To investigate the effectiveness of cognitive hypnotherapy (CH), hypnosis combined with cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), on depression, 84 depressives were randomly assigned to 16 weeks of treatment of either CH or CBT alone. At the end of treatment, patients from both groups significantly improved compared to baseline scores. However, the CH group produced significantly larger changes in Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Anxiety Inventory, and Beck Hopelessness Scale. Effect size calculations showed that the CH group produced 6%, 5%, and 8% greater reduction in depression, anxiety, and hopelessness, respectively, over and above the CBT group. The effect size was maintained at 6-month and 12-month follow-ups. This study represents the first controlled comparison of hypnotherapy with a well-established psychotherapy for depression, meeting the APA criteria for a "probably efficacious" treatment for depression.

This article describes cognitive hypnotherapy (CH), an integrative treatment that provides an evidence-based framework for synthesizing clinical practice and research. CH combines hypnotherapy with cognitive-behavior therapy in the management of emotional disorders. This blended version of clinical practice meets criteria for an assimilative model of integrative psychotherapy, which incorporates both theory and empirical findings. Issues related to (a) additive effect of hypnosis in treatment, (b) transdiagnostic consideration, and

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Hypnotherapy is claimed to be effective in treatment of psychosomatic disorders. A meta-analysis was conducted with 21 randomized, controlled clinical studies to evaluate efficacy of hypnosis in psychosomatic disorders. Studies compared patients exclusively treated with hypnotherapy to untreated controls. Studies providing adjunctive standard medical care in either treatment condition were also admitted. Hypnotherapy was categorized into classic (n = 9), mixed form (n = 5), and modern (n = 3). Results showed the weighted mean effect size for 21 studies was d(+) = .61 (p = .0000). ANOVA revealed significant differences between classic, mixed, and modern hypnosis. Regression of outcome on treatment dose failed to show a significant relationship. Numerical values for correlation between suggestibility and outcome were only reported in three studies (mean r = .31). The meta-analysis clearly indicates hypnotherapy is highly effective in treatment of psychosomatic disorders.

A cognitive dissociative model of nonendogenous unipolar depression (CDMD) is described. The model offers a framework for extending Beck’s cognitive theory of depression and it provides the grounding for combining cognitive and hypnotic techniques in the management of depression. An integrated approach to treatment, referred to as cognitive hypnotherapy, based on the model is described in detail.

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Although anxiety disorders on the surface may appear simple, they often represent complex problems that are compounded by underlying factors. For these reasons, treatment of anxiety disorders should be individualized. This article describes cognitive hypnotherapy, an individual comprehensive treatment protocol that integrates cognitive, behavioral, mindfulness, psychodynamic, and hypnotic strategies in the management of anxiety disorders. The treatment approach is based on the self-wounds model of anxiety disorders, which provides the rationale for integrating diverse strategies in the psychotherapy for anxiety disorders. Due to its evidence-based and integrated nature, the psychotherapy described here provides accuracy, efficacy, and sophistication in the formulation and treatment of anxiety disorders. This model can be easily adapted to the understanding and treatment of other emotional disorders.

Clinical depression is one of the most common psychiatric disorders treated by psychiatrists and psychotherapists. It also poses special problems to therapists as it is a complex disorder that affects the whole person -emotions, bodily functions, behaviours and thoughts. Although depression is treated successfully with antidepressant medication and psychotherapy, a signifi cant number of depressives do not respond to either medication or existing psychotherapies. It is thus important for clinicians to continue to develop more effective treatments for depression. This article describes Cognitive Hypnotherapy (CH), an evidence-based multimodal treatment for depression, which can be applied to a wide range of patients with depression. The components of CH are described in sufficient detail to allow for their replication and validation. Moreover, CH for depression provides a template for studying the additive effect of hypnosis as an adjunctive treatment with other medical and psychological disorders. Although this article emphasizes evidence-based practice, this approach should not limit the scope of therapists' creativity in the application of hypnosis to the management of depression.