The three basic reasons to learn how to use hypnosis in clinical practice are:

• First, as hypnosis is a naturally occurring normal psychological phenomenon, all of us, including people conducting psychotherapy sessions, experience it from time to time.  Some people spontaneously enter hypnosis a lot of the time. Certain situations, and attending a therapy session is one of them, tend to increase the likelihood of entering hypnosis. Therefore, as someone in the room during any given hour of clinical work may be experiencing hypnotic phenomena, it makes sense to understand them and their effects on ourselves, our clients, and the work we are doing together.

• Second, training in clinical hypnosis makes it possible to do more than understand these experiences: you can put them to work in the service of both you and your clients.  Our education section has information on training opportunities and certification.  

• Third, training in hypnosis sensitizes clinicians to the use of language, imagery, and the rhythm, timing and intonation of speech, all of which play a significant role in the therapeutic relationship for good or ill. By increasing our awareness to the subtle impact, we also increase the probability of that role being good and supporting the goals we are working on with the client to attain. 
  

* Paul Feldman, Ph.D.  This passage is taken from Paul’s article “Integrating hypnosis into the practice of psychotherapy, which has become a standard in the OSCH Basic Course in Clinical Hypnosis.  For the complete article.