Is Hypnosis Really Effective?

My clients are always curious about the success rates that hypnotherapists can achieve, so I have prepared the following information as a general guideline to use when evaluating any hypnosis program.

Since hypnosis and hypnotherapy were accepted by the American Medical Society as a legitimate therapeutic agent in 1958, a great deal of research has been conducted on the efficiency and effectiveness of hypnosis. Several investigators during the 1970’s and 1980’s provided clinical and experimental evidence about the effectiveness of hypnosis for smoking cessation, substance abuse, weight loss, phobias, depression, and anxiety. These results were summarized by the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis as follows:

• Home Study Self-Hypnosis : 2 – 5% success rate
• Group Hypnosis Session: 2 – 5% success rate
• Single Individual Session: 17 – 20% success rate
• Three Individual Sessions: 45 – 50% success rate
• Five or More Individual Sessions: 85 – 90% success rate

The researchers also discovered that customizing and individualizing the sessions increased the effectiveness of the sessions dramatically.

In addition to these studies, Alfred A. Barrios, Ph. D., has conducted a longitudinal survey of the psychotherapeutic literature and discovered the following success rates for hypnotherapy versus therapeutic methods:

• Psychoanalysis: 38% recovery after 600 sessions
• Behavior Therapy: 72% recovery after 22 sessions
• Hypnotherapy: 93% recovery after 6 sessions

Hypnosis with multiple, individualized and tailored sessions, is probably one of the most effective ways to bring about desired changes in the least amount of time.