60th Annual Meeting

October 19 - 27, 2013

Workshop 21 (ticket)

Hypnosis as a Psychotherapeutic Facilitator

Systematic studies have established that the vast majority of children and adolescents are hypnotizable; thus, hypnosis may be a valuable therapeutic tool. It constitutes a specific and potentially powerful facilitator of therapeutic change, provided that a thorough diagnostic assessment and comprehensive treatment formulation has delineated the appropriate role that hypnosis may play in treatment. This Workshop explores the phenomenology of hypnosis as relevant to its clinical application as a facilitating resource in child and adolescent psychiatry. Essential features of hypnosis, i.e., absorption, dissociation, and suggestibility, are discussed. Also considered is transference when hypnosis is used in a clinical setting.