netherlands)
Guilt and the inner judge metaphor technique
The inner judge technique is an effective suggestive method for altering feelings of guilt, negative self
appraisal and unrealistic self criticism. In psychodynamic terms, the metaphor of the Inner Judge can be
based on Freud’s concept of the superego. The same concept can also be found in transactional analysis
(child, adult, parent) and/or ego state therapy and gestalt therapy. Neurobiologically, the inner judge
technique changes the interplay between attention (cingulate), meaning and reasoning (frontal lobe) and
affect (somatosensory area and amygdala).
By using the metaphor of the inner judge, negative internal voices can be changed in a more realistic
voice. In trance, going through the trial procedure starting in the role of prosecutor, then advocate, then
judge, is a strong and helpful method to change old, often childish assumptions on right and wrong, in
more realistic conclusions on oneself.
In this workshop, theoretic backgrounds and procedures are presented. Then the procedure will be
demonstrated.
Rich Miller (Boston, MA, USA)
Clinical Hypnosis With Gay Men: Optimizing The Impact Of Psychotherapy
Many gay men feel alienated from their families of origin, society, and themselves. Clinical hypnosis offers
a powerful approach to enhancing and increasing sensory awareness, which creates a powerful resource
for restoring connections within. Such connections provide a bridge between the self and body,
something that is often disowned by gay men. This workshop defines and illustrates successful hypnosisfacilitated interventions to enhance the treatment of gay men. These beneficial therapeutic processes
indirectly address unresolved issues that may not even be in these patients’ awareness. Addressing this
provides integrative healing to clients, offering a profound sense of happiness in new ways.
Effective scripts targeting self-esteem issues related to development, religion, HIV and the urban gay
male stereotype will be provided. Videos of treatment sessions will be shown in order to optimize
communicating these methodologies.
Michele Modenese (Verona, Italia)
Hypnosis and resilience in sports injuries
Professional athletes, especially those of high-level, in many cases, have extensive resources to address
and overcome an injury. However, in cases where physical damage is added to the psychological trauma
that seems to encapsulate the mind with anxiety and fear inhibiting and limiting their potential, they can
cause serious problems. The emotions tied to a "memory" of the unconscious effects of trauma will cause
a lowering of performance and athletic performance, sometimes favoring a real depression. One other
situation, concerns the severe trauma that inevitably lead to the end of his career (sometimes with
manifestations of depressive, aggressive, isolation and withdrawal). Hypnosis with its flexibility enhances
and supports a processing of overcoming traumatic experience in favor of new adaptations to reality. Both
in agonistic activity and in renounce to sport. The author presents practical experiences working with
athletes recovering from an injury and suggests exercises among participants.
E. Cetin Kaleli, Ali Esref Muezzinoglu, Husnu Muezzinoglu, Vecihe Muezzinoglu, Burhan
Sevsevil (Istambul, Turkey)
Application of Hypnosis on psychologic and psychiatric cases
Application of Hypnosis in a different way and with a new approach on many psychologic and psychiatric
cases including therapy of addiction, social phobia, regulation of sleep (an 11-year old child not being able
to sleep since a long time), enuresis nocturna (a 30-year old patient suffering from enuresis) will be
presented in conjunction with relavent videos.
Shaul Navon (Tel Aviv, Israel)
Obesity: how hypnotherapy can help?
Obesity and trying to lose weight takes a lot of discipline and will power, especially when you talk about
regular exercise regimen and strict diets. Nowadays, the prevalence of obesity and being overweight is a
growing concern among adults in all parts of the world. It is a known fact that obesity increases the risk
of many serious health conditions like diabetes, hypertension and heart disease. Apart from these risks,
obese people can also have psychological problems like lower self esteem caused by public ridicule and
discrimination. But to be consistent on your efforts to lose the unwanted fat is very difficult, especially
when you are surrounded with fast food, deep fried chips and sweet desserts every day. Many admit that
will power alone cannot combat the battle of the bulge.
Hypnosis gives the patient that extra push to say no and to stop eating and ignore our craving for food.
Hypnotherapy works on a subconscious level where emotions, habits and behavior are deep rooted in the
mind. This is very helpful, especially when a person has been conditioned for so many years to eat up
everything on the plate, even if he or she is already full. Hypnosis will help remove the guilt of not being
able to eat up the extra food, which in turn would help in the weight loss battle. At the same time, this
mind-over body approach can also help condition our brain to focus on more physical activities and
exercise.
The workshop will present a video and the creative suggestions for weight loss and obesity.
Ali Ozden Ozturk (Istambul, Turkey)
"AUCH" Hypnosis and Surgery: resilience and how to overcome stress in a brest cancer operation, relief
created by hynoanesthesia
AUCH aims to make the necessary changes in awareness, differentiation, and feelings. In this method, the
patient is fully conscious, and completely aware of the suggestions given and the things happening
around. MAYA ( Making Acceptance with Your Awareness.), Induction and Autohypnosis are the three
main steps of AUCH Method.
In this workshop, the principles of the applications of AUCH (Awareness Under Conscious Hypnosis)
method in a breast cancer surgery will be presented with the video demonstrations of the pre&post
operative periods and the surgery.
The 52 years old female patient used to have a phobia about having a medical operation. The anxieties
and fears of the patient were mainly caused by the death of her sister two years ago due to a terminal
illness. Her stress doubled after learning the fact that she had breast cancer and she needed an
immediate operation.
In this workshop, it will be illustrated how to deal with the anxieties and stress of the patient related to
whole surgery process and how to prepare the patient for the surgery.
Also, it will be demonstrated how to use hypnoanesthesia without the existence of any chemical
analgesics and anesthetics during and after the surgery. Hypnoanesthesia not only results in a total
control of pain management but also helps overcoming stress by giving an opportunity to be fully aware
of whole process and even enjoy it. It might be interesting for the participants to see the patient singing
songs during her surgery.
Additionally, it will be demonstrated how much AUCH method could be beneficial and efficient for
resilience during postoperative period. The recovery time decreases remarkably and the patient can move
her body easily right after the surgery. AUCH helps the high morale/mental state of the patient and
results in a quicker resilience.
The three phases of the operation will be presented by studying the advantages and principles of AUCH
method in the workshop: 1) Preoperative Period ("Maya", induction, and auto-hypnosis); 2) Operation
(applications of hypnoanesthesia); 3) Postoperative Period (resilience and maintenance of physical &
psychological well-being).
Peter Richard-Herbert (Sydney, Australia)
Metaphoric Symbolised Imagery (MSI)TM : Building Resilience
This workshop paper presents the practical application of a new Ego State Therapy technique to build
resilience.
Metaphoric Symbolised Imagery (MSI)TM is a rapid change, therapeutic technique grounded in
neuroscience and the Emmerson method of Ego State Therapy. This newly founded psychodynamically
based technique uses the unconscious process of association and archetypal symbolism presented within
a series of transitions to develop client coping capabilities. The transdisciplinary process of MSITM repairs,
resolves and integrates surface and underlying, conflicted or vaded ego states on a deep therapeutic level
promoting client resilience. Metaphoric Symbolised Imagery (MSI)TM can be used in conjunction with
most modern counselling, hypnotic or psychologically recognised therapeutic applications. This Metaphoric
Symbolised Imagery (MSI)TM workshop was presented at Bremen last year with a lot of ongoing interest.
The presentation for Sorrento will contain new additional application techniques.
Francine Samak (Nice, France)
Autohypnosis and intuition.
This workshop opens the door on this well-known dimension but not so much explored, named intuition.
It will be a question of learning how to settle down in a particular state that we reach during hypnosis,
the intuitive understanding. We are going to discover this particular intelligence form and to take it into
account through several sensorial perceptions, to point out what really is intuition according to modalities
which must truly be considered. Maybe we will able to integrate in every days life a new and changing
approach using the deep key we own. Intuition in linked to our ability to extend our perception beyond
the reality. The decision to open oneself to this reallity belongs as well to men as women. Autohypnosis
and intuition pratical exercices will be performed by the audience.
Gary Bruno Schmid (Zurich, Svizzera) and Walter Schweizer (Oberenstringen, Svizzera)
Hypnosis methods for the optimisation of Self-Efficacy & Resiliency
Your organism intuitively knows what it needs to do in order to obtain and to maintain health. It is an
established fact of modern, evidence-based medicine that one’s own psychobiological „inner healer“ is
essential to the course of both illness and of healing: „Every healing is ultimately a self-healing /
Imagination as elixir.“ The methods of medical hypnosis and the narrative creation of an individually
designed relaxation and self-healing mythos enable one to employ their imagination as a remedy by
actively mobilizing one’s own self-healing powers. These methods can be taught and learned in order to:
establish, maintain and optimize mental and physical ressources onhand evidence-based medical
knowledge regarding stress and relaxation responses (salutogenesis); regain health and linder pain via
the regulation of immune and pain defences onhand evidence-based medical knowledge regarding
nocebo-, placebo- and other psychoneuroimmunological reactions (self-healing).
We offer a tasty, experience and learn-orientated workshop spiced with a little theory. Our goal is to offer
insight into hypnotherapeutic techniques for the optimisation of self-efficacy and resiliency. Emphasis will
be placed upon hands-on experience with evidence-based, practical exercises introduced by case studies
and in situ demonstrations. Our tried and true methods involve a broad spectrum of hypnotherapeutic
techniques, stress and relaxation responses, and salutogenic-/consciousness-medicine-based research.
We especially welcome participants to share their own cases and experiences with us the group. The
necessary theoretical background is also available (in German) in the form of two medical text books:
Schmid GB (2010) Selbstheilung durch Vorstellungskraft (1. ed.) Springer-Verlag, Wien; Schmid GB (2009)
Tod durch Vorstellungskraft: Das Geheimnis psychogener Todesfälle (2. ed.) Springer-Verlag, Wien.
Thierry Servillat, Isabelle Prevot-Stimec (Nantes, France)
Hypnosis that synchronises
Based on a body mind paradigm this conference is aiming at exploring the synchronizing function of
hypnosis witch is a relative unexplored issue. Most human problems and difficulties could be see as full or
partial desinchronisation of vital ryhtms that touch the body/mind relation on the one hand individual
within a group ( couple, families firms ) on the other hand The leads to health problems and social unrest
conflict. It is not by chance if basic tools of hypnosis are precisely synchronisation ( posture, breathy,
sensorial..) between therapist and patients. We will see how to explore this pathway as far as possible
with classical hypnosis pratice and the less usual area of kinetic hypnosis. We will introduce the use of
music and danse as pratice in therapy. We will also borrow insight from Erickson , Rossi , Jung and non
european culture. The recent notion of flow will also be ontroduced in this purpose
Laurence Irwin Sugarman (Rochester, NY, USA)
Fostering Resilience in Young People with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Symptoms as Solutions
Resilience is a product of self-efficacy, mastery and social engagement. These ingredients are hard to
come by for youth who have developmental differences. Children and adolescents with
neurodevelopmental disorders, especially autism spectrum disorder (ASD), are commonly and erroneously
seen as incapable, uncaring and socially withdrawn. When ASD is conceived as a disorder of autonomic
regulation, then the core symptoms can be understood to be manifestations of autonomic imbalance with
high sympathetic tone. Restrictive/repetitive behaviors and narrowed ranges of interest can be viewed as
resources for lowering sympathetic arousal and utilized for trance induction. Similarly, computerized
biofeedback provides an engaging and creative medium both for learning autonomic regulation and
building therapeutic rapport. These strategies help ASD youth build the self-efficacy, mastery and social
comfort that form resilience. We will summarize our clinical strategies and research using hypnosis and
biofeedback with young people and families affected by ASD. Our work reveals that young people with
ASD are actually quite talented in self-regulation. Hypnosis and biofeedback are catalysts that unlock their
resilience.
Rashit Tukaev (Moscow, Russia)
Trigger Mechanisms Of Acute Mental Trauma As A Therapeutic Target And Resource
On the base of complex clinical research of medical rescuers (railway disaster) we have elaborated (R.
Tukaev, 1992, 1996, 2006, 2008, 2011) models of: mental trauma trigger mechanism; two-phases
process of ASD development; therapeutic approach to mental trauma prevention and therapy.
The traumatic mental stress trigger mechanism presents dichotomic estimation of events by principle “usual – unusual”, based on personal world model. An event estimation as leaving for personal norms
triggers stress disorder. Two phases of ASD development are: initial reaction; reduction/localization. The
initial reaction phase includes subphases of mental stress inclusions and canalization. The inclusions
subphase (1-5 days) characterizes development of nonspecific psycho-vegetative alarm symptoms. The
canalization subphase (5-9 days) divides ASD population on predominantly mental and somatic type of
ASD development. The reduction/localization phase (2-5 weeks) characterizes reduction or further
development of mental or somatic disorder.
ASD prevention needs the expansion of personal diapason of “usual” experience.
Psychotherapeutic strategy for ASD and PTSD and their somatic equivalents includes: understanding by
patient mental stress trigger mechanisms; expansion of diapason of “usual” with inclusion of traumatic
events in category of “usual”; desensitization of traumatic event; treating of somatic disorders.
Claudia Weinspach (Munster, Germany)
Healing With Ceremony: Connecting Hypno-Systemic Approaches With Native American Concepts
In therapy we often deal with situations, in which patient´s problems seem to be unresolvable. At those
times, we mostly need to help them access resources within and find new ways of seeing and dealing
with their life situation.
Native American concepts of health, which include the harmony between the worlds of knowledge, action
and emotion inspire changes that facilitate personal growth. Finding resources to restore balance in one´s
life becomes part of one´s resources repertoire.
In this workshop, trance, drumming and rituals will demonstrate how to create space for personal
development and healing.
Edwin K. Yager (San Diego, CA, USA)
Subliminal therapy: effecting change
Subliminal Therapy is an innovative and easily leaned psychodynamic technique that incorporates
hypnotic phenomena for use in clinical! settings. The theory, rationale and application of Subliminal
Therapy are presented in this workshop, including compelling data on its effectiveness derived from
ongoing clinical studies. The workshop addresses applications of Subliminal Therapy in treating both
psychological and psychogenic medical problems. In line with the Conference theme, "Hypnosis and
Resilience" Subliminal Therapy is a brief, evidence-based psychotherapy that incorporates hypnotic
phenomena for use in clinical settings. In application, Subliminal Therapy engages an extra-conscious
level of intelligence of the patient's mind to accomplish the work of therapy. As a means of instruction in
its use, participants are subjectively introduced to this level of intelligence in a pragmatic way, at a
personal level. The workshop includes demonstrations of the protocol by treating real-life, psychogenic
problems of volunteer participants.
SEMINARS 2 hours
Eva Ferstl (Terniz, Austria)
Come as you are - Rebooting sexuality after addiction
A growing number of healthy internet pornography users of both sexes report erectile dysfunctions, such
as inability to be turned on, delayed orgasm, dryness or problems with holding their erections. A recent
italian survey found that 70 % of the young men treated for sexual performance problems were heavy
internet pornography users. During recovery, patients report craving and dissociative phenomens, such as
a "lifeless" or "cold" feeling in their sexual organs. Building resilience with Hypnosis is a strong
intervention overcoming the symptoms of the addiction as well as the heavy craving that may occur
during recovery for erectile health and the desire for real life sex partners. After rebooting ones sexuality,
sex can become most pleasurable again and the newly developed resilience helps to stay away from
addictions in the future life. "Come as you are" is a reachable goal for those with porn-induced erectile
dysfunctions.
Susan Pinco (New York, USA)
Utilizing brainspotting to enhance resilience
Brainspotting is a powerful, treatment modality that bridges the gap between mind and body. Utilizating
a lens of focused attention that links eye position to physiological awareness of resource states, BSP
allows the clinician and client to work together to amplify the clients innate ability to vivify these states
while anchoring and grounding themselves.
This seminar will review the basic elements of Brainspotting and demonstrate how they can be used to
enhance resilience and facilitate healing. Experiential exercises will be utilized to promote learning and
assist in an exploration of how you might integrate this powerful tool into your practice.
Simone Schlegel-Christen (Savigny, Svizzera)
Hypn’Horse therapy : how to whisper into the ear of patients and horses
Practice of medical hypnosis in presence of horses as means promoting healing powers in case of stress
disorders
Medical hypnosis and auto-hypnosis put back to hand us in deep contact with our intuitive and « animal »
parts of the brain.
Explorers of hypnotic and systemic effective communication, as Milton H.Erickson an G. Bateson, very
often underlined the influence of Nature (mineral, vegetable or animal) on well-being and self-healing
capacity of humans.
Also, famous horsemen such Monty Roberts, Pat Parelli (and many others) demonstrated how much the
understanding of the behavior of horses in their natural environment and their ethological application by
new educational methods allowed numerous horses to be cured of post-traumatic desorders. These
natural horsemen are called « Horse’s whisperer ».
This seminar suggest you to introduce with ethological bases of a harmonious « Horse-Man » relationship,
to include, through presented clinical cases, how it is possible to practise hypnotherapy to a patient
working simultaneously whith a horse, in particular by focusing on kynesthesic perceptions…and to enjoy
being in a natural horsehumanship, whispering into ears of patients and horses !
MAIN PRESENTATIONS 30 min
Eva Banyai, Andras Kolto, Katalin Varga (Budapest, Hungary)
Alexithymia and hypnotic susceptibility
Background: Many clinical observations and empirical findings indirectly suggest that alexithymia and
hypnotic responsiveness share some background mechanisms. In spite of that, just a few studies targeted
directly to reveal the connection between these two personality constructs. Fantasy proneness, empathy,
a tendency for dissociation and mentalizing others’ and one’s own emotions seem to bridge between
alexithymic processing and the level of hypnotic responsiveness. Other studies support the notion that low
alexithymia and high hypnotizability have partially overlapping neural and neuro-endocrine correlates.
Goal: Our preliminary study intended to examine the relationship between alexithymia and hypnotic
susceptibility. Method: 205 healthy young adults were tested online by the Hungarian 20-item version of
Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), then their hypnotizability was measured by the Harvard Group Scale
of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A (HGSHS:A). Relationship between the personality constructs was
investigated using analysis of correlations and variances. Results: Between the HGSGS:A observer-scores
and some aspects of alexithymia (difficulty in identifying emotions, externally oriented thinking) negative
and partially significant, but low correlations were found. ANOVA revealed significant differences in
difficulty of expressing emotions (as measured by the respective TAS-20 subscale) of the subjects
grouped by their hypnotizability. Similar patterns were observed in TAS-20 “externally oriented thinking”
when subjects were categorized by their HGSHS:A self-scores. Conclusions: Our preliminary findings
suggest that high hypnotizable subjects are less likely to show alexithymic emotional processing than low
hypnotizables. That may have important implications in hypnotherapy, especially in the treatment of
patients with emotional or psychosomatic disorders.
Patrick Bellet (Vaison La Romaine, France)
PTSD, time and action. From Immobility to the Resilience by Techniques about time and action.In the
case of the flooding of Vaison La Romaine
From Immobility to the Resilience by Techniques about time and action.
In the case of the flooding of Vaison La Romaine
Jean Marc Benhaiem (Paris, France)
Dissociations In Chronic Pain – The Hypnosis Effects On Corporeal Dissociations
Segmental exclusion phenomena are frequently associated with chronic pain. The perceptive disorders
that define them reflect the distance kept from a part of the body. Those dissociative phenomena can also
be found in various chronic pathologies, which engender several pains (irritable bowel syndrom,
algodystrophies, neuropathic pains, perineal pains). One of the hypotheses that accounts for the
efficiency of hypnosis is based on the reassociation produced by the hypnotic state. The hypnotic action of
associating what is dissociated grants a better comprehension of hypnosis and its definition.
The presentation will expose some clinical cases of dissociative phenomena causing chronic pains, and the
hypnotic exercises that permit corporeal reassociation.
This theme can be discussed afterwards.
Edoardo Casiglia, Enrico Facco, Gastone Zanette (Padova, Italy)
Resilience in dentistry: overcoming gag reflex through hypnosis
Ericksonian Psychotherapy emphasizes the importance of helping individuals become aware of their
abilities and “resources”. Oftentimes when we, as human beings experience illness, we may focus more
on our physical problems and emotional distress than on the bright side of our life and we may feel
confused as well. In times of illness children may be overwhelmed by medical treatments and pain, thus
“forgetting” what being a child is like, for example playing, laughing, learning and discovering new things.
When children experience serious physical illness such as cancer, they may feel very confused as a result
of suffering from strong pain, being exposed to doctors and aggressive treatments, missing school, and
losing contact with their friends.
I believe that psychological and emotional support should be given the same importance as medical
treatments. This support can help them regain access to re-activating their inner resources by getting in
touch with their innermost wisdom. In this workshop I will explain through a case study and other
examples, how by using Ericksonian psychotherapy combined with exercises for promoting mind-body
communication, physical processes were modified and how by addressing painful emotions quicker
healing occurred. The audience will be encouraged to discuss the outcome of the treatment. There will
also be reference to techniques that were used to empower the children for managing their own physical
pain and the secondary effects of both chemotherapy and radiation.
Use of activities, task assignments, and hypnotic exercises aimed at specific conditions will be explained.
Learners will have the opportunity to understand how, by using specific activities, the activation of
resources can be enhanced. Attendants will be able to see how important tailoring activities to client’s
needs and the physiological and pathological processes are. Examples of how to use adjuncts such as
toys, drawings and “hypnotic songs” will be demonstrated as well.
Enrico Facco (Padova, Italy)
Resilience and liberation from the Ego: a lesson from eastern philosophies
Western culture has evolved for centuries through an increasingly mechanistic, dualistic and egocentric
perspective, more and more emphasizing the power of intellect, logic and reason; by separating oneself
from the “other”, it also involve a serious risk of alienation. In the past decades the death itself has been
scotomized, leading to an illusion (or delusion?) of immortality and, as a result, to the incapability of
understanding and accepting it and the very meaning of life. Instead, eastern cultures, including Taoism,
Buddhism and the whole Hindu tradition from Veda on are non-dualistic in nature, allowing for perceiving
oneself as an inseparable part of the world: according to these philosophies, the ego is not the foundation
of the individual, but, rather, a non-intrinsically existent cluster at the surface of a much wider and deeper
psyche. Such a stance, which is based on a sound epistemology and an empirical observation of both
inner and outer worlds, allows one to overcome the narrow limits of the ego, enhancing the capability of
coping with adverse life events, including diseases and death.
The concept of liberation from the ego is present both in mentioned eastern philosophies and in mystic
currents of the monotheistic tradition, from the Fathers of the Desert, like Evagrio, up to Maister Eckarrt
in Christian religion, to Ibn‘ Arabi in Sufi tradition. Being shared by so many different cultures across time
and ages, it can be considered as a universal conquest of human thought, allowing to contemplate the
dimension of life-death in a wider perspective and, thus, enabling one to better face and cope with life
events.
Neil Fiore (Albany, CA,USA)
“Speaking to your ego from your Strongest Self” (Resilience and Ego States)
Patients who lack confidence after a failure or loss or when facing an overwhelming challenge can appear
as if dissociated from their adult strengths and knowledge. A traumatic loss could trigger painful
memories and the use of outdated—perhaps “primitive”—methods of coping. They speak of feeling
“stuck,” “overwhelmed,” of lacking motivation and confidence and not knowing what to do. Losing a job
during difficult economic times, recovering from the break-up of a relationship, the loss of a partner, or
failure on a major exam, can trigger a regression to an earlier, more primitive ego state that feels like
one’s entire identity.
METHOD: Clients are instructed—first with eyes open and then in a relaxed, closed-eyes state—to: 1.
notice the feelings and language that accompany these states and to notice that a part of them is calmly
noticing; 2. Speak to that part in a leadership voice of acceptance, compassion, and direction; 3. Exercise
Executive Brain responsibility for risk-benefit analyses and decision-making; and 4. Communicate that
your worth is safe with me, regardless of what happens and regardless of what others are thinking or
saying about you.
Clients are instructed to practice dis-identifying from their frightened, overwhelmed ego-state part of
them by using the language of parts: “A part of me feels,” “I am noticing that I have a feeling of
discouragement or depression.” Clients are told to not wait for their ego to feel confident, motivated, or to
know everything before they—from their Executive Brain, Strongest Self—choose to show up and face
their challenges and opportunities. The suggestion is given that with each Executive Brain choice and
decision, neural pathways are formed that strengthen access to one’s Strongest Self and the ability to
calm ego states that now are less alone and less responsible for running your life.
Neil Fiore (Albany, CA,USA)
“From Worry to Wonder: Reducing Stress Before and After Surgery” (Stress Related to Surgery)
Patients who learn self-control of their stress prior to surgery and during recovery and rehabilitation can
heal faster with minimal discomfort. Five patients [ages 58 to 72] facing hip or knee surgery were taught
self-hypnosis and Cognitive-Behavioral techniques to reduce stress, anxiety and worry. All have amazed
their doctors with the speed of their recovery, compliance with rehabilitation and their ability to reduce
pain.
METHOD: Patients were instructed to give themselves: (1) inner Safety whenever any stress symptoms
arose; (2) Choice, when feeling ambivalent about their surgery; and (3) Presence or mindfulness when
thoughts about the future arose. For example: Feelings of tension and anxiety were replaced with selfstatements that offer “a safe sense of worth regardless of what happens;” “choice” replaces “have to”
statements and resistance; and “presence”--the sensations in the current moment (the support of chair or
the surgical table) brings the mind in from worry about surgical outcomes in the future.
Patients were instructed to practice 5 to 10 times a day replacing worry in one breath with wonder about
how rapidly their body will be healing and how they will amaze their doctor.
Patients practiced shifting “from Worry to Wonder” in less than 10 seconds of holding muscle tension
before exhaling in order to delegate the processes of healing to the body’s superior wisdom (the “Inner
Healer”). They were to “expect of a pleasant surprise” beyond what their conscious mind (or the doctors)
could imagine and to be resilient to stress by bouncing back from stress to their commitment to inner
peace, safety, choice, and presence. Ericksonian hypnosis and time-distortion were applied in which a
“tremendous amount of healing can take place” over the next few moments, hours, and days.
Alessandra Gandolfi, Rolando Weilbacher (Milan, Italy)
Ipnosi e la Sindrome della solitudine
Recenti studi effettuati negli Stati Uniti su un campione di 20.000 persone, opportunamente scelte,
indicano che quasi il 30 dei partecipanti alla ricerca si sente pervaso da una sensazione persistente di
solitudine, sintomo che tradizionalmente veniva attribuito alla depressione: patologia notoriamente in
aumento a livello mondiale. Le neuroscienze però, in un' analisi più accurata, hanno scoperto e
riconosciuto in questo senso "cronico" di solitudine, un disturbo psichico a sé stante, piuttosto che una
vera e propria sindrome depressiva. E' stato quindi individuato un malessere psicologic-o autonomo
denominato "patologia della solitudine”.
Questo lavoro iniziato nel 2010 a Milano, si basa sull' osservazione clinica di 100 casi di pazienti inviati
dal proprio medico curante, con diagnosi dì disturbo depressivo, per una psicoterapia da affiancare alla
farmacoterapia. Non trattandosi di un'autentica sindrome depressiva, bensì' di un disturbo autonomo a
forte valenza psicosomatica, l'applicazione di una psicoterapia ipnotica si è dimostrata molto efficace.
L'ipnosi infatti con il "rapporto particolare" che crea, coinvolge i pazienti in una calda e intensa esperienza
di comunicazione positiva, in grado di stimolare nuovi modelli mentali, escludendo quelli precedenti
negativi o indesiderati.
Utilizzando le nostre tecniche ipnotiche, tendenti a stimolare forze positive orientate nel presente e verso
il futuro, la mente dei pazienti rielabora determinati processi cognitivi di base: fiducia, alleanza, simpatia,
empatia che permettono la crescita psicoaffettiva nella relazione . aiutandoli quindi a superare i sintomi
della solitudine.
Teresa Garcia Sanchez (Madrid, Spain)
How to elicit Resiliency when a Client suffers an Existential Crisis or the Fear of Afterlife
When a client presents a fear of the Afterlife or, of what could be call as an Existential Crises what to do?
How give him some comfort without engaging him in your own paradigms or spiritual believes? How can
the therapist elicit resiliency in someone who feels lost in life and his constant enquiring about “what we
are doing on the earth” bocks his possibilities to interact with every life and makes him be suffering
constantly a vital anguish? How to help him without giving him false expectations?
Examples will be given of brief metaphor utilized to impact the client and help him to be attentive and
curious of what the therapy can provide to him. The explanation of the therapist-generated metaphor
emphasizing on the technique, the images, the suggestions and the results achieved will be provided.
Some exercises will be proposed.
Finally other aspects that some clients suffering an Existential Crises could present will be overseen. Such
as those who substitute the Fear of the Afterlife hiding it and generating other substitutive symptoms.
Pamela Kaiser (Menlo Park, CA, USA)
Childhood stress: hypnosis strategies to build positive expectancy
Stressed children and youth typically have negative expectations about their current situation and
treatment. Expectations strongly contribute to clinical outcomes and enhanced resilience to stress. The
goal of this presentation is illustrate hypnotic themes and suggestions addressing the inevitability of
change, past time orientation, unfolding development, future time orientation, and pattern interruption
and building. A video case will serve as an example of these points.
Krzysztof Klajs (Lodz, Poland)
Family, time and resilience
“A family is a group of people with a history and a future”. That Jay Haley’s sentence with the special
regard to the “future” is the guideline for this presentation. The innovative method presented by Klajs will
link the work in a strategic approach to work with the genogram. This is a systems approach with the
emphasis on hypnotic phenomena in families. Dissociation, catalepsy and age progression will be
discussed. This powerful technique can be applied both in single and family therapies to enhance
flexibility and create alternatives. Step-by-step procedures that can be learned and incorporated into the
therapist’s practice will be presented.
Education objectives:
1) Explain the healing power of trans generation relationships. 2) Practical applications of future oriented
approach. 3) Utilization of family’s hypnotic phenomena.
Jacinto Inbar (Jerusalem, Israel)
Cognitive Hypnotherapy as an Integrated Strengths Based Approach to the Development of Resilience,
Growth, Flourishing , Well Being and Emotion Regulation in Individuals and Couples
Recent and ongoing changes in modern society, such as increasing unemployment , decreasing social
and therapeutical services , declining budgets in vital areas of society ,increased life expectancy,
changing family structures and more, require the development and adoption of approaches and
strategies that can be applied in the implementation of effective treatments and lasting solutions and for
the well-being of the population.
The main aim of the presentation is to emphasize and illustrate strengths-based cognitive hypnotherapy
integrated with selected aspects of cognitive behavioral therapy and positive psychotherapy as an
effective, combined approach in the development of resilience, growth, flourishing, well being and
emotion regulation in individuals and couples.
The presentation will include:

Components of individual and couple resilience from an integrative perspective and the
contribution of cognitive hypnotherapy.

The role of emotion regulation in the enhancing of individual and couple resilience and well
being.

Examples of strategies and techniques to identify and apply psychological and emotional strengths
and to stimulate growth and flourishing in individuals and couples .
John D. Lentz (Shepherdsville, USA)
Enhancing Resilience in You and the Borderline You are Treating or the Family Member of a Borderline
This advanced workshop offers new and innovative approaches to dealing with Borderline Personality
Disorder. Based upon deconstructing the Borderline Personality from a Hypnotic understanding this
approach gives new and practical ways of dealing with Borderlines as well as the people who complain
about them. These approaches were developed over years of working in a women’s prison with an
overabundance of Borderlines to continually teach the author how to do things better. The result was
some innovative approaches that work, keep you safe and actually heal the borderline.
This workshop would be most like the theme of Resilience and Family therapy
Jeffrey E. Lazarus (Menlo Park, USA)
Self-Hypnosis in the treatment of headaches, including migraine
Self-Hypnosis (SH) has been used successfully to treat migraine headaches for many years. It can also be
helpful in the treatment of chronic daily headaches. SH can be used either as a primary therapeutic
modality, without the use of medication, or as an adjunctive therapy in addition to medication. When used
as an adjunct, medication can often be decreased or even discontinued. Dramatic improvement is usually
seen after only two or three visits, plus, there are no side effects.
In this interactive workshop, attendees will be guided through a literature review and taught an entire
protocol of how to treat these conditions, including how to encourage positive expectancy before even
meeting the patient. Video clips of different patients with these disorders will be shown in order to
demonstrate specific techniques that will further enhance the attendee's skills. The participants will also
have the opportunity to learn, discuss, and practice some new techniques, including the use of metaphors
to help treat these conditions.
This interactive workshop will include a comprehensive literature review including the current medical
therapies that are being used today. An entire protocol of how to treat this condition will be taught,
including how to encourage positive expectancy before even meeting the patient. Video clips of patients
with this disorder will be shown in order to demonstrate specific hypnosis techniques that will further
enhance the attendee's skills. The participants will also have the opportunity to learn, discuss, and
practice some new techniques, including the use of metaphors to help treat this condition.
Dramatic improvement is usually seen after only two or three visits, plus, there are no side effects.
Piero Petrini (Rome, Italy)
Trauma e Neglect all’origine del funzionamento Borderline
Susan Pinco
Mind-Body integration; working in the 4th dimension to enhance resilience and accelerate healing
This seminar will lead attendees in an exploration of how to utilize silence to enter the "4th dimension"
where resilience can be amplified in the service of accelerated healing. Our journey will begin with a taste
of both structured and unstructured silence followed by a discussion of how both are manifested,
experienced, and utilized in the healing process. Attendees will be invited to engage in a series of
exercises designed to expand their awareness of the pivotal role that silence plays in resilience and
healing, and to facilitate the conscious development of strategic interventions that utilize silence to
harness the healing potential within each of us.
Research related to silence in psychotherapy as well as findings in neuroscience will be utilized to help
explain why silence is a key ingredient in effective trance-formational processes.
Martin Wall (Bridgwater,UK)
A Dance to the Music of Time
Using Nicolas Poussin’s iconic picture (Title: A Dance to the Music of Time) as a template for an
investigation into the metaphor of dance being similar to the therapeutic hypnotic relationship.
This paper will consider the cyclical nature of clinical practice and the value for the clinician of an
understanding of the uncertainty of diagnosis, the acceptance of vulnerability and the value of ignorance.
Edwin K. Yager (San Diego, CA, USA)
Chronic pain: psychogenic roots and psychological treatment
When considered as psychogenic, chronic pain becomes effectively treatable by analytic hypnotic
technique. Unusually high effectiveness or a psychodynamic approach that engages hypnotic phenomena
has been demonstrated in clinical trials conduced under the auspices of the Subliminal
Therapy Institute, Inc., with data collected during the past five years. This data will be presented together
with the rationale supporting chronic pain as being psychogenic. The specific therapy being employed in
the studies is Subliminal Therapy, which is an innovative and easily learned psychodynamic
technique that incorporates hypnotic phenomena for use in clinical settings. Reduction, and often
complete elimination, of chronic pain is accomplished by engaging the patient's extra-conscious mental
abilities to identify and resolve the psychogenic, root cause of the pain. The theory and assumptions of
Subliminal Therapy are presented by lecture and video-recorded treatment sessions, and demonstrated in
the class by treating a case of chronic pain, using a volunteer patient.
PRESENTATION 30 min
Lara Ballardita, Silvia Giacosa, Costanza Licari (Milan, Italy)
The hypnotic for childbirth as a real psycotherapeutic process
The Ericksonian hypnotic training of preparation for childbirth, puts the pregnant woman in the condition
of knowing how to use (OPPURE teaches to the pregnant woman to know how to use) her innate
knowledge and her internals resources to be able to give birth with active participation.
It is not a simple hypnotic training but a real psychotherapeutic process which, through a restructuring of
the thought pattern of the pain of childbirth, conditioned by years of anxious and social components,
preparing the pregnant woman to receive and accept the pain signals that become bearable and
understandable.
The preparation and education to the knowledge of the stages of labor is done through a simple and
familiar language to the pregnant woman.
The preparation for childbirth takes place into eight sessions and is scheduled to start around the seventh
month of pregnancy.
This paper presents the eight sessions according to the scheme already proposed by Giampiero Mosconi.
A practical tool based on the theoretical neo-Ericksonian model will be provided.
Renzo Balugani (Savona, Italia)
Naturalism: resilience in real life
Udi Bonshtein (Gilon, Israel)
Theory of mind as a neurological basis of hypnosis
The lecture will deal with the issue of an explanatory model of hypnosis. It will be based on a neurological
model that explains the ability to represent mental states of others (or self) including their beliefs,
feelings, intentions or knowledge and to account for their behavior (ability termed as theory of mind
(ToM)). ToM abilities are essential for complex behaviors necessary for social interactions and it is well
known that ToM deficits are a bench mark of autism. ToM is also found to be a resilience factor. Several
studies in recent years examined ToM in schizophrenia, all reporting ToM deficit in the acute phase of this
disorder but not in remission. Based on the similarities between psychotic and hypnotic phenomena we
will use ToM mechanisms as the neurological and theoretical frame to deal with both. We will discuss
possible implications and briefly demonstrate some.
Fabio Carnevale (Rome, Italy)
"The Erickson boson - The elementary particle of the Hypnotic Psychotherapy"
This work is a metaphor. A metaphor that describes a metaphorical process. A process that creates
metaphors.
If there was an "Erickson boson" -a particle that represents the cornerstone of the entire hypnotic
psychotherapy- we might call it "silence".
The ideas and the work of Milton Erickson, Ron Mueck, Gregory Bateson, Jaques Derrida and
Alfonso Cuaron will be used to explore the role of silence in clinical hypnosis.
José Cava Roda (Pozuelo de Alarcon, Spain)
HVR Biofeedback in Psychoterapy and Hypnosis
The stress response involves an over-activation of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS). Heart rate
variability (HRV) refers to beat-to-beat alterations in heart rate, and reflects any variation in ANS balance.
HRV biofeedback is becoming very popular as an efficient way to manage stress, using breathing training
to modify HRV and enhance Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS) response. Clinicians, based on HRV
data, can guide their clients much quicker and safer to get the best results, as research shows. HRV
biofeedback also helps to increase perceived self-efficacy, to feel more effective and confident in dealing
with physiological arousal and stress level.
HRV biofeedback info can also be used advantageously to watch clients´ physiological arousal changes
during the session, out of the biofeedback training. As HRV can show very short and intense arousals that
even the person can be not aware of, it gives the clinician some important cues about client´s
unconscious undergoing emotional experience. HRV info is specially useful during the hypnotherapy
session, where it is not so easy to get feedback from the client as in the waking state. Clinicians can have
meaningful information about emotional impact of their words, suggestions or stories. Therefore, they can
adapt their interventions more effectively. Although some biofeedback equipment is necessary to show
HRV data, it is becoming simpler and easier to use, even out of the office.
Maria Teresa Corsetti (Genova, Italy)
Hypnosis and life-coaching for cancer survivors.
People who survive cancer need specific psycological help in order to overcome their experience.
However, the proposals are often offered in form of “therapy”; in this way, the cancer survivor is
identified again as “patient” for the psycological side-effects of the oncological disease. An alternative
proposal is life-coaching. Life-coaching is a support relationship in which an individual (coachee) asks help
to another person (coach) in order to accomplish personal objectives. In a life-coaching session, the
coachee sets goals, analizes reality, check options. At the end, the coachee plans what and when to do,
and, most important, if he wishes to do the planned actions. In the coaching cycle, committement and
meaning to change are explored. Ultimate purpose of life-coaching is that the coachee makes decisions,
performing new behaviors in order to reach personal goals. Ericksonian hypnosis and life-coaching
recognize both that the individual has enough resouces for meeting the challenges of life. In hypnosis, the
individual produces new associations and new way to understand his reality. Change in behaviour is the
expected outcome. Ericksonian hypnosis and life-coaching may be integrated and offered to people who
survive cancer in order to help them in becoming the main sponsor of their health. In the follow-up,
cancer survivors are provided of examination and screening after ending oncological radio-chemiotherapy.
In that place, it can be offered an integrated program of hypnosis and life-coaching in order to support
and enhance resilience; in this way the experience “cancer” is utilized as source of self-growth.
Eric Cristante (Soissons, France)
And if Resilience was the Solution to Unlearn All The Bad Previous Habits?
A single method : three tools, twelve plugs .
Practicing as a family doctor since 1981 in the city of Soissons, I have been practicing hypnosis since
1996. During all these years of general practice as a doctor, I could not deny two obvious facts :
- On the one hand, all the patients, whatever their symptoms, have sufferd from immense trauma, feeling
unhappy in their lives mainly because of a loveless life (a too rigid education, lack of parental love or
support, death...)
- On the other hand, their personality profile was so similar as if these persons were "cloned": they have
all adapted their similarly behavior to their environment.
Therefore, they all present similar aspects :
- Feeling highly guilty
- Doubting permanently when having important decisions to make in their own life
- Not being able just to feel the day
All the similar aspects are associated with a strong lack of self confidence and all these patients are prone
to adopt an attitude of over control on their life.
It appears obvious to me to formalize a method through observation. It consists of three main tools and
an imaginary mental dashboard on which there are twelve plugs representing twelve ways of behaving in
the dialing life and a virtual T shirt to wear every day.
Each tool and each plug corresponds to an unconscious mental habit, constantly reproducing the same
pattern.
The patient is asked by myself to identify the bad habit in order to disconnect it. I t consists of learning to
unlearn all the previous bad habits using anchoring techniques and requirements of different tasks.
The method is the same one for all the patients, whatever the symptom they suffer from (TOC, addictive
behaviors, pains, anxious attitudes, depression, PTSD, psychosomatic troubles...)
This method may appear very simple but every patient has the same pencil in his or her hand but he or
she writes the story of his or her life differently according to his past experience of life.
This apparently very simple therapy is in fact adapted to every patient, meeting his or her expectations.
The benefits of this therapy appears clearly and quickly thanks to the standardized method. It allows for
most of the patients in 3 to 9 therapy sessions to get rid of their troubles and starting feeling more selfconfident. It introduces slight but constant changes in their behavior with a conscious awareness of
improvements in the daily life of the patient as soon as the persons starts the therapy sessions;
afterwards, these changes become parts of their life without they are conscious of them. And their future
life is positively modified.
It is a way of getting rid of bad habits but just learning how to unlearn them.
Marguerite De Vasselot (France)
I 7 Livelli di lavoro nell’ipnosi per accedere alla resilienza (in Italiano)
Prima tappa: consolidazione delle basi e delle ricchezze presenti nel paziente.
Seconda tappa: presa di coscienza delle emozioni per trasformarle ed utilizzarle ai fini di un cambiamento.
Si può arricchire la seduta ipnotica con techniche dell’EMDR.
Terza tappa: Rinforzo della personalità e fiducia nel potere mentale che permette di superare il
traumatismo e di utilizzarne i lati positivi.
Quarta tappa: Nuovo sguardo sul paziente di ieri, di oggi e quello di domani.
Quinta tappa: Comunicazione liberata dal suo contenuto emotivo
Sesta tappa: liberazione e consolidamento della creatività per poter visualizzare e costruire la persona di
domani.
Settima tappa: armonizzazione del soggetto con il suo “io interiore”.
Flavio G. Di Leone (Rome, Italy)
Evidence based hypnotherapy for Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures (PNES).
Etiology of PNES is still unknown. Nonetheless, evidences on its origin, course and therapy are growing.
Hypnosis is known as the most effective therapy for this kind of condition but results in the literature are
discordant and the manualization is lacking. Most approaches are based on ritual inductions and direct
suggestions that work for most but not for all of this highly-hypnotizable subjects. Ultra-short Hypnoisbased Treatment for Conversion Disorders, developed by Loriedo and Di Leone, had demonstrated
significant efficacy mainly due to flexibility of methods, accurate psychopathological analysis and
symptom-oriented interventions. This presentation has the aim to illustrate how this method can be
applied successfully to PNES patient focusing on their peculiar features and on the most relevant
neurobiological and psychological evidences up to date.
Ragi Doggweiler (Knoxville, USA)
Mind-body Skills Groups to deal with stress
Today's hectic lifestyle is undoubtedly one of the greatest causes of stress and burnout. These feelings
can lead to decreased
self-esteem, decreased ambition and a diminished sense of empathy. Stressed healthcare providers are
more lìkely to commit errors and may have greater difficulty cultivating the crucial I provider-to-patient
relationship required for a more successful patient outcome.
This class represents the CMBM's core program which has been offered around the world for more than
twenty years. The goal of the CMBM is to provide healthcare professionals with tools to not only become
more effective clinicians but also to discover greater meaning in their work.
Over the past two years at UT Medical Center, 15 groups of 10-15 participants completed an 8 week
program introducing mind-body skills. During each session, an individual tool to help manage stress was
introduced. These tools included breathing, biofeedback and autogenic training, meditation, movement,
guided imagery, journaling and drawing, mindful eating, and forgiveness. The change experienced by the
participants can only be expressed in their own words: "I am a better Listener," “I can stay calm when
facing a difficult situation," "We have better communication in our family,", "I am able to control pain
much easier." During the short sessions, participants were led through several of the above modalities
and introduced to the experience and benefits of breathing, movement, journaling and drawing.
The goals are for the participants: to recognize the importance of establishing a mind-body skills group as
a safe place for exploration and learning; to learn to apply meditation as a way of being in the world and
as a way to bring about change in the body and mind; to apply imagery through drawing to explore an
issue and also develop solutions to it; to identify how to counterbalance the sympathetic nervous system
by engaging the parasympathetic nervous system .
Marialuisa Escalante De Smith (Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA)
Using Ericksonian techniques to develop resilience and access resources in children sick with cancer
Ericksonian Psychotherapy emphasizes the importance of helping individuals become aware of their
abilities and “resources”. Oftentimes when we, as human beings experience illness, we may focus more
on our physical problems and emotional distress than on the bright side of our life and we may feel
confused as well. In times of illness children may be overwhelmed by medical treatments and pain, thus
“forgetting” what being a child is like, for example playing, laughing, learning and discovering new things.
When children experience serious physical illness such as cancer, they may feel very confused as a result
of suffering from strong pain, being exposed to doctors and aggressive treatments, missing school, and
losing contact with their friends.
I believe that psychological and emotional support should be given the same importance as medical
treatments. This support can help them regain access to re-activating their inner resources by getting in
touch with their innermost wisdom. In this workshop I will explain through a case study and other
examples, how by using Ericksonian psychotherapy combined with exercises for promoting mind-body
communication, physical processes were modified and how by addressing painful emotions quicker
healing occurred. The audience will be encouraged to discuss the outcome of the treatment. There will
also be reference to techniques that were used to empower the children for managing their own physical
pain and the secondary effects of both chemotherapy and radiation.
Use of activities, task assignments, and hypnotic exercises aimed at specific conditions will be explained.
Learners will have the opportunity to understand how, by using specific activities, the activation of
resources can be enhanced. Attendants will be able to see how important tailoring activities to client’s
needs and the physiological and pathological processes are. Examples of how to use adjuncts such as
toys, drawings and “hypnotic songs” will be demonstrated as well.
Maria Laura Fasciana (Rome, Italy)
Il gatto liquido ed altre storie per crescere: come risolvere il disagio infantile aiutando i bambini ad aiutare
se stessi (Italian)
Giuseppe Iepparelli, Emanuele Del Castello, Mario De Marco, Giuseppe De Pace, Giovanni
Gentile, Simonetta Ferrante (Naples, Italy)
Procedural hypnosis as a training resilience after bronchoscopy and other medical interventions
Since 2007 we began to use hypnosis in bronchoscopy, on more than one hundred and twenty patients.
We filmed about thirty percent of these hypnotic treatments and we assigned for forty patients a scale of
trait anxiety and state during pending examination, and , at the end of it, a rating scale of user
satisfaction. The situation was not defined as hypnotic. Then we decided to challenge the healthcare
environment skepticism and fears of patients. We asked frankly, whenever it was possible to patients, if
they wanted to undergo an hypnotic induction before the medical performance. So we used hypnosis in
those procedures likely painful, for example prior to the application of shock waves in orthopedics, before
the execution of transthoracic fine needle aspiration lung, prior myocardial biopsies and in radiology. Even
in such cases we filmed about thirty percent of procedural inductions and made the patients undergo
psychological tests. The study is still in progress.
At the moment we have concluded that no more than fifty percent of the patients agreed to undergo
hypnosis before an invasive medical procedure because of the fear that the word hypnosis conjures up.
Patients who undergo hypnosis before the medical process, regardless of the type of procedure, manifest
pain relief at the end of it, satisfaction and strong affection towards the healthcare team. The invasive
interventions they have undergone is not experienced as devastating and / or stressful. Positive and
constructive resources of personality emerge and hypnosis is becoming a significant resilience test.
As an example we will project a short film of an hypnosis procedure
András Kolto (Budapest, Hungary)
Hypnosis In Psychodermatology
Many diseases with skin symptoms cannot be diagnosed and treated in a solely dermatological frame. For
instance, lesions or scars can sign a psychiatric illness; dermatological problems that can be publicly
observed (e.g. on the face or the hands) or that are associated with chronic itching or pain may cause
significant shame and suffering to the patient. Other skin problems like acne or psoriasis have a
psychosomatic origin. An interdisciplinary approach, psychodermatology, can offer solutions for these
maladies. Psychodermatology is a team work, involving the patient, the dermatologist, the
psychologist/psychiatrist, the nurse, the family members and other stakeholders. Hypnotherapeutic
interventions in psychodermatology have at least four levels. Basically, skin-targeted suggestions can
contribute to the healing of scars, rashes and lesions, or they can reduce itching and pain. Secondly,
hypnosis can be aimed at compulsive or health-compromising behaviours, including skin picking, hair
pulling or self-mutilation. At the third level, psychodynamic or cognitive-behavioural hypnotherapy can
help the patient to identify and tackle the psychological mechanisms behind his or her skin problems. The
fourth layer is using different ways of hypnosis for the empowerment of the skin patient. These
interventions may mobilize inner healing resources, enhancing coping skills and self-agency, sensitizing
the patient for mindfulness, reducing his or her alexithymia, and other means of boosting his or her
resilience. In my paper I give a short introduction to psychodermatology and hypnosis in treating skin
patients, illustrated with case labels.
Lucia Latte, Francesco Cattari, Salvatore Pala, Pietro Mazza (Sassari, Italy)
Hypnotic treatment in ALS patient: a case report
Introduction. ALS is a neurodegenerative pathology characterized by gradual loss of muscular function
and concomitant preservation of cognitive faculties, culminating in impossibility to communicate.
Hypnosis, by activating resilience, allows experiences unconsciously perceived as real and impossible in
everyday life because of the disease.
Materials and methods. The patient is on the 4th ALS stage: he has quadriplegia, facial expressions
partially preserved, powered by PEG and ventilated with respirator, negative psychiatric history,
communicates through eye-tracking device. The hypnotic direct inductions gave him suggestions of
kinesthetic and movement experiences, with subsequent association of hypnosis and physiotherapy
powered together. When hypnosis was performed, measurements of biometric parameters every 15
minutes, before, during and after hypnosis were token by telemonitoring dispositive, as well as on days in
which hypnosis was not foreseen.
Results. Under hypnosis we observed: blood pressure lowering, no breathing pressure peaks,
physiotherapy's pain reduction, joint flexibility increased, increased range of articular motion in flexion,
recovery of olfaction factory in anosmic patient. The hypnotic kinesthetic experiences have allowed him to
get back in touch with sensations that he lost. This avoided to achieve best mood within a framework of
well-being that the patient reports last for days.
Tania Mahler, M. Scaillon, Y. Vandenplas (Brussels, Belgium)
Treatment of patient with supragastric belching, a patient with rumination and a patient with cyclic
vomiting: 3 paediatric cases treated with hypnotherapy
Aerophagia, rumination (RUM) and cyclic vomiting (CV) are functional GI disorders in children and
adolescents (ROME III). When persisting, these symptoms are handicapping, disturbing social life. Medical
treatment is often disappointing. AIM AND METHODS: We want to illustrate the efficacy of
hypnotherapy (HYP) for treatment of belching (BEL), RUM and CV in 3 patients (pt). RESULTS: pt1 (8y)
cannot stop BEL since 3 months. Her history is uneventful, except for psychotherapy ( PSY) because of
anxiety. Medical work-up was normal. Domperidone did not improve her symptoms. pt2 (9y) is referred
for pyrosis and halitosis. Her history and clinical examination was uneventful. EGD showed a discrete
gastritis and esophagitis. PPI were inefficient. Careful anamnesis enabled us to make the diagnosis of
RUM. pt3 (12y) was hospitalized for CV with haematemesis. Since the age of 9, the frequency of these
episodes was increasing. PPI, anti-emetics and Sumatriptan spray were ineffective. He also has PSY .
Neurological and metabolic work-up showed an acute esophagitis. TREATMENT: To all 3 the mechanisms
of their pathology as well as the way HYP is working was explained. HYP was started . After 2 sessions,
pt1 BEL was over. pt2 stopped RUM after 6 sessions. After 8 sittings pt3 had a decrease in severity and
number of episodes of CV and is now 10 months symptom free. He is doing autohypnosis on a regular
basis. CONCLUSIONS: Medical treatment is disappointing for belching, RUM and CV. Although the
number of pts is limited, we report these 3 cases that were successfully treated with HYP, teaching in fact
selfhypnosis. More pts are needed to evaluate the efficacy of this therapy is beneficial in larger groups.
Marialuisa Malafonte (Sorrento, Italy)
Current use of Ericksonian hypnosis in anesthesia and intensive care practice: case reports
INTRODUCTION: In my daily practice as anesthesiologist I had the chance to use
Ericksonian hypnosis in order to reduce stress and post-traumatic symptoms in patients
before surgery, MRI (Magnetic resonance Imaging) procedures and in PICU (Pediatric
Intensive Care Unit). Here I present my most interesting cases of the past four years.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: 10 cases collected from 2010 to 2013 in both adults and
children: 7 adults and 3 children. The approach was indirect and conversational. The time
to collect data and to perform inductions extremely short and in between my practice as
anesthesiologist. Among the adults: 1 male during a sedation for liver metastasesʼ ablation,
2 female who were showing psychosomatic symptoms before and after surgery, 1 female
with a panic attack after anesthesia, 2 female hypnotized immediately before the general
anesthesia who woken up in their safe place, a mother with doubts during the medical
examination before surgery. Among the kids: 2 traumatized children in MRI and 1 in PICU .
DISCUSSION AND RESULTS: The response of my patients surprised me in many cases,
in particular when they received anesthetics and woken up in trance. My role and my
indirect approach probably were determinants. Certainly I had the real perception of the
enormous power of the few hurried words that doctors say to their patients. The use of
hypnosis can be part of the general knowledge of any clinician and applied in between the
daily routine giving an extra value to our practice.
Heleen Malherbe (Lincoln, UK)
The Therapeutic Self in Ego State Therapy
Some segments of the therapeutic world community have spent more than a decade concentrating on the
well-evidenced principles and techniques of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. Although the therapeutic value
of these techniques is not in dispute, it came as a relief that within the boundaries of CBT training, there
has been a movement towards a renewed recognition of the role and importance of the therapeutic
relationship in working with clients. As hypnotherapists we have always known that one cannot hide a
non-therapeutic self under a therapeutic manner and that the success of therapy lies hidden within the
therapeutic relationship and therefore the therapeutic self. But, the question to ask is if all
psychotherapists have a therapist ego state and do all therapists have a therapeutic self? Do we as Ego
State therapists honour the legacy of Helen Watkins, acclaimed in the world of psychotherapy as a
“creative therapeutic genius”, who warmly resonated and absorbed herself in the experience of clients or
do we follow the manual as presented by theory? I believe that the time has come to reemphasize, reignite and refocus on the therapist in the therapeutic relationship. It is postulated that in finding - and
developing - a strong, resilient and hopeful ego state, the therapist becomes a positive role model to the
client and in doing so dispenses the gift of healing.
Claudio Mammini (Rome, Italy)
Sul metodo dell’ipnosi (in Italian)
Premesso che un metodo, una teoria, è importante solo come punto di partenza per l’azione,
proponiamo di adottare per l’ipnosi un modello materialista, emergentista, connessionista, perché
dotato di tre qualità:
1.genera ipotesi empiricamente verificabili. È scientifico e dialoga con le scienze della natura;
2.è ateoretico. È indipendente dal paradigma di riferimento usato e può essere applicato a tutte le
chiavi di lettura (psicanalitica, cognitivista, sistemico relazionale etc..);
3.non è ideologico. Le credenze del soggetto, in quanto pensieri, sono comunque rappresentate in
gruppi neurali attivi che agiscono condizionando la coscienza all’interno di uno scenario selezionato
tra i tanti disponibili
Infine, si adatta perfettamente all’approccio naturalistico di Erickson secondo cui l’ipnosi è un tipo
molto particolare di comportamento complesso insolito, ma normale (XIV edizione dell’Enciclopedia
Britannica, 1954), utilizzabile dal terapeuta. E, almeno in parte, sembra poterlo spiegare.
Una comprensione teorica, unita all’intuizione, è fondamentale se vogliamo ottenere il massimo dalla
pratica clinica.
In questo contributo esporremo una prospettiva materialista, emergentista, connessionista per
l’ipnosi.
Mario Marazzi (Rome, Italy)
Il terapeuta imperfetto
Emanuele Mazzone (Rome,Italy), Daniele Delfino (Florence, Italy), Giorgia Z. Puntaroni (Rome,
Italy)
Sound, silence and movement: the analogical access to individual’s resources.
Sound, silence and movement are the constituent elements of the communication process, the use of
which is as old as man. The alternation of sound and silence generates the rhythmic synchrony that
pervades existence and that, as inscribed in the sensorimotor coordinates of everyone, finds its natural
expression in the movement. Within the therapeutic frame of hypnosis these analogical characteristics of
the language are the basis of communication at multiple levels. This kind of communication that features
the Ericksonian model, promotes emotional synchronization and facilitates the access to individual
resources in the interaction.
Key Words: sound, silence, movement, rhythm, analog communication, interaction, Ericksonian hypnosis.
Paola Micco, Antonella Ciaramella (Pisa, Italy)
Memory of trauma in chronic pain patient: posthypnotic amnesia vs direct forgetting paradigm to
investigate autobiographical memory.
Objectives: The present study is aimed at evaluating the function of autobiographical memory in the
correlation between trauma in the lifespan and chronic pain.
Methods: 29 chronic pain patients (CPG) and 48 pain free control group (PFG) were investigated using
Stressfull life events screening questionnaire Revised (SLESQ-R), Deese-Roediger DRM-McDermott (1959)
for false memory, the paradigm of Directed Forgetting (DF) (Mac-Leod, 1998) for autobiographical
memory. Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) for psychiatric disorders, the Irritability
Depression-Anxiety Scale (IDAS), Toronto Alexithymia scale (TAS), Somatosensory amplification scale
(SSAS), Symptoms dissociation questionnaire (SDQ-20) were used to investigated somatization and other
psychopathological dimensions. The Stanford A assessed hypnotic susceptibility.
Results: No differences in the number of SLESQ-R were found between the two groups. CPG showed a
reduction in word recall of the third list of DF (DFR3) comparing PFG (p=0.03). The DF3R follows the
second set (DF2F) of words to forget. Posthypnotic amnesia was positively correlated with DF3R
(p=0.003). CPG showed highest scoring of IDAS dimensions and TAS (p=0.003).
Conclusions: CPG showed less segregation between words to remember and to forget than PFG.
Psychopathology and somatic dissociation are associated with a greater tendency to have false memories
and interference between words to remember and to forget. A reduction of words recalled (DF 3R) after
the request of forgetting correlates with an increase in post-hypnotic amnesia. The presence of
impairment autobiographical memory and the absence of memories of traumatic events support the
hypothesis of Freud.
Antonella Monini (Rome, Italy)
Therapist on Stage: How To Activate Embodied Resources Through Acting Techniques. Therapist as
Improv Actor?
"....and I think of the body's thinking as right because the body is governed by learning that occurs first in
the brain and then becomes a part of body responses." (Milton H. Erickson, 1962).
The creative Arts can teach us new ways to motivate stuck sessions and better attune to the emotions
that arise in the consulting room.
The Arts – paintings, sculpture, theater, poetry, film, music and dance – form a communication system
between artist and viewer, represented in a manner not afforded by language alone.
Therapy, regardless from reference theories and approaches, create a communication process between
therapist and client beyond the verbal language. Communicating and attuning to others are interactional
neurobiological experiences. Two Masters, Milton H. Erickson and Lee Strasberg, represent a vivid
example on teaching individuals to access their embodied resources in order to change their lives.
Hypnosis and Acting Technique share a common ground that give us an opportunity to rethinking therapy
and our being a therapist.
Shaul Navon (Tel Aviv, Israel)
The Illness/Non Illness Model: Hypnotherapy for Physically Ill patients
This paper proposes a new model for hypnotherapy based upon the Illness/Non-Illness Treatment
Model of psychotherapy for physically ill patients and their families (Navon, 2005). The model is
based on three theoretical concepts used in differentiating between illness and non-illness: duality,
contradiction and complementarity. This paper discusses the use of hypnotic interventions to help
physically ill and/or disabled patients distinguish between illness and non-illness in their
psychotherapeutic themes and attitudes. Two case studies indicate that patients in this special
population group can be stimulated to learn the language of change and how to overcome difficult
situations. The model suggests a new clinical mode of treatment in which the physically ill and/or
disabled are helped in coping with actual motifs and thoughts related to non-illness or non-disability.
Liana Orin Soffer (Petah Tikva, Israel)
The Mysterious house Technique for Resilience
I have developed this technique in order to diagnose and heal mental, emotional and physical problems.
This technique is described as a full length therapy session in my book “Hypnotic Dreams”, in a chapter
called “the Mysterious house”.
By using “the Mysterious house technique”, it is possible to strengthen resilience after some traumatic
experience.
“The Mysterious House Technique” is suitable for therapists who are experienced with hypnosis. It is less
effective for self-healing.
The technique principle is - seeing a person in the image of a house. A person projects himself on a house
which he visualizes with the aid of a hypnotic technique. Each area or room in the house represents an
organ or a system in the patient’s body. This technique enables the patient to observe himself from the
outside and to experience what is occurring inside his body and his soul. The creation of dissociation
enables the patient to confront with internal problems, to cope with them and to treat them successfully.
Rehearsing the healing visualization for many times is supposed to bring about recovery or the make a
considerable change in the patient’s condition.
This technique is suitable for individual as well as group therapy.
Maria Cristina Perica (Rome, Italy)
The taste of change: ericksonian hypnosis tools for the individual development in the global crisis
The global economic and social crisis touches the individual area with the change of models in
relationship, growth, generativity and aging. This is not an evolution but a violent and traumatic change,
it’s forced by the perception of standstill and failure.
In this contest the social role of psychoterapist is necessary to read the complexity and support innovation
and creativity processes.
The intervention presents hypnotic intervention tools to active and support the change.
It will present numbers of social crisis: young people unemployed, people who have lost their jobs, people
NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training).
Daniela Poggiolini, (Bari, Italia) Hypnosis, way for lightness of being: how to learn the attitude of
Resilience (Italian/English)
To work with people , caressing their soul, and come to the awareness of the lightness of being, it is
necessary to go through a subtle and delicate feeling, and HYPNOSIS is an essential way. Beyond the
senses, what really matters are silent words and all this has to do with respect, resilience and above all
with love. The new help relationship harmonizes the field and the people who are part of it takes ' CARE '
of the whole. Harmony is the means, a bridge to the well-being that is achieved when you go back and
feel yourself to the full . Focusing, in a state of trance, means to re-enable the self-awareness, and with
the images that you can evoke, and choosing from the collective archetypes , is possible to release energy
nodes which are a source of discomfort, pain, and especially of unconsciousness. Milton Erickson
(1901/1980), the father of modern hypnosis, talked of daily common trance ... He was a poet of the
story-telling, in a few moments to slip into a state of excellence was, is , something easy and healing ...
so handy ! To listen, to observe, to perceive so total is absolutely essential for a symbiosis of the spirit, for
a trip to the peaceful feeling good, all this presupposes the landing to the place where RESILIENCE
becomes a way of being. We can easily learn and reach the attitude of resilience. Erickson was right , the
absence from the logical mind, the moment, may it be long or short, of elective contact with the deepest
part of each of us, it was and still is a magic time of great change to rediscover our wonderful potentiality.
The premise is what takes us to two essential components: the rational mind, which keeps contact with
the logic, and deceives us to access a pseudo control over what happens in the outside world, and the
unconscious mind, analogic , which is absorbed from the inner potential, and is rich and strong. A third
part comes to the fore, equally essential, the higher mind , that higher self or higher consciousness,
hologram of everything bigger out there, (Gregg Braden) , which conveys resilient, evolutive information.
Hypnosis enables the ability to catch the best messages for everyone to get to understand the meaning of
self-healing , beyond every resistance from the rational mind.
Isabelle Prevot-Stimec, Bernadette Audrain Servillat (Nantes, France)
Music as a help for resilience: create the soundtrack of our life.
We propose to explore how music can be a help to increase patient’s resilience after a trauma, (after
trauma was treated by classical approach : hypnosis, emdr …). To increase this resilience, we give the
task to patient to find some pieces of music that can illustrate the differents periods around the trauma
and for the future. We will start with the analysis of a few cases and will follow with some exercice to give
an experience of the use of music in therapy
Olivier Prian (Guichen, France)
A balloon to rebound
"I suggest you to experiment an original practice, inspired by Rossi's work, many traditional and energetic
subjects and the world of childhood. A balloon will become a precious tool, and I'll show you how I use it
in my office. I'll specify the therapeutic pattern and the indications already explored. It concerns for
example pregnancy, infertility, difficulties with childrens. First of all, remember how fun it was to play with
a balloon and after a short movie and an exercise, discover how powerful can be the work with it."
Antonio Restori (Parma, Italy), Ksenija Stojic (Parma, Italy)
Resilience enbodyment: intersubjectivity of resilience in the therapeutic relationship
The authors explore the theme of resilience in practice hypnotic considering the experience built within
the therapeutic relationship. Will be discussed in a family therapy hypnosis carried out by the speakers in
a public health context. In particular, it will seek to deepen the positions of the resilience of the system
and the therapeutic interpersonal relationships of the therapeutic experience.
Inara Roja, Zenija Roja (Riga, Latvia)
Metacognitive-focused hypnotherapy and couple therapy for patients with chronic posttraumatic stress
after sexual assault (lecture)
Chronic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with trauma related beliefs and schemas is prevalent
among both sex adults after sexual harassment. Our study was designed to use metacognitive-focused
hypnotherapy and couple therapy twice a week during two months treatment course in 14 male and 17
female employed individuals, age range: 17-57, rape victims with PTSD, suffering 1-3 years from sexual
pain, vaginismus, erectyle failure, anhedonia and anxiety, flatly refusing from any medication. Very actual
before starting the treatment course was to assess patient`s hypnotic susceptibility, to detect the
developmental stage during which the trauma occured in sacked individuals, sexual self-consciousness, to
examine the triggers of the traumatic memories by Traumatic Life Events Questionnaire, Posttraumatic
Stress Diagnostic Scale and Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale. Intensity of flashbacks was measured by Visual
Analogue Scale. Individuals was asked to keep a Sexual Well-being Diary. Therapeutical effect during
hypnotherapeutic and couple treatment course through revivication, desensitization with a positive
assessment, modification of victimizaton imagery, dysfuctional cognitions and negative self-suggestions in
response to intrusive avoidance occured in 71% of males and in 82% of females (p<0.05). For 60% of 10
patients with autobiographical frequentative sexual assault (during childhood, adulthood) suffering from
excessive rumination about the trauma, nightmares – forceful was releasing of emotional tension via
abreaction-catharsis, ego strengthening and self-hypnosis training. For 60 % of 9 patients with numbing
of the ability to react emotionally the individual generated coping imagery, not hypnotherapist`s dictated
coping imagery was powerful.
Greta Ross (Canterbury, UK)
Models of resilience- the Poetic Force
Metaphor is the basis for much of poetry, and the impact of a poem is often a direct consequence of the
power of deliberate metaphors. In hypnosis, we all recognise the importance of metaphor in therapy.
This presentation takes this recognition further by showing how poetry itself is a powerful tool for therapy
and for resilience. In the presentation, examples are given of poetry and poetic images suitable for
children and adults with life stresses and medical difficulties, as well as examples from the lives of great
poets.
Mary Ann Santoro Bellini (Firenze, Italy)
Students and mental wellness: hypnosis in crisis situation
As a psychologist working with study abroad university students, I often deal with crisis situations. A few
examples are sexual abuse, accidents after binge drinking, sudden deaths or illness of family member at
home; break up of a long term relationship, and other traumatic events.
The study abroad experience is a special time in the life of a university student. Often for the first time,
the student is far away from home and family, far from the support system and life style that were once
present. Transitioning from the home culture to the new foreign one often involves a series of passages
with emotional reactions, sometimes intense. The student can feel disoriented, confused, and homesick.
When a psychological crisis occurs, the effects can be devastating.
Mary had been in Italy for 3 weeks, living her dream of learning Italian, and travelling in Europe. This
dream was shattered when, after a dinner together with friends, she was sexually assaulted.
Bob was in the middle of his semester abroad, counting the days when he would return home to his
girlfriend in California where he planned to be married. But one night on skype, Bob’s girlfriend told him
that she wanted to cancel the wedding because she discovered many things about herself in his absence
and was no longer certain about the commitment to marriage.
These are two examples of the many incidents and traumatic experiences that students have both on the
home campus and abroad.
Often students seek help during these times with symptoms of acute stress and PTSD. Ericksonian
hypnosis can be a valuable tool in the session as well as teaching the techniques of self hypnosis for the
student to use on their own to develop resilience and gain strength so that the trauma doesn’t destroy the
person and their hopes and plans.
Valeria Savoja, Stefano Sbarra (Rome, Italy)
Does ericksonian psychotherapy really improves resilience?A clinical study on hypnotherapy of anxiety
disorders
Resilience is probably the most emphasized concept in ericksonian psychotherapy. On the other hand
while several scales have been developed to measure resilience in the general population and in stress
disorders, to date there are no studies attempting to verify the impact of ericksonian or more generally of
hypnotherapy on resilience.
Our assumption is that ericksonian psychotherapy can really improve resilience in patients suffering from
anxiety disorders. To test this hypothesis we have started a clinical trial in which subjects with anxiety
disorders (DSM IV) are treated with hypnotherapy.
In anxiety disorders resilience is lower than in general population , at baseline we assess the resilience
using the Connor-Davidson Resilience scale , the most internationally validated instrument. After 8
sessions of hypnotherapy we reevaluate the effects using the same scale.
To make sure that results are treatment-related and not to spontaneous modifications of resilience we
have included a control group of subjects matched for age, gender and activity. Our goal is to test the
real impact of ericksonian psychotherapy on resilience.We expect to have an improvement on the score
and as a secondary endpoint we want to correlate this hypothetical increase in resilience scale with the
clinical status of the patients.
Thierry Servillat, Elise Lelarge (Nantes, France)
Healing, not traumatizing. Strategic hypnosis in the treatment of anxiety disorders
Panic attack is a frequent symptom in private psychotherapy practice. Certain patients choose to avoid the
phobic situations, while others confront themselves with their fears, sometimes to the point of creating a
traumatic repetition.
Clinical experience shows it is not always easy to identify a post-traumatic dimension with such patients.
How can psychotherapists identify their therapeutic needs and thus decide between creating security and
reassurance, or giving encouragement to confront and take risk ? Which clinical benchmarks can help the
therapist to plan his intervention?
Susy Signer-Ficher (Basel, Svizzera)
Livetransitions Hypnosis and hypnotherapeutic methods
In the course of time, both, a family as a whole and every single member of the family experiences many
transitions. Some transitions like birth, schooling or the last child moving out are found in every family.
They are part of a normal individual or familial development.
Other transitions only happen in special family situations, like moving to a new town or district, the
parents’ divorce or an accident.
Some transitions are predictable, others are not. It is not necessarily easier to deal with the predictable
ones.
There are also smaller transitions during the day or the week e.g. coming home from school or going to
bed.
In psychotherapy and consultancy, the therapist can support families, children, and adolescents in the
recognition of insignificant transitions and their conscious influence. It is proven that this is helping family
members to handle difficult transitions in a better way.
Adrienn K. Szilágyi, Csaba Diószeghy, Zsófia László (Telki, Hungary), Katalin Varga (Budapest,
Hungary)
Healing Effects of Positive Suggestions with Ventilated Patients
Our team has developed and tested a psychological support method based on positive suggestions for
critically ill patients ventilated in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Our previous studies have demonstrated
its beneficial effects on the recovery time and also improved patients’ experiences.
Based on the new „evolutionary approach” theory in the last 3 years in our study we started to use a
standardised positive message delivered via mp3 players.
Our paper rewiews the method used and the latest setting of our study.
Patients ventilated in ICU were randomized into three groups. The control group has received standard
ICU treatment with no further pschological support. Two study groups had received standardized prerecorded material delivered via headphones containing suggestive messages about safety, self-control and
recovery. One of these study groups had also received a personalized, live contact sessions 3-4 times
weekly delivered by a psychologist trained in this method.
The content analysis of our interwiews with patients after surviving intensive therapy has shown that
positive suggestions can diminish iatrogenic effects of intensive therapy and may lead to avoiding PTSD.
We demonstrate our latest results and our further purpose evolved along our previous
observations/experiences.
Rashit Tukaev (Moscow, Russia)
Hypnotherapy Of Anxious Disorders; The Way From Resourcefulness To Resilience
About 25 years ago, the author proposed the universal hypnotherapy method, efficient in psychotherapy
for a wide range of anxiety and for some organic disorders (Tukaev, 1987-2012); The universal
hypnotherapy method is based on: 1) activation of the hypnotherapy biological healing effect; 2)
stimulation of the personal positive activity for recovery; 3) usage of projective transformations; 4)
stimulation of positive personal states and values; 5) benefits from effects of visualized color; 6)
distancing from life stresses and closure of negative experiences; 7) creation of positive goal oriented
semantic field for patient’s active therapeutic transformations. The universal hypnotherapy presents an
analogue of mindfulness meditation, more time-limited and without religious connotations.
The research of outcomes of psychotherapy of anxious disorders let to identify two basic ways and
mechanisms of its effectiveness: reactivation and formation of the Personal System of Psychological
Adaptation (PSPA), which support the theoretical constructs of Resilience and Resourcefulness underlying
the processes of recovery. PSPA is described as a spontaneously active homeostatic structure which forms
during ontogenesis and creates a hierarchy of adaptive mechanisms ranging from the earliest to mature,
complex, personal - coping mechanisms. The analysis of psychometric data of psychotherapy outcomes of
anxious disorders identifies transformation from Resourcefulness to Resilience in cases of fool recovery.
Hakan Vulkan (Ankara, Turkey)
Trauma-stress-dermatological diseases and hypnotherapy
In my presentation I will describe trauma (earthquake, flood, violence, unability to sense-making,
accidents, injuries, abuse, rape etc.) induced stress to cause dermatological disease as psychosomatic
(that is non responsive to the current treatment and/or rarely responds to the treatment) and permanent
treatment of symptoms (in general symptom of dermatological disease, basically autonomic nervous
system symptom and disease) by hypnotherapy which is mostly permanent and methods of
hypnotherapy. At the end of the presentation I will present periodical patient interviews with video
recordings…(total 17 cases)
CASE 1 Who has been using antihistaminic pills and steroid ointment for 36 years and applied to the
hospital with a complaint of apnea after 2 times larynx edema occurrence and who has not used any
medicines for about 2.5 years after hypnotherapy treatment…Teacher, 46 years old.She has been using
allergy medicines since the year of 12.All present and known conventional treatment methods were used
(including allergy skin tests and vaccines)Initially started with acupuncture therapy.At the end of 5
sessions a decrease in skin reactions was observed but was not eliminated.In his own words swellings
were still continuing and were continuing to take medicines. Hypnotherapy was recommended to the
patient.Two incidents were observed in regression;1) Tragic death of one of the family members2) His
beloved dog being killed by a taxi while having a walk on one of the busiest streets of Ankara and it was
unleashed because in his words ‘unleashed to set it free’.I terms of feelings we came across feeling of
guilt.He was paying for these traumas experienced in considerably young ages.Case 2:Nurse, 32 years of
age. Acne vulgaris patient.She tried all of the known treatments like creams, diets, pills.A dramatical
recovery was achieved after a forgiveness session for her father who left when she was a kid by
hypnotherapy session. (since she did not permit I cannot broadcast video images)CASE 3:Purchasing
manager, 33 years of age, male patient. He applied with an allergic rhinitis complaint since age of 16 He
had lacrimation, nasal discharge and sneeze triplet. He uses antihistaminic drug daily during april, may,
and june every year.In hypnotic regression it was observed that he was accusing himself for a joke and its
results he made to his cousin when he was around 15 years old.
As is seen there is a deep, significant and determinative correlation between soma and psi. As a
conclusion;Eliminating rectional symptom by hypnotherapy seem to be possible and the ego state (John
Watkins) that develop after trauma switches from unconscious to conscious and thus patient’s life gets
easier.Short/long term psikotherapy is/may be needed for the final solution of trauma and its intrapsychic
deformation (if any).
Véronique Waisblat, Franck Bernard, Bryan Langholz, Gilles Dhonneur (Torcy, France)
Effects of hypnosis applied to parturients during labor
Introduction: Upper body rocking motion (Rocking) was shown to reduce uterine contraction pain
intensity during labor. Our objective was to evaluate the impact of a hypnosis process (HYPN) combining
Rocking, posterior neck touch (Touching) and communication (Talking), upon labor pain intensity and
epidural analgesia placement perceptions in parturient.
Methods: We aimed to prospectively recruit 160 informed and consenting laboring women recruited by 16
anesthesiologists (8 of them expert in HYPN and 8 untrained in HYPN) from 6 obstetrical centers. Numeral
rating (NR) of labor pain intensity (Pain) (0 to 10) and epidural puncture fear (Fear) intensity (0-10) and
overall analgesia process satisfaction (SATIS) scores were noted lying in the reference position (T0), after
a few minutes of Rocking, and then with HYPN.
Results: Only 11 patients refused to participate in the study. A total of 160 parturients were enrolled.
Rocking significantly reduced Pain and Fear (7.3 versus 5.9 (p<10-4) and 5.1 versus 4.2 (p<10-4),
respectively). HYPN significantly increased improvement of the NR scores induced by Rocking. As
compared to non-HYPN parturients, Pain and Fear were significantly reduced; 5.8 vs 4.9 (p=0.004) and
4.6 vs 3.2 (p=10-3). Moreover, HYPN significantly increased parturient SATIS 9.4 vs 9.0 /10 (p=0.02).
Discussion: HYPN is an effective therapeutic non-pharmacological means to reduce perceived uterine
contraction intensity, to reduce fear of epidural puncture, and to enhance overall analgesia process
satisfaction.
TOPICAL PANELS
Resilient Women: The Art of Becoming
Consuelo Casula, Julie Linden, Marianne Martin, Henriette Walter,
Katalin Varga
Optimizing Motivation and Dissolving Patient Resistance
Jeffrey Lazarus
The Self of the Therapist
Richard Miller
PAPERS
Maria Antognozzi (Fermo, Italy), Paola Ferreli (Ogliastra, Italy), Ilaria Genovesi (Pisa, Italy),
La cura del Caregiver e la resilienza (in Italian)
Con il termine Carer o Caregiver si intende una persona che assiste, senza alcun compenso in denaro, un
proprio congiunto (familiare,amico) non in grado di svolgere gli atti della vita quotidiana da solo a causa
dell’età, malattia o disabilità.
I dati della ricerca Eurofamcare, stimano in oltre 100.000.000 i caregiver in Europa, circa il 25% della
popolazione. Si tratta di un fenomeno diffuso e crescente e che si associa ovunque ad un elevato rischio
di esclusione sociale. L’elevato carico assistenziale infatti, comporta difficoltà economiche, isolamento,
minori opportunità di carriera e minore formazione.
Inoltre le difficoltà dei caregiver non cessano con la conclusione dell’attività assistenziale. Come
dimostrano le ricerche di Larkin (2008) e McLaughin (2007) anche gli ex caregiver trovano numerose
difficoltà nel reinserimento nella vita sociale e professionale dopo vari anni dedicati alla cura.
La “sospensione” del progetto di vita del caregiver o una sua penalizzante negazione, è sovrapponibile
all’insorgere di patologie o disturbi emotivo-comportamentali che vanno dalle sofferenze psicologiche
legate alle sindromi ansioso depressive e a vari disturbi da conversione.
Prendersi cura del caregiver significa lavorare sulla sua capacità di Resilienza, per evitare esclusione
sociale e senso di abbandono affinchè egli non dimentichi che può riformulare e rinnovare il suo progetto
di vita” visualizzandolo” in un’ottica di sussidiarietà ed acquisizione di nuove conoscenze formali ed
informali
E’ in corso di elaborazione comparata gli effetti sulla resilienza e progetto di vita dei caregiver che
frequentano gruppi AMA e Psicoeducazionali.
Marina Duro, Andrea Bianchi, Maria Carta, Giuseppe Ducci, Stefano Fantozzi, Anna La Mesa,
Roberta Lella, Nicolino Rago, Giuseppina Ruocco, Elisabetta Todaro (Roma, Italy)
Quando i lupi non fanno paura: una ricerca-intervento su pazienti affetti da Lupus Eritematoso Sistemico
(LES) (in Italian).
Molti studi testimoniano che talune tecniche psicoterapiche e di controllo dello stress modificano
sostanzialmente l'assetto ormonale e favoriscono l'attivazione di fattori che proteggono e trasformano
l'assetto neuronale. Tali tecniche favoriscono una migliore regolazione interna e vanno ad incidere sui
meccanismi epigenetici.
L’obiettivo primario dello studio è verificare se patologie di tipo somatico considerate gravi e invalidanti,
come nel caso specifico delle patologie autoimmuni, possano rispondere, in aggiunta al protocollo
farmacologico e medico tradizionale, ad un trattamento ipnotico e psicoterapico.
Nello specifico si intende promuovere un migliore esito della patologia autoimmune attraverso un
intervento individuale basato su tecniche di visualizzazione dell'organo bersaglio con supporto
multimediale (intervento ipnotico) e attraverso un ciclo di incontri con la famiglia che valorizzi la rete di
supporto di cui l'individuo fa parte (intervento sistemico-relazionale).
Verranno presentati il modello di intervento ed i dati di ricerca.
La ricerca è in corso.
Alessandro Fedi (Firenze, Italy)
The hypnotic setting in the dental studio
Anxiety, fear and phobia of ‘the dentist’ are common in dental patients. In this paper, these issues will
instead be examined in terms of anxiety, fear and phobia of ‘the dental studio’. The author describes a
hypnotic setting for dental studios that can be ‘ergonomized’ through regular usage by means of an
appropriate adaptation of the ambience in the waiting area, and especially in the dental rooms, as
experimented since 2004 in the author’s studio. Often even with no formal induction, a state of trance can
be induced in predisposed patients by means of various types of stimuli: sensorial, environmental, visual,
aural, somatic-aesthetic and olfactory. Factors that contribute to inducing, maintaining and almost always
deepening the state of trance are manual touch, general gesturing and voice tone/cadence of the
operator, in addition to appropriate neurolinguistic verbal communication. The state of trance can be
verified through phenomena such as temporal distortion, reorientation difficulty, cataleptic state and,
rarely, discontinuity between the before and the after in relation to anxiety and fear. The fields of
application that have been addressed through an induction almost purely from the ambience are:
facilitation of trust on the part of the patient, reduction in anxiety and dental phobia, dental dam
claustrophobia, phobias from the sight, sounds and odors of instruments, pedodontics, greater resilience
in relation to particularly challenging treatments. In all other cases, the setting as described will surely
facilitate the usual methods of induction and can contribute to disproving the frequently held notion
among dentists that hypnosis may be a valid resource to enhance doctor-patient relations, but is
excessively time-consuming for operational practice.
Ilaria Genovesi, Maria Antognozzi, Luca Bidogia, Giulia Liperini, Gaetano Pratino (Pisa, Italy)
La resilienza nell’anziano (in Italian)
La composizione della popolazione sta continuando a cambiare: le persone vivono più a lungo, emergono
nuovi ruoli sociali per gli anziani e necessariamente avvengono cambiamenti nelle relazioni familiari. In
Italia la domanda di prestazioni da parte degli anziani è in costante crescita, tanto che la scelta delle
Istituzioni pubbliche è quella di favorire il mantenimento dell’anziano nel proprio contesto familiare,
rafforzando la rete di relazioni all’interno della famiglia che, ancora oggi, rimane in modo prioritario, se
non esclusivo, la responsabile dell’assistenza. Partendo dalla ricerca americana “Family interaction Center”
condotta da E.M. Sorense nel 1973 presso il Mental Research Institute (P. Watzlawick, J. H. Weakland,
1976), con questo progetto si è voluto predisporre e realizzare un percorso rivolto agli anziani e alle loro
famiglie, al fine di aiutare tutto il sistema familiare ad affrontare con maggiore efficacia i cambiamenti
legati all’invecchiamento, promuovendo un processo di graduale adattamento a questo complesso
processo biologico e psicologico. Si è proposto un breve ciclo di sedute, all’interno delle quali sono state
proposte strategie psicoterapeutiche (D. Short, C.C. Casula, 2004) per stimolare la resilienza nell’anziano e
nei suoi familiari. Per valutare l’efficacia dell’intervento è stato somministrato un Questionario ante/post
ad un campione omogeneo di anziani di età compresa tra i 60 e gli 85 anni; in questo modo è stato
possibile verificare l’eventuale cambiamento tra prima e dopo aver svolto il percorso di consulenza
(relativamente alla qualità di vita percepita dall’anziano) e l’effettiva variazione del consumo di farmaci. I
risultati sono ad oggi in corso.
In un’ottica di resilienza, l’anziano ha bisogno di essere ascoltato, di raccontare la sua storia, condividere il
suo vissuto per mantenere viva una traccia, conservare un ricordo, questa è la sua capacità di vedere
nuovi orizzonti della propria esistenza e cogliere le nuove opportunità della vita; di fronte alle avversità
l’anziano scopre di essere più determinato, più audace e più creativo del destino (C.C. Casula, 2011).
Emilio Gerboni (Bologna, Italy)
Working with the adult self-image to empower patient’s resilience
In this paper it will be presented how to work through a standard hypnotic training at the level of the
identity of the patient, leaving to him or her the freedom to model himself or herself. This can be a faster
way to the reach the therapeutic outcome(s) and to solve at the same time many issues without working
on them directly.
The underlying theory and the process refers to the the empiric work of Prof. Giulio Cesare Giacobbe, who
has found how in natural human mind development, there are three main personalities that evolves
through three stages: the child, the adult, and the parent personality.
It is evident how, mainly In hyper-protective cultures, a large percentage of people remain trapped in the
child personality stage. At this stage the subject feels helpless, often developing different types of
symptoms from the depressive cluster to the anxious one, as well as dysfunctional relational patterns.
Giuseppina Guida (Rome, Italy)
Pierre Janet: padre (misconosciuto) dell’ipnosi (in Italian)
H. Ellemberger sostiene che Pierre Janet è un esempio notevole di come la fama e l’oblio siano
ingiustamente distribuiti tra gli scienziati. (vedi La scoperta dell’inconscio, p. 471)
La sua opera ha influito su personalità di rilievo come Freud, Jung , Adler solo per citarne solo alcune e
molti concetti dell’attuale psicoterapia devono a lui la loro esistenza, sebbene i più non ne siano
consapevoli; un esempio per tutti è la sua paternità del termine “subconscio”.
L’obiettivo dell’intervento è quello di offrire una sintesi essenziale della sua opera per evidenziare i nessi
con la psicoterapia.
Si approfondirà il concetto di dissociazione (disaggregazione), condizione psicologica che si verifica in
seguito alla mancata elaborazione di un evento emotivamente molto carico tale da rendere la persona
incapace di integrarsi e adattarsi alle diverse situazione della vita.
L’opera di riferimento sarà “L’automatismo psicologico”, opera reperibile in lingua italiana
Nicolino Rago, Dimitri Bottoni, Chiara Cottini, Gianluca Graziani, Maria Peducci, Enrico
Righetti, Cristiana Rossi, Sara Tarolli, Federica Volpi (Orvieto, Italy)
E le braccia divennero ali: l’uso dell’ipnosi nella riabilitazione di pazienti colpiti da ictus (in Italian).
La malattia cerebrovascolare in Italia rappresenta la terza causa di morte dopo le malattie cardiovascolari
e le neoplasie, causando il 10-12% di tutti i decessi per anno, e rappresenta inoltre la principale causa di
disabilità insorgente nell’età adulta.
L’ipnosi si è dimostrata un valido mezzo terapeutico nell’iter rieducativo di disabilità fisica e neurologica in
relazione alla velocità d’azione, al contenimento dei costi per farmaci e lunghi trattamenti rieducativi
specifici e, soprattutto, per i benefici effetti che può avere per il paziente in termini di miglioramento della
qualità di vita.
Gli Autori stanno portando avanti una ricerca su 45 pazienti affetti da ictus ischemico ricoverati presso la
Stroke Unit – Azienda ASL 1 Ospedale Città della Pieve (PG).
Verranno presentati dati di ricerca sulla valutazione dell’efficacia dell’uso dell’ipnosi nella riabilitazione
neuromotoria e sullo stato di salute di pazienti colpiti da ictus ischemico.
La ricerca è in corso.
Manuela Violani (Roma, Italy)
Ipnosi e “Situational Awareness”. La resilienza come risorsa nell’esercizio delle professioni che gestiscono
situazioni di anormalità ed emergenza (in Italian).
La letteratura in ambito sanitario ha evidenziato che molte delle cause da cui possono originarsi gli
incidenti, nell’esercizio della pratica medica risiedono negli errori legati ad aspetti cognitivi e psico-sociali
delle performance, piuttosto che da una mancanza di esperienza tecnica.
Questi risultati supportano la convinzione che le competenze tecniche siano necessarie ma non sufficienti
per mantenere a lungo alti livelli di performance; nel contempo, risulta doveroso porre attenzione a quelle
che sono state definite competenze non tecniche; team work, leadership, decision making, task
management e comunicazione e soprattutto la “situational awareness” .
Mentre in alcuni settori della medicina ospedaliera lo studio delle competenze tecniche è ormai radicato ed
ha prodotto tassonomie di marcatori comportamentali e programmi di addestramento (anestesia,
chirurgia), l’identificazione delle competenze non tecniche della medicina di emergenza muove i primi
passi.
L’ipnosi ericksoniana, rappresenta, una possibile strategia da utilizzare nei percorsi formativi dei
professionisti che si trovano ad operare in situazioni di anormalità e di allerta.
Il lavoro proposto vuole tracciare una via, una possibilità tutta da esplorare che pone le tecniche
ipnotiche come valido e poliedrico ausilio nel passaggio dalla “teoria” sulla resilienza alla “pratica “ della
resilienza, utilizzandola nella formazione di team di operatori che prestano servizio nelle strutture di
pronto soccorso e di day surgery.