Hypnoanalysis, analytical hypnotherapy, pure hypnosis – call it what you will. For those of you who are regular readers of this blog and have an interest in anxiety disorders this treatment is probably known to you. Just to recap I have recently had the chance to view hypnoanalysis from the eyes of a long term sufferer of anxiety and phobias. It has been an education into the dark arts of scamming money from people with anxiety and panic attacks.
The therapy promised a lot, and when I say a lot I mean it promised the world. The web-sites and brochures of those therapists involved speak of "cures", "solutions" and a complete cessation of symptoms – fast! They have testimonials where people, with blandly implausible sounding names, wax lyrical about how their anxiety, depression, phobias and OCD evaporated. Sounds great. Problem is, it doesn’t work and is basically a money making exercise which takes advantage of human misery and desperation.
More Info on Overcoming Anxiety – click here.
I knew that hypnoanalysis was unproven. I quick Google search showed that the only study that mentioned it by name had found no benefits over equivalent psychotherapy. I was also worried that, for such a miracle cure, no one that wasn’t making money from it had talked about their experiences – either positive or negative – on forums and chat rooms. If it was that amazing, I am sure, with hindsight, that they would have. I later realised why there were few, if any, negative experiences reported about it.
Hypnoanalysis has two main underpinning ideas.
1. All anxiety symptoms can be traced back to one event that caused guilt and shame, and that event has often been pushed out of conscious memory.
2. If you uncover that event and release the trapped emotion you will be able to let go of your anxiety (or other mental or physical health problem).
Both of those principles are wrong.
Anxiety can have a number of causes, and while it can be post traumatic (ie stemming from one negative experience) it is often just the product of the way you interpreted events either when you were younger or, in some cases, later in life. In either case, dealing with trauma from childhood carries no promise of success. Quite the contrary, you may well have processed those memories fully years ago, and now be suffering from bad habits and faulty thinking. Messing around with childhood memories (real or imagined) probably doesn’t do a great deal for you.
That said, Hypnoanalysis has probably worked for a few people to some extent. Some people may release some emotion in a mildly relaxed hypnotic state and feel better for it, for others there is the ever mighty placebo effect. These people are a small minority.
So, hypnoanalysis doesn’t work. That’s nothing new, there are many therapies that are not all they are cracked up to be. So why this big post dedicated to hypnoanalysis and it’s scamming? Well, I don’t like it for several reasons.
I have met two hypnoanalysts and they were both horrible. "Wait", I hear you cry, "you can’t tell us that all hypnoanalysts are bad based on a sample of just two!" Well, I can and I will, and that is a much more scientific survey than the hypnoanalysts themselves have ever done on the efficacy of their therapy. People with anxiety disorders are by their very nature nervous and insecure, they like to be made to feel comfortable. Hypnoanalysts are cold, overbearing, brash, arrogant, impatient and dismissive. Their sessions are often shorter than they advertise and they bundle you out at the end as quickly as possible. They say it is because of "transference" issues that they want to know only the bare minimum about you. This is rubbish.
My second problem is the price. Often these people are charging £70-90 for 45 minutes. It is not a highly trained profession – in fact listening to someone reel-off childhood memories is much easier than being a bog standard "suggestion" hypnotherapist, who would normally charge around half of that. One hypnoanalyst I met joked about having a client as a "cash cow". Would you want to tell your deepest and darkest secrets to this man?
The third thing I came to hate was the "Get Out Clause". Scam therapists always have an awkward moment when they have to get rid of the patient without having provided the promised cure. Often the patient will just cut their losses and stop going to sessions, others, more desperate perhaps, will persevere. It was interesting to see, in my case study, how the therapists language changed. In the initial email contact before therapy began it was stated that "…(after treatment) you will probably feel better than you have ever felt before". In the initial session it was stated that cure would be like bursting a bubble – a dramatic release. It was also said that releasing emotion was an essential aspect of this therapy. This was maintained until the end when it changed: actually change can come slowly and gradually, and that it in fact isn’t necessary to release emotion. Eventually the final get out clause was…"you are resistant. It’s not your fault. Go away for six months, get drunk, have sex and live your life. Then start again, from session one with a new therapist. Not with me as a therapist – there are transference issues that mean hypnoanalysis will never work for you with me". So, that was that – the promised cure hadn’t come and despite being told again and again that he was a perfect subject for free-association and hypnoanalysis he was now told that they could no longer help him. Money back guarantee with this ultra-successful therapy? No chance.
More Info on Overcoming Anxiety – click here
Last of all comes the Danger part.
Two different hypnoanalysts fabricated false memories of serious abuse. This is dangerous because, if the client believes them, they could very well accuse loved ones of being criminals. There are many documented cases of this "False Memory Syndrome" and now I know where many of them came from.
Let me show you how this is done with this simple exercise.
1. Close your eyes and imagine there is a small blue elephant in the corner of the room.
2. He’s got something on his head, what is it? What colour is it?
3. Now open your eyes and understand hypnoanalytical logic: because you could imagine the elephant clearly it must have happened. It’s that simple. Now imagine you were being abused…can you make it seem real? Even though you know it never happened?.
I know the memories of abuse uncovered in this case were false and irrelevant (the mind will imagine the most unsavoury of things). In fact two hypnoanalysts used the same technique to bring up two quite separate false memories which they both claimed were root cause of my anxiety and low self-esteem. By their own admittance there can’t be two separate and different root causes. Of course again they were speaking rubbish.
Lots of people are conned in hypnoanalysis but few people complain, ask for a refund, or write about it online. Why? I’ll tell you why…anxiety sufferers are generally nervous and socially aware and don’t like looking bad. This type of therapy is cruel and degrading and tends to leave the subject feeling dejected and invaded. Few people want to speak out about such an unpleasant experience that has cost so much for such little reward.
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This is exactly what has happened to me.
I had gone over my paid-for sessions and all of a sudden the therapist did not seem as interested. I was told that I had finished therapy, but I am still none the wiser.
I have been left with these “memories” (that now seem like they could have been real, as I have now imagined the same scenarios over and over again) and I am not even sure happened.
During therapy, I could have imagined anything happening and with the therapist’s help in asking me to “imagine”, I am now stuck with these “memories”. I have had no release of emotions and have been left uncertain about my relationship with whom these “memories” occurred.
While there are lots of snake oil salesmen about it is not always the case that the therapist is unethical. This is a quote from the course material given to me as I started training.
” The tool of hypnoanalysis can be very powerful and some therapists will fall into the trap of thinking that every client will need to rlease some hidden skeletons from the closet of their subconscious. This however is far from the truth and using hypnoanalysis when it is not appropriate does nothing for you as a therapist, the profession as a whole and most importantly may damage the client”
Its not a perfect therapy but what is?
I underwent hypnoanalyis to ‘cure’ my social phobia and had the exact same outcome as the 2 posts above. It was a complete waste of time and money.
They hypnotherapist I saw was very professional. You would have been easily convinced by his demeanour and approach that this therapy would work. There wasn’t any doubt in my mind that it would fail. He said i was one of the best clients he ever had at following his instructions.
However, it did fail. The alleged ‘repressed memory’ that i had gave me no release from my symptoms. Why?…because it never actually happened.
It might sound strange to someone who never underwent this therapy but i will try to explain to you how it works. Basically you are told beforehand that the repressed memory is always related to guilt and shame.
So when you get to the final stages, you are encouraged to trust your mind and diverge the next idea/thought that comes into your head. You believe it’s going to be related to guilt and shame so you naturally think of something nasty/disturbing.
Thats what happened to me but i got no release from this memory. I am convinced i made it up now. I have no connection with it on any level.
I am annoyed with myself for falling for this scam/con. It has absolutely no scientific evidence or independent research backing up it’s extravagant claims.
The mistake i made was from a lack of knowledge about hypnotherapy, my condition and my desperation to cure it. Some types of hypnotherapy have been proven to work for other symptoms/problems. I foolishly concluded that hypnoanalysis should therfore work for me as promised.
I am very annoyed with the parent organisation that my hypnotherapist is a member of. They are basically misleading people. They leave you with no doubt from their website that this therapy will work. But as you can see from these posts, they are talking rubbish.
All i can say is be very careful if your thinking of using hypnotherapy. It can be useful in helping certain problems but unfortunately, it seems to be full of scam artists. It is up to the government and other respectable hypnotherapists to clean up the industry. Hopefully, all these scam artists will be jobless in a few years!
If you have a problem, see a medical professional or research your condition thoroughly. Make sure there is specific and independent evidence that the therapy you are thinking of using actually works. I just want to save people a lot of money, time and pain and not make the same mistakes i made!
Thankfully, i think i have found the right therapy for me to help me overcome my SA. It is called CBT, it is endorsed by the NHS and has independent scientific evidence backing it up. It is not as attractive as other therapies advertised because it takes time and patience but who cares because it ACTUALLY WORKS!!!
I suggest anyone seeking to use Hypnoanalysis make sure that the therapist is registered with the
'International Association of Pure Hypnoanalysts'. This will ensure that the person has gone through an approved 2 year course and had police checks etc. – Kirsty
Kirsty, I must disagree…i think hypnoanalysis is a waste of time and money and an exercise in making money. I urge people not to be fooled by the hype!
Kirsty, I think a lot of people who have had trouble with hypnoanalysis used the very organisation you mention…with respect I don't think belonging to that organisation makes a therapist above dishonesty or scamming…
Crikey….your experiences sound awful. I am so sorry you had to go through that. I am a hypnotherapist practising hypnoanalysis and suggestion therapy. I have never, ever and would never get a client to imagine what it is like to be abused!!!!!!!!!! What???? I work very differently and allow the client to take responsibility for their own recalls – never suggesting this could have happened or that could have happened. I have a very good success rate through hypnoanalysis. I always give a person the option of either suggestion therapy or hypnoanalysis after talking through both options with them. Allowing them to make an informed choice. I would also as a therapist part/or indeed fully reimburse a client if they felt hypnotherapy had not worked for them. Hypnotherapy has had dramatic affects for a lot of people and I would say to anybody who felt they had been mistreated they write a letter firstly to the hypnotherapist explaining why they felt this and ask for a refund. If you do not get a refund or a satisfactory response then put a complaint in to the registering body. x
I have just had my 10th Hypnoanalysis session for Social Anxiety, with a therapist registered with IAPH. And like many of you who have taken the time to contribute to this message board, I’m sorry to report that it does not appear to be working for me either. I had such high hopes but absolutely nothing has changed for me – I’ve even had ‘the big emotional release’! Has anyone actually asked for their money back – and got it? Love to all you fellow SA’ers! CBT it is then! x
You write off decades of positive work with hypnoanalysis, starting with the work of Watkins in 1945 who used the technique to treat PTSD post world war 2. I agree there are scammers out there, which is a sad reflection of the regulation and image of clinical hypnosis in general. But how many times has it been said that if it sounds unbeleiveable then it probably is?
For those people who are not finding any benefit from this treatment, or any psychotherapy please consider the complex defenses your ego uses to protect your sense of self. This unconscious process could be causing resistance to accept change even if you consciously want it. You can’t always blame the therapist but the charlatans don’t help when all you want is some positive change. Good luck
like the above went to this organisation for s/a and now on my 9th session and its alot more down than up and 400 quid wasted but did get a insight into why i am like i am. feel different but dont know if its better different they will tell you anything to get your money
I too am a victim of this nonsense. I’m trying to set up some sort of crusade at the moment to get people to speak out and hopefully stop more desperate, innocent people wasting their money on bogus claims.
I was promised 100% that I would be cured. I want justice brought against the therapist who ‘cured’ me. I went through hell as I was doing the sessions and by session 3 I was dubious of the methods. The therapist (if I can call him that) developed an unhealthy obsession with my father and ignored every memory I visited unless my father was present. Each session was so upsetting, I was exhausted from crying about things like my cat dying to more serious things like how I reacted to the news of my cousin being molested. My therapist would always coldly tell me to “move on”, if my Dad wasn’t there at that event. He would twist what I said and has soured my childhood. The bad memories bought up made me re-think bad events outside of the session and towards the end of the treatment I became depressed. With the added worry that maybe I’d been abused but somehow couldn’t remember this. Most of my days were spent worrying about how I’d cope if such events were revealed, as I was told it was an event I wouldn’t be able to remember in normal life. I don’t believe I was abused but therapy that makes you feel that way should be banned. I wasn’t in a good way for months after my 12th and final session. I felt suicidle. My sleep became interrupted by nightmares every night and I couldn’t bear the thought of sex because of what that horrible, sick therapist suggested.
I trusted this man and assumed he knew what he was doing. I was very wrong. It was the BIGGEST mistake of my life. It is a shame these articles don’t come up when you do a general search on hypnoanalysis. Maybe if I’d had read such sites I could have avoided it. I wasted 600 pounds and now feel I need counselling to undo the damage.
I wish we could unite and see some sort of law against the therapists claims.
You do all seem to have had very unpleasant experiences and I definitely wouldn’t want to work with someone who treated me in that way. I use hypnotherapy with clients who want to reduce their anxiety and would certainly never go down the route you have described above. I teach people techniques they can use themselves so that they can start to take control over their emotions. I also help them address anything that could have contributed to their anxiety so they can put it behind them and move forward. Some of my clients have attributed their anxiety to childhood abuse but they were aware of it before they even phoned me. In most cases though the cause tends to be being made to look foolish as a child (sometimes only on 1 or 2 occasions), bullying by family or peers or having anxious parents.
My advice to anyone looking for a hypnotherapist would be to speak to the person first. Get a feel for them. Do you feel comfortable with them? Do they listen to you? Do they seem to understand what you are saying? If the answer to any of those questions is “no” then find someone else.
I am always really pleased when someone comes to see me for help with anxiety because I appreciate how much courage it has taken. That’s why I’m more than happy for them to bring someone along with them to sit in on the whole session if they want.
Finally, I use CBT as well and in my opinion it works best when combined with hypnotherapy because the CBT gives you understanding of why you are thinking and reacting in a particular way and the hypnotherapy helps you to change those thoughts and reactions.
I too WASTED around £700 on this therapy for anxiety and stuttering.
I really believed it would work, but as the sessions progressed I became more and more aware that the therapist (IAPH registered) was trying to create memories for me. They always looked for something shamefull and linked with sex that happened when I was a child. The truth is, nothing like that ever happened to me, and I have no problem with anything sexual – no hangups at all. I felt like they were constantly steering me to say things that werent true. They were also quite dismissive of anything I did feel I wanted to talk about and would quickly move on to the next thing.
I was told my stuttering would either be gone or almost non existant, I just wanted some improvment to be honest.
I got none of those. I attended 8 or 9 sessions before I pulled the plug on them, which I thought was a little high, even by their own discipline. I was told too that I was a “natural” with free association, and should be an ideal candidate for this therapy. I felt that by the 8th session they wanted to focus in on one memory and change it, I felt pressured into saying things that I knew to be wrong and at the end of the session I decided enough was enough. Here was this therapist who didn’t know me, hadn’t bothered to listen to the parts of my childhood that WERE hurtful, and wanted me to lie about things that were totally inconsequential.
I think it really takes advantage of vulnerable people and infact takes their problems and amplifies them. I certainly felt worse for a few months after (having focused in on some hurtfull memories), infact I don’t know if I have recovered from it now. It cost me £65 per session (45 minutes) – That’s not cheap at all. It promised so much, and at that time in my life, I really needed something, my confidence and self esteem were at an all time low, and my stuttering was really bad – to the point where I couldn’t talk to people at my new job (needless to say I made a great impression there..)
I should have known better, I mean how can this method solve such a wide range of issues? It works on the basis that your problems are linked back to one childhood memory of guilt or shame (usually of a sexual nature). The fact is the problems we have in life are often caused by a combination of things, and are usually very different for each of us. I wanted to believe it would work, I needed it to work. I saw the testimonials and being desperate I fell for it completely.
I urge you all NOT to make the same mistake I made. If you need someone to talk to, go to your GP and see a real therapist. Unfortunately, I spent £700 to discover that my problems cannot be solved by finding someone selling snake oil on Google.
yes it seems to be a big scam as i had 10 sessions for s,a and didnt change anything but brought up a lot of bad memories from my past would of rather forgot but therapist was goosd as she new i was skint and gave me last 2 sessions for nothing but still didnt work
I’m saddened to hear of yet more cases of this terrible ‘cure’ making us all feel worse. The comment by Another Victim sounded the same as my experience(previously described). It’s now been a year since I was traumatised and I’m finding it hard to talk to anyone to get help. Not really an easy subject to broach. I especially don’t want people to think that this was my problem when it wasn’t. I’m still troubled everyday. How could I have been such an idiot to waste my money and carry on with it even when my instincts told me otherwise?! I’m determined to write the ‘therapist’ a letter. Hopefully within the next few weeks. My partner is going to help me. I need to draw a line under this and try to sort it out. I’m so annoyed to have more problems than when I’d originally sought help. Maybe we should be reporting these issues into other areas of the media. Investigative tv programmes like Watchdog could help. Is it a legal matter? Is it against the law to claim you can cure someone when there is no evidence to back it up.
Having followed all the links in the above article and the claims made in those links I now have to say your entire article is …’the pot calling the kettle black’ bit of unscrupulous marketing really !!
I think that some/most of you need to take a little bit of responsibility. I agree that it is extremely unethical for a therapist to tell anyone that their therapy will work 100%. Nothing in this world works 100% of the time for 100% of the people. If you were told such things, you should have questioned it and thought twice about entering therapy with that individual. Hypnotherapy/Hypnoanalysis has been proven to work for many people but like I said nothing works 100% of the time for 100% of the people. Everyone is different and will react to therapy differently. Unfortunately there are people out there that will tell you anything in order to get your money, however the onus is on us to do our research and make and informed decision.
I would just like to comment on a few things there Matt D: You say it has been proven to work….where is this proof? I have never seen any and I have looked pretty hard!
And also, the onus is not just on us to make informed decisions…societies and organizations are there to weed out the charlatans, not try and find them new victims!
I say it again….hypnoanalysis doesn’t work beyond placebo and is a waste of money…the practitioners are either deluded or snake oil salesmen. Give it a wide birth!
You are clearly just trying to promote web sites that you have an affiliation with. What makes any of THEM worth their salt? I will digress as this blog is merely a waste of time for any and all. YOU SHOULD DO YOUR RESEARCH!!!!!
Now you are just deleting my retorts – real professional – nothing to hide there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???????????????????????
I am a practising Hypnotherapist using Pure Hypnoanalysis. And no, it is not for everybody, just as no drug and no therapy and no product, even your Panic Away product, is for everybody. But there are thousands of people who have been freed from their anxiety and panic using this therapy. The IAPH, mentioned several times here have documented and verifiable research available to this fact, (if you had bothered to contact them).
Having said that, there are poor doctors, poor tradesmen and unfortunately poor therapists, no matter what training or study they have undergone.
No Hypnoanalyst should ever direct a client as to the particular cause of their problem, nor should they specify the nature of that cause.
Pure Hypnoanalysis, as practiced by IAPH members is a “brief therapy”, expected to be effective within 12 sessions. It is actually stated on their website that members will not charge should more sessions be required.
However, it is a long known fact that not all therapies suit all people, but also that successful psychoanalytical therapy is based on the personal relationship and honesty between therapist and client.
If anyone does not feel comfortable with their therapist, in any way or for any reason, they should bring that up with them at the earliest opportunity.
And finally, the basis for this strategic discounting of an alternative “product” is highly questionable. I, in my time, have come across MORE than two unhelpful, unprofessional and unpleasant doctors. But does that mean that I should disregard the whole medical profession and all that modern medicine has to offer?
- Kieran.
Kieran, thank you for your comments. Just to make it clear, the reason why I completely discount hypnoanalysis as a treatment for anxiety is not because I have met two dodgy practitioners. In fact from what people have told me in emails about their own experiences with hypnoanalysis including with IAPH members is that my two were par for the course. The reason why I discount Hypnoanalysis is because no one who doesn’t make money from it has a good word to say about it. You don’t discount modern medicine on the basis of two unhelpful and unpleasant doctors because you can clearly see (and have probably witnessed yourself) how modern medicine helps lots of people. Hypnoanalysis has no independently verified cure to its name – just plenty of dissatisfied customers that thought they were alone, until they read comments from other people on places like this. Again, I urge people to keep their money away from these expensive, unpleasant and unproven therapies.
After having been to two psychiatrists and a psychologist and reading four books on controlling parents, all of them agreed that I was ready to move away from my parents soon. I went to a fourth therapist who happened to be a hypnoanalyst. On my first visit, I told her that I came to ask for pointers on what to say to my parents when I leave. She never gave me any pointers. Instead, she asked personal questions about my past and wanted to know everything devastating in my life.
I told her that the books already has cured my guilt for leaving my parents and the emotional imbilical cord. She insisted that there was a child inside me that was afraid of my father and needed to be protected from him before I leave. I am 40 years old. And I had a session with the foremost expert and author on controlling parents over the telephone and read four books. I know that the initial problem was emotional guilt or blackmail or emotional need to keep the parents happy. Not as fear of my father. But as fear of depression due to guilt and not being happy unless my parents were happy.
The hypnotherapist asked me if I’d be interested in hypnotherapy. I said that I wasn’t comfortable doing that. On our second session, she mentioned that we would do hypnotherapy. But she avoided asking for my permission. Realize, that we never discussed why we were doing this. She did mention that she wanted to build my ego so that I wouldn’t feel guilty leaving my parents. But she had already agreed that I wasn’t feeling guilty anymore.
I’ve been to two psychiatrists, a psychologist and a counselour. The psychiatrists would cover everything within one session. But the psychotherapists without an MD would seem to want to not solve the problem. Because once it’s solved, there is no more client. I remember when I first made an appt. with my counselour, the secretary said that she sees her clients on a weekly basis. She doesn’t even know what I’m there for yet to assume that I’m going to be going routinely.
I was very impressed with the knowledge and solutions that the psychiatrists had. The non psychiatrists knowledge seemed lacking. I’m not saying that they didn’t have anything to contribute. But they seem to beat around the bush, give wrong advice and/or want to slow things down. My guess is that psychiatrists are very busy because they can prescribe drugs.
I’m not worried about the money. What really put me off was the sleep command. She went over the safety boundaries of the sleep command. That the sleep command can not be accidentally triggered while driving a car or dangerous situation. I don’t know if this was to impress me. But it scares me to think that a total stranger is going to have access to my mind while I’m unconscious. I could think of ulterior motives like keeping me coming back for more sessions for profit, etc. Now, if I was in a desperate situation and we had a specific goal in mind, I may consider hypnotherapy as a last resort. But the circumstances in my situation sounds shady.