Anxiety and phobias are increasingly a problem in society – the corona pandemic has exacerbated this. Fear hinders and paralyzes, those affected are severely impaired in everyday life. Hypnosis is a means of dealing with such fears in a different way.
The psychologist Barbara Schmidt has been scientifically dealing with the topic of fear for years and is researching possibilities in the field of hypnosis.
SRF knowledge: Mrs. Schmidt, you treat fears with hypnosis. Why did you choose this method?
Barbara Schmidt: Ideas that can trigger fears are particularly accessible under hypnosis. This is because ideas play out at a subconscious level, as if automatically. And we hardly get to this level in the waking state.
Under hypnosis, one is then very receptive to targeted suggestions and changes, provided of course that there is a relationship of trust between the hypnotist and the hypnotized person.
How do you go about dealing with anxiety in hypnotherapy?
First I find out in the conversation how the fear expresses itself. Only then do I switch to hypnosis. In the hypnosis intervention against anxiety, I rely on a method that I call “the safe place”. Everyone has a place where they feel safe and secure. And you have to imagine this. The subconscious knows exactly what or where that place is.
This security forms the basis for everything that happens afterwards: those who feel so secure can become courageous, face their fears and overcome them.
What could hypnosis do here?
Anxiety and stress affect pain; and this can have far-reaching effects on our health. Now, if I’m able to reduce stress, and even through a measure that’s within myself, it has tremendous potential. I am very sure that this will give us a better understanding of many clinical pictures.
In a current project you are also investigating how hypnosis can help with test anxiety?
Exactly. Based on my experiences, I created a script that I think anyone can use to get hypnotized.
My research team and I are now testing such scripts on schoolchildren with exam anxiety here in Thuringia: the intervention can be listened to as an audio file. We then check whether and how test results and stress levels of the subjects change before and after an intervention. This research is still ongoing.
Is there even a fear of hypnosis?
Yes, this can happen: the feeling of not being in control creates a fear of the hypnosis session. I then explain that hypnosis is not about relinquishing control. On the contrary: Thanks to hypnosis, you can regain control. Because in the state of fear you have no control over your behavior to deal with the fear – we can change that with resources that lie within ourselves. What could more control mean?
For me, hypnosis shows impressively what we ourselves are capable of.
Christian Bachmann conducted the interview.