NOVEMBER 2010/MAY 2011 Volumes 38 Number 2 & 39 Number 1, Article 3
Spirituality, Hypnosis and Psychotherapy: A New Perspective
Eugen Hlywa and Lynda Dolan, Clinical Psychologists in private practice, Sydney
The authors present a bio-psycho-social-spiritual paradigm for understanding the phenomenon of hypnosis in psychotherapy. Two case vignettes are described
to illustrate the spiritual core of the psychotherapeutic process. The first author (E.H.) relates a clinical case of the hypnotherapeutic process where a patient with
psychosomatic symptoms obtained insight and cure in spontaneous hypnotherapeutic abreaction. This case illustrates the very spiritual and human experience of guilt. The second author (L.D.) relates the case of a woman suffering from PTSD and depression who was able to negotiate several spiritual conflicts including grief, loss, guilt and hopelessness and transform her life by developing a sense of meaning, purpose and hope. The authors discuss the contribution of the great philosophers and thinkers and conclude by offering a new definition of hypnosis that embraces the essence of the spiritual dimension of human functioning.
Download AJECH NOVEMBER 2010 Volume 38, Number 2 and MAY 2011 VOLUMES 39, NUMBER 1 (PDF)