I have already written a post on a freshly published book in Hungarian mentioning hypnotherapy with a short analysis and history. I have received quite a few curious emails from collegues, patients and friends asking “Could you tell me more on this?” 🙂 I think I have found a better way for “telling more”, I asked Giancarlo Russo who is mastering hypnosis for a short interview. Always look for the best when you are looking for quality answers. 🙂
The photo was taken of him on one of his hypnosis seminars.
1. How did You meet hypnotherapy?
I met hypnotherapy by luck… While I was walking home after a university lesson, it started to rain very hard and in order not to get totally wet, I stopped by a building, close to a door. Standing there I heard some voices from inside, I listened for a while, and, getting curious about what it could be, I stepped inside to take a look. It was a conference about hypnosis and his application …and it was amazing! I started studying hypnosis since that day…it has happened about 25 years ago.
2. Most cases when people hear of hypnosis they immediately think of severe manipulation of the other’s willpower. How would you clarify what hypnosis is for those who get frightened first time?
Do you think that it is possible to manipulate the other’s willpower? If it is possible we can manipulate criminals and let them became respectable people, don’t you think so? Anyway it is impossible to manipulate other people willpower through hypnosis, we have inside what Hilgard (a famous american phsychologist from Stanford) called “the hidden observer” (a sort of “libero arbitrio”) What is a paradox is that the first time that people come to me for hypnosis I need to explain them what hypnosis is not instead of what hypnosis is! This is quite funny, but I know that the Hollywood’s stereotype of hypnosis is like a battle of brains and/or dominance of will… This is extremely far form the reality! So I start explaining what hypnosis is not and then I show my patients how many times during the day they go into a “spontaneous” hypnosis without knowing it…
3. What are the most important issues hypnotherapy can be a support for?
We have tons of scientific evidences that shows high results on several problems, especially pain (acute and cronic pain), headache, migraine, sleep disorders, irritable bowel syndrome, fibromialgia, dermatologic diseases, negative effects of chemotherapy and many more…
4. Are there any dangers of hypnosis?
In the right hands nothing is dangerous, to became a good hypnotherapist you need many hours of training ( it is like driving an airplane) and a life time to improve your skills, and I love it… In literature we have no any notice about collateral effects of hypnosis, we have no any notice of negative reactions and we have not notice of addicting to hypnosis. Anyway, it all depends on the experience of the hypnotherapist and on his “sixth sense”… Some people though are better not to be hypnotized. (e.g. drug addicts -heroine and cocaine-, phsychotics and schizofrenics)
5. What if a person with e.g. fibromyalgia asked you for help in hypnosis, could it possibly help? What would you suggest?
On fibromialgia there are several papers that show us good results with an Hypnotic Approach so I recommend it.
6. How long does “hypnotic care” last? (is there anything like series of hypnotic sessions, like psychoteraphy, or is it usual that 1-2-3 treatments help a lot?)
Hypnosis is a self help. I like to call it like this. I teach my patients self hypnosis so that they can do it at home and/or every time they need it. Normally 3 treatments are necessary to see the results, sometimes only one treatment is effective, sometimes you need a little more. Personally if I don’t see results after 5 sessions, I stop the treatment and I look for another strategy, but this is extremely rare.
KettlebellSpine 