International Handbook of Clinical Hypnosis - E-Lib FK UWKS

38 INTERNATIONAL HANDBOOK OF CLINICAL HYPNOSIS
tion. For example, a highly hypnotizable client presented with what he thought was
a sprained ankle to an inexperienced therapist, and asked to be hypnotized so he
could manage the pain. His responsiveness to the hypnotic suggestion that he would
feel no pain, allowed him to walk on the injured foot for several days, after which
time increased swelling led him to the Emergency Room, and an x-ray determined
he had a broken ankle. This is not a danger inherent in hypnosis, but a danger in the
clinician's faulty judgment. The skillfulness and clinical experience of the practitioner
are operating variables that affect outcome of treatment and need to be
separated from the value or success of hypnosis itself.
WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF PREVIOUS TREATMENTS?
In making the determination as to whether an hypnotic intervention is suitable for a
client, it is important to learn whether the client has had any prior experience with
hypnosis or other alternative health approaches such as meditation, relaxation tapes
or guided imagery. When there has been previous experience, inquiry about the
client's experience as to depth of trance, reaction to suggestions, and the client's
measure of the success or usefulness of the previous interventions, will provide the
clinician with valuable data. This feedback will be useful in several areas:
continuing to set positive expectancies for the client; tailoring the hypnotic intervention
to the individual needs of the client; and correcting misinformation.
Therapists report that when a previous experience with hypnosis has soured a client
on the use of hypnosis, it may still be valuable to pursue the consideration of using
hypnosis, patiently correcting misinformation and encouraging the client to reassess
the previous `bad' experience.
WHAT IS THE TRAUMA HISTORY?
An increasingly popular practice among clinicians is the inclusion of questions
about historical traumas Linden, 1995). The relevance of traumas in the client's
clinical history is the culmination of several factors that coalesced in the ®eld of
mental health. These were the Women's Movement of the 1970s and sociopolitical
concerns about victimization of women, attention to the scope of child physical
and sexual abuse and sociopolitical concerns about the victimization of children,
the addition of the diagnostic category of PTSD to the 1980 DSM II nomenclature
Yehuda & McFarlane, 1995) and the rapid expansion of research in the area of
dissociation during the decade of the 1970s Lynn & Rhue, 1994) which grew out
of the similarities between the trance behaviours of abused persons and hypnotic
phenomena Lynn Hilgard, 1986; Spiegel, 1986; Braun, 1986). Added to this, was
the appreciation that little was understood about the nature of trauma in children,
and that most knowledge came through retrospective studies of adults who experienced
trauma in childhood Eth & Pynoos, 1984). Most trauma models
included predisposing factors of biology and temperament and prior trauma Van