ABSTRACT
Some patients are more successful than others in reducing pain through hypnotherapy, and those who are successful respond at varying tempos. An essential common thread in all therapeutic interventions included in this research sample is the rehearsal under hypnosis. The primary advantage of the hypnotic rehearsal method is that it permits patients to learn how to become involved (and to witness that they can) in whatever pleasant experience is chosen as the focus of their hypnotic consciousness, and to do so at a time when there is no strong competing demand for attention. In the delayed respondents, however, control of the symptoms of pain was achieved to some extent at the first hypnotic intervention as indicated by the judged ratings of expressed pain. By the time of the second hypnotic treatment day, they were able to take advantage of their hypnotic abilities to reduce the felt pain.
