Acupuncture and hypnotic suggestions in the treatment of non-organic male sexual dysfunction.

Hypnosis was shown to be superior to placebo.

Published: Scand J Urol Nephrol. 1997 Jun;31

PubMed ID: 9249892

Efficacy of testosterone, trazodone and hypnotic suggestion in the treatment of non-organic male sexual dysfunction.

Hypnosis was the only treatment method identified as being superior to placebo.

Published: Br J Urol. 1996 Feb;77(2):256-60

PubMed ID: 8800895

Of 79 men in whom clinical and laboratory examinations revealed no organic cause for their impotence; 20 men received testosterone, 21 received trazodone, 20 underwent hypnosis and 18 served as placebo controls. They were assessed by interview 4, 6 and 8 weeks after starting treatment: the patient’s reports were verified by interviewing their partners. Placebo men had a 39% improvement in sexual function v. rates of improvement in the testosterone, trazodone and hypnosis groups of 60%, 67% and 80%, respectively, none of which reached significance.

Aydin S et al. Efficacy of testosterone, trazodone and hypnotic suggestion in the treatment of non-organic male sexual dysfunction. Br J Urol 1996 Feb; 77(2):256-60

On a scale of 0-10 where 10 means the hardest possible erection, he would typically get a 1.5, i.e. not the greatest working efficacy.

Brian had tried the little blue pill, but it didn’t work very well either. He had got to only 4 out of 10. As a result he had just had a handful of sexual partners in his life.

Recently things looked even more bleak. He was seeing someone at the time he called me, and it had never “worked”, ending them as both very frustrated. That is when he came to see me.

Here’s a reproduction of the email he sent me, with his “feedback form” attached to it.

Email (only excerpts with name changed obivoulsy) :

Hi David,

How are you? Sorry for the delay in getting back to you; it took me a while to find a suitable guinea pig

SUCCESS! All is in working order and performing as desired! Definitely a 10 on the ‘scale’. I awoke with a big smile on my face! Haha. Thanks so much for the help; please see the attached feed back form.

Once again, mille fois merci! I’ll definitely consider your sessions again for any other major worries.

All the best,

Brian

Feedback form:

Hi David,

Over the five sessions, hypnotherapy helped me a great deal to get to the cause and ultimately the solution to overcome feelings of sexual anxiety I had been experiencing.

Having had an interest and intrigue into hypnotherapy, the sessions confirmed my belief in its effectiveness, ease and getting to the root of an issue. I found the five sessions extremely eye-opening, positive and helped me to identify where my issue was coming from.

Each consultation went surprisingly quickly and I was always surprised of how much we had got through. I would definitely use hypnotherapy again and suggest it to others as a ‘cure’ to worry and anxiety and also to boost general confidence.

Many thanks David!

Brian

A case like this is always very exciting for the analytical hypnotherapist that I am. First, it is very exciting to put on your “hypnotic” Sherlock Holmes hat and embark on an investigation to trace the root of the problem. You know you’ll find something “juicy” (or rather “fishy” in that case) but you have no idea of what the road will look like along the way.

Second, you know the results will be dramatic once the work is completed. And there’s no better reward when you work in hypnotherapy than an amazed and grateful look in your client’s eyes.

Here’s what he had to say about his course of hypnotherapy when we were finished with the treatment, which by the way took only 2 sessions.

“Hello David,

I would first like to thank you for what you have done for me. I doubt that you can fully realise how much it means to me. I will now write a small bit about what has happened:

I have had a phobia about eating fish from since I was about five years old until a week ago. That is sixty years of not being able to put fish on my plate without feeling a terrible revulsion. I would not touch food that had touched fish in any way. It really did make me feel sick.

People have tried hiding fish which they would call “not very fishy at all”, but I would always find it and thereafter reject the food completely. All this until a week ago when in one hypnotherapy session, David has been able to eliminate what was a very detrimental phobia.

He did this by taking me back to an instance when I could recall a fish-related episode when I was five years old where it seemed as though I had choked on a fish bone. He found out that after this episode I didn’t “like” fish, but also found out that there had been a previous episode of the same type a year earlier. At this point I did like fish (before the choking episode). David helped me clear the fear associated with fish bones both arising from the first episode and the second.

After this I could reply that I liked fish, and was made to visualise myself eating fish with enjoyment. And a couple of days after this session, I did eat fish for the first time in sixty years! I cannot say that it was a completely enjoyable experience, but was certainly not filled with the dread I used to feel previously!

I just need some time now to get more used to eating it and slowly acquire a taste for it. I am sure this will come in the end. I have been instructed in ways to facilitate my eating of fish in the future, and I am confident that this will succeed completely in the end.

It is hard to believe that something which was so strong in me has been eliminated! I have tasted small bits of fish on a couple of occasions since, without any bad feeling or revulsion!

Thank you once again.”

Paul S.

A phobia is defined as the fear of a specific object or situation, driving you to avoid that particular object or situation. It can cause you a great deal of suffering, regardless of how irrational the fear may be. It can interfere with your daily life, your work or relationships. Additionally, being exposed to the feared object or situation can trigger a panic reaction.

Some common fears are the following:
- Fear of heights
- Fear of flying
- Fear of lifts
- Fear of doctors or dentists
- Social phobia

Where do phobias come from?

Phobias originate from three main causes.
- Childhood fears that have persisted into adulthood
- Traumatic event, such as an accident, a natural disaster
- “Caught” phobias, such as when a child “inherits” the phobia of a parent

How can hypnotherapy help you overcome a phobia?

Hypnotherapy has long been considered the treatment of choice for the resolution of phobias. It enables us to delve into the subconscious in order to uncover the original cause of this deep seated-fear. The exaggerated fearful response can then be corrected and modified, so that the panic feelings may be replaced by pleasant ones.

The treatment generally requires an average of 5 weekly sessions.

For more information or to book an appointment, call 658 114 222 if you are in Barcelona or, if you are in London, email me at info@hipnoterapia.org

“I decided to have hypnotherapy sessions with David because I was very afraid of flying, to the point of having panic attacks. My worst fear was of not being able to control these panic attacks during the flight.

Whenever I had to fly, I would have to take tranquillisers, mixing them with alcohol. When my family and I flew to the Caribbean last winter, I ended up taking too many pills. As a result, I was a mess during the flight and felt groggy for days afterwards. That was the last straw: I realised I could no longer cope with being like this. I asked my husband to find a solution for me and he found David.

The hypnotherapy sessions with David were very pleasant. Whenever I left his office, I felt great, calm and relaxed. Gradually I became more and more confident with the idea of flying. I could not wait to put our work to the test, and the day came when I had to fly, on my own, to Sweden to visit my parents.

I could feel that things were different right from the start: As I was standing in the queue for boarding, I was focussing on getting relaxed, not on being worried. As I sat on the plane, once in a while I would use the relaxation trigger that David taught me. I still can’t believe how easy it was for me to get into that deep relaxed state.

The plane was full of families with small children, but that did not bother me. I remained calm and relaxed throughout the flight.

When the plane landed, I felt so proud of myself: I had done it! Besides, it was such a good feeling getting off the plane and not feeling groggy because of the mixture of alcohol and pills. Not to mention waking up the next morning without the heavy head!

The night before the return flight, I saw on television a news report of an air crash. Then again, my reaction was different: I simply changed the channel, and did not give it another thought.

On the flight back, all the seats were taken and I had to sit by a window, something I would never have dared to do before. As it turns out, I looked down the whole time, and enjoyed it immensely: flying over Sweden was so beautiful!

When I got home, my husband was stunned. I had flown, without taking pills, and feeling great! I had got rid of one of my demons! I felt so proud of myself. I was — and I still am — amazed. I would never have believed the hypnotherapy would work so well.”

Marie McLeish

This client, in his early thirties, came to see me for hypnotherapy at my Barcelona office because he wanted to “remove his anxieties around sex.” For the past 10 years he had been nervous around sex, and he was experiencing “intermittent” impotence with his current partner, which was affecting the relationship.

He had tried Viagra, but he felt it was reinforcing the problem. Besides, the little blue pills did not stop him from being “still scared or nervous about trying any new or varied positions.” It was very important to him that he became sexually confident and durable erection, as his partner was quite creative in sex and he found it very intimidating.

We worked together for five sessions. Improvement was gradual and he reported gleefully having strong and durable erection while trying new positions. He was very happy when telling me that his partner had remarked that the hypnosis was extremely effective !

Here’s what he had to say at the end of the course of therapy (name withheld for privacy reasons).

“I really found the hypnosis sessions helpful. After the suggested five session course I feel more confident, refreshed and at ease with myself. The environment was conducive to excellent results, which were also the product of a professional programme. I would recommend hypnotherapy to anyone, having tried the technique for the first time myself.

Many thanks and best wishes for the future.”

First you need to rule out that the problem is organic. In the case of impotence, it usually means seeing a urologist. Then we have a chat on the phone to see if we can work well together. Hypnotherapy is not like going to the dentist or the hairdresser. You need to be emotionally involved in the process, so we need to be able to work well together.

The method I have developped over the years for sexual issues is usually split in 2 parts: first we neutralize any programming or past experiences which have undermined your confidence in that area. Oftentimes, but not always, the root of all of this is non-sexual, a lack of confidence programmed in much earlier, and we correct that too. Which means that you get much more than just your sexual issues, but you boost your confidence in other areas. The second part of the work consists in « installing » a positive programming, giving you suggestion and mentally rehearsing succesful sexual experience.

This takes an average of 7 sessions. Sessions are weekly and last 1h30 min. Each session is different, as we work on different aspect each time. My work incorporates NLP, EFT, traditional and ericksonian hypnotherapy. I have worked with gay men too.

There are is the “Top 3” of course: losing weight, getting fitter, stopping smoking. Or it might something more personal, like reconnecting with estranged family or lost friends, or even perhaps a major change like finding a new career path.

The problem with these resolutions is: How many of us see them through? Some research suggest that after one month, only 12% of people are still sticking to them.

One way of enhancing the likelihood that you will succeed is to write down your goals. First, writing our goals allows us to “brainstorm” and find what is really appealing to us. Second, putting them up it in a visible area of our home, like on the fridge or on the bathroom mirror, will help keep them present in our minds.

Research has shown that sharing our goals with others close to us (friends, family and work colleagues) significantly increases the likelihood to succeed. Encouragement along the way may be exactly what you need to make it work. One caveat though: smokers are usually threatened by people who want to leave their ranks and may try every trick in their bags so that you continue keeping them company, so better keeping your mouth shut on that one.

However, the easiest way is to enlist the help of your subconscious mind. This is the part of your mind where your self-image as well as all your beliefs and habits are stored.

The Subconscious is extremely powerful, and if it feels that something you are trying to do is not right (because it clashes with your self image or your current belief), it will make every attempt to stop you from doing it, no matter how much your logical mind want it.

In other words, if deep down you see yourself as a fat person, or you feel that your identity is that of a smoker, you need to change that first, otherwise your efforts will be in vain.

How do you do that?

Well, the easiest way to remove subsconsious blocks to success is hypnosis. Using hypnotherapy and NLP (neuro linguistic programming) I help my Barcelona & London clients harness the power of their subconscious minds to achieve their goals.

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND BEST WISHES FOR 2009
For information or to book a session in Barcelona or London, call +34 658 114 222

Alternatively, you can email me at info@hipnoterpia.org