Mindful hypnotherapy

Domain VI · Brief, integrative, trauma, hypnosis & coaching · Gary Elkins, Nicholas Olendzki · Baylor University

What it is

Format. One-to-one sessions of about one hour, weekly, for 8 weeks. Each session includes an in-session mindful hypnosis experience. Between sessions the client listens daily to a self-hypnosis audio recording of about 20–25 minutes that contains an induction, relaxation, and mindfulness…

Format

• Format. One-to-one sessions of about one hour, weekly, for 8 weeks. Each session includes an in-session mindful hypnosis experience. Between sessions the client listens daily to a self-hypnosis audio recording of about 20–25 minutes that contains an induction, relaxation, and mindfulness…
• Phase 0 – Assessment and preparation (before or within session 1). Goals: rapport, case conceptualisation, clarifying the client's goals, correcting myths about hypnosis, informed consent, screening, and optionally measuring hypnotizability with the Elkins Hypnotizability Scale (EHS, about 20…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• How change is thought to happen. Hypnosis is the delivery vehicle for mindfulness. The hypnotic experience (focused attention, less peripheral awareness, relaxation, imagery, and responsiveness to suggestion) is meant to make present-moment, nonjudgmental awareness easier to reach and easier to understand than effortful meditation training. MH also joins mindfulness's acceptance stance to hypnotherapy's change…
• Relation to tab 090. Mindfulness-based cognitive-behavioural hypnotherapy (tab 090) also combines mindfulness with hypnosis but sits inside a CBT case formulation. MH is a stand-alone, theme-sequenced mindfulness programme delivered through hypnosis. Use 090 when cognitive restructuring of a specific disorder is the main task, and MH when the goal is general stress reduction and mindful self-regulation.
• Scope of this guide. This guide covers clinical hypnosis only, used by licensed health professionals within their competence. MH is not a trauma-memory method and not a medical treatment. All example wording below is illustrative paraphrase, not Elkins's transcripts.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• religious objections or unease. Keep it optional and secular (see 5.6).
• frequency, and also quality (falling asleep, rushing). Adherence problems: see 5.4.
• relapse planning, and dependence on the therapist's voice. Encourage self-guided sessions.
• whether the client can describe one moment of present-focused calm; a realistic daily practice plan.
• suggestions that quietly push the client to not feel something, which conflicts with the mindfulness aim.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.