Hypnotherapy for PTSD & Trauma in Sydney
Sydney Clinical Hypnotherapist & Counsellor Samantha Jones helps you with Hypnotherapy for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and trauma with our proprietary Optimal Evolution Hypnotherapy
System™.
Our goal is to empower you to live the life you want!
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
At North Shore & City Hypnotherapy Sydney, we have worked respectfully, gently and compassionately with thousands of clients over 25 years, afflicted with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and trauma.
Most people, when they hear PTSD, think of war veterans and those in the armed forces, police officers, ambulance officers, and basically the ‘first responders’.
It is very true that people with these occupations commonly suffer from the dreaded and pervasive PTSD.
The diagnosis, however, does extend to anybody who witnessed or experienced a traumatic event that threatened life or safety.
It may include victims of crime including sexual assault, trauma from domestic violence and abuse, childhood trauma and abuse, and survivors of natural disasters, among others.
Common Symptoms of PTSD
Clients suffering from PTSD often experience disturbing and recurrent flashbacks of a traumatic event or events (often centring around death, torture, injury and abuse) where they felt genuinely terrified.
They may also experience nightmares, have intrusive thoughts, experience numbness or have physical symptoms like heart palpitations, excessive perspiration and other signs of hyper arousal.
They may be easily startled and constantly scan the environment for potential danger (hyper-vigilance)
As a consequence, they may suffer from sleeping difficulties and lack of focus/concentration.
These symptoms can develop into other issues, such as anger, anxiety, panic attacks, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), depression, insomnia, fears and phobias (e.g., fear of heights, fear of flying, fear of water, social phobia), and social anxiety.
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Typically, the sufferer of PTSD does everything in their power to avoid it, to avoid thoughts, feelings, and discussions about it, perhaps out of fear that it will become even more prominent.
Some clients will even develop amnesia or partial amnesia for the traumatic events as a way of coping.
While some clients are highly functional, holding down a job and ‘going through the motions’ of life, others barely function at all.
Some take medication, others do not.
Some want to come off their medication, whereas others expect to be medicated for life.
All clients who seek therapy with us want to feel better, feel happier, engage in life’s pleasures and genuinely live a fulfilling life.
The good news is that we can help you with PTSD!
North Shore & City Hypnotherapy Sydney can help you overcome and be free of PTSD and live the life you want to live, regardless of whether it is newly diagnosed or longstanding, entrenched or mild, whether you are medicated or not.
Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist & Counsellor Samantha Jones has more than 25 years’ experience in helping clients just like you.
Optimal Evolution™: Hypnotherapy for PTSD & Trauma Tailored to YOU
Every client is different and every Session will be unique, depending on the goal, therapies and techniques used within our Optimal Evolution Hypnotherapy System™.
No two cases of PTSD are the same.
Even if the symptoms appear identical, what is driving the behaviours and feelings is going to be entirely different because your life experience is unique.
Samantha will help you achieve lasting change quickly, effectively and comfortably with Optimal Evolution™, by customizing therapies and techniques best suited to you.
So how do we resolve your issue?
Easily and effectively!
Through hypnotherapeutic counselling, we take a comprehensive history respectfully, and identify key areas that need to be resolved in hypnosis for you to live the life you want to live.
These encompass old beliefs that no longer serve you, as well as thought patterns, feelings and self-talk.
We take you into hypnosis and use various therapies and techniques to:
In addition, we focus on healing and energizing the mind-body connection, optimizing the functioning of all body systems, so that the body and mind establish healthier ways of being, naturally.
ASK YOURSELF:
Does the benefit of investing in several Sessions with us at North Shore & City Hypnotherapy Sydney to be free of your PTSD outweigh the ongoing costs of living with it?
You are just one click away from getting your life back!
REVIEWS
Testimonials for Hypnosis / Hypnotherapy for PTSD & Trauma
* Individual results may vary.
SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
Studies on hypnosis and hypnotherapy for PTSD & trauma are as follows.
* By clicking on the following links, you will be taken to another website.
Applicability of hypnosis to the treatment of Complex PTSD and dissociation (2020)
[Abstract]
In considering the applicability of hypnosis to treating Complex PTSD (C-PTSD) we examine the relationship between trauma, hypnosis, and dissociation, the latter being a common response to traumatization that is particularly salient in C-PTSD. We then provide an overview of the nature of C-PTSD, which research is beginning to demonstrate is considerably more prevalent than the more circumscribed PTSD syndrome depicted in the DSM. Building on this foundation, we discuss the reasons why hypnotically structured treatment is particularly well suited for C-PTSD, explaining how each of the major aspects of this syndrome can be addressed within a hypnotic framework.
A Meta-Analysis for the Efficacy of Hypnotherapy in Alleviating PTSD Symptoms (2016)
[Abstract]
A systematic review and meta-analysis of the efficacy of hypnotherapy in the treatment of PTSD used literature searches to obtain 47 articles. However, only 6 were experiments testing the efficacy of hypnosis-based treatments. A fixed-effects meta-analysis was applied to postintervention assessment results and 4-week follow-ups. A large effect in favor of hypnosis-based (especially manualized abreactive hypnosis) treatment was found for the studies that reported the posttest results (d = 1.17). The temporal stability of the effect remains strong, as reflected by the 4-week follow-up assessments (d = 1.58) and also by long-term evaluations (e.g., 12 months). Hypnosis appears to be effective in alleviating PTSD symptoms.
Post-traumatic stress disorder: cognitive hypnotherapy, mindfulness, and acceptance-based treatment approaches (2012)
[Abstract]
In this article, we describe how cognitive hypnotherapy can be used in conjunction with evidence-based practices for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We review cognitive-behavioral interventions for PTSD, including mindfulness and acceptance-based approaches, and contend that (a) empirical support for the use of hypnosis in treating a variety of conditions is considerable; (b) hypnosis is fundamentally a cognitive-behavioral intervention; (c) psychological interventions with a firm footing in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) are well-suited to treat the symptoms of PTSD; and (d) hypnosis can be a useful adjunct to evidence-based cognitive-behavioral approaches, including mindfulness and acceptance-based interventions, for treating PTSD.
New uses of hypnosis in the treatment of post traumatic stress disorder (1990)
Hypnosis is associated with the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for two reasons:
(1) the similarity between hypnotic phenomena and the symptoms of PTSD, and
(2) the utility of hypnosis as a tool in treatment.
Physical trauma produces a sudden discontinuity in cognitive and emotional experience that often persists after the trauma is over. This results in symptoms such as psychogenic amnesia, intrusive reliving of the event as if it were recurring, numbing of responsiveness, and hypersensitivity to stimuli.
Two studies have shown that Vietnam veterans with PTSD have higher than normal hypnotizability scores on standardized tests. Likewise, a history of physical abuse in childhood has been shown to be strongly associated with dissociative symptoms later in life. Furthermore, dissociative symptoms during and soon after traumatic experience predict later PTSD. Formal hypnotic procedures are especially helpful because this population is highly hypnotizable. Hypnosis provides controlled access to memories that may otherwise be kept out of consciousness. New uses of hypnosis in the psychotherapy of PTSD victims involve coupling access to the dissociated traumatic memories with positive restructuring of those memories.
Hypnosis can be used to help patients face and bear a traumatic experience by embedding it in a new context, acknowledging helplessness during the event, and yet linking that experience with remoralizing memories such as efforts at self-protection, shared affection with friends who were killed, or the ability to control the environment at other times. In this way, hypnosis can be used to provide controlled access to memories that are then placed into a broader perspective. Patients can be taught self-hypnosis techniques that allow them to work through traumatic memories and thereby reduce spontaneous unbidden intrusive recollections.
Hypnosis in the treatment of victims of sexual abuse (1989)
[Abstract]
The relevance of hypnosis to the treatment of sexual assault derives from two sources: the fact that hypnotic phenomena are mobilized spontaneously as defenses during assault, becoming part of the syndrome of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the usefulness of formal hypnosis in treating PTSD. The role of dissociative defenses during and after traumatic experiences is reviewed; an analogy between the major elements of formally-induced hypnosis–absorption, dissociation, and suggestibility, and the major elements of PTSD–is drawn. Special problems relevant to sexual assault in childhood are discussed, including extreme self-blame and a profound sense of personality fragmentation.
Uses of hypnosis in the treatment of sexual assault victims are reviewed, with an emphasis on helping such patients restructure their memories of the experience, both by reviewing them with greater control over their physical sense of comfort and safety and by balancing painful memories with recognition of their efforts to protect themselves or someone else who was endangered. The use of a split-screen technique in hypnosis is described with a clinical example. Special considerations in such treatment, including the traumatic transference and forensic complications of such psychotherapeutic work, are enumerated.