As some of you know, given my appearance on NSV, autism is an interest of mine since I have a diagnosis of moderate autism. Perhaps it should come as no surprise that one day I was going to write a blog post on the subject. I had a client that told me in her country autistics were not allowed to be therapists, I figured now should be the time.
Unfortunately, this is a subject where there has not been a lot of research for me to fully discuss in the best way possible. Mostly these are small studies which are little more than case studies at this point. Most of them also come from the point of view that there is something wrong with the autistic child, but since some people do have more distressing signs of autism, I can understand the need to try to alleviate symptoms.
One case study, by Mauro Cavarra et al, suggested hypnotherapy helped a young child reverse the effects of selective mutism. Within three months, the child made positive improvements in social interactions, mood and in school performance which was attributed to five hypnotherapy sessions.
In a book chapter written by Diane Yapko and published in an Italian book on hypnosis and children, Yapko suggests that one of the main benefits of hypnosis is simply the individual approach of therapists to focus on the patient’s primary needs and develop a therapeutic hypnosis treatment based on those needs, which creates an individual health care plan for the autistic child or patient. While this should be done in all therapists’ offices, it was interesting that this was only discussed in this book chapter. Of course, as hypnotherapists, we know there is more than just rapport working on a problem.
In another study, researchers looked at aspects of virtual reality hypnosis on two adolescent patients over the course of several weeks and while it did not produce any confirmed statistically significant results in alleviating autistic symptoms, researchers determined this was a unique way to help parents interact with their children in a way they didn’t have before. This interaction may prove to be beneficial in the longer term. The researchers suggested hypnotherapy may need to be considered more fully in the future.
Thanks to the wide variety of interest from researchers, therapist and Autism patients alike, more and more research is being conducted on a daily basis and the field of study continues to grow larger and larger. Because of this, researchers are able to continue to gather interesting data and discover what works and what doesn’t work in regards to hypnotherapy for autism. The minuscule amounts of research done this far suggest that hypnotherapy may be a plausible and effective treatment for certain symptoms of autism. Of course, more research still needs to be done.
Works Cited
Cavarra, M., Brizio, A., & Gava, N. (2006). Ericksonian hypnotherapy for selective mutism: a singlecase study.Acta Biomed 2,87(3), 299-309.
Austin, D. W., Abbott, J. M., & Carbis, C. (2008). THE USE OF VIRTUAL REALITY HYPNOSIS WITH TWO CASES OF AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER: A FEASIBILITY STUDY. Contemporary Hypnosis, 25(2), 102-109. doi:10.1002/ch.349.
Yapko, D. (2009). Working Hypnotically with Children on the Autism Spectrum. InL’ipnosi con I bambini e gli adolescenti(pp. 1-27). Italy: FrancoAngeli.
Melvin S. Marsh is a certified hypnotherapist serving Atlanta GA, Aiken SC, Augusta GA, Blairsville GA, and Cary NC. He performs hypnotherapy appointments both in person and worldwide virtually. He can be reached at www.afterhourshypnotherapy.com .
