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What Is Hypnosis? Describe the Psychological and Physical Aspects of Hypnosis and Discuss the Role of Relaxation in Hypnotherapy.

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What Is Hypnosis? Describe the psychological and physical aspects of hypnosis and discuss the role of relaxation in Hypnotherapy.
Before we can begin to discuss anything about hypnotherapy, it is important to discuss what hypnosis actually is. This essay aims to arrive at a definition of hypnosis by describing the psychological and physical aspects and looking at it use by hypnotherapists and the role of relaxation within this. The history of hypnosis dates back to the times of ancient Egypt and it has been quite a contentious history. From Mesmer to de Puysegur in the 1700’s; from the first use of the term hypnosis by Braid in 1840 to it’s use as an anaesthetic in surgery by Esdaile and Elliotson; from the work of Erikson (widely …show more content…

It is important to understand this innate need to conform, which we all have, in terms of the people with whom we will work and always endeavour to treat people with respect and professionalism.
There is also a possibility that some aspect of role-play may be involved on the part of the client i.e, they may behave in a way that they believe a hypnotised person should behave.
The concept of attribution may also have a part to play; i.e. does the subject attribute the experience they have had to having being hypnotised or do they attribute their experience to having been deeply relaxed and engrossed in their internal image? Other psychological aspects involved in hypnosis are the use of selective attention whereby the subject concentrates on a limited range of usually internal stimuli such as feelings and imagery and imagination where the subject is often instructed by the hypnotist to imagine a scene.
The above section describes the psychological aspects of hypnosis, so what are the physical aspects? As mentioned above, the use of electroencephalogram’s (EEG) and neuroimaging with hypnotised subjects have been able to identify differences in brain functioning in hypnotised people. Askerinsky & Kleitman

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