A middle‐aged male patient with generalized dystonia of childhood onset sought counselling for anxiety and depression. He also sought hypnotherapy to ease muscle pains and control the ceaseless spasmodic movements affecting most of his body. Relaxation under hypnosis produced near immobility. Anxiety and pain became negligible, but only during hypnosis. There was no permanent reduction in pain and only slight reduction in tension. His attempt to move both arms during hypnosis precipitated unpleasant internal sensations, and sensory‐motor effects of dystonia ascending through the whole body. Copyright © 1999 British Society of Experimental and Clinical Hypnosis