Hypnosis refers to a trance state that is characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation, and heightened imagination. Hypnosis can be viewed as a tool to be used during hypnotherapy, which is, in simple terms, the practice of hypnosis for therapeutic purposes.
Hypnotherapy has been used in practices such as:
- Help people quit smoking
- Relieve chronic and acute pain
- During childbirth (called hypnobirthing)
- Navigate the cause of mental health issues such as anxiety, PTSD, or depression
Hypnosis has been shown to impact three distinct areas of the brain:
First, there is a decrease in activity in the part of the brain that is responsible for psychological functions such as decision making, evaluation processes and emotional regulation. Then there’s an increase in the connection between the part of the brain that controls your working memory and self-control and the part of the brain that plays an important role in pain perception, social engagements, and emotions. Finally, the connections in the parts of the brain that control neural activity and cognitive tasks are reduced.
Clinical trials of Amazon Alexa’s stress relief skills have shown a significant decrease in anxiety among users.Picture by Reveri Health
What is hypnotherapy?
Hypnotherapy takes advantage of the relaxed and suggestible state in which your brain finds itself to modify our perception of things.
Expert in hypnotherapy Diane Zimberoff (co-founder of the wellness institute) compares our subconscious mind to the filing system of a computer. Our subconscious is like a hard drive. We store experiences, emotions, thoughts and other processes in it.
hypnotherapist Judi Vitale describes:
“With hypnosis, you may want to help someone quit smoking by suggesting that the taste or smell of cigarettes is worse than it actually is. But a hypnotherapist can use techniques to age regression [during hypnosis] to examine the impulse that drives the customer’s habit.
Self-hypnosis can help manage pain, quit smoking, and relieve stress.
Self-hypnosis, according to Reveri Health, is a type of hypnotherapy that can be done via an audio guide. You can do it from the comfort of your own home. First, you follow a series of instructions to put yourself in a state of focused attention (known as the hypnotic state).
Once you are in a calm and focused state, the therapy track will begin. After hearing and absorbing all the suggestions of the session, you will be guided out of your hypnotic state.
Reveri Health was co-founded by Dr. David Spiegel, considered one of America’s most respected experts in the clinical uses of hypnosis, alongside Ariel Poler, an avid investor in the field of human augmentation .
With a team of psychologists, doctors, designers and engineers, Reveri Health is dedicated to the belief that we can all feel better by changing the way we think – and one of the best tools to do that is the use of hypnotherapy.
Clinical trials of Amazon Alexa self-hypnosis have revealed very encouraging results.
According to Poler, Reveri Health conducted clinical trials using self-hypnosis leads via Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant at Stanford University that focused on the ability to stop smoking and pain management.
Results from the Pain Management via Hypnotherapy trial showed users’ pain ratings dropped from an average of 5.1 to 3.95 after using the Alexa pain relief app Hypnosis for 3 months. This specific trial also showed that hypnosis reduced pain by up to 50% over a year in women with metastatic breast cancer.
While it’s important to note that self-hypnosis doesn’t work for everyone, these results suggest that there may be a new wave of hypnotherapy treatments available from the comfort of your own home.
“Alexa, start hypnosis stress relief.”
Reveri Health has launched a specific program (which is currently offered free of charge) to help combat anxiety related to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
If you’re near your Alexa device, find a comfortable position, then say: “Alexa, start hypnosis stress relief.”
Dr. Spiegel’s voice will guide you through a short hypnotherapy session designed to help you manage the stress and anxiety that may be generated by the current COVID-19 pandemic.
This is a 10-15 minute session that you can repeat as many times as you want for free. You can start using this service by click here.
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