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By GLORIA DANVERS, CCHt

The elderly woman in the doctor's office had recently moved to a new city and was visiting her new primary care physician for the first time. Weak from a recent illness, and uncomfortable with her new surroundings, she listened to the doctor discuss changing her medications with the nurse practitioners with rising panic.

Tears came to her eyes as she tried to describe a particularly terrifying episode involving an adverse reaction to the medication the doctor intended to put her on. She became short of breath, agitated and even though she was on oxygen, her struggle to breathe and calm herself down was obvious.

Her companion moved to her side and with a few measured words delivered in a soothing tone, began passing her fingers in front of the woman's face in a back and forth metronomic pattern that she could track visually.

Within a minute, the panic attack was averted, and the elderly woman became calm. She was able to express herself succinctly and without upset, and the intake was able to continue in a most productive way.

The nursing staff simply stared. This type of treatment for a panic attack was not in the scope of their practice. It was, however, in mine.

That woman was my mother, and I was her companion that day. I am a Clinical Hypnotherapist trained in the Eye Movement Therapy that I used in conjunction with the hypnosis techniques of breathing and mindful focus. It is quiet and amazingly effective.

Those are just two of the many highly successful techniques that a Clinical Hypnotherapist can utilize to immediately decrease discomfort in a medical setting.

Hypnosis has been around for thousands of years. It is spoken of under various names and descriptions in ancient cultures as a powerful adjunct to medical procedures performed since man first crushed an herb or held a scalpel.

Physicians and dentists have long known about and used hypnosis to treat their patients in a variety of ways that range from pain management to increasing physical and mental comfort in a potentially stressful situation.

A clinical hypnotherapist can assist and work with a physician in a variety of ways. In dental settings, hypnotherapy is particularly effective in managing the pain of extensive surgery such as wisdom tooth extraction.

The patient is referred to the hypnotherapist by the doctor. A referral is required to practice clinical hypnotherapy, and treatment can very often can be done in the doctor's office but is more likely to be done at the hypnotherapists office.

The hypnotherapist will work with each client several times, teaching them the methods by which they can control their own pain, or calm down their anxiety without the use of an anti-anxiety medication such as alprazolam.

This can be particularly desirable if the client is on the medications that may be contra-indicated, or simply has an adverse reaction to the drug. Teaching the client simple yet powerful methods of using their own resource states to gain a measure of control in stressful situations, or for chronic pain assuages some of the hopelessness a person may feel in suffering from injury or a long-term illness.

There are many applications of hypnotherapy in modern medicine that deliver real and measurable results. Weight loss and smoking cessation are two that are the most well-known to lay people.

There has also been great success at treating IBS, high blood pressure, and many other health problems.

These results are well documented and a Google search of clinical hypnotherapy will provide anyone who is interested with the research and studies that these results are based on.

Quite a few physicians, psychologists, licensed social workers, and therapists are now learning and incorporating hypnotherapy into their therapy regime. Many more are using and referring hypnotherapists on a regular basis for issues such as anxiety, stress management, depression, insomnia and many other chronic problems that interfere with their patient's quality of life.

These medical professionals understand the value of integrative health care, in which the patient's own natural resources are identified and utilized to promote healing and general well-being with increased quality of life. In a world where the answer to every problem is medication, the benefits of empowering the patient's/client's own natural abilities and resources to strengthen the body and mind cannot be overstated.

A clinical hypnotherapist is not trained as a diagnostician. That is why it is important to discuss your interest in using hypnotherapy with your physician, who can then write a referral for your treatment. the hypnotherapist must know what medications you are on, and that is particularly important if the client is on anti-depressants or stimulants.

In working closely with the physician, the hypnotherapist is able to achieve maximum results in most cases, which can greatly reduce or even eliminate certain types of medication while allowing the client to become an empowered partner in his or her own wellness.

Physicians in these advanced technological times are finding that there are many old medical modalities that, once seen as superstitious and ineffective, have actually been proven to be powerful healing tools for the mind and the body.

A Holistic approach to medicine and healing is the wave of the future of medicine, and it would without a doubt, benefit the medical community to delve more deeply into the mind/body connection that hypnotherapy utilizes.

Gloria Danvers is a clinical hypnotherapist in Winter Park, Florida. One of her specialties is stress management through which she teaches her clients how to take control of their own anxious feelings and reframe them through breathing exercises, guided visualizations and mindful awareness of how the body and mind can work together. She works with a variety of other issues as well. You can find out more about Gloria on her website www.gloriadanvershypnosis.com