# World Hypnotism Day brings practice to light



## eric (Jul 8, 1999)

FYI http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-re...e/s_289711.html


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## eric (Jul 8, 1999)

FYIHypnotism Day not on every calendarBy John E. MItchellNorth Adams TranscriptIt went largely unnoticed in the Northern Berkshires, but Tuesday, January 4, 2005, was World Hypnotism Day.Despite the creepy sounding name, this was not the work of supervillains hell bent on mesmerizing the world, but an effort by Woburn hypnotherapist Tom Nicoli to give the use of hypnosis in medicine and therapy its due."It was an idea I had in June that I thought the National Guild of Hypnotists would benefit from," said Nicoli, "as a way to not sit back and wait for things to happen. I'm the type of person who likes to make things happen, so I figured why don't we all just get together and make something happen here?" Nicoli managed to rouse 16 different hypnotherapy organizations in 11 different countries to hold events, ranging from a formal lecture in the Hall of Justice in Canada to a talk given in a Ground Round in New Hampshire. Nicoli and two other colleagues took part in an event in New Hampshire that donated its admission fee to Boston Children's Hospital. In addition, awareness has been spreading online at the World Hypnotism Web site ( www.worldhypnotismday.com, which offers four self-hypnosis audio sessions as free downloads."The whole intent was more to publicize and create awareness in the public of the benefits that hypnotism provides," said Nicoli, "and more than just weight loss, stopping smoking, and stress management."Bennington psychologist and hypnotherapist Kirke McVay hadn't even heard of World Hypnotism Day, but sees the benefits of pushing awareness. With the popular conception of hypnotism being pulled from stage performers and movies, many people fear that hypnotism is a way to be controlled by someone else. The fact is, hypnotists cannot make anyone do anything that they don't want to do, whether it is quacking like a duck or quitting smoking."I can't make you do things that you don't really want to do," said McVay. "That's the problem with smoking. People come in and say that they have to quit smoking. It's a question of do you really want to quit smoking? Because if you don't want to and you're not ready, it's not going to work."Even when a person does want to quit smoking, there are gray areas in the recovery. Sometimes a successful hypnotherapy doesn't mean quitting at all, it means cutting down to the amount of smoking the patient actually enjoys, rather than what the patient puffs out of compulsion."It helps eliminate a lot of the habit smoking," said McVay. "It narrows it down to the amount of smoking they really want to have. They don't quit unless they're really ready to."Rather than being thought of as an unnatural trance imposed by a stranger, the hypnotic state would be more correctly considered a natural and daily occurrence induced by a trained professional."It's a natural experience that everybody goes through in the process of falling asleep, so it's not like it's anything new," said McVay.Hypnotism is, in fact, a state of consciousness that everybody experiences everyday."Whenever you enter a daydream and enter the upper level of conscious analytical thinking, you are now in the hypnotic state of mind," said Nicoli. "Most people don't even think they're hypnotized because they're surprised they heard everything, they just felt really comfortable, their body felt heavy. Behavior modification happens at that level."McVay points out that the National Guild of Hypnotists is largely comprised of what is called "lay-hypnotists," a term for people who are licensed to practice hypnotherapy for basic behavior modification, but are not medical professionals who can diagnose problems often associated with smoking and weight problems, such as accompanying anxiety disorders. In this way, hypnotism is considered by McVay to be one of the most underutilized procedures in mainstream medicine, largely due to the effort involved and the misconceptions about it."I work closely with primary care physicians on this and the patients aren't interested. I don't know why. I've had people come in and say that they don't believe in this self healing stuff. People, they just want to be given a pill to cure the problem and then go out and keep doing what they're doing. I ask them to do things differently, learn to relax, develop certain skills."McVay points to studies that have shown that hypnosis is effective in treating irritable bowel syndrome, headaches, chronic pain, breach pregnancies, morning sickness, eczema, sleep walking, some skin conditions, and is even used by some anesthesiologists before operations."You can help lower blood pressure," said McVay, "but people would prefer to take a pill rather than practice self-hypnosis 20 minutes a day."Nicoli hopes his effort has helped other hypnotherapists -- and believes the best way to measure its success is to measure better understanding through a rise in clients."That's a pretty much a side benefit from the efforts that are being put forth for the initial reason," said Nicoli, "which is to publicize the truisms and the benefits of hypnotism. We spend so much time in the office reframing people from what they are mislead to believe." http://www.thetranscript.com/Stories/0,141...2642155,00.html


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