ABSTRACT
"Cognitive-behavioural hypnotherapy" term is sometimes used to refer to the integration of hypnosis with cognitive-behavioural therapy. However, as we shall see, it may also denote the adoption of a cognitive-behavioural reconceptualisation of hypnosis, which replaces the notion of "hypnotic trance" with an explanation based upon more ordinary psychological processes. The first point worth noting is perhaps that the cardinal technique of early behaviour therapy, systematic desensitisation, both greatly resembles behavioural hypnotherapy and was apparently derived from it. In fact, Joseph Wolpe, the developer of systematic desensitisation and arguably the founder of behaviour therapy, originally described his technique as "hypnotic desensitisation." In addition to the long-standing and important links between behaviour therapy and hypnosis in the West, an early relationship developed between hypnosis and conditioning theories in Russia. The defining feature of the social cognitive view of hypnosis is a rejection of the traditional view that hypnotic experiences require the presence of an altered state of consciousness.
