Oregon Live ran this story about a new technology being used at the Oregon Burn Center at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland: virtual reality hypnosis for dressing changes for burn victims.

Dressing changes are extremely painful but need to done multiple times per day, sometimes for weeks. They are definitely the "sore spot" in burn care, elevating the stress and tension in patients that slows healing and has patients thinking of ways to avoid it, bringing on compliance problems.

Patients are distracted by flying and performing tasks using a computer mouse in an immersive virtual world called SnowWorld with hypnotic scenery, music and pacing.

Patterson's group has received a grant from the National Institutes of Health for a controlled clinical trial of virtual reality hypnosis for chronic pain.

Read the story of Randy McAllister, a patient that has used the technology, in the Oregon Live article.

We've certainly come a long way. Or have we? Ever wonder what basic tenants of hypnosis are the same as they were a century ago? Can you spot hypnosis disguised as other "miracle modalities" from the nineteenth century? Are you able to discuss the development of hypnosis through the decades, what they had plain "wrong" back when, and why the modern shifts in models and techniques are more effective?

If these kinds of questions have ever crossed your mind, and if you have a few minutes until your next client appointment, you might want to check out all of the free ebooks on Hypnosis available on Google Books. You can read them on your desktop, laptop, and now also on your iPad or phone using the Google Books app.

http://books.google.com/ebooks?q=hypnosis&as_brr=4

Explore centuries of hypnosis literature, discover where some of the most persistent (and annoying) myths about hypnosis originated, and brush up on your fodder for sparkling party conversations by browsing scores of books dating from the early 1800's through the 1970's. Newer titles are available for purchase as ebooks, too.

WTSP News in Tampa Bay, FL has done a couple of stories on the success of hynobirthing. Probably because their own TV reporter Heather VanNest was quite impressed when she used hypnosis for the birth of her child. She wrote a blog post about it here:

http://www.wtsp.com/feature/naturalhealth/article/190304/177/HEATHERS-BL...
(with video)

People seem to remember when the stars, models and public figures do things, and perhaps that's why people are impessed that actress Jessica Alba and Victoria Secret model Miranda Kerr (married to Orlando Bloom) both used hypnosis for a medication-free birth. WTSP story here:

http://www.wtsp.com/news/health/article/205032/12/Victoria-Secret-model-...

The San Jose Mercury news ran an article about San Francisco Giant's Bruce Bochy using hypnosis to quit his longtime addiction to chewing tobacco, with some comments about the process and mystery of it all.

http://www.mercurynews.com/health/ci_18639348 -- (Aug 8, 2011)

Quotes from the article:

"I'm a believer," said Murphy, who joined the Giants as a bat boy when the franchise moved West in 1958.

"It's been the best $300 I ever spent," Hayes said. "It's weird to see how it works." (Hayes also quit chewing via hypnosis)

Bochy agrees. He already would have spent well more than $300 on dip by this point in the season, he said.

These were one-session successes, though long sessions (3.5 hrs), by medical hypnotherapist Dr. AlVera Paxson, who lives in Scottsdale, AZ. ( http://medical-hypnotherapy.com/ )

The story was on the AP News wire and carried in several other publications.

CBS News has added a nice 10-photo gallery of a patient undergoing thyroid surgery using hypnosis instead of a general anesthetic.

It's wonderful to see mass-media mentioning hypnosis, especially in such useful and close proximity to doctors and hospitals. It's also sobering to see the minimal commitment that is often made to hypnosis. This nice gallery of photos is quick to mention that "if the patient ever feels any pain, they are immediately given a shot," and "hypnosis is used only in low-risk operations that are also using local anesthetic". It fails to mention, for example, that hypnosis has been a life-saving alternative for even major surgeries in cases where general anesthetic could not be used.

One doctor is quoted as saying, "If we could get more research on the right patient groups that would benefit from (hypnosis), that would be wonderful."

Deciding what, when and how much to do on the Internet for your business
Tuesday March 1, 2011, 6pm-7:30pm Eastern Time / 3pm-4:30pm Pacific
This is a 90-minute conference-call format Q&A and workshop.

2009 research revealed that when searching for products and personal services, 83% of shoppers in the USA will search the Internet before checking the phone book. We've been hearing over the last three years that the results from phone book ads have been strongly declining for hypnotherapists. Some blame the economy or believe hypnotherapy is declining as a personal service, but in reality, all that really changed is that people shop differently for personal services now.

Still, the Internet is a boggling and complex thing. Internet marketing is the new "get rich quick" peddle, and thousands of people claim to be selling you the secrets to it.

=== FREE TO AAPH MEMBERS ===

Sorry, this workshop is presently not available to the public; only AAPH members can attend.

AAPH presents a new workshop in the new "Being Hypnotic" series. This is a 90-minute teleconference audio workshop in a participative round table format. Professional Hypnotherapists will be sharing their ideas and expertise during the workshop, and often new refinements and advancements are made to techniques in this style of workshop.

Sometimes, it is useful to present hypnosis as something different, something that will surprise and delight the client. Other times, it is advantageous to present hypnosis as something familiar, something the client already does well naturally.

For those latter times, using natural trance reference states to quickly bring your client into a nice, natural trance can be the key to truly "being hypnotic" and creating impromptu inductions that are extremely effective with the subject.

No need to memorize scripts or repeat patter-sounding lines with this technique. Create an induction using an introductory framing, a few key questions, a few blending methods and close observation of the subject.

Come learn and discuss these techniques on our January Member's Workshop, Wednesday, January 19th at 3PM Pacific / 6pm Eastern. Free to AAPH members. Log into the web site and RSVP here to get the conference call number and entrance code.

We look forward to having you there! Log in and RSVP now.

Last week (Jan 4), the Better Business Bureau released its list of the top ten most common scams of 2010.

I use visualization techniques a lot to get rid of niggling complaints like headaches and other minor pains, for stopping colds before they develop, and to clear up minor infections. But I've also used visualization to get rid of an allergy to cats and to handle IBS.

I'll tell you both of those stories in brief.

I worked on the cat allergy years ago, when I was living temporarily in a cottage that came with a cat. She was a sweet creature, but she really kicked up my allergies. I worked with a friend who was skilled in visualization techniques to clear up the problem. Meeting in a setting that contained no cats, he guided me into a hypnogogic state and had me imagine holding the cat in my lap and burying my face in her soft fur. I started to sneeze! That's when I realized how even allergies can have a mental component. He helped me discover that as a child I had been inadvertently "programmed" to respond allergically to cats. He had me work with the image of the cat until I could imagine having my face in her fur and not sneeze. After that I had no more problems with the cat.