ABSTRACT

Hypnotherapy has an extensive history as a powerful and effective intervention in the treatment of trauma and, more specifically, in the treatment of PTSD. This treatment approach should only be utilized by appropriately trained, credentialed (as in the case of the military) and experienced clinicians. This chapter will provide a brief history of hypnosis as a treatment strategy, dispel popular myths regarding the nature of hypnosis, and confront issues surrounding the legitimacy of hypnosis as a viable and practical treatment intervention in the wartime theater and beyond. Also included is a comprehensive description of those essential factors required to produce a hypnotic state and an understanding of hypnotiz-ability, the role of hypnotherapy in treating dissociation/complex PTSD and specific hyp-notherapeutic treatment strategies utilized by the author. Finally, a case vignette will apply trauma-focused hypnotherapy with a soldier while he was deployed to Afghanistan.