ABSTRACT
Fear is a universal human emotion that alerts us to potential threats and motivates us to prepare for anticipated life challenges. Anxiety is a diffuse mood state that involves unpleasant emotional experiences marked by a significant degree of apprehension about future aversive or harmful events, whether they are real or imagined. Anxiety disorders are the most common of all classified mental disorders and frequently co-occur with other mental or medical disorders and occur more frequently in females (versus males) at approximately a 2:1 ratio and include specific phobia, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, agoraphobia, and generalized anxiety disorder.
This chapter provides an overview of published reviews supporting clinical hypnosis as an effective intervention for treating anxiety and anxiety-related disorders such as dental anxiety, needle phobia, fear of flying, fear of swallowing or choking, blood phobia, claustrophobia, and panic. More importantly, and of relevance to the mission of this handbook, a number of controlled studies are reviewed that endorse clinical hypnosis as an evidence-based intervention for treating anxiety.
Portions of scripts from clinical cases from our outpatient private practices are included in this chapter to demonstrate the application of hypnosis for treatment of anxiety disorders.
