International Journal of Clinical and Experimental

Hypnosis

ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/nhyp20

Evidence-Based Practice and Clinical Hypnosis

Gary Elkins

To cite this article: Gary Elkins (2022) Evidence-Based Practice and Clinical Hypnosis,
International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 70:2, 101-103, DOI:
10.1080/00207144.2022.2047006

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00207144.2022.2047006

Published online: 19 Apr 2022.

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL HYPNOSIS
2022, VOL. 70, NO. 2, 101–103
https://doi.org/10.1080/00207144.2022.2047006

EDITORIAL

Evidence-Based Practice and Clinical Hypnosis

ABSTRACT
The lead article of this issue of the International Journal of Clinical and
Experimental Hypnosis (IJCEH) is a landmark report from an interna­
tional task force that provides contemporary guidelines for evaluating
the efficacy of clinical hypnosis interventions. This is a very important
article that can inform clinical practice as well as future research.
Further, this issue of the IJCEH includes a study of the role of hypnotiz­
ability in well-being and health which has implications for positive
psychology interventions integrating clinical hypnosis. Also, another
study in this issue of the IJCEH reports the impressive results from the
one year follow-up from a randomized clinical trial of self-hypnosis and
self-care among cancer patients. The findings from these studies point
to the role of clinical hypnosis in well-being and self-care. Additional
articles provide insights from virtual reality hypnosis in pain research
and the relationship between beliefs and hypnotizability. The final
article presents new research on the feasibility of an on-line hypnosis
intervention for women with persistent pelvic pain.

Evidence-based practice is generally understood as “the integration of the best available

research with clinical expertise in the context of patient characteristics, culture, and
preferences” (American Psychological Association [APA], 2005). There are multiple
components to evidence-based practice. Clinicians must consider individual patient or
client characteristics, therapeutic relationship, and cultural factors in providing state-of
-the-art therapeutic interventions. However, evidence-based practice also rests on
a foundation of critical knowledge of the best available research. This leads to the
important question: What constitutes best research evidence in clinical hypnosis? The
lead article in this issue of the IJCEH addresses this critically important issue by
presenting the guidelines identified by the international Task Force for Establishing
Efficacy Standards for Clinical Hypnosis (Kekecs et al., 2022). The Task Force surveyed
contemporary research guidelines (Atkins et al., 2004) as well as challenges to bridging
clinical research to practice (Kazdin, 2008). It recognized the importance of clearly
defining hypnosis, hynotizability, and hypnotherapy (Elkins et al., 2015) and the need
for guidelines for evaluating existing evidence and planning future research. The result
includes 10 specific recommendations and discussion of methodological issues in the
use of these guidelines. Given the importance of this article, it has been made open
access and readers are encouraged to share this manuscript freely with colleagues,
clinicians, and researchers.
There has been increasing interest in hypnosis interventions for stress and enhancing
well-being (Slonena & Elkins, 2021). Both hypnotizability and well-being are relevant to
health care. The second article in this issue (Biscuola et al., 2022) investigates the relation­
ship between high hypnotizability and well-being and whether the latter was related to the
© 2022 International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis
102 EDITORIAL

activity of the Behavioral Inhibition/Approach System (BIS/BAS). The findings provide

potential insights into relevant functional brain characteristics, equivalence between ima­
gery and perception, and whether well-being could be a prognostic factor for positive
mental well-being and health.
Well-being can be defined in a number of ways, including effectively managing stress and
having positive coping skills. Importantly, patients diagnosed with cancer experience
particular barriers to well-being, including fatigue, sleep disturbances, and emotional
distress. Understanding the short- and long-term effects of a hypnosis intervention (com­
bining self-care and self-hypnosis) is important in posttreatment cancer patients. Ninety-
five female cancer survivors were randomized to either a hypnosis/group intervention or
wait-list control. Results showed significant decreases in fatigue, sleep difficulties, and
emotional distress postintervention for the hypnosis/group intervention in comparison to
the wait-list control (Grégoire et al., 2022). The results are encouraging, as most of the
positive effects were maintained at one year follow-up.
Virtual reality hypnosis is an emerging area of research (Patterson et al., 2010), and more
research is needed to determine the efficacy for pain reduction and well-being. In this issue,
a randomized controlled trial examined the impact of virtual reality hypnosis technology on
pain, anxiety, and opioid use in patients with a history of trauma (Wiechman et al., 2022).
This study used an early version of virtual reality technology to induce hypnosis and
provides important lessons about the challenges of implementation of this technology
and the importance of improving the approach of virtual reality technology for hypnosis
interventions in clinical practice.
Understanding individual differences and beliefs as related to hypnotizability is
another area of research that can have implications for evaluating the efficacy of hypnosis
interventions. An exploratory study is reported (Green & Hina, 2022) that investigated
the relationship among God as locus of health control, paranormal beliefs, and hypnotiz­
ability. Results suggested that God as locus of health control beliefs accounted for 26% to
30% of the variance in behavioral and subjective scores on a measure of hypnotizabilty.
Further research is needed to determine the implications of these findings for clinical
practice.
Telehealth and online hypnotherapy have become increasingly used during the
COVID-19 pandemic, as restrictions have been placed on face-to-face therapy sessions.
Research reported in this issue of the IJCEH provides relevant data on the feasibility of
an online hypnotic intervention for women with persistent pelvic pain (Brooks et al.,
2022). The intervention group received an online hypnotic intervention over
seven weeks. Results found modest compliance with the practice of audio recordings
delivered online. Comments from a limited number of participants indicated the online
delivery of the hypnosis intervention was acceptable. The results are limited but suggest
this method of delivery of a hypnosis intervention is potentially feasible; however,
further refinement and optimization are needed, as well as a large study to establish
efficacy. The guidelines from the Task Force for Establishing Efficacy Standards for
Clinical Hypnosis (Kekecs, et al., 2022) reported in this issue will be helpful in evaluat­
ing the future clinical studies of these encouraging hypnosis interventions and
applications.
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL HYPNOSIS 103

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Gary Elkins
Editor-in-Chief
International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis
Gary_Elkins@baylor.edu