RELAXATION, HYPNOSIS, AND MEDITATION THERAPISTS

Relaxation training, hypnosis, and meditation all seek to bring about a deep sense of relaxation in a person. We will examine each in greater detail later; a short overview of these approaches is given here.

RELAXATION TRAINING

Relaxation training involves exercises that enable a person to learn to induce at will a state of physical and mental calm. Relaxation training is a practical skill—it can be very effective and useful in coping with stressful situations.

Like any learned skill, control comes only with practice, usually over a period of several months. Many social workers and psychologists teach clients relaxation techniques. Certification standards specifically for relaxation training have not been established.

HYPNOSIS

Hypnosis involves two stages:

(1) progressive, deep relaxation to a point at which an individual is in a peaceful, trancelike state, still self-aware but profoundly relaxed

(2) suggestion, which persuades the person to adopt certain future attitudes, thoughts, or behavior.

Hypnosis, like relaxation training, can be learned. Most people treated by means of hypnosis steadily improve in their ability to be hypnotized so that they can more effectively allow themselves to be influenced by means of carefully planned suggestions. Many psychologists and psychiatrists make use of hypnosis in the context of therapy; some practitioners treat patients exclusively by means of hypnosis.

The certification of therapists trained in hypnosis is still unsettled in many states, where anyone can hang out a shingle. Since many licensed psychologists and psychiatrists and some certified social workers do receive professional training in hypnosis, these are the professions to which it is most reliable to go for hypnotherapy.

MEDITATION

Meditation is still a “fringe” therapy. Techniques of meditation tend seldom to be taught to clients in psychotherapy, although there is a growing body of evidence that meditation is able to bring about great resistance to stress, an increased sense of inner calm, and even actual changes in brain-wave patterns associated with deep relaxation. These effects of meditation are now being studied, with encouraging results.

The practice of meditation is, in the author’s view, at present best learned on one’s own, although some commercial organizations provide instruction. A later chapter discusses approaches to meditation and suggests some of the ways meditation can be of value.

HOLISTIC THERAPIES: BIOENERGETICS, YOGA, AND EXERCISE

Holism views man as a unity of body and mind. The established approaches to therapy and counseling, represented by social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, and to a certain extent by some religious professionals, all focus attention on our mental-psychological dimension. Similarly, biofeedback, hypnosis, and meditation emphasize the central role of mental control.

Holistic approaches, on the other hand, attempt to bring about positive change by means of emphasis on physical factors that are believed to have a close connection to mental processes. Although holism sees human beings as integral organisms, holistic approaches are inclined to have this physical focus.

Holistic therapies, like meditation, are “fringe” therapies. They are not generally employed by members of the “authorized” community of health practitioners, for two reasons:

• First, a kind of professional respectability and elitism have come to be associated with the psychological approach; social work, psychology, and psychiatry have an established place in institutions of higher learning, whereas fringe therapies do not.
• Second, since physicians treat the body, there is an institutionalized prejudice against nonmedical treatment that has the same focus.

Chiropractic has encountered this problem, as have other forms of holism, such as bioenergetics, yoga, diet therapy, and rolfing.

Although much of value may be offered by these fringe therapies, they have also resulted in abuse to consumers. Because of a general absence of licensing standards and of scientific credibility, people frequently are drawn in by the sometimes extravagant promises of unscrupulous or overly enthusiastic fringe therapists. In this area, as in all others that affect the consumer, the proper attitude is one of healthy skepticism and restraint.

BIOENERGETICS

Of these holistic therapies, bioenergetics is perhaps considered the most respectable because it is used by some psychologists. Bioenergetics attempts to diminish an individual’s psychological defenses by means of sequences of specially designed physical exercises that, in a controlled and deliberate way, stress the person physically.

Practitioners of bioenergetics believe that physical exercises of this kind rapidly put a person in touch with buried (repressed) feelings and speed up the process of inner integration that all holistic practices, as well as traditional therapy, wish to achieve.

YOGA

Yoga exists in various forms. The two main varieties are hatha yoga and raja yoga. Hatha yoga emphasizes physical flexibility; raja yoga teaches breathing techniques and meditation. Hatha yoga, because of its focus on the body, belongs to the family of approaches we are considering here.

Hatha yoga practitioners believe that the physical flexibility and control that are acquired through an extended period of physical training in yoga exercise tend to influence your mental orientation. You become, in this view, more flexible, less rigid, less defensive, less subject to stress, more open, responsive, alert, and capable of warmth in human relationships.

EXERCISE THERAPY

Counselors and therapists are starting to take very seriously the idea that exercise brings emotional benefits. Exercise therapy, more so than other physically based approaches discussed in this chapter, has been tested in various ways. Many emotional conditions—for example, anxiety and depression—seem to be significantly reduced thanks to periods of sustained vigorous exercise. Tolerance to stress and to pain appears to be increased.

Physical exercise can be an outlet for pent-up hostility and aggression that, according to many theorists, may be turned inward, then fester, and eventually take the form of a variety of psychological disorders. Furthermore, vigorous, sustained aerobic exercise—like running or swimming—appears to have a calming effect as a result of certain chemical compounds that are released into the bloodstream. We will look at some of the interesting recent studies of the therapeutic value of exercise later on.