Just how effective is Hypnosis?
Being a statistics fan, having worked in Market Research in the past, I wanted to look at some data to find out statistically, if I went for help with a certified hypnotist, just what were my chances of success with hypnosis. I was really very surprised, although I shouldn’t have been. I had already gone and had a Virtual Gastric banding session with Chris at Ntrance and lost 6 kg very easily. But part of me was still sceptical because on a personal level, we are all different. What is successful for me, may not be for anyone else. As I said I’m very curious, and my eyes don’t glaze over with facts and figures, so I started digging around.
This is what I found.
Smoking:
90.6% success rate for smoking cessation. – so that works for 9 out of 10 people.
University of Washington School of Medicine, Depts. of Anesthesiology and Rehabilitation Medicine, Int J Clin Exp Hypn. 2001 Jul;49(3):257-66. Barber J.
87% reported abstinence from Tobacco use after a 3 month follow up.
Performance by gender in a stop-smoking program combining hypnosis and aversion. Johnson DL, Karkut RT. Adkar Associates, Inc., Bloomington, Indiana. Psychol Rep. 1994 Oct;75(2):851-7.
Hypnosis Patients are twice as likely to remain smoke free after two years!
Guided health imagery for smoking cessation and long-term abstinence. Wynd, CA. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 2005; 37:3, pages 245-250.
Hypnosis was most effective ever: 3 times as effective as patch and 15 times more effective than willpower. This was the largest study combining the results of more than 600 studies of 72,000 people from USA and Europe to compare various ways of quitting.
University of Iowa, Journal of Applied Psychology, How One in Five Give Up Smoking. October 1992.
Weight Loss:
Hypnosis over 30 times as effective for weight loss
Cochrane, Gordon; Friesen, J. (1986). Hypnotherapy in weight loss treatment. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 54, 489-492.Two Years Later: Hypnosis Subjects Continued To Lose Significant Weight
109 people completed a behavioral treatment for weight management either with or without the addition of hypnosis. At the end of the 9-week program, both interventions resulted in significant weight reduction. At 8-month and 2-year follow-ups, the hypnosis subjects were found to have continued to lose significant weight, while those in the behavioral-treatment-only group showed little further change.
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology (1985)
Hypnosis more than doubled average weight loss. Analyses showed that the benefits of hypnosis increased substantially over time.
Kirsch, Irving (1996). Hypnotic enhancement of cognitive-behavioral weight loss treatments–Another meta-reanalysis. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64 (3), 517-519.
Hypnosis can more than double the effectiveness of traditional weight loss approaches.
University of Connecticut, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology in 1996 (Vol. 64, No. 3, pgs 517-519).
The statistics keep on coming – in drug addictions, acute and chronic pain, migraines, headaches, anxiety, and many more, the results of studies show in every case, hypnosis had a better and longer lasting effect than traditional methods.
So if your scepticism is holding you back, just go with the Nike slogan – Just do it! You won’t be disappointed.
