Dec. 2006/Nov. 2007

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How Mushrooms Can Save the World
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Helping the Ecosystem through Mushroom Cultivation
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Coming Together to Find Common Ground
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The Potential Hazards of Wireless Technology
Victoria Leor

Hypnotherapy Can Change Patterns in the Brain
Rochelle Jaffee

True Meditation
Adyashanti

The Most Important Dimension of Human Existence
Eckhart Tolle

The Body of Our Knowing: Disease and Philosophy
David La Chapelle

Mixed Media Reviews
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Cosmic Calendar
Salina Rain

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Hypnotherapy Can Change Patterns in the Brain

By Rochelle Jaffe

Understanding the brain and how it functions can assist us in better understanding how hypnotherapy can help to create lasting change. These changes, which take place as the brain responds to suggestion, are assisted by our inner resources being directed towards our own transformation and healing. When we realize that everything can be a hypnotic induction we understand that we are already entranced because we are entranced/hypnotized by the circumstances of our lives. We began telling ourselves a story as children, repeating it over and over in our minds, adding to it throughout our lives, and using it to explain who we are. Events and memories create a template that organizes our inner lives, our relationship with our bodies, and profoundly affects how we view and interact with the world.

Hypnotherapy is, in part, learning to come out of this trance that we are already in—to see things as they are, and to see old situations with fresh new eyes. It helps us to get out of old repetitive loops, to integrate past experiences, and to discover a new state of being—open, clear, and un-entranced. Hypnotherapy has been shown to be an effective, supportive method which can:

• Deepen insight and transformation
• Enhance self-esteem and self-awareness
• Cultivate calmness, clarity and peace of mind
• Access healing states of consciousness
• Relieve stress, pain and illness
• Increase motivation
• Release trauma

A growing body of research also shows that when hypnotherapy is part of a treatment process, it increases the benefits of treatment. How does this work in relation to the brain, and how do we create real and lasting change? One thing we know about the brain is that it works best if it’s allowed to focus on one thing at a time. For instance, feel yourself in your body. Feel the support of the chair that you are sitting in. Notice your breath. Notice how the mind naturally becomes quieter as you sink in. Take a moment to appreciate the power of your own awareness—how much your experience changes as you change your focus.

A Short Introduction to the Brain

Our brains have three basic parts: the cerebral cortex, which is responsible for higher intellectual functioning; the mid-brain which is connected to emotion; and the brain stem—the most instinctual and primitive part.

The cerebral cortex is divided into two parts, or lobes. The left lobe is related to concrete thinking. It is where our ability to plan, to analyze and to develop rational explanation is centered. It also seems to be related to our sense of optimism. The right lobe is related to imagination and intuitive thinking. It is the center of our ability to think abstractly.

While the left lobe is interested in the “facts of the case,” the right is aware of the felt sense, the “story behind the story.” The left is primarily concerned with structure, the right with flow. Surprisingly, when right lobe thinking is dominant, there is also a greater tendency towards pessimism. Traditional psychotherapy is primarily directed towards these intellectual centers.

The mid-brain, simply stated, is the emotional center. Memories with a strong emotional content are stored here. When observed on a brain scan, a traumatized emotional center can appear “frozen.” This is why we can have increased insight into a problem, and yet find that our feelings and responses are still unchanged.

The brain stem is responsible for our instinctual responses, and the automatic activities of the body, including our “flight or fight” response when we are facing stressful situations. It responds to information from the outside world, and from our higher brain centers. It supports whatever “trance story” we have with a nervous system and hormonal response, and it can become overactive if we are frequently being stirred up by issues from our past. Our bodies are designed to require a release of tension when we are under stress or trauma, but because our modern world doesn’t always provide that opportunity, the trauma can become stored in the emotional center of the brain.

The brain changes in response to our experience. If strong emotion is present, over time, the synaptic structures—part of the pathways in our brain over which information passes—can multiply, allowing particular types of information to pass more easily. In this way, the stories we tell ourselves about who we are become hard-wired.

New information, no matter how positive, doesn’t travel along the developed pathways if it doesn’t fit the template and the well developed synaptic structures. It loses some of its power along the way to the areas of the brain where it “registers.” To create new synapses, and a new self-definition at the brain level, we must bring in new information in a way that is as powerful as the experiences that created these pathways originally.

Hypnotherapy Different Than Most People Think

A person under hypnosis often feels more awake in the sense that the active, busy mind becomes quiet, and they are able to access qualities of wisdom, strength and compassion. They have greater emotional access and responsiveness, and greater access to unconscious processes. The ability to discern and to choose is always present, as well as an appreciation for the power of human connection and creativity in the process of change.

Hypnotherapy helps to make unconscious patterns of self-identification conscious. This awareness brings with it the possibility of choice and provides strong, deep new experience that allows change to happen more quickly and fully. This is the type of experience needed to change brain pathways and create new ones.

Hypnotherapy also integrates and connects different areas and modes of thinking, feeling and being. On an EEG-brain scan one can see that both lobes of the cerebral cortex are activated, as well as the mid-brain emotional center, allowing the information and different processing abilities of these different parts of the brain to work together.

Often negative states “fill the space” of our awareness. Hypnotherapy’s integrative quality allows strength and wisdom to exist in the same space as painful memories and experiences so the emotional center of the brain can “unthaw,” creating the opportunity to process and release old material that may have felt stuck before, allowing a fresh, new way of experiencing, un-entranced by the past. Then, with the brain stem no longer overly stimulated by emotionally charged past experience, a deeper feeling of rest and confidence is possible.

Research and Recognition

Repeated studies have shown hypnotherapy’s effectiveness in managing symptoms from a variety of causes, without the side effects of medication, and it is sanctioned by the American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association.

The National Institute of Health states that, “For smoking, weight loss, and other addictive behaviors, hypnotherapy is a way to change beliefs, attitudes and habits that stand in the way of quitting. It enhances confidence, promotes a general sense of well-being, cuts withdrawal urges, and helps focus on what’s really important. It reinforces lifestyle changes.”

The Royal College of Psychiatrists reports that hypnotherapy has been shown to help cancer patients cope with their illness. Patients reported a reduction in anxiety, feelings of improved well-being and self-confidence, and better coping skills. When used in addition to anesthesia in surgery, patients have an easier experience, improved healing, and quicker recovery. Medicare and other insurance companies have now begun covering hypnotherapy for pain and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Various studies have shown that hypnosis is also helpful with pain during childbirth and dental procedures, as well as with long-term pain, migraine headaches, depression and other issues. By stimulating the release of endorphins—naturally occurring pain relieving chemicals—the stress hormones that contribute to pain, insomnia, depression and other problems, are dissipated and replaced.

We know some things about the brain and how change takes place, but much remains a mystery. We know the results of certain ways of thinking, feeling and being in terms of brain changes. Researchers have even identified an EEG pattern that is associated with feelings of peace and oneness. It is up to each of us to learn that we can trust the compassion, strength and other resources that we have, and to discover the part of ourselves that is untouched by pain and illness.

Hypnotherapy can be very useful in this discovery. Since it enables a person to bypass the usual thinking mind, the frequent judgments and habitual responses, it is a great support in helping us to get in touch with something that underlies all of that. At our core, we hold great resources for healing and for understanding, and for responding to whatever is happening with peace and equanimity. May we all discover that for ourselves.

Rochelle Jaffe, M.S. is the Director of the Ashland School of Hypnotherapy which offers in-depth training and certification in hypnotherapy for professional and personal development, CEUs for counselors and therapists, and National Hypnotherapist Certification. Winter session begins in January, and includes a 20 hour Introduction to Hypnotherapy, a 12 hour class in Hypnotherapy for Health and Healing taught at Triune Integrative Medicine in Medford, a 200 hour Professional Certification Course. Private sessions are also available. For more information, call (541) 488-3180 or visit www.ashlandschoolofhypnotherapy.com.

Rochelle Jaffee