Mayo Clinic's Consumer Health page on Hypnosis

RE: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/hypnosis/SA00084

Every professional hypnotherapist should know what the Mayo Clinic is telling consumers about hypnosis. Chances are that savvy consumers that are researching hypnosis will have read it. You might even link to it from your web site or profile as a resource for your potential clients to learn about the myths and truths about hypnosis.

Covered in the article are these topics:

• What is hypnosis?
• Who is hypnosis for?
• Types of hypnosis
• Myths about hypnosis
• How to choose a qualified professional
• Risks of hypnosis

It is, overall, a good article. The weakest section by far is the last section, "Risks of hypnosis," where it states that hypnosis can cause "headache, dizziness and nausea", though such side effects "are uncommon". We all know those aren't risks of hypnosis, in fact, those are often the symptoms hypnosis is used to reduce and eliminate, especially in conjunction with medications and medical procedures.

I contacted the Mayo Clinic via their web form to find out the source of this strange quote and got a prompt reply. They said to check under the "Resources" tab to find all the resources used for the article. That left me with a lot of searching, reading and registering with medical journal databases to find the source of their quote.

I found it in an article from the Mayo Clinic Proceedings titled, "Hypnosis in Contemporary Medicine" by James H Stewart. (An educational permissioned post of the article can be found here.) He spells out two specific causes of these 'adverse reactions' experienced in the study: errors by the hypnotist and normal test levels. In other words, these effects occur at these same levels in tests without hypnosis. Here's the relevant quote:

The most common suspected adverse reactions included drowsiness, dizziness, stiffness, headaches, anxiety, and, occasionally, more serious reactions such as symptom substitution and masking of organic disorders. These adverse reactions were attributed to deficiencies in the hypnotist's techniques, such as not realizing that suggestions in hypnosis are accepted literally, bringing the patient too rapidly out of trance, using age regression inappropriately, not dispelling preconceived expectations of negative consequences of hypnosis before initiating the session, or not prescreening for certain psychopathology. A more recent review indicated that hypnosis is associated with a risk of adverse effects, including headache, dizziness, nausea, anxiety, or panic, at levels that might occur in other test or experimental settings without hypnosis.

So the version of the quote that appears in the article in the consumer health section of the Mayo Clinic's web site is a bit truncated.

Moving on, the question set in the "How to choose a qualified professional" are questions that every professional hypnotherapists should be prepared to answer and discuss openly and with confidence, be it on the phone, in email or in person. It is a good guide for consumers and hypnotherapists alike.