Is Hypnotherapy Real?

According to Google search prompts, “is hypnotherapy real?” is the most common question asked about hypnotherapy.

Likewise, “is hypnosis real?” is the most common question asked about hypnosis.

The University of Oxford, one of the oldest and most respected universities in the world, publishes the Oxford Handbook of Hypnosis: Theory Research and Practice.

This contains a hefty 791 pages of scientific information and discussion.

The team of senior doctors and psychologists who produced this work certainly believe they’re dealing with a “real” phenomenon!

The British Medical Association likewise recognised the value of hypnosis as far back as 1955. In a report they recommended that all medical students should be taught a basic understanding of it. Sadly the medical schools never followed this recommendation and doctors’ interest in hypnosis has declined since then. (Source: Guardian newspaper 22^nd April 1955).

The NHS also recognises hypnotherapy as a potentially useful therapy. (Although the information given on the NHS website is very inadequate and potentially misleading.)

So based on the word of these authorities, the short answer to the question is “yes of course hypnotherapy is real!”

But let’s dig a little deeper, and analyse why some people doubt the reality of hypnosis.

There are three main reasons for these doubts.

1) LACK OF KNOWLEDGE.

Most people have never been hypnotised, and have never seen anybody else being hypnotised.

They probably know people who have been hypnotised, but these people may never have discussed it with them. British people are still quite secretive about anything to do with their mental health.

2) MISINFORMATION IN THE MEDIA.

Most peoples’ ideas about hypnosis come from what they’ve seen on television, movies, online or in live stage shows.

People are rightly suspicious of anything they see in these media, because they know the content is produced for entertainment rather than for education.

For this reason, the people being hypnotised are always chosen from the most highly suggestible members of the audience.

Some people are so suggestible that they can even be hypnotised accidentally in a normal conversation!

Also, the people who volunteer for these performances are natural actors who enjoy being the centre of attention and amusing others.

So these performances give a very false impression of hypnosis, which could seem unbelievable to many people.

3) MISINFORMATION FROM HYPNOTHERAPISTS.

It’s understandable that hypnotherapists’ own websites concentrate on their successes.

After all, hypnotherapy in the UK is a “saturated market,” with far too many hypnotherapists competing to attract clients.

Most British people do not really prioritise their own mental health, and are reluctant to spend money on anything that’s not guaranteed to work.

Successful hypnotherapy depends largely on the client’s commitment, and other factors.

So however good the hypnotherapist may be, the therapy can still fail for various reasons.

(I’ll discuss the common reasons why hypnotherapy doesn’t work in a future post or mailshot, so bookmark this site and join my mailing list to learn more!)

Unfortunately, some hypnotherapists go way beyond emphasising their own actual successes.

They repeat claims that are not based on real evidence.

The most common example is claiming an 80% success rate in helping people to stop smoking.

The vast majority of hypnotherapists who quote this do not give any sources for their claim, and have probably just copied it from other hypnotherapists’ websites.

But I have traced the original source of the “80%” claim and it’s really not reliable.

It comes from a study made in Turkey in the 1960s, so a different culture and a different time.

Furthermore, we know that many people tell their doctors that they’ve quit smoking when they actually haven’t!

We can only trust research on stopping smoking if the researchers use an instrument to detect tobacco chemicals in the patient’s breath, which the Turkish doctors did not do.

These kinds of exaggerated claims may attract business in the short term.

But in the long term words gets around that the treatment has been much less successful than was originally claimed.

And this casts doubt on the whole field of hypnotherapy.

To conclude, asking “is hypnotherapy real?” is like asking “is surgery real?” or “is medication real?”

Of course they’re real, but that doesn’t mean they’re guaranteed to work!

Hypnotherapy, like any other treatment, is most likely to work if the client is motivated and the therapist is competent and honest.