Posted April 19, 2011 - 4:07pm by Tracy
Hypnosis is no parlor trick
When you hear the word “hypnosis,” what comes to mind? If you think of a performer swinging a pocket watch back and forth before your sleepy eyes — think again.
A recent report in the New York Times details how hypnosis is increasingly being offered as a form of therapy at the nation’s top medical centers.
Although hypnosis therapy —known as clinical hypnotherapy — has been used for centuries to treat anxiety and manage pain, in recent years it has seen a boom in popularity and is being used to help patients manage a variety of medical conditions without medication or surgery.
This trend may particularly benefit women. Dr. Shameem Abbasy, a urogynecologist at Swedish Covenant Hospital, offers hypnotherapy as a treatment for urge incontinence.
In a recent Well Community report on hypnotherapy and incontinence, Dr. Abbasy explained that hypnotherapy can help patients make a mental connection between mind and body, which can help them manage this condtion.
“We work with the patient to develop mental imagery, visualizing the brain sending a message down to the bladder,” says Abbasy. “Some people think of a color or a light traveling down their spine, or a telephone line — whatever works for them.”
Once this mind-bladder connection is made, women often experience improvements in their symptoms, and many find that other forms of treatment like medication and physical therapy are more effective.
To read more about Dr. Abbasy and hypnotherapy for incontinence, click here.
To read Well Community's report, "Hypnotherapy offers new approach to treating incontinence" featuring Dr. Abbasy, click here.
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