When You Don't Know Where to Turn / A Self-Diagnosing Guide to Counseling and Therapy

by Steven J. Bartlett

Relaxation training, hypnosis, and meditation all seek to bring about a deep sense of relaxation in a person. We will examine each in greater detail later; a short overview of these approaches is given here.

RELAXATION TRAINING

Relaxation training involves exercises that enable a person to learn to induce at will a state of physical and mental calm. Relaxation training is a practical skill—it can be very effective and useful in coping with stressful situations. Like any learned skill, control comes only with practice, usually over a period of several months. Many social workers and psychologists teach clients relaxation techniques. Certification standards specifically for relaxation training have not been established.

HYPNOSIS

Hypnosis involves two stages: (1) progressive, deep relaxation to a point at which an individual is in a peaceful, trancelike state, still self-aware but profoundly relaxed; and (2) suggestion, which persuades the person to adopt certain future attitudes, thoughts, or behavior.

Hypnosis, like relaxation training, can be learned. Most people treated by means of hypnosis steadily improve in their ability to be hypnotized so that they can more effectively allow themselves to be influenced by means of carefully planned suggestions. Many psychologists and psychiatrists make use of hypnosis in the context of therapy; some practitioners treat patients exclusively by means of hypnosis.

The certification of therapists trained in hypnosis is still unsettled in many states, where anyone can hang out a shingle. Since many licensed psychologists and psychiatrists and some certified social workers do receive professional training in hypnosis, these are the professions to which it is most reliable to go for hypnotherapy.

MEDITATION

Meditation is still a "fringe" therapy. Techniques of meditation tend seldom to be taught to clients in psychotherapy, although there is a growing body of evidence that meditation is able to bring about great resistance to stress, an increased sense of inner calm, and even actual changes in brain-wave patterns associated with deep relaxation. These effects of meditation are now being studied, with encouraging results.

The practice of meditation is, in the author's view, at present best learned on one's own, although some commercial organizations provide instruction. A later chapter discusses approaches to meditation and suggests some of the ways meditation can be of value.