Self-Hypnosis

Braid and the term hypnosis

An integrative review traces the history of clinical hypnosis to Franz Anton Mesmer's late eighteenth-century work on animal magnetism. It reports that James Braid coined the term hypnosis in 1843 from the Greek word for sleep, and that he later recognized the state was not sleep. The review also names Jean-Martin Charcot and Pierre Janet as later contributors, and Milton Erickson and Herbert Spiegel as influential twentieth-century figures. Spiegel is credited there with the Hypnotic Induction Profile, a brief assessment of hypnotic responsiveness. This account is a secondary summary, and it does not describe self-directed practice as a separate lineage.

Autosuggestion and autogenic training

A cognitive-science review states that autosuggestion was introduced by Emile Coué in the late nineteenth century, and that positive affirmations are a popular modern form of it. The same review concludes that there is little empirical evidence on what autosuggestion is at the cognitive and neural level, and that its relationship to hypnosis, mental imagery and placebo effects remains unclear.

Autogenic training is a related but separate lineage. A narrative review reports that the German psychiatrist Johannes Schultz published the first book on the method in 1932, and describes it as a self-relaxation technique based on autosuggestion and passive concentration on bodily sensations such as heaviness and warmth. Autogenic training is therefore a neighbor of self-hypnosis rather than the same practice.

Sources not found for some commonly cited history

The sources reviewed for this page did not document the work of Herbert Spiegel on self-hypnosis for stopping smoking or for pain, and they did not establish when recorded or app-delivered self-hypnosis first became common. Those points are therefore not stated here as fact.

Self-hypnosis and its neighbors

Self-hypnosis, also called autohypnosis, refers to hypnosis a person induces and directs themselves. Research papers use it for several different formats, including a person practicing alone after training, practice guided by an audio file, and practice within a program that combines self-care teaching with hypnosis. The label therefore says little about exactly what participants did, and trial results cannot be pooled across formats without caution.

A cognitive-science review separates hypnosis from autosuggestion, noting that hypnosis involves a diminished sense of intention and control that is less typical of deliberate autosuggestion. It adds that diminished control is also described when hypnosis is self-induced. The review treats the boundaries between these terms as unsettled.

Virtually augmented self-hypnosis

One trial uses the phrase virtually augmented self-hypnosis for a head-mounted virtual reality module with a scuba-dive scene and breathing exercises. Its authors describe a self-induced state similar to clinical hypnosis, without direct intervention by a professional. This is the authors' label for a commercial distraction device, and it does not match audio-only self-hypnosis.

Formats described in the research

In published trials, self-hypnosis has been delivered in several ways. An Iranian trial gave pregnant women two hypnosis sessions and two audio files to practice at home until delivery. A US surgical trial asked patients to listen to a self-hypnosis audio file in the preoperative holding area. A French trial taught patients awaiting lung transplantation to practice before and after surgery. Practice schedules, scripts and teaching differ between studies, and none is presented here as a standard.

Apps and recordings

A systematic review of app stores found 679 unique hypnosis apps and included 168 in its analysis. The most common targets were sleep (56.0 percent), relaxation or meditation (54.8 percent) and stress (36.9 percent). Only 34 apps (20.2 percent) indicated that the developer or person providing hypnosis was trained in hypnosis. A survey of 244 adults aged 45 and older found willingness to try self-hypnosis for sleep, a preference for telehealth or smartphone delivery, and very few respondents who had access to it.

Relationship to the Hypnotherapy family

Self-hypnosis sits within the family of practices described on the Machipedia page Hypnotherapy, which is not repeated here. Clinical Hypnosis and Hypnobirthing are related pages; Guided imagery, Guided Visualization, Guided Meditation, Meditation and Mindfulness describe neighboring practices that also use focused attention. The Gallardo and Chetri review says clinicians often encourage self-hypnosis training so that clients do not depend on a hypnotist, and lists dependency as an ethical concern.

Uses that have been studied

Self-hypnosis has been studied for fear and pain in childbirth, anxiety and pain around surgery or medical procedures, pain after transplantation, chronic pain, fatigue, sleep difficulties and emotional distress after cancer treatment, and stress. App developers most often target sleep, relaxation and stress. A survey reports that older adults are interested in it for sleep.

Claims without support in the sources reviewed

Claims that self-hypnosis reprograms the subconscious, reliably changes habits or removes the need for treatment were not supported by any source reviewed for this page. The NCCIH summary of hypnosis does not mention self-hypnosis, and its statement on smoking cessation is that studies have had conflicting results. Sources reviewed do not document why individuals seek the practice.

Childbirth

An unblinded randomized trial in Mashhad, Iran, randomized 93 first-time mothers, and 63 completed it. The self-hypnosis group received two sessions plus two audio files for home practice and reported lower fear of childbirth and lower labor pain than controls (p below 0.001 for each). The trial was not blinded and relied on self-report.

A Chinese non-randomized trial allocated 346 women by preference to a brief audio-guided self-hypnosis intervention during the latent phase of labor (126 women) or usual care (220 women). The hypnosis group reported lower fear of losing control at one quartile, lower labor pain intensity at another, and less epidural use (odds ratio 0.415), but the effect was limited in women with high baseline fear or pain. Allocation by preference limits causal conclusions.

Surgery and procedures

In a randomized trial of 138 evaluable patients having open gynecologic cancer surgery, adding a self-hypnosis audio to an enhanced recovery pathway was feasible, with 77.5 percent listening to the whole file. The trial closed early for futility, and there was no difference in worst pain on postoperative day 1, opioid use or quality of life. Self-reported anxiety fell by about two points after listening, a within-group change.

In a randomized study of lung transplant patients taught self-hypnosis, 78 were enrolled and 61 were assessed at four months. Practice was 76.6 percent before surgery and lower afterward. Group-by-time differences were not statistically significant, including pain at one month, which the authors linked to variable adherence. In 100 patients having vascular procedures, a virtual reality self-hypnosis module lowered anxiety by 4.2 points more than usual care, with no difference in pain or medication use.

Cancer care, pain, stress and apps

A randomized trial of 95 women after cancer treatment compared a group program combining self-care and self-hypnosis with a wait-list. The program group had less fatigue, sleep difficulty and emotional distress, and most effects were maintained at one year. The wait-list comparator cannot separate hypnosis from attention and group support. A Cochrane review of non-drug treatments for chronic pain after spinal cord injury found no evidence that its one self-hypnosis trial reduced pain, and rated the trials weak.

A retrospective analysis of 84,395 app users and 282,893 stress-reduction sessions found self-rated stress dropped before to after sessions, with effect sizes of roughly 0.7 to 0.8 across the first ten sessions. There was no control group. The app systematic review found only four of 168 apps reported inclusion in a clinical efficacy trial.

Limits of the evidence

Most trials found were small, unblinded or non-randomized, and self-reported. Formats vary widely, adherence is variable, and a systematic review of psychological treatments for pain after knee replacement, which included one hypnosis trial, could not draw conclusions on safety because harms data were poorly reported. No source reviewed pooled results across self-hypnosis trials by condition.

What the sources report about harms

No serious adverse events were highlighted in the self-hypnosis trials read, but harms were not a primary focus of these studies. A Cochrane review found a paucity of evidence on serious or long-lasting side effects of non-drug pain treatments, and a systematic review of psychological interventions after knee replacement described harms reporting as poor. Absence of reported harm in small trials is not evidence that harm does not occur.

Cautions drawn from the hypnosis literature

The integrative review by Gallardo and Chetri warns that poorly conducted hypnotic work with trauma survivors can worsen dissociation and requires specialized training. It also states that age regression or memory-recovery procedures can create or distort memories, that clients should be told about risks and alternatives, and that hypnosis should not replace necessary medical or psychiatric treatment. These cautions concern clinician-led hypnosis, and the review does not give a contraindication list for self-directed practice.

For autogenic training, a related technique, a narrative review reports that in early research symptoms worsened in several patients with schizophrenia after they moved to meditation exercises, and that a more intensive method called autogenic neutralization requires training and supervision. The sources reviewed do not state driving or alertness cautions for self-hypnosis recordings.

Training, quality of apps and when to seek care

The sources reviewed identify no training standard or statutory regulation specific to self-hypnosis, and none is asserted here. In the app review, most apps did not indicate that the person providing hypnosis was trained, and few made evidence claims. A person with persistent pain, severe distress, a history of trauma or psychosis, or an unexplained symptom may wish to consult a licensed clinician. Self-hypnosis is not a replacement for assessment or prescribed treatment.