Hypnosis

Overview

Mayo Clinic offers hypnosis as a psychological and medical therapy to help relieve symptoms of some diseases and conditions. Mayo specialists are skilled at integrating hypnosis into a patient's overall treatment plan, when appropriate.

Specialists at Mayo Clinic recognize that many complementary and alternative medicine treatments such as hypnosis can help promote physical, mental and spiritual wellness. Mayo has created a new specialty (Complementary and Integrative Medicine) to blend the best of both worlds — conventional and alternative medicine.

Mayo's approach to hypnosis is evidence-based. Treatment recommendations are based on continuous research by Mayo physicians and scientists to identify the most effective therapies.

During hypnosis, patients can tap into and use their inner resources, make personal changes, and learn how to manage their lives more effectively. Hypnosis may be helpful when used for: behavior change (insomnia, substance abuse, phobias, sleepwalking), pain management (chronic and procedural pain, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), childbirth, fibromyalgia), hypertension and weight management.

Hypnosis may also help improve immune function, increase relaxation, decrease stress and ease anxiety. The American Medical Association has recognized hypnosis as a valid medical treatment for certain conditions since 1958.

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About Hypnosis

In daily life, people commonly experience focused states of awareness similar to hypnosis; for example, becoming so absorbed in a book that you fail to hear someone talking to you. Hypnosis creates a deeply focused and attentive state where patients become more susceptible to suggestions and less responsive to criticisms or disbelief. Using hypnosis, a qualified specialist can help a patient access a trancelike state of mind. Like other wellness-promoting techniques, hypnosis can decrease blood pressure and heart rate, and alter certain brain wave activities. While hypnotized, a person can relax enough to be at ease physically yet fully awake mentally.

Read more about hypnosis at www.MayoClinic.com.