Hypnosis has many benefits. Just spending time in the hypnotic state can help normalize your body’s equilibrium as well as reduce stress and anxiety. Another benefit is that hypnosis does not carry the risks that pharmacological treatments often do.

This program is a comprehensive training program that anyone can use to learn self-hypnosis to prepare for your procedure, take control of your medical experience throughout the process, and enhance your postoperative recovery and healing.

The program was developed after two randomized clinical pilot trials conducted by Dr. Ginandes and colleagues indicated that patients utilizing the specially developed hypnosis intervention protocols experienced less pain, made a faster recovery and healed their incisions more rapidly than the comparison groups.* While two small studies do not prove hypnosis will accelerate physical healing, they do take this idea from the realm of fantasy to that of a distinct possibility.

The program consists of seven immersive instructional sessions that you begin to listen to two weeks prior to your procedure and continue working with up until four weeks after your surgery. The sequence and design of these sessions have been carefully crafted and all of the practice instructions are clearly presented every step of the way.

Like learning a language or how to play an instrument, the more you practice, the better you will get at it. After the introduction, in the first practice session, you may find that your anxiety about the surgery is reduced and that you are learning to control your internal state of mind. The second session begins one week before your surgery; this takes your skills to the next level and will help you focus more on the surgery itself ensuring that your time in surgery is smooth and that you re-establish the rhythms of basic physiological functions soon afterwards. The third session is used immediately after the procedure through one week following; this can help you recover your appetite, stimulate normal bodily functions, lessen your chance of infection and possibly reduce your need for pain medication. The fourth session is used beginning seven days after the surgery and then continues on for three weeks. Practice with this session can help shorten your hospital stay and extend the process of accelerated healing.

*Ginandes CS, Rosenthal DI ( 1999) Using Hypnosis to Accelerate the Healing of Bone Fractures. Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine; 5(2): 67-75. Ginandes C, Brooks P, Sando W, Jones C, Aker J. (2002) Can medical hypnosis accelerate post-surgical wound healing? Results of a clinical trial. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis. 45(4):333-51