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FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday,
October 22, 2007
Catherine Rosensteel had a lot going on in
her life six years ago when she learned that
she needed hip replacement surgery.
"My hip was falling apart, and I couldn't
have been more distressed," said Rosensteel,
an artist from Hempfield. "I was worrying
about the future and ruminating about the
past, and I was obviously in emotional as
well as physical distress."
She was in pain, and her blood pressure was
so high that it almost kept her from having
the surgery. And like many people who are
under stress, Rosensteel realized that
sometimes she was either panting or holding
her breath.
Then Rosensteel met Dr. Phil Kearney, an
optometrist with an office in South Greensburg who used hypnotherapy to help patients
adjust to contact lenses. He later developed
relaxation techniques and expanded
self-healing programs.
They worked together, and with hypnosis Rosensteel's blood
pressure dropped. She also used it to manage
her pain after the surgery, and to ease the
ongoing discomfort of arthritis.
"The pain in my life can sometimes be very
debilitating," Rosensteel said. "That's when
I find that I can use self-hypnosis to calm
myself down and take a few deep breaths, and
that's when I see everything in my mind come
together."
Rosensteel, 63, is among the growing number
of Americans who use hypnosis to modify
behavior or control pain.
"Self-hypnosis is the only kind of hypnosis
there is," said Dr. Paul J. Friday, chief of
clinical psychology at UPMC Shadyside, in Pittsburgh. He has been using hypnosis for
30 years, has published papers on the topic
and has taught medical hypnosis to other
professionals.
"It is not something that people have done
to them," Friday explained. "It is something
that people learn to do to themselves.
That's very important to get across."
Various types of hypnosis have been
practiced for centuries. In France in the late 1700s, Anton
Mesmer studied trance-like states and
believed they were generated by "animal
magnetism." Although his theory was
discredited by medical societies --
including a commission headed by Benjamin
Franklin -- his clinical work was so
noteworthy that the effect was dubbed
"mesmerism."
Doctors later attributed the hypnotic state
to dissociation caused by brain disease, or
to a level of sleep. Other doctors found
that whatever hypnosis was, it alleviated
pain, particularly in childbirth.
In 1958, the American Medical Association
published a two-year study by the Council of
Mental Health that supported using hypnosis
in certain dental and medical settings.
Since then, researchers have continued to
explore the link between psychology and the
effect of hypnosis on the conscious and
subconscious mind.
The Western Journal of Medicine defines
hypnosis as "the induction of a deeply
relaxed state, with increased suggestibility
and suspension of critical faculties."
"Once in this state, sometimes called a
hypnotic trance, patients are given
therapeutic suggestions to encourage changes
in behavior or relief of symptoms," it
states. "For example, in a treatment to stop
smoking, a hypnosis practitioner might
suggest that the patient will no longer find
smoking pleasurable or necessary. Hypnosis
for a patient with arthritis might include a
suggestion that the pain can be turned down
like the volume of a radio."
Not everyone is convinced that hypnosis
works -- and not every patient responds to
hypnotherapy.
"Some people swear at it and some swear by
it," Friday said. "Those who swear at it
don't understand it, and those who swear by
it still hold it a mystery, something that
is not thoroughly understood."
Yet hypnosis has become so mainstream that
some hospitals offer sessions to help treat
eating disorders, promote weight-loss and
help smokers quit.
Excela Health recently offered stop-smoking
sessions by John Weir, of Munhall, who at
age 25 is one of the youngest members of the
National Guild of Hypnotists and the
Hypnotism Society of Pennsylvania.
"It's actually been medically proven that
hypnosis is better than nicotine replacement
therapies for quitting smoking," he said.
Elizabeth Auld, a compensation specialist
for
Latrobe Hospital,
signed up for Weir's program in June because
she wanted to lose weight.
"It wasn't that I learned anything new," she
said of the program, part of the Highmark
Lifestyle Returns program offered to Excela
staff. "I already knew about diet and
exercise, but for some reason I wasn't able
to do it."
The morning after the group session, Auld
said she was ready to start getting into
shape. It was a matter of relaxing enough so
she could accept what her mind already knew,
she said.
Auld, 43, of Hempfield, already has lost 18
pounds, and people are noticing.
"When I tell them how I'm doing it, they
think I'm crazy," she said. "But I would
recommend hypnosis to others."
In addition to helping Excela workers with
weight-loss and smoking cessastion, Muir
presented an introduction to hypnosis this
month as part of a training program for
volunteers with Excela Home Care and
Hospice.
"We want our volunteers to be knowledgeable
and have an understanding of the many
different avenues that come up in health
care," volunteer coordinator Joan Roth said.
Weir, who has been practicing for six years,
said he focuses on helping people learn to
help themselves relax, sleep better and
reduce stress.
One of his clients, Virginia Weisman, 62, of
Fox Chapel, consulted him when she suffered
from insomnia.
"I was up pretty much the whole night, and
when you stay up the night, the next day you
are pretty much a mess," she said. "I went
to doctors and they pooh-poohed it, and I
tried all the things like watching what I
ate in the evenings, and they didn't want to
give me sleeping pills."
Weisman said she was able to sleep better
after Weir taught her to relax with
self-hypnosis.
"I think your mind controls a lot of things,
and you can become the controller of your
mind," she said.
Kitty Lagorio, of Peters in
Washington
County, consulted Weir
for help with managing pain. A knee injury
was still giving her trouble, even after
surgery. An active woman in her 50s, Lagorio
said she did not want additional surgery.
With hypnosis, she was able to relax her
knee, allowing her to walk better.
"It didn't cure me, and I still need a knee
brace," Lagorio said. "But I am now up to
walking about three miles a day. The
rheumatologist that I see is very supportive
(of hypnosis), but the surgeons were a
little colder."
UPMC's Friday studied hypnosis when it was
taught by the late Dr. Kay Thompson in the School of Dentistry
at the
University
of Pittsburgh.
He said he finds it a useful adjunct to
various therapies, in treating anxieties,
phobias and pain, for example.
"I just used a combination of cognitive
behavior therapy and hypnosis on a patient
who had gone 38 years without stepping in an
elevator," Friday said. "She 'graduated' by
going up the U.S. Steel Building all by
herself, and then she is going on the
Duquesne Incline. That ended 38 years of
absolute terror for her."
In other applications, the Journal of the
National Cancer Institute found that women
who used self-hypnosis before breast cancer
surgery had less pain, nausea and fatigue
afterward. And a National Institutes of
Health panel ruled it an effective
intervention for alleviating pain from
cancer and other chronic conditions.
Study continues: A Harvard psychologist is
trying to prove that hypnosis can speed
healing in body tissues, and doctors at the
University of Washington
trying to determine if hypnosis can help
burn patients get through painful
treatments.
Hypnosis also may have value during
childbirth, and in fields as varied as
dermatology, dentistry and gastrointestinal
care. And it is widely used to promote the
general well-being of adults who need to
quiet and redirect their minds when under
physical, mental and emotional stress.
"Hypnosis can be very effective for
cognitive and medical procedures," Friday
said.
And there are no unwanted side-effects.
"You have everything to gain" if it works,
he said. "The worst thing that can happen
with hypnosis is nothing."
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