Hypnotherapy programme on the BBC
So last night I sat down at 9pm to watch Alternative Therapies on BBC2 - a short series scientifically following some alternative therapies. There’s not much time to cover the subject of hypnotherapy in one hour so I was expecting a simple overview and all the same, I was still slightly disappointed with what I saw.
I know what I know about hypnosis in terms of implied suggestion - the vaguer the better - using Milton language patterns to induce ‘trance’ and embed further suggestions to the unconscious mind. That, and the bedrock of rapport.
What I saw, however, especially from one of the experts, was a very authoritative approach to hypnosis lacking any form of rapport with the therapist almost telling the subject what to do and what to expect, which the programme maker (being the subject) subsequently rejected. She commented afterwards, that during the session as the therapist was making some ‘commands’, she was internally arguing against them.
Lack of rapport was also evident for anther of the hypnotherapists as he was simply reading a generic script.
It reminded me of a therapist I saw a few years ago, before I discovered hypnotherapy for myself. As she was inducing my trance she was so engrossed with her script she didn’t notice that I had shut my eyes, only to tell me about ten seconds later that it would be okay to then close my eyes - she had lost me (but not my £50). I didn’t go back.
Back to the programme though, there was a weight loss guy and a dentist on the programme who were very good at creating rapport and I noticed some cunning ambiguity in their language to ‘confuse’ the subject into taking on their new learnings. The dentist actually took out two teeth, drilled holes in the woman’s gum and planted in two new teeth with no anesthetic - just hypnosis.
I am left not really understanding what the programme was actually about or why is was shown. It neither proved, backed, disproved or came up with an opinion. Perhaps that was the point though?
Tags: Hypnotherapy, Language
Just watched this on BBC iPlayer after reading your blog this afternoon… and slightly disappointed like you!
As far as the studies go, I think it’s great that the science community is delving into what goes on during trance and for me personally the outcomes are not really important.
For me it’s a bit like the internet I guess; as long as it works and gets me the desired result I do not need a full explanation of what goes on behind the screens.
Comment by swen — March 18, 2008 @ 8:26 pm