What is Cognitive Hypnotherapy?
How Cognitive Hypnotherapy works… this short video explains.
An Evidence-Based Approach
Quest Cognitive Hypnotherapy (QCH) launched a unique research project in 2011. Using a team of QCH therapists, clients with anxiety and depression were assessed using the same outcome measures currently used to assess the effectiveness of talking therapies within the NHS. The pilot study was published in the Mental Health Review Journal in 2015.
It recorded that, using 118 cases measuring the effectiveness of Cognitive Hypnotherapy for the treatment of depression and anxiety, 71% considered themselves recovered after an average of 4 sessions. This compared to an average of 42% for other approaches using the same measures (like CBT). To our knowledge, this is the only hypnotherapy approach to have been validated in this way.
For further information concerning the research project and pilot study released in the Mental Health Review Journal please visit the evidence-based therapy research page.
Cognitive Hypnotherapy considers each client to be unique and each client to be experiencing their own individual protective behaviour - be that Anxiety, Fear, Depression or another debilitating response to the perception of threat. We don’t label people, but work together to help the client understand what is happening to them when they are triggered into that 'trance state' of protection; work practically to teach coping skills that give back more of a sense of control; discover the event or events which have created the need for protection and reframe them so that they no longer act as triggers. We work at the pace required by the client. Treatment is bespoke, caring and flexible.
Any protective behaviour is a 'trance state' triggered by our autonomic nervous system. We all go in and out of trance naturally - you have probably noticed times in your day when you are “in a trance”. For example, when you are driving somewhere and arrive, barely remembering your journey? Or perhaps you are so engrossed in a good book, or film, that you don’t hear your partner asking if you fancy a cup of tea? When we are triggered into protection - for example Anxiety, a panic attack, overthinking - this is a trance state too. As a QCH Therapist I work to help your nervous system understand that you are safe. We use a framework of therapeutic techniques which give you a tool box of life skills to help you live with a new understanding and confidence in your ability to grow and thrive.
What does Cognitive Hypnotherapy feel like?
Some people see the word “hypnotherapy” and are unsure as to what will be involved. Will I wave a pocket watch in front of you? Will you lose control? Will you burst into bouts of spontaneous chicken impressions at a later date?
The answer to to all these questions is “no”. Cognitive Hypnotherapy is just a conversation between you and me. You will be in control at all times. You will not do anything that you don’t want to do. It might be that you close your eyes and listen to my voice, but at all times you will know where you are, what you are doing and you can open your eyes and talk whenever you feel like it. Cognitive Hypnotherapy helps you to reach a state of deep relaxation which can you help you to feel calm and comfortable.
The great thing about this therapy is that people often leave the first session feeling different. In a way its like the butterfly effect – little changes starting to happen in your life, which gradually grow into big changes. Before you even realise, you begin to think differently, behave differently. And the reassuring thing is that I am talking to your unconscious mind, so there is no pressure on you.