Should you incorporate other healing modalities such as energy healing with hypnosis?
The hypnosis purists insist hypnotherapy ought not to be contaminated by other practices such as energy healing, NLP, EFT, etc. I agree with them on at least one point – it’s best to master the tools of hypnotherapy before trying to add another modality. So, if you’re just starting out, the “purist” approach is sound advice.
Trying to add too many tools to your toolbox at once just adds confusion. And to get consistent results you need to know how the tools of hypnotherapy work.
Once you’ve established a solid foundation in the hypnosis, however, it’s up to you to develop your unique style. This is where incorporating other modalities such as NLP, Reiki, EFT, etc., can give you more resources with which to help your clients. That’s good.
The purists would have you think that hypnotherapy is a stand-alone therapy.
While it’s a stand-alone profession, hypnotherapy has it’s roots in psychotherapy. From psychotherapy we get concepts like repression. And processes like regression.
Dialogue work, which has its roots in Gestalt Therapy, is central to therapeutic hypnosis.
Much of our work involves emotional healing which is a form of energy work. And if I’m not mistaken, didn’t Mesmer practice a form of energy healing? I leave the debate to you.
For myself, I routinely use Meridian Tapping Techniques (MTT) with hypnotherapy as a ….
- Preliminary Technique prior to hypnotherapy
- Releasing Technique during regression hypnosis
- Resource clients can use on their own at home.
Tapping is elegant.
Tapping is easy to use with hypnosis. It adds versatility to your bag of therapeutic tricks. And any tool that offers multiple applications is an elegant tool to have on hand.
There are many approaches that fall under the umbrella of Meridian Tapping Techniques (MTT) listed below.
- Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)
- Simple Energy Techniques (SET)
- Advanced Integrative Therapy (AIT)
- Tappas Acupressure Technique (TAT)
- Be Set Free Fast (BSFF)
- Wholistic Hybrid derived from EMDR and EFT (WHEE)
- Z-Point Technique
- Others
For use with hypnosis I primarily use a simplified tapping/touching/rubbing sequence and bi-lateral tapping in tandem with auto-suggestion. This is very potent stuff.
What about hands-on healing?
Some hypnosis practitioners want to incorporate hands-on healing techniques in their hypnosis practice. I am also trained in Reiki, Pranic Healing, Touch for Healing and Reconnective Healing, so I understand. But I don’t offer sessions in these practices. And I don’t incorporate energy healing techniques in hypnotherapy sessions mostly because it’s just too awkward to do in a chair.
That said …. if my hands start running energy during a session, I take that as a sign to use it. So, when a client is connecting with a tender feeling, like sadness or love, I’ll often bring my hand in front of their heart and send energy into it. This hands-off energy technique seems to help amplify the feeling.
Reconnective Healing is a hands-off energy healing technique I got certified in many years ago. After my initial training, however, I wanted to know what might happen when you integrate hypnosis with the energy work. So, I offered a series of experimental sessions to a number of clients.
During my mini-study, the client would lay on the bodywork table. I simply did a short relaxation induction before beginning the energy work. And what I found was quite interesting.
As expected, inducing hypnosis and offering suggestions for relaxation prior to applying a touch-based energy healing technique, made the client more relaxed and, I’m guessing, more receptive to healing. But what I discovered through this little experiment is that the induction was unnecessary.
It turns out that, with Reconnective Healing, at least, the energy induces hypnosis naturally. After just a few minutes of sending the energy through the temple points, clients consistently showed visible signs of trance. Interesting, huh?
One the places where combining energy work with hypnosis can be very beneficial is hospice work.
While I was still in the early stages of training in healing hypnosis I worked in a Hospice clinic doing group Reiki. The clinic provided a venue for new Reiki practitioners to get hands-on experience working with clients. And it offered hospice volunteers and clients stress relief.
Once a week, the hospice training room was transformed into a healing clinic by setting up several bodywork tables separated by portable privacy screens. Three or four Reiki practitioners would work together on a client at the same time. So, there was the added benefit of apply group energy.
The clinic was hugely popular with stressed-out palliative patients and hospice volunteers who waited in line for their sessions.
The physical touch of hands-on healing techniques like Reiki, Healing Touch and Touch for Healing naturally calms the nervous system of the body. But it can also bring emotional issues to the surface. On occasion, a client would begin to abreact during a Reiki session.
This is where knowing how to add a few suggestion to the mix can have a beneficial effect as the client is already in hypnosis!
During one such session, we were working on a young twenty-something palliative patient. She began to experience a strong abreaction. The other Reiki practitioners immediately stepped away from the table in fear.
Having been trained in regression-to-cause therapeutic hypnosis, I knew her mind had simply taken her into a past event. So, I leaned in and whispered in her ear, “I can help you. Would that be all right?”
“Oh, yes! PLEASE!” she cried.
With her permission to proceed, I asked, “Where is it that your mind now has you?”
I discovered her mind had regressed her to a scene in childhood. I’ll spare the details to protect confidentiality, but it was a terrifying situation of abuse. I often wonder if that might have been the roots of the cancer that was taking her life. What do you think?
The body responds
Another hospice client came regularly to the clinic. She had severe MS and was bound to a wheelchair. After a few group Reiki sessions, she asked to work exclusively with me because she noticed that, following a session with me, she had greater mobility.
All I was doing differently was combining the energy healing (hands off) with direct suggestion. That’s it. I spoke directly to her body. And as I did so we observed visible responses.
Limbs that had been incapacitated began to twitch and move. It was exciting! I have little doubt that regression-to-cause could have, at the very least, helped to restore much of her mobility.
Do you teach self-hypnosis classes?
If you teach classes in self-hypnosis consider contacting Reiki Teachers in your area. Offer a special class for healers.
Teach them the mind works, how to formulate effective suggestions, and how to respond when a client abreacts. They’ll feel more confident in their healing sessions and they’ll get better results, thanks to you. You might even get a few new clients, as a result.
Want science?
In 2007 I attended a presentation given by a group of Chinese physicians at the National Guild of Hypnotists (NGH). Through an interpreter they shared research they were doing into acupuncture in Japan.
Their findings with respect to hypnosis was fascinating stuff! They showed the class before and after photographs of the bio-field of the body which clearly showed the meridians.
In the “before” shots, there were visible blocks. In the “after” shots, the blocks were gone. The energy was now flowing freely through the body-energy system showing that stimulation of the acupuncture points was effective in releasing the block.
Okay. So they proved the theory behind acupressure/acupuncture. But here’s where it gets interesting …
The scientists had discovered that inducing a state of somnambulism causes the points to open up! It seems that the Mind becomes highly receptive in a state of somnambulism. And, apparently, so does the meridian system of the body.
Here’s where it gets VERY interesting.
The meridian system becomes so receptive that a single drop of water placed on the meridian point will clear the block.
No needle. No tapping. No touching. Just a drop of water!
Psychoneuroimmunologist, Candace Pert explains this. She states that Your BODY is Your Subconscious Mind. So, the drop of water phenomenon makes total sense.
Hypnosis is a state of increased receptivity. So, hypnosis makes the client more receptive energetically.
Whether you are doing tapping, or hands-on or hands-off transmission of energy, the client is more open to allowing and receiving it. Cool, huh?
Then there’s the whole thought-field theory (Rupert Sheldrake’s Morphic Field) to consider. If you want to learn more about this, pick up a copy of “The Field” by scientific reporter Lynn McTaggart (also available in audio).
This is fascinating stuff. And it sure gives new meaning to the old Biblical saying, “Where two or more are gathered …” Clearly, the power of a shared intent for healing cannot be underrated.
You can watch a video here.
By rights, Hypnotherapy is a form of energy-work.
The Mind is an energy field. It should not to be confused with the brain which is an organ in the body. As hypnosis practitioners we are facilitating a healing process using the vibrational tools of intentionality and verbalized thought (i.e. word).
Thought + Field = Energy
Perhaps the real hypnosis purists are the energy healers. What do you think?
