The Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis (SCEH) is an international association whose mission is to promote excellence and progress in hypnosis research, education, and clinical practice. A distinguishing feature of the Society is its emphasis on empirical inquiry and the evidence-base of hypnosis.
The SCEH Webinar Series allows busy health care professionals to obtain high quality clinical hypnosis training that is convenient, reasonably priced, and includes continuing education (CE) credit for licensure or certification. Led by hypnosis experts, topics are varied and designed to impart actionable insights that can be employed immediately with patients. SCEH Webinars are co-sponsored by SCEH and the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. All webinars will offer 1.5 APA CE credits for Psychologists and 1.5 BBS CEUs for Counselors and Social Workers. In order to receive CE/CEU credits or a participation certificate for training, participants are required to be in attendance for the entire program.
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Upcoming Live SCEH Webinars
Rapid Hypnosis for Medical and Dental Encounters
Presented by Elvira V. Lang, MD, Ph.D., FSIR, FSCEH
Friday, October 29, 2021
9:00AM-10:30AM PDT/ 11:00AM-12:30PM CST/12:00PM-1:30PM EST
This program, when attended in its entirety, offers 1.5 APA CEs for Psychologists, and 1.5 BBS California CEUs for LPCCs, LPSW, and LMFTs
Assessment of Hypnotizability in Clinical Practice: Elkins Hypnotizability Scale
Presented by Gary Elkins, Ph.D.
Friday, November 12, 2021
9:00AM-10:30AM PDT/ 11:00AM-12:30PM CST/12:00PM-1:30PM EST
This program, when attended in its entirety, offers 1.5 APA CEs for Psychologists, and 1.5 BBS California CEUs for LPCCs, LPSW, and LMFTs
SCEH Courses Available for Homestudy
Inductions, Deepening Techniques, and Teaching Stories
To successfully induce the hypnotic state/deliver suggestions, it's key to understand belief, imagination, concentration, expectation and desire. This knowledge helps you craft the induction necessary for hypnosis to reach the optimal desired state. There are hundreds of inductions therapists can apply including direct/indirect suggestions. The key is finding the right induction for the client. This webinar will help you identify/craft such an induction and understand how the client's unconscious mind provides clues as to what is most effective. We'll also explore repetition; speaking to the client's exhalation, pace, lead; and how inductions maximize hypnosis for health.
Supporting Optimal Coping with The Anxiety and Stress of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Many Americans are reporting anxiety and a sense of stress about the COVID-19 pandemic. The health threat, the disruption of usual schedules and activities, and the lack of control over rapidly changing life-events all are undermining individual’s sense of safety and self-confidence. Rapid fire media attention to the global impact of the pandemic is heightening the sense of urgency and threat for the general public. Individuals with pre-existing emotional and psychiatric disorders are reporting exacerbations of their symptoms and usually calm individuals are reporting preoccupation and anxiety This webinar will bring together leading mental health experts from North American universities to discuss coping strategies, self-care skills, and lifestyle supports for emotional and physical well-being. The presenters will provide attendees with practical skills applicable for their own lives and also for their patients/clients/students. The COVID-19 pandemic is a major threat to individuals and communities, with serious health impact and dramatic economic impact. Nevertheless, this threat can provide a useful opportunity for each person to consider current coping and to adopt new self-care habits that will provide a pathway for improved well-being long-term
This course is free
The Use of Hypnosis for Complex Health Conditions and in Integrative Medicine Settings
This presentation will discuss the applications of clinical hypnosis in integrative medicine settings, which serve individuals experiencing chronic, and often overlapping complex health conditions. Examples include migraine, irritable bowel syndrome, complex regional pain syndrome, and fibromyalgia. We will review integrative care models and the use of hypnosis with this population by applying individual and group approaches guided by the biopsychosocial model of care. Specific strategies to use hypnosis in integrative care settings will be discussed, including hypnosis for relaxation, to gain mastery over feared material with imaginal exposure, and self-hypnosis training for chronic conditions. Lastly, we will discuss methods of integrating inductions into specific care pathways to facilitate treatment, such as in physical therapy or for acupuncture treatments.
Gut Feelings: Clinical Hypnosis for Disorders Gut-Brain Interaction
Clinical hypnosis has reliably been found to produce both short- and long-term treatment benefits for functional gastrointestinal disorders (i.e., functional dyspepsia, functional abdominal pain, and irritable bowel syndrome). Moreover, as various physiological and autonomic nervous system variables have been found to contribute to these functional gastrointestinal disorders, they have more appropriately been relabeled Disorders Gut-Brain Interaction (DGBI). However, the exact mechanisms of action that result in such hypnotic intervention benefits have remained elusive. This webinar will review the empirical evidence supporting the effectiveness of various gut-directed clinical hypnosis strategies, address possible mechanisms of action, and outline these techniques for participant use. Moreover, recent research will be reviewed on a polyvagal-based hypnotic intervention effective with gut-brain interaction disorders. Furthermore, the polyvagal model’s relevance and this technique will be reviewed concerning the treatment of fibromyalgia, other pain disorders, and trauma.
Autoimmune Disorders, Psychoneuroimmunology, and Hypnosis
For many years western medicine has considered the immune system to be separate and independent from the central nervous system. However, significant scientific research discoveries during the past 50 years have presented new data leading to the evolution of psychoneuroimmunology as a new field showing that the immune system does interact with the central nervous system in a bidirectional way. This webinar provides a review of the research literature establishing data on the connection between the brain and the immune system with relevance to our understanding and treatment of autoimmune disorders. In addition, this webinar will provide a foundation and structure for using hypnosis in the treatment of patients with autoimmune disorders. Clinical case examples will provide practical relevant illustration on effective utilization of hypnosis in treating patients with autoimmune disorders.
Hypnosis, Anxiety, and Children: Opportunities Beyond Relaxation
Using hypnosis with children teaches skills and helps children experientially discover their own resources and “super-powers.” With anxious children, hypnotic interventions can immediately demonstrate the mind-body connection, help with somatic regulation, and offer relief. But many clinicians focus on relaxation and calmness as the primary (and only) goal with anxious children and teens. Paradoxically, an overemphasis on the goal of relaxation often impede progress. This webinar will focus on additional therapeutic targets that move away from an “elimination” approach and provide skills needed to step into uncertainty, recognize the patterns of anxiety, and interrupt the family cycles that help worry thrive. The goal of this program is to answer: How do we incorporate hypnosis into our treatment of anxious kids and parents without inadvertently supporting anxiety’s demands?
Adjunctive Therapies for Use with Clinical Hypnosis and Psychotherapy
Adjunctive therapies are interventions that combine well with clinical hypnosis and psychotherapy. These adjunctive techniques augment the therapeutic effect of the hypnosis and psychotherapy. The combined therapeutic effect of hypnosis and adjunctive skills together is often greater than the effect of either intervention alone. Regular home practice of adjunctive relaxation skills improves basal autonomic nervous system regulation and reduces the onset of problematic symptoms. This Webinar introduces seven adjunctive therapies, including progressive muscle relaxation, autogenic training, paced diaphragmatic breathing, guided imagery, meditation, mindfulness, and expressive writing. Three to four of them will be demonstrated, as time allows, and brief clinical vignettes will illustrate the use of the adjunctive techniques with clients. Each of these skill sets can be administered on its own, with therapeutic effect, or provided in combination with clinical hypnosis as a treatment package. Clinical anecdotes will be utilized to illustrate the use of adjunctive therapies.
Creativity and Hypnosis: Evoking Generative States for Positive Growth & Change
How can we use hypnosis to provide more positive states with clinical populations, or to help individuals tap into more generative mental capacities to perform more efficiently, and have more fun in life? This online presentation will answer these questions, and provide hypnotic tools for creativity, and give an overview of the scientific literature of hypnosis and creativity. This 90-minute presentation provides an overview of the history and theory of hypnosis and creativity research, as well as clinical aspects discussed in the scientific literature of creativity. It will also give suggestions for techniques and an overview of treatment planning with case studies from the presenter’s practice, as well as ideas for integration creativity work into therapy and hypnotic settings will also be discussed.
From Surviving to Thriving: Applying the Science of Positive Psychology to Ignite Hypnotic Relaxation Therapy for Well-Being
The program/presentation approaches clinical conditions presented by clients from an evolutionary, neurobiological framework. Rather than focusing on the content of presenting concerns (e.g., migraine, digestive distress, depression, or panic), the program participant is invited to explore clinical phenomena as manifestations of evolutionarily based patterns of adjusting and adapting to ever-changing physical and social landscapes. Presenting problem patterns are framed as attempts at solution seeking, goal-oriented (though not necessarily consciously mediated) adaptiveness. Dr. Alter has identified 13-core principles that aid in cultivation of this adaptive view of clinical concerns. The principles are rooted in what we have learned about the physiological, neurological, psychological, and social legacies we have inherited from our evolutionary ancestors. Applying these principles to clinical phenomena supports the clinician in escaping the diagnostic and formulaic treatment reductionism that too often constrains our ability to interact with clients in ways that are tailored to their unique presenting problem patterns, while simultaneously cultivating an approach that imbues clients’ efforts with meaning, mission, and purpose. Hypnosis has demonstrated to be effective for a breadth of physical and psychological concerns and has been primarily utilized for symptom reduction. However, there is an increased interest for interventions to not only provide clinical symptom relief, but also nourish positive functioning and amplify strengths. Positive psychology is the scientific study of the positive aspects of psychological functioning to enhance subjective and objective well-being. Positive psychology interventions (PPI) involve identifying and reinforcing strengths, savoring positive experiences, and pleasurable behaviors that increase meaning, connection, and well-being in life. PPI are brief, versatile, and easily incorporated into existing interventions. Similarly, hypnotherapy is a therapeutic modality that is integrative in nature, readily synthesizes positive psychology approaches, and may increase well-being via hypnotic relaxation. Created by Elkins (2014), Hypnotic Relaxation Therapy (HRT) is a well-defined, evidence based model of hypnotherapy that can be used alone or easily be incorporated with other therapeutic modalities. HRT is theoretically well suited to synergize PPI and enhance well-being, given that the unconscious is seen as a source of inner strength.
From Principle to Practice: Deconstructing Problem Patterns toward Strategically Guided Solutions
The program/presentation approaches clinical conditions presented by clients from an evolutionary, neurobiological framework. Rather than focusing on the content of presenting concerns (e.g., migraine, digestive distress, depression, or panic), the program participant is invited to explore clinical phenomena as manifestations of evolutionarily based patterns of adjusting and adapting to ever-changing physical and social landscapes. Presenting problem patterns are framed as attempts at solution seeking, goal-oriented (though not necessarily consciously mediated) adaptiveness. Dr. Alter has identified 13-core principles that aid in cultivation of this adaptive view of clinical concerns. The principles are rooted in what we have learned about the physiological, neurological, psychological, and social legacies we have inherited from our evolutionary ancestors. Applying these principles to clinical phenomena supports the clinician in escaping the diagnostic and formulaic treatment reductionism that too often constrains our ability to interact with clients in ways that are tailored to their unique presenting problem patterns, while simultaneously cultivating an approach that imbues clients’ efforts with meaning, mission, and purpose.