Treating Depression with Hypnosis: Integrating Cognitive-Behavioral and Strategic Approaches

by Michael D. Yapko

Book Overview

Depression is a debilitating human condition and a common cause of suffering worldwide. This elicits a sense of urgency for mental health professionals to meet this challenge of the treatment of depression. Hypnosis plays a vital role in that treatment and in the efficacy of psychotherapy.

This book focuses on the structuring and delivering of hypnotic interventions for major depression, with a substantial use of concepts and techniques from...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1583913041
• ISBN13: 9781583913048
• Release Date: May 2001
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 202 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.9" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Awesome Information for Mental Health Professionals

I am so pleased that this was my introduction to Michael Yapko. (He does not encourage therapists to have their clients beat chairs as a previous reviewer stated). As a Program Manager for an Outpatient, Non-Profit, County sub-contracted, Mental Health Clinic for adults with chronic mental health issues, (and certified in hypnotherapy), I and my treatment team assist a lot of individuals with depression or co-morbid depression. Being a non-profit organization, I often have to hire clinicians who are not fully versed in psychotherapeutic theory or technique. I found this book to be an invaluable tool in helping them learn effective cognitive, behavioral and strategic interventions in treating depression and the theory behind these interventions. The reader does not have to know or even use hypnosis as a tool in therapy in order to learn these effective interventions for treating depression. Additionally, I appreciated the questioning of the effectiveness in treating depression with psychopharmacology, without adjunctive cognitive and emotional restructuring. A brief but succinct exploration of the psycho-social etiology of depression was also a welcomed feature to this book. All-in-all a very thorough and in-depth explanation on the causes of depression and how to effectively understand and intervene therapeutically, in treating it.

A Valuable Resource for Mental Health Therapists

This book is a follow-up to Dr. Michael Yapko's original text, Hypnosis and the Treatment of Depressions. It further expands and refines his ideas, presenting a theoretically sound approach for utilizing hypnosis as a vehicle for the delivery of well-researched treatments for depression, including Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and Interpersonal Psychotherapy. I found this book to be a valuable resource, full of relevant information presented in a concise and coherent manner, and easy to read. It reviews what is known about depression, discusses hypnosis and its clinical applications, and examines how to engage clients hypnotically while addressing issues that often contribute to depression. Such issues include client attributional styles, ambiguity, negative expectations, perceptions of controllability, and coping styles. The book also includes two-column transcripts of actual therapy sessions, wherein session content is presented side-by-side with explanatory commentary and analysis. Studying these sessions enhanced my understanding of the ideas presented in this book. This book is most helpful for readers who already have clinical training and experience in both psychotherapy and hypnosis. As a Psychotherapist (Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist), and a member of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, I consider this book to be essential reading for therapists working hypnotically with depression, along with other texts by Dr. Yapko, specifically Trancework and Hypnosis and the Treatment of Depressions.

A helpful clinical guide

This is a readable book on using hypnosis as an adjunct to cognitive, behavioral, or interpersonal therapy of depression. The author's views are sensible, balanced, and clinically relevant. He references the clinical and research literature to butress his arguments. The book is a bit skimpy for the price. The author refers the reader to his other books, CDs, and tapes for futher information, making this a bit like an infomercial. In addition, the author sometimes sets up a straw man to make his points. For example, he writes about therapists who tell their clients to "get their anger out" by pounding a chair with a bat. This example sounds like a caricature of therapy and I can't believe anyone but the most incompetent novice therapist would take such a stance -- but living on the East Coast, I may be ignorant of how therapy is practiced in California where the author resides. Nonetheless, the book contains valuable insights for clinicians who treat depression. It is also one of the few books that deals with the use of hypnosis in depression, which used to be a strict "no-no" according to traditional schools of hypnosis. In that sense this book is a breath of fresh air in the often dogmatic and opinionated world of hypnosis.