Exploring the Synergy: When Hypnosis Meets Virtual Reality
Presented by Audrey Vanhaudenhuyse, PhD, David R Patterson PhD, ABPP, and Floriane Rousseaux, PhD
Friday, January 24, 2025
9am-10:30am PT / 11am-12:30pm CT / 12pm-1:30pm ET
Event held online via Zoom, link to access provided upon registration.
When used separately, virtual reality (VR) and hypnosis have the potential to reduce pain across various acute and chronic conditions. While their combination is increasingly used in medical fields, scientific knowledge remains relatively new. This webinar outlines a collaborative presentation between researchers from Belgium, Canada and the United States focused on the innovative synergy between hypnosis and virtual reality (named virtual reality hypnosis, VRH). This approach for delivering hypnosis through virtual reality environment is known to decrease acute pain and anxiety in healthy volunteers and patients. However, the mechanisms of VRH are still poorly understood.
The speakers contributed to the development of rigorous paradigms combining neurophysiological, phenomenological and clinical variables in order to better clarify the processes underlying VRH, as well as its clinical interest in different medical fields. Furthermore, the authors are also interested in how VRH is practically implemented in various hospital settings, such as intensive care units and oncology departments. First results regarding users’ opinions will be presented.
Zoom link will be available on course page in “My Courses” upon event registration.
This program, when attended in its entirety, offers 1.5 CEs for Psychologists, 1.5 IL CEUS for Counselors and Social Workers, or 1.5 BBS California CEUs for LPCCs, LPSW, and LMFTs.
When used separately, virtual reality (VR) and hypnosis have the potential to reduce pain across various acute and chronic conditions. While their combination is increasingly used in medical fields, scientific knowledge remains relatively new. This webinar outlines a collaborative presentation between researchers from Belgium, Canada and the United States focused on the innovative synergy between hypnosis and virtual reality (named virtual reality hypnosis, VRH). This approach for delivering hypnosis through virtual reality environment is known to decrease acute pain and anxiety in healthy volunteers and patients. However, the mechanisms of VRH are still poorly understood.
The speakers contributed to the development of rigorous paradigms combining neurophysiological, phenomenological and clinical variables in order to better clarify the processes underlying VRH, as well as its clinical interest in different medical fields. Furthermore, the authors are also interested in how VRH is practically implemented in various hospital settings, such as intensive care units and oncology departments. First results regarding users’ opinions will be presented.
After attending this intermediate-level program, participants will be able to:
- Explain the use of virtual reality in hypnosis.
- Identify the clinical interest for Virtual Reality Hypnosis in multiple fields.
- Discuss research related to the clinical use of virtual reality.
This program meets APA’s continuing education STANDARD 1.3: Program content focuses on topics related to psychological practice, education, or research other than application of psychological assessment and/or intervention methods that are supported by contemporary scholarship grounded in established research procedures.
This program meets APA’s continuing education GOAL 1: Program is relevant to psychological practice, education, and/or science.
General Admission: $65.00
SCEH Members: $55.00*
Students: $15.00*
(*Please email [email protected] for coupon code)
Refund Policy: 100% of tuition is refundable up to 48 hours before the program. Within 48 hours of the program, and at any point in Homestudy format, tuition is nonrefundable.
Audrey Vanhaudenhuyse, PhD; Clinical Scientist in the Algology Interdisciplinary Center of the University Hospital (CHU) of Liège, Belgium
Audrey Vanhaudenhuyse is a neuropsychologist, with a PhD in Medical Sciences. During her PhD and Post-Doctoral studies at the University of Liege (Liege, Belgium), she elaborated behavioral and neuroimaging studies in patients with disorders of consciousness following severe brain injury. Since 2013, she has worked as clinical scientist in the Algology Interdisciplinary Center of the University Hospital (CHU) of Liège, and since 2016, she is also the director of the Sensation and Perception Research Group (SPRG – www.gigalsprg.uliege.be) at the GIGA Consciousness of the ULiege. She pursues the inspiring goal to develop and validate complementary approaches based on non-ordinary states of consciousness to improve the well-being of patients with pain, anxiety, emotional distress and fatigue, especially with hypnosis, virtual reality combined to hypnosis and other ways of trance state induction (e.g., cognitive trance). She is convinced that psychological support promoting autonomy and self-care is essential for patients (e.g., cancer, chronic pain, intensive care patients, burned patients, etc.). Her objective is to perform translational research that helps to better understand the mechanisms underlying non-ordinary states of consciousness (fMRI, high density EEG), and allows to improve biopsychosocial well-being by proposing non-ordinary states of consciousness as a complementary approach in patients’ clinical routine care.
David R Patterson PhD, ABPP; Emeritus Professor of Psychology in the Departments of Rehabilitation Medicine, Surgery and Psychology at the University of Washington School of Medicine
David R Patterson PhD, ABPP is an emeritus professor of psychology in the Departments of Rehabilitation Medicine, Surgery and Psychology at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Dr Patterson’s current interests are in psychological approaches to the reducing and managing pain, particularly through hypnosis, immersive virtual reality and Eastern concepts such as mindfulness and Zen Buddhism. He remains a strong advocate of providing interventions for people in pain, particularly after trauma and had conducted a number of studies using pharmacology, as well as psychological alternatives. Dr Patterson has over 200 peer-reviewed publications, chapters, monographs and book chapters in topics such as pain control and adjustment to burn injuries and trauma. He has co-directed the bioethics committee in his hospital and published in the New England Journal of Medicine on topics related to bioethics. He was funded from 1989 to 2020 by the National Institutes of Health to conduct randomized controlled trials on treating burn pain and trauma pain. He has developed internship and postdoctoral training programs and has mentored hundreds of students. He has given keynote lectures and clinical workshops in dozens of countries and his work has been featured on both national and international news outlets on numerous occasions over the past 30 years. Dr Patterson’s book with Elena Mendoza entitled Clinical Hypnosis for Pain Control is in production and scheduled for release in the Fall of 2024.
Floriane Rousseaux, PhD; Post-Doctoral Fellow, Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital Research Center (HMR), Montreal
Floriane Rousseaux, PhD, holds a degree in work psychology and ergonomics from the University of Liège, where she completed her PhD thesis on the implementation of complementary techniques (hypnosis and virtual reality) in hospital settings. Dr. Rousseaux has worked at Sensation and Perception Research Group of the GIGA Consciousness and the Laboratory of Cognitive Ergonomics and Work Intervention at the Faculty of Psychology, University of Liege. At the University Hospital of Liège, she collaborated closely with the intensive care unit, cardiac surgery department, burn unit, and Algology Interdisciplinary Center. Dr. Rousseaux is currently in Montreal for a postdoctoral fellowship focused on the use and effectiveness of virtual reality hypnosis in hemato-oncology at the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital Research Center (HMR). She is also involved in a project aimed at developing and evaluating an intervention combining virtual reality hypnosis and neurofeedback for patients with chronic pain and in oncology. She collaborates with laboratories at the University of Montreal and the University of Trois-Rivières on studies related to pain and hypnosis.
Carella, M., Beck, F., Quoilin, C., Azongmo, M. M., Loheac, A., Bonhomme, V. L., & Vanhaudenhuyse, A. (2024). Effect of virtual reality hypnosis on intraoperative sedation needs and functional recovery in knee arthroplasty: a prospective randomized clinical trial. Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine, rapm-2023-105261. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1136/rapm-2023-105261
Louras, Vanhaudenhuyse, A., Panda, R., Rousseaux, F., Carella, M., Gosseries, Bonhomme, Faymonville, M., & Bicego, A. (in press). Virtual reality combined with mind-body therapies for the management of pain: A scoping review. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis.
Rousseaux, F., Panda, R., Toussaint, C., Bicego, A., Niimi, M., Faymonville, M. E., Nyssen, A. S., Laureys, S., Gosseries, O., & Vanhaudenhuyse, A. (2023). Virtual reality hypnosis in the management of pain: Self-reported and neurophysiological measures in healthy subjects. European Journal of Pain (London, England), 27(1), 148–162. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejp.2045
Wiechman, S. A., Jensen, M. P., Sharar, S. R., Barber, J. K., Soltani, M., & Patterson, D. R. (2022). The Impact of Virtual Reality Hypnosis on Pain and Anxiety Caused by Trauma: Lessons Learned from a Clinical Trial. The International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 70(2), 156–173. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207144.2022.2052296
Target Audience: Healthcare professionals, mental health professionals, hypnosis practitioners, researchers, students.
Psychologists. This program, when attended in its entirety, is available for 1.5 continuing education credits. The Chicago School of Professional Psychology is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Chicago School of Professional Psychology maintains responsibility for this program and its content. The Chicago School of Professional Psychology is committed to accessibility and non-discrimination in its continuing education activities. The Chicago School of Professional Psychology is also committed to conducting all activities in conformity with the American Psychological Association’s Ethical Principles for Psychologists. Participants are asked to be aware of the need for privacy and confidentiality throughout the program. If program content becomes stressful, participants are encouraged to process these feelings during discussion periods.
Counselors/Clinical Counselors. This program, when attended in its entirety, is available 1.5 hours of continuing education. The Chicago School of Professional Psychology is licensed by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) to provide continuing education programming for counselors and clinical counselors. License Number: 197.000159
Social Workers. This program, when attended in its entirety, is available for 1.5 hours of continuing education. The Chicago School of Professional Psychology is licensed by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) to provide continuing education programming for social workers. License Number: 159.001036
MFTs, LPCCs, and LCSWs. Course meets the qualifications for 1.5 hour of continuing education credit for MFTs, LPCCs, and/or LCSWs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. If you are licensed outside of California please check with your local licensing agency to to determine if they will accept these CEUs. The Chicago School of Professional Psychology is approved by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences (BBS) to offer continuing education programming for MFTs, LPCCs, LEPs, and/or LCSWs. The Chicago School of Professional Psychology is an accredited or approved postsecondary institution that meets the requirements set forth in Sections 4980.54(f)(1), 4989.34, 4996.22(d)(1), or 4999.76(d) of the Code.
Non-Psychologists. Most licensing boards accept Continuing Education Credits sponsored by the American Psychological Association but non-psychologists are recommended to consult with their specific state-licensing board to ensure that APA-sponsored CE is acceptable.
*Participants must attend 100% of the program in order to obtain a Certificate of Attendance.
If participants have special needs, we will attempt to accommodate them. Please address questions, concerns and any complaints to [email protected]. There is no commercial support for this program nor are there any relationships between the CE Sponsor, presenting organization, presenter, program content, research, grants, or other funding that could reasonably be construed as conflicts of interest.