MAY 2010,Volume 38, NUMBER 1, Article 3
USE OF HYPNOSIS IN PSYCHOTHERAPY WITH MAJOR DEPRESSIVE DISORDERS
Elliott H. Schreiber, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Rowan University
This article contains an analysis of case studies in hypnosis with clients who had major depressive disorders. The objective of this pilot research was to utilise clinical cases and determine if hypnotherapy was effective in treating major depressive disorders. Three clients manifested major depression and two patients had bipolar 1 disorder; all of the clients had suffered with depression for more than three years and had been diagnosed by a psychiatrist from a county in southern New Jersey and were referred to the author for psychotherapy sessions. Individual cognitive therapy techniques were used along with hypnosis. To provide a simple pre-post test, the clients were assessed with the House-Tree-Person Test in the session in which hypnosis was introduced into the treatment plan and again at the completion of the final hypnotherapy session. The analysis showed that the clients’ behaviour evidenced less depression and less anxiety after seven hypnosis therapy sessions. Some suggestions for further research are made.
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