Can hypnosis help depression?

Can hypnosis help depression? It depends on if you actually have depression.

A lot of people say they have depression. I am sure you have had a friend who is telling you about their day and says “today when tom said that i felt depressed….”. This is most likely not depression. Depressed, depression, and other related  words are so commonly used now in social speak it is hard to know if you actually have depression. These words are rarely used accurately. I also cannot diagnose you, but i have a few tips on if you have it or not.

Depression is actually a very serious diagnosed condition. If you have never been diagnosed with depression by a mental health professional, you don’t know if you have depression. I would just be guessing at this point if you haven’t been seen by a professional. How do you know if you have real depression?

If you have five or more of these symptoms for most of the day, nearly every day, for at least two weeks, and the symptoms are severe enough to interfere with your daily activities, you may have major depression(WebMD). At that point (according to WebMD) you should be screened by a doctor.

• Depressed mood, sadness, or an “empty” feeling, or appearing sad or tearful to others
• Loss of interest or pleasure in activities you once enjoyed
• Significant weight loss when not dieting, or significant weight gain (for example, more than 5% of body weight in a month)
• Inability to sleep or excessive sleeping
• Restlessness or irritation (irritable mood may be a symptom in children or adolescents too), or feelings of “dragging”
• Fatigue or loss of energy
• Feelings of worthlessness, or excessive or inappropriate guilt
• Difficulty thinking or concentrating, or indecisiveness
• Recurrent thoughts of death or suicide without a specific plan, or a suicide attempt or specific plan for committing suicide

Typically people with depression have a sustained  feeling of depression. The difference between depression and feeling down is that feeling down passes after days(weeks or longer) and is not usually severe. Depression typically is sustained for a long time in many cases. So i urge you to seek medical help if the above criteria fits your condition.

Can hypnosis help depression? What if i have diagnosed depression?

There is only 2 ways you would be able to use hypnosis to help with actual depression.

Use a hypnotist that is a licensed mental health professional

1. Can hypnosis help depression? Yes if you work with a licensed professional. You could work with a licensed mental health worker(counselor or psychologist) that happened to use hypnosis(not all that common because despite what you may think licensed mental health professionals do not get hypnosis training in school). The training they get is from a third party and they are required to only get 60 hours of training in hypnosis because they are already licensed. In other words, they are expected to know how to use this tool already. Which is not true, the model of effective hypnotherapy is completely different approach than typical “therapy”.

It turns out these short hypnosis trainings are extremely ineffective. Most counselors don’t know how to hypnotize anyone. They start guiding a client into relaxation and typically never check to see if they are in hypnosis. The average hypnosis training does not even teach how to test that a client is in hypnosis.

I literally have 12 times the supervised training that the average mental health worker has in hypnosis and its derivatives. They have thousands of hours in cognitive behavioral therapy  (which is the most generally used therapy) but have next to none in hypnosis. This is the problem with the hypnosis industry. It has always been seen as alternative, instead of complementary. Hypnosis is complementary to all mainstream therapies, in fact they enhance each other.

You would need to find a highly rated, well trained, licensed counselor or psychologist in your area that uses hypnosis.

You can also use hypnosis if your non licensed hypnotist gets written approval from your mental health professional.

2-Can hypnosis help depression? Yes, if your hypnotists gets written approval from a mental health worker to work with you. An unlicensed but certified hypnosis professional could work with you under one condition. If a licensed mental health worker signed off in a written form approving the use of hypnosis for you, the hypnotist could work with you. Without this form the hypnosis professional is putting themselves and you at risk. Hypnosis should not be used with anyone with diagnosed depression or any diagnosed disorder unless the hypnotist is a licensed mental health worker or they are cleared by one. 

Hypnosis is not designed to be used with any diagnosed mental health issue. If you are feeling down and are not diagnosed with depression, then hypnosis is probably a great fit for you.

Can hypnosis help depression if i have not technically been diagnosed with depression? It depends on if you are ready to change.

The reason why I mentioned that hypnosis is different than any other therapy,is because it only works if your ready to change. Hypnotherapy generally starts out with a clearly defined self-directed goal from the client(unlike 90% of therapies). The disadvantage to this is if a person is not ready to go for the goal or new behavior, it is a waste of money. If you are really ready to change, your life will transform for the better.

What we do in hypnosis is relax what we call the critical factor. The critical factor is the gatekeeper of the mind, the part that examines all new ideas to see if they match existing subconscious programming. So if you have a bunch of past experiences in which you accepted or decided limiting beliefs, you will hold yourself back. This happens because beliefs have emotions linked to them and those feelings lead to behaving in a certain way. Those behaviors lead to your results in life. We write customized positive suggestions for you (which you then approve) and start conditioning your mind with positives. Some hypnotists like me give custom recordings so you can listen to that daily. Most of the other sessions are resolving past fears and negative beliefs that you adopted at an earlier age.

This recording plays a large role in conditioning the mind. I personally have never seen a person who listened to a personalized recording by me for 90 days, came to at least 6 sessions, and took a weekly action step on their goal,that did not get satisfactory results.

The truth is if your looking to address the root cause of many challenges, hypnosis is the tool. If you want a quick fix, real hypnosis work is not going to help you. Hypnosis is not a pill, it doesn’t work instantly. It took time to condition your emotions and subconscious mind to feel down or sad. It is not an overnight solution no matter what some hypnotists claim. Always look for the education level and google reviews of the hypnotist before purchasing their services. Ultimately the answer to “can hypnosis help depression” is yes if by depressed you mean feeling down. Can hypnosis help depression? Use hypnosis for actual depression when working with a mental health professional.

5-Star Rated Dallas Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy Programs By Award-Winning Dallas Hypnotist, Sean Maness