Abstract: To date, cognitive behavioral therapy has been designated the most
efficient evidence-based psychotherapeutic approach for OCD
management. This is mainly due to its ability to effectively address the
constitutional and developmentally acquired emotional and cognitive
deficiencies of OCD, which express themselves through behavioral
compulsions and intrusive thoughts. Yet some reports indicate that
from 30 to 60 percent of OCD patients are not responsive to
psychotherapeutic interventions. As a consequence, broader therapeutic
models have been considered. These models encompass multifactorial
etiologies of OCD and take intrapsychic stressogenic factors into
consideration as well. Some of these models have adopted
hypnotherapeutic approaches. In the present article, we introduce a
therapeutic tool that utilizes hypnotically induced dissociation (HID)
to identify and address the intrapsychic etiology of OCD. The result is
a therapeutic intervention that in our view can complement existing
OCD treatment strategies. Clinical cases are presented to illustrate
implementation of the approach.
Abstract: The prospect of utilizing memory plasticity (the constructive and
transitory nature of memory) for therapeutic purposes has not been
widely recognized. However, a number of theoretical and clinical venues
throughout the last century have shown its potential application.
Intensive research conducted during these last decades, pointed out the
possibility of influencing human memory in relation to new memories
and their specific components. Moreover, the research showed the
feasibility of planting alternative early childhood memories and thus
altering memories of personal history. Additionally, researchers found
that memory is naturally very fallible due to everyday phenomena of
forgetfulness, distortion and intrusion of past and present information.
Throughout the course of this paper, the integrative overview of these
empirical findings with the aforementioned clinical and theoretical
foundations serves as a substratum in an attempt to present an integrative
therapeutic approach, named Memory Focused Interventions (MFI).
Abstract: The hypnotherapeutic literature is abundant with numerous techniques aimed at help-
ing practitioners deal with different types of patients and problems during hypnotic psy-
chotherapy. Yet hypnosis and hypnotherapy textbooks have only minimally addressed the
treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients. Those that do discuss this top-
ic refer mainly to the field as a whole and do not offer specific hypnotic interventions. The
objective of the present paper is to promote psychotherapy for OCD patients by proposing
that practitioners use strategically oriented hypnotic intervention enhanced by a ‘positive
psychology’ orientation.
Abstract: 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 present article, we use hypnotically induced dissociation (HID) to treat patients with obstinate mental disorders (OMD). These disorders are characterized by persistent, problematic behaviors, thoughts, and feelings that become organizing principals of identity and form enduring psychopathologies. To promote psychological change in patients with OMD, we use HID to enhance dissociative processes that enable the differentiation of health from pathology and allow the emergence of experiences previously overshadowed by pathological personality patterns. Three clinical cases of OMD (chronic depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and a personality disorder) illustrate the effects of HID as an effective therapeutic tool that facilitates emotional processing, consolidates therapeutic achievements, and secures therapeutic results.
Abstract: An out-of-body experience (OBE) is a unique dissociative event in which the person feels separated from his/her body. Studies and anecdotal reports have observed that this experience tends to appear spontaneously in stressful and hypnogogic situations. It often contributes to the person's later having a new perspective of himself and his conception of the world, and may influence his functioning and behavior. Despite its potential as a powerful therapeutic lever in hypnotherapy, little has been written about applying OBE in this milieu. The current article describes three individuals who were contending with different therapeutic issues (i.e., symbiotic involvement, somatization, and cessation of therapy) for whom spontaneous OBE was used therapeutically during hypnotherapy and proved to significantly advance the therapeutic processes. In accordance with the literature, and as observed in the presented cases, we have found that the OBE experience tends to appear in dissociative and highly suggestible subjects. Furthermore OBE may help those patients to cope with strongly anxiety-loaded issues that arise in therapy and may function, through the "body-self" detachment experience, as a therapeutic metaphor for promoting complex separational processes. In view of the cases described, a spontaneous OBE appearing in hypnotherapy is proposed as an effective therapeutic resource. [PUBLICATION
