The more you understand hypnotherapy, the more effective it is likely to be.  If there are any points below which you don’t agree with, or don’t understand, please discuss them with your therapist.

• Hypnosis is a special way of using various naturally-occurring psychological and physiological states.  It’s a collaborative process in which you allow yourself to follow the guidance of the therapist by using your imagination to evoke positive emotions and rehearse behaviour change.
• Everyone can, in principle, be hypnotised.  It has been shown to help if you relax, think positively, and imagine the things being suggested.
• Hypnotic “trance”, so-called, is an increased ability to respond to positive suggestions, usually accompanied simply by relaxed attention to the ideas being suggested.
• Hypnosis is definitely not a state of sleep or unconsciousness.  Roughly 90% of people report being aware of everything that happens, and relaxation helps but is not essential to hypnosis.
• Hypnosis is definitely not a state of mind control.  You cannot be made to do anything against your will.  On the contrary, normally you must want to accept suggested ideas and actively imagine responding to experience their effects.
• Hypnosis is completely safe when used in a responsible and professional manner.  Nobody has ever been “stuck” in hypnosis.
• Comedy stage hypnosis has very little to do with clinical hypnotherapy and has been shown to foster misconceptions which can prevent people from benefiting from treatment.  Take what you see on television with a generous pinch of salt.
• Hypnotic suggestion is a means of experiencing certain helpful ideas at a level profound enough to directly influence our emotions and behaviour.
• Psychological and emotional problems can be seen as the result of negative thinking, whereas hypnotherapy aims to encourage (“suggest”) positive ideas which lead to improvement.
• Hypnotherapy, except for smoking cessation, usually requires more than one session.  However, it is probably one of the briefest forms of psychological therapy, and in clinical studies the average number of sessions is around 4-6.
• Hypnosis can help with an enormous range of different issues.  Research tends to provide most support for its use in,

1. Anxiety management.
2. Pain management.
3. Overcoming sleep disorders
4. Treating certain psychosomatic or stress-related illnesses.

However, hypnosis is also used to conquer habits such as nail-biting or smoking cigarettes, and for personal development in areas such as sports performance, public speaking, or creativity.

• Thousands of positive experimental and clinical research studies on hypnosis have been published.  It was recognised as an effective treatment by the British Medical Association (BMA) and American Medical Association (AMA) in the 1950s and, more recently, by the American Psychological Association (for obesity) and NICE guidance (for IBS) used by the NHS.
• Hypnosis is essentially a simple, down-to-earth, and common sense therapy.  For example, by relaxing, thinking positively, and picturing your goals, hypnosis can help you to progressively improve your habitual feelings and behaviour.

你越了解催眠治疗，它就越可能有效。如果以下有任何一点是你不同意或不明白的，请跟治疗师讨论。

• 催眠是一种应用各种自然发生的心理和生理状态(naturally-occurring psychological and physiological states)的特殊方式。这是一个你与治疗师合作的过程 －你允许自己遵循治疗师的指导,使用想象力来唤起积极正面的情绪,并练习行为的改变。
• 原则上，每个人都可以被催眠。它带来的好处已被验证，只要你放松，积极思考，并想象治疗师所说的暗示。
• 所谓的催眠“恍惚状态”(trance)，是一种对正面暗示(positive suggestion)产生反应能力的增强，通常简单地伴随着对催眠建议的松散注意力(relaxed attention)。
• 催眠绝对不是睡眠或昏迷状态。大致上90％的人都表示对过程里所发生的一切有意识;放松对催眠有帮助，但不是必须的。
• 催眠绝对不是精神或思维的控制(mind control)。你不能被逼着做违背自己意愿的事。相反地，通常你必须愿意接受那些催眠暗示，积极地想象对这些体验产生的反应。
• 在负责任和专业的使用下，催眠是完全安全的。从来没有人”被卡在催眠里出不来”。
• 舞台催眠表演和临床催眠治疗没有什么直接的关系，舞台催眠表演已被证明是加深人们对催眠治疗的误解，妨碍了人们受益于催眠治疗。对于你在电视上看到的，要有所保留别尽信。
• 催眠暗示(Hypnotic suggestion)是一种对有益想法的深刻体验，并使这些想法对我们的情绪和行为产生正面影响的一种方式。
• 心理和情绪上的问题可以被看作是消极负面思维的结果，而催眠治疗的目的就是鼓励（“暗示” “suggest”）正面积极的思维，从而得到改善。
• 除了戒烟课程，催眠治疗通常需要多于一次的疗程。然而，它很可能是最短形式的心理治疗之一，在临床研究显示平均疗程大约是4-6次。
• 催眠对一系列不同的问题都有帮助。研究倾向于显示对下列治疗最有帮助 –

1.焦虑管理 (Anxiety management)

2.疼痛管理 (Pain management)

3.克服睡眠障碍 (Overcoming sleep disorders)

4.治疗一些身心或压力相关的疾病 (psychosomatic or stress-related illnesses)

然而，催眠也可以用来征服坏习惯，如咬指甲或吸烟，以及用在自我进步或个人发展领域中，诸如运动能力，公开演讲，或创意表现。

• 成千上万的催眠实验和临床研究已被发表。它从1950年代开始就被英国医学协会(British Medical Association)和美国医学协会(American Medical Association)确认为一种有效的治疗，在近期也受美国心理学协会(American Psychological Association, 针对肥胖）和英国NHS的NICE指南（针对IBS 大腸激躁症）所认可 。
• 催眠本质上是一种简单的治疗。例如，通过放松，积极思考，想象你的目标，催眠可以帮助你逐步改善你平时改变不了的情绪和行为问题。

References

AMA         (1958).  ‘Council on Mental Health: Medical use of Hypnosis’, JAMA, Sep 13, 1958: 186-189.

BMA         (1955).  ‘Medical use of Hypnotism: Report of a Subcommittee appointed by the Psychological Medicine Group Committee of the British Medical Association’, Supplement to the BMJ April 23, 1955: 190-193, Appendix X.

BPS.        (2001).  The Nature of Hypnosis.  Leicester: BPS.

APA         (1997), Update on Empirically Validated Treatments, The Clinical Psychologist, 1997

Adapted from the Client Factsheet: Hypnotherapy, by the UK College of hypnosis and hypnotherapy, translated by Hui Bee.