How Clinical Hypnosis Helps with Depression
Depression can be defined as an emotional state of severe despair, sadness, dejection, and
hopelessness. It typically causes individuals to slow or shut down their everyday normal
functions, and many people will experience depression in their lifetimes. Clinical hypnosis can
be an effective means of helping individuals cope with many types of depression by providing a
means of modifying deeply felt negative beliefs about oneself. Clinical hypnosis goes deeper
than cognitive therapies or Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) because hypnosis addresses the
Unconscious Mind where these negative beliefs are imprinted.
Two Common Types of Depression
Situational depression or Reactive Depression, also known as Adjustment Disorder, is a
condition that involves depressed mood and is triggered by a stressor caused by a major life
change. Situational depression often results when a person has trouble coping or adapting to a
particular life event. When the life event has important implications for the person’s self-image,
this can result in situational depression.
Endogenous depression occurs without the apparent presence of a precipitating external stressor
or trauma. In other words, it has no identifiable outside cause. It is thought to be caused by
internal or “endogenous” physiological changes. Endogenous Depression often has underlying
genetic, biological, or biochemical markers that predispose the affected person to depression.
Therefore, endogenous depression can also be referred to as a “biologically based” depression.
Dangers of Depression
Essential features common to all types of depression include negative self-regard, distorted
negative thoughts, hopelessness, loss of energy and motivation, fatigue, slowed cognitive
functions, some shutdown of basic biological desires such as appetite and sex drive, as well as
physical symptoms of stress. Untreated, individuals who struggle with depression are
predisposed to physical illness. Major depression also tends to be recurrent; each episode
increases vulnerability to further relapses. Socially, depression is contagious. Moods tend to
spread. A depressed person tends to affect at least three other people.
Clinical Hypnosis for Depression
Antidepressant medications are the common go-to treatment for depression, and some people do
find relief from antidepressants alone. However, medications do not teach coping skills or
improve self-image. These factors contribute significantly to an individual’s ability to ward off
depression and prevent its recurrence. Research shows that depression responds positively to
good short-term therapy so long as the therapy provides a compassionate interpersonal
relationship along with appropriate behavioral and cognitive coping skills training. Furthermore,
research shows that appropriate antidepressant medications combined with psychotherapy is
even more effective.
When Clinical Hypnosis is combined with Psychotherapy (also known as “Hypnotherapy”) and
there is good rapport between patient and therapist, therapy can often be deeper, more incisive
and briefer. This is because Clinical Hypnosis bypasses willpower and resistance to change. It
addresses the Unconscious Mind which controls feelings and habits, as well as all our
physiological functions (such as heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, digestion, sleep, sexual
functioning, and so forth).
Cognitive-Behavior Therapy can introduce new more effective coping skills and more realistic ff
thinking, but unless there is a way to get the “Feeling Mind” to accept these new behaviors and
thinking patterns, the individual is unlikely to change. Healthier relationships and improved
problem-solving and decision-making strategies result when a depressed person learns and uses
better coping skills and engages in more realistic thinking. Clinical Hypnosis is the therapeutic
tool that can make it easier for a depressed person to accept the possibility of positive change.
Good therapy can help a depressed person transcend an adverse personal history so he or she can
begin build a more positive future. Hypnosis combined with good interpersonal therapy can
make the therapy more effective, deeper, and briefer.
Are you ready to begin working with a good therapist? At Delray Beach Psychiatry, we have
caring and compassionate therapists who treat anxiety and depression. Our licensed psychologist
is a caring and compassionate therapist who uses clinical hypnosis as a tool to change unwanted
behaviors. He has the training and experience to help you recover from depression using
psychotherapy combined with hypnosis. Contact us today to find out more.