http://aecollegeofhypnosis.uk/, https://linktr.ee/adameason

Anglo European College of Therapeutic Hypnosis, Bournemouth (2025)

24/10/2025

Why The Hypnotherapy Field Needs Science: A Balanced Rebuttal

Bridging the Divide Between Art, Intuition, and Evidence
I saw a couple of posts just recently stating that science has no place in the hypnosis and hypnotherapy field and why it shouldn’t play a role, and I wanted to offer a rebuttal to some of that rhetoric with a video today.

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Here are my references for those interested:

Benedetti, F. (2014). Placebo effects: Understanding the mechanisms in health and disease (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.

Jensen, M. P., Adachi, T., Tomé-Pires, C., Lee, J., Osman, Z. J., & Miró, J. (2015). Mechanisms of hypnosis: Toward the development of a biopsychosocial model. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 63(1), 34–75. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207144.2014.961875

Jiang, H., White, M. P., Greicius, M. D., & Raz, A. (2017). Neural correlates of the hypnotic state and suggestibility: A meta-analytic study. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 81, 75–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2017.02.014

Kirsch, I. (1997). Response expectancy theory and application: A decennial review. Applied and Preventive Psychology, 6(2), 69–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0962-1849(05)80012-5

Landry, M., Lifsh*tz, M., & Raz, A. (2017). Brain correlates of hypnosis: A systematic review and meta-analytic exploration. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 81, 75–98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2017.02.010

Lynn, S. J., Kirsch, I., Knox, J., Fassler, O., & Lilienfeld, S. O. (2021). Hypnosis and science: Theoretical, empirical, and clinical perspectives. American Psychologist, 76(7), 1062–1077. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000868

23/10/2025

Evidence based hypnosis meme of the week.

A 2024 review of the evidence suggests that hypnosis and hypnotherapy are effective in treating anxiety and may positively affect the heart and the cardiovascular system, reducing sympathetic activation and increasingparasympathetic tone, potentially preventing the onset of CVD related to increased sympathetic activation.. (Leo, Keller & Proietti, 2024)

Link to PDF of full review posted in my college Facebook group.

23/10/2025

Latest article:
How to Reduce Screen Anxiety and Feel Calmer Around Devices

It seems the need to reduce screen anxiety is increasing. Screens are everywhere in our lives these days: phones, tablets, laptops, TVs, smartwatches. For most of us they’re incredibly useful, but for a growing number of people screens are also a source of worry, tension and constant low-grade anxiety — a state I’ll call screen anxiety.

Today then, I'm explaining what screen anxiety is, why it matters for mental health, and am offering up a bunch of practical, psychology-backed ways to reduce it. Each strategy is evidence based and written for people who want concrete, everyday actions to feel calmer and happier in a highly connected world.

What is “screen anxiety”?
“Screen anxiety” is an umbrella term that describes the feelings of worry, unease, fear of missing out (FOMO), panic about being disconnected, social comparison, and physiological stress that can come with digital device use.

Link to full article and references is in the comments.

03/10/2025

This randomised, controlled trial (RCT) examined the impact of clinical hypnosis compared to usual treatment, pre- and post-surgery, on opioid consumption during hospitalisation as well as other measures among participants awaiting oncologic surgery.

Results indicated a significant opioid sparing effect of clinical hypnosis during the acute postoperative period. Hypnosis also protected against increases in pain catastrophising at one-week after surgery.

A perioperative clinical hypnosis intervention also had a sparing effect on opioid consumption in-hospital after major oncologic surgery.

Authors concluded that these findings extend the efficacy of clinical hypnosis as an adjunct tool for perioperative pain management (Rosenbloom et al., 2024).

Link to PDF of full study posted in my college Facebook group.

01/10/2025

Latest article: How to Strengthen Your Resolve

Strengthen your resolve, that is the topic today, it's a 'how-to' for building mental muscle that can lead to a happier life.

I recently ran an online course about Acceptance and Commitment Therapy that included guidance on how to live a meaningful life according to your values. That requires resolve — the quiet, steady intention to act in line with what matters to you — and is one of the more useful psychological skills for wellbeing.

When life is busy, uncertain or emotionally draining, a well-tempered resolve helps you keep going with choices that improve your mood, health and relationships. My aim here today is to explain why it matters to strengthen your resolve, explain the science that supports the practical techniques I'm sharing, and offer up a bunch of evidence-based ways (with steps you can use today) to increase your ability to stick with what matters.

Link to full article in the comments.

30/09/2025

In this clip, I quote from the book of Meditations by Emperor Marcus Aurelius; "Survey the circling stars, as though you yourself were in mid-course with them [...]. Visions of this kind purge away the impurities of our earthbound life." (7:47)

I run a group meditation in class that is entitled 'The View From Above' whereby you engage your imagination and step outside of yourself and your usual life, it is a powerful form of visual dissociation. Within the process, you continue stepping back until you can imagine yourself floating above the world and seeing your life below from the position of the sky and then space. This visual form of dissociation allows the individual to see their life from a much broader perspective, and without the usual baggage that is typically carried around.

The main aim is to create a sense of perspective, a sense of mental calmness and a renewed sense of direction where possible and hypnotherapists can utilise a wide range of similar processes offering up ways to achieve these aims.

29/09/2025

In this snippet from a recent webinar series about the neuroscience of psychotherapy and hypnotherapy, I make the point that our more cognitive type of approaches may not be effective and may even cause our client problems if the amygdala is activated and therefore the required logical, rational thinking parts of the upper brain are less accessible.

When the amygdala activates, it sends strong signals to the upper areas of the brain, to actually shut them down. The amygdala hijacks the brain. We will want to help regulate the amygdala before we start working on the more cerebral type of therapeutic approaches.

26/09/2025

Evidence based hypnosis meme of the week.
Self-hypnosis training represents a rapid, cost-effective, nonaddictive and safe alternative to medication for the treatment of anxiety-related conditions. Here we provide a review of the experimental literature on the use of self-hypnosis in the treatment of anxiety and stress-related disorders, including anxiety associated with cancer, surgery, burns and medical/dental procedures. An overview of research is also provided with regard to self-hypnotic treatment of anxiety-related disorders, such as tension headaches, migraines and irritable bowel syndrome. The tremendous volume of research provides compelling evidence that hypnosis is an efficacious treatment for state anxiety (e.g., prior to tests, surgery and medical procedures) and anxiety-related disorders, such as headaches and irritable bowel syndrome. (Hammond, 2010).

Link to PDF of full study posted in my college Facebook group.

26/09/2025

Latest article: How to use neuroscience to create more innovation in your life:

This article today is all about how to create more innovation, according to neuroscience. To be clear, innovation is the ability to generate novel, useful ideas and ideally then turn them into action — is not necessarily some magical, innate gift bestowed upon just a few “creative types”. Rather, it can be seen as a set of cognitive skills and brain states that can be learned, practised and developed. Modern neuroscience offers insight into this and gives us practical, evidence-based levers you can pull to think more creatively, solve problems differently and feel better as a result.

Here today then, I'm going to explain why certain practices help (short, accessible neuroscience), offer up evidence for each one, and offer up some actionable steps you can implement right away. I also want to highlight the psychological and wellbeing benefits of becoming more innovative, because it can be really good for us to do so.

“Creativity is just connecting things.” — Steve Jobs
“Every act of creation is first an act of destruction.” — Pablo Picasso

I really like these two quotes. Both of which capture a couple of truths that neuroscience supports: creative thinking stitches together distant ideas, and it often requires letting go of old patterns. Below are practical, science-backed ways to encourage those processes...

Link to full article is in the comments.

10/09/2025

Evidence based hypnosis meme of the week.

This randomised controlled trial aimed to determine how hypnotherapy treatment of urgency urinary incontinence compared with pharmacotherapy using functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Scans were obtained pretreatment and 8 to 12 weeks after treatment initiation. Brain activation during bladder filling and resting functional connectivity with an empty and partially filled bladder were assessed.

After treatment, participants in both groups demonstrated marked improvement in incontinence episodes.

Successful treatment of urgency urinary incontinence with both pharmacotherapy and hypnotherapy. Results suggest hypnotherapy can be a useful tool in the treatment of urinary incontinence and potentially an alternative or adjunct to pharmacotherapy (Ketai et al., 2021).

Link to full study posted in my college Facebook group.

09/09/2025

How to Use Personality Neuroscience to Be Happier

In recent years, the field of psychology has witnessed the rise of personality neuroscience — a fascinating field that explores how brain structures, networks, and neurochemical systems shape individual differences in personality traits, behaviour, and emotional experience (Canli, 2006; DeYoung, 2010). This is naturally of great interest to me as a clinician and a trainer and educator of approaches to mental well-being. While personality has traditionally been studied through questionnaires and behavioural observation, personality neuroscience digs deeper to examine how biological processes influence who we are, and crucially; how we can harness this knowledge to improve our lives. That is, how can we practically apply the theory to become happier in our daily lives?

Happiness, long considered the ultimate goal of human life, is not evenly distributed. Some people seem naturally more optimistic and resilient, while others are more prone to anxiety or self-criticism. Personality neuroscience aims to help explain why this is the case and, importantly, how we can work with rather than against our personality biology to cultivate greater well-being.

Here today then, I'm exploring and sharing a range of evidence-based strategies that anyone can apply to use personality neuroscience to be happier, drawing on research into the brain, personality traits, and emotional regulation. Importantly, my aim is to focus on practical steps you can take in everyday life, supported by research and science.

Link to full article in the comments.

27/08/2025

Evidence based hypnosis meme of the week.

This study examined the effects of hypnosis on flow states and golf-putting performance in a small group of competitive players. The investigation utilised an ideographic single- subject multiple baseline across subjects design combined with a procedure that monitors the internal experience of the participants (Wollman, 1986). The method of intervention utilised in this study involved hypnotic induction, hypnotic regression, and trigger control procedures.

The results indicated that all participants increased both their mean golf putting performance and their mean flow scores from baseline to intervention.

Additionally, each participant indicated that they had felt the intervention was useful in keeping them relaxed, confident, and focused. Some of the golfers also reported experiencing reduced concerns about performing and more control over their putting stroke. (Pates, Oliver and Maynard, 2001)

Link to full PDF of study posted in my college Facebook group.

Anglo European College of Therapeutic Hypnosis

24/10/2025

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30/09/2025

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27/08/2025

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