The Society for Clinical & 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.
For more information on SCEH membership or services click here.
Upcoming Live SCEH Webinars
Pediatric Clinical Hypnosis Growing Up: Finding Naturalistic Hypnotic Experiences Across Development
Providing Psychological Support for Refugees and Displaced Populations
Evocative Psychotherapy and Hypnotherapy: Demonstration and Discussion
Friday July 8, 2022
Changing Children’s Lives With Hypnosis
Friday, August 12, 2022
9:00-10:30AM PT / 11:00AM-12:30PM CT / 12:00-1:30PM ET
SCEH Courses Available for Homestudy
Breath Matters
Healthy breathing is one of the foundations of human health and well-being. Overbreathing, one of the most common breathing dysregulations, affects 10-25% of US population and is associated with conditions such as asthma, panic disorder, anxiety, chest pain, GI distress, and chronic pain. Oftentimes, our clients come to us reporting that the “deep breathing exercises” they’ve learned previously do not work for them, make them feel lightheaded or short of breath, or make them feel worse. These symptoms are often a sign of overbreathing, a behavior of breathing out too much carbon dioxide, resulting in hypocapnia, or low levels of carbon dioxide. Hypocapnia, in turn, leads to significant emotional, cognitive, behavioral and physiological changes that may seriously impact health and performance. During psychotherapy and hypnotherapy, clients may unintentionally overbreathe by taking overly deep breaths, creating discomfort and reluctance to engage in future sessions. The purpose of this session is to discuss the physiology of breathing and provide the audience with practical strategies for breathing assessment and teaching healthy breathing, including guidance for explaining healthy breathing to clients, and tips for practice and training.
A Personally and Scientifically Informed Approach to Clinical Hypnosis
Over the past five decades or so, Dr. Lynn has used hypnosis in clinical practice and studied hypnosis in the laboratory. In this presentation, he will share what he has learned from his ongoing fascination with hypnosis and how it can be used as a catalyst to augment the effects of empirically supported interventions. He will overview findings from his laboratory and what others have discovered regarding the nature of hypnotic inductions, suggestions, and the hypnotic context, and review their implications for clinical work. He will also present his approach to leveraging hypnosis to increase cognitive-behavioral-flexibility and shift spontaneous mental activity in line with goal-directed actions and deeply held personal values.
Chronic Pain and the Opioid Crisis: Mind-Body Innovations in Clinical Hypnosis
The 2011 Institute of Medicine report Relieving Pain in America: A Blueprint for Transforming Prevention, Care, Education, and Research estimated that 100 million Americans have chronic pain. Over the last 15 years, the primary reliance on and excessive use of opiate medications has created a serious medical crisis. The United States, which makes up less than 5% of the world population, uses 80% of the world’s opiates. Numerous studies demonstrate that dependence on opiate medications leads to overwhelming suffering and disability. Treatment of these conditions should engage patients in daily self-care, gradual conditioning, reducing the guarding reflex around painful areas, and activating self-healing resources. Opiates—especially at high doses— disconnect the brain from the body in a dissociative process, making self-care and activating self-healing resources more challenging. In this webinar, you will learn the role that hypnosis can play in facilitating an ideal healing state to assist in healing two common types of chronic pain: low back pain and headache.
Process-Oriented Hypnosis
Just as there are many different models of psychotherapy, each with different foundational philosophies and methods, there are many different models of hypnosis, each with a different theoretical emphasis and therefore utilizing widely diverse methods. The highly innovative work of Milton Erickson in particular is widely acknowledged by therapists who may or may not use hypnosis but are definitely influenced by his strategic methods. Milton Erickson was often credited with being a “mind-reader,” but he simply said he was more observant than most. Realistically, there are many common denominators of human experience that can make one seem a mind reader to a client when touching on them in the course of therapy. Hypnosis can be especially well used to address generalities that have very specific effects. In this short webinar presentation, we’ll explore this gentle style of process-oriented hypnotic intervention.
Why Study Hypnosis: Enhancing Your Clinical Practice
Hypnosis and hypnotic-like procedures have now been used for hundreds of years and yet myths and misunderstandings still seem to make therapists hesitate to add this useful modality to their skill set. This presentation will briefly review the history and myths of hypnosis and then focus on the many practical reasons to add hypnosis as an adjunctive technique in clinical practice. The data in the presentation is drawn from years of interviews with the leading figures in hypnosis who were all asked “Why study hypnosis?”
Rapid Hypnosis for Medical and Dental Encounters
Based on extensive clinical trials and clinic practice, this presentation builds on 25 years of experience with nonpharmacologic means of managing patient anxiety and pain in busy healthcare environments. It documents the effects of unaddressed anxiety on pain, the interconnected experience of the patient and dental practitioner’s stress, and the economic ramifications. It addresses how the natural upward trend of pain and anxiety during these encounters can be avoided, and the patient experience improved by slight, but reflective, changes in provider behavior and use of language. The audience will learn how to build rapport with their patients instantly, elicit positive behaviors and cooperation from them and, if needed, from accompanying individuals. Listeners will be introduced to the powers of word choice, how they can avoid the adverse effects of negative suggestions, reframe distressing thoughts, fears, and worries, and moderate the effect of painful stimuli. Rapid hypnotic techniques will be described and demonstrated with a sample script. The specifics of language providing anxiety release and relaxation in the office, as well as those needed for additional pain relief, will be discussed and supplemented with findings from a recent clinical trial at Tufts Dental School.
Assessment of Hypnotizability in Clinical Practice
Hypnotizability refers to a person’s ability to experience various aspects of hypnosis such as cognitive, experiential, behavioral, and physiological responses to hypnotic suggestion. Assessment of hypnotizabilty can provide important information regarding case conceptualization, treatment planning, and mechanisms of hypnosis interventions. In addition, assessment of hypnotizability may be a useful means of introducing hypnosis through experiential means and may have therapeutic benefits. The Elkins Hynotizability Scale (EHS) can be integrated into clinical practice and research. The clinical form (EHS-CF) takes about 20 minutes or less. It involves a hypnotic induction involving focus of attention, eye closure, and relaxation. Following deepening suggestions, items include inhibitory motor responses, facilitative motor and cognitive responses, and facilitative perceptual responses. The EHS has very good internal consistency (.85), test-retest reliability (.93), and scores highly correspond with the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale-Form C (SHSS-C). In this workshop participants will gain knowledge about hypnotizability theory and research, methods of clinical and formal assessment, and use of the EHS Clinical Form. Foundational research and implications for clinical practice will be presented. Participants will learn how to administer and score the EHS-CF and integrate into their clinical practice or research.
Creating Effective Hypnosis Interventions for Chronic Physical Symptoms
Chronic physical symptoms that have already proven unresponsive to the usual medical treatment methods can present formidable challenges in healthcare. Clinical hypnosis offers unique techniques for addressing medically unresponsive symptoms, but for the best effects the clinician often has to apply treatment differently for those problems than in other therapeutic applications of hypnosis. In this webinar, Dr. Palsson will provide participants with a detailed overview of a specific structure and set of essential elements in hypnosis treatment that together produce high probability of improvement in chronic and stubborn physical symptoms. The success of this approach has been empirically demonstrated in published research on GI disorders, including IBS, functional abdominal pain, inflammatory bowel disease, and esophageal disorders, but the same framework is equally useful for creating successful hypnosis treatment for other chronic health problems, such as migraine and fibromyalgia. This includes the approach to the chronic medical patient, formulating the hypnosis sessions to contain key principles that maximize therapeutic impact, and crafting suggestions and metaphors that effectively target psychological and physiological processes that influence body symptoms.
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.
Suggestion vs Medication in the Treatment of Depression
Antidepressants are supposed to work by fixing a chemical imbalance. However, analyses of the published and the unpublished data that were hidden by the drug companies reveal that most (if not all) of the benefits are due to the placebo effect, and the difference in improvement between drug and placebo is not clinically meaningful. This conclusion has been replicated in a new patient-level analysis, co-authored by officials at the FDA, of all the antidepressant data sent to them by the pharmaceutical companies between 1979 and 2016 (73,388 patients in 232 clinical trials). Other treatments (e.g., psychotherapy and physical exercise) produce the same short-term benefits as antidepressants, show better long-term effectiveness, and do so without the side effects and health risks of the drugs, and hypnosis increase the effectiveness of psychotherapy. Instead of curing depression, popular antidepressants may produce a placebo effect at the cost of inducing a biological vulnerability making people more likely to relapse.
The Magic Glove In Its Many Forms
Glove anesthesia has a long tradition as a hypnoanalgesic technique to reduce pain and anxiety in anticipation of and during medical procedures. Adapted to Pediatrics over 30 years ago, it became “The Magic Glove.” This child-friendly procedure invites imaginative absorption with repeated stroking the back of the hand combined with specific hypnotic suggestions for sensory changes and increased comfort. This presentation will show videos and explore the wide range of applications for the Magic Glove: as an Induction, for Flu/Covid Vaccinations, for analgesia at the dentist, drawing blood, accessing IVs, in-dwelling ports, or lines, and for empowering patients and their parents.
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.
Complex Inductions Made Easy: Neurophysiology, Social Psychology and Dissociation
This webinar will focus on training clinicians in advanced concepts of hypnosis. Although the training will be advanced, the content level will be appropriate for intermediate, or even beginning levels, based on the manner in which the material is taught. A major premise of this workshop is that hypnosis is most effective when presented in a non-linear rather than a cognitively based logical intervention. The workshop (webinar and workshop are used interchangeably) will present scientifically based principles to distill complex hypnosis into clinician friendly-heuristics for clinicians. The science is based on what is known about the neurophysiology of brain functioning during hypnosis, social psychology (including Milton Erickson’s work), and dissociation (particularly dissociated control theories). Guided by science, this workshop will present simple, understandable steps to present hypnosis in a non-linear fashion.
Why Study Hypnosis: Enhancing Your Clinical Practice
Hypnosis and hypnotic-like procedures have now been used for hundreds of years and yet myths and misunderstandings still seem to make therapists hesitate to add this useful modality to their skill set. This presentation will briefly review the history and myths of hypnosis and then focus on the many practical reasons to add hypnosis as an adjunctive technique in clinical practice. The data in the presentation is drawn from years of interviews with the leading figures in hypnosis who were all asked “Why study hypnosis?”
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.
A GPS Guide for Clinical Hypnosis Treatment Planning
What does your hypnosis treatment plan look like? Do you have one? Some clinicians tend to “wing it” or rely on scripts from clinical hypnosis textbooks for treating specific medical and psychological conditions. If you struggle with generating an individualized treatment plan that addresses your clients concerns, this webinar may offer you the guidance and information you seek through case examples as well as practice opportunities for generating a treatment plan using hypnosis. This webinar will provide pragmatic guidance for generating and implementing a therapeutic treatment plan using hypnosis. Suggestions for addressing unwanted and unexpected challenges during hypnosis sessions will also be reviewed. Based on his GPS model (Reid, 2012) for minimizing unwanted challenges during hypnosis sessions, Dr. Reid will review a number of strategic interventions through case presentations. Prior experience using hypnosis and completion of at least a Basic Hypnosis workshop is expected as this webinar will focus on generating treatment plans from case scenarios.
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.
Creating Effective Hypnosis Interventions for Chronic Physical Symptoms
Chronic physical symptoms that have already proven unresponsive to the usual medical treatment methods can present formidable challenges in healthcare. Clinical hypnosis offers unique techniques for addressing medically unresponsive symptoms, but for the best effects the clinician often has to apply treatment differently for those problems than in other therapeutic applications of hypnosis. In this webinar, Dr. Palsson will provide participants with a detailed overview of a specific structure and set of essential elements in hypnosis treatment that together produce high probability of improvement in chronic and stubborn physical symptoms. The success of this approach has been empirically demonstrated in published research on GI disorders, including IBS, functional abdominal pain, inflammatory bowel disease, and esophageal disorders, but the same framework is equally useful for creating successful hypnosis treatment for other chronic health problems, such as migraine and fibromyalgia. This includes the approach to the chronic medical patient, formulating the hypnosis sessions to contain key principles that maximize therapeutic impact, and crafting suggestions and metaphors that effectively target psychological and physiological processes that influence body symptoms.
Managing Anxiety: Cognitive, Mindfulness and Hypnotherapeutic Approaches
Anxiety destroys the normal enjoyment of life through the fear, worry, obsessive thinking and avoidant behavior that anxious people experience. Simple activities like going to the grocery store, taking a child to her first day of school, or meeting a friend for lunch trigger a barrage of frantic “what ifs.” This workshop will explore the subtleties of working with this pervasive category of disorders that affects an estimated 20% of the population. The workshop will also focus on the effect that uncontrolled anxiety has on intimate relationships. The presenter will introduce a powerful, integrative therapy model that combines CBT, Hypnosis, and Mindfulness. Using this integrative therapy model, workshop participants will learn practical interventions that are applicable to the treatment of panic, generalized anxiety disorder, phobias, social anxiety disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. A unique feature of this presentation is the four-part intervention developed by Dr. Daitch that integrates mindfulness, cognitive and hypnotic approaches. These tools work together to help clients feel more empowered when flooded with anxiety.
Pediatric Hypnosis
This workshop will introduce hypnotic approaches for many common physical, emotional and behavioral problems of childhood. Hypnosis not only gives the child a tool to better cope with or solve the problem himself, but also increases self-esteem, bolsters a sense of accomplishment and gives the child a valuable skill that he can adapt to many new situations throughout life. This workshop will also review the developmental characteristics that make children particularly hypnotizable. Dr. Thomson will define developmental tasks unique to each stage of development. When people experience adverse childhood events, developmental tasks may not be fully mastered. This can have a detrimental impact not only in childhood but in adulthood as well. The presenter will introduce hypnotic skills and techniques useful in developing effective treatment plans for engaging children to be part of the solution for medical or psychological challenges.