Towards the integration of clinical hypnosis into an integrative relational developmental therapeutic approach: Learning from my clients

Aim: This study examined my former clients’ lived therapeutic experiences. Clinical hypnosis was used as an adjunct to therapy in the treatment of ego state dissociations in clients that had a history of trauma - and stressor - related disorders.
Method: Ten former clients and I were interviewed and verbatim transcripts were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA).
Findings: Five master themes emerged from analysis of the participants’ interviews and two master themes emerged of the therapist’s interview analysis. It was found that the therapy was experienced by the participants as beneficial. They identified a number of ways in which clinical hypnosis was used to progress therapy. The findings also showed concurrence and divergence of experiences between participants’ and therapist’s experiences of the participants’ experiencing. The most salient ones were an experiential discord regarding the level of the therapist’s emotional attunement during trance work, and on the locus of therapeutic change.
Conclusion: The study offers a range of suggestions of the potential usage of
clinical hypnosis as an adjunct to therapy. It also highlights the therapist’s need to develop ways of maintaining an ongoing acceptance to the clients’ views and experiences during therapy.