news “retraining your brain,” continued… evolve into treating soldiers much sooner — on the battlefield. A key cornerstone of hypnosis in therapy is identifying ego states, which are various parts of the human personality that don’t always act in concert. They’re not mappable parts of the brain, but metaphors for the way the mind works. Ego states can be as simple as the differences between your personality at work and at a party, Barabasz explains. One may be more friendly or outgoing than the other, and they take turns dominating your personality, depending on your surroundings. “Every normal person has ego states,” he says. “Normal people have different parts of themselves and they’re aware of those parts.” When he hypnotizes PTSD patients in order to help manage the thoughts associated with their trauma, Barabasz is looking to access the ego state they were in when the trauma occurred (like the fearful, 6-year-old state of the woman who had been abused). Before beginning, patients map their ego states to give Barabasz a sense of which states they’re aware of, but, he says, during hypnosis they may access states they never knew existed. “Communication among ego states helps to resolve the trauma through the collective interactions of all the states working toward mutually agreed-upon goals,” Barabasz writes in a paper on the recent PTSD research for publication in the International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. “For example, a fearful ego state learns it can depend on other ego states for courage and support.” The breakthrough for PTSD patients undergoing hypnosis is called the “moment of abreaction” — the point when the ego state that is harboring the trauma realizes that it “no longer needs to be fearful, guilty or a victim,” Barabasz writes. “This is the basis for personality reconstruction.” Barabasz argues this therapy is not only more effective for treating PTSD, but it makes more financial sense, too. For example, while the hypnosis treatment required just six hours, traditional PTSD counseling can often require months — or even years — of weekly meetings where patients talk about their trauma, but ultimately aren’t able to make any changes to how it lives in their mind. Cost-savings were also demonstrated in a 2000 study by Harvard Medical School radiologists, who found that patients receiving hypnosis during surgery required less
navigating the inner self Kathy Jo Avery, owner of Heartfelt Hypnosis, uses this diagram with patients to explain how hypnotherapy can help change behaviors by accessing the inner parts of the mind. Behaviors are often the result of deeper thoughts or feelings. Changing a negative behavior can require changing deeper thoughts and feelings a patient might not even be aware of. LISA WANNENEN GRAPHIC
medication and had fewer complications. The researchers concluded that hypnosis could save $338 per patient. And with the sustained, long-term results in the area of PTSD treatment, Barabasz thinks he and others can convince those in doubt of hypnosis’ effectiveness. “Evidence-based [research] is what we need,” he says, “Evidence-based is what we have [in this study].”
Avery began training to use hypnosis after she was in a late-night accident where a drunk driver slammed into her car. She had been enrolled in a master’s nursing program at Gonzaga University, but the injuries set her behind in her work. She went to counseling to work through the disappointment, and found that hypnosis was a more effective method for her than traditional therapy centered on talking. That, she believes, is because hypnosis accessed a
“Every normal person has ego states. Normal people have different parts of themselves, and they’re aware of those parts.”
K
athy Jo Avery spent 17 years as a nurse and still works the occasional shift in Sacred Heart’s emergency room, but today she practices therapy that she says some of her former co-workers view as less than mainstream. Avery owns Heartfelt Hypnosis, a local practice where she works with people struggling with ailments ranging from anxiety, depression and panic attacks to addiction or uncontrollable anger.
deeper part of her mind that has more connection to her feelings and behaviors. To help new patients understand this, Avery starts by telling them about their two minds — “the conscious and the unconscious.” The conscious, she says, is judgmental; it’s worried about black-and-white reasoning, about economics and to-do lists. The unconscious mind is emotional and holds memories. Through hypnosis, Avery says, she can get beyond the mind’s
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