What Is Clinical Hypnotherapy - And Does It Actually Work?
Clinical hypnotherapy is the therapeutic use of hypnosis: a state of focused attention in which we can work with thoughts, sensations, emotions, perceptions and learned patterns in a different way from ordinary conversation alone.
And yes, hypnosis is real.
It is not mind control. You are not unconscious. You do not surrender your free will. And a hypnotherapist cannot make you reveal secrets or do something fundamentally against your values.
The American Psychological Association's Society of Psychological Hypnosis defines hypnosis as a state involving focused attention, reduced awareness of peripheral distractions and an increased capacity to respond to suggestion.
In a therapeutic setting, that focused state can be used intentionally to support changes in the way a person experiences thoughts, emotions, sensations or behaviours.
That distinction matters.
Because Clinical Hypnotherapy is not simply about making you relaxed while somebody repeats positive affirmations to you.
In my work, I am far more interested in the patterns beneath the symptom.
Why does your body react as though something is dangerous when another part of you knows that you are safe?
Why do you keep repeating a relationship pattern you consciously understand?
Why can you know that you are worthy and still feel fundamentally unworthy?
Why can you tell yourself to calm down while your body remains activated?
Why can pain continue to dominate your attention long after you have become exhausted from thinking about it?
Clinical Hypnotherapy gives us another way of working with these experiences — one that includes, but is not limited to, conscious intellectual understanding.
What is the difference between hypnosis and Clinical Hypnotherapy?
Hypnosis is the state or process. Hypnotherapy is the therapeutic use of hypnosis.
Hypnosis itself is not a treatment for everything.
It is better understood as a therapeutic tool or context in which particular interventions can be delivered.
During hypnosis, attention becomes more absorbed and deliberately focused. A therapist may then use imagery, suggestion, memory work, rehearsal, sensory changes, metaphor or other therapeutic techniques depending on the person and the goal of treatment.
This is one reason I don't think of Clinical Hypnotherapy as somebody simply "putting you under."
You are participating in the process.
Your attention matters.
Your imagination matters.
Your expectations matter.
Your existing associations and learning matter.
And the quality of the therapeutic work surrounding hypnosis matters.
What does hypnosis actually feel like?
Usually, much more ordinary than people expect.
Some people experience profound physical relaxation. Others feel alert and very focused.
You may notice your breathing slowing down.
Your body might feel unusually heavy, light, warm or distant.
Images or memories may feel more vivid.
You might become absorbed in my voice while the sounds outside the room become less important.
Or you may simply feel as though you are sitting with your eyes closed, listening carefully.
There is no single sensation that proves hypnosis is "working."
In fact, many people emerge from their first session and say something like:
"I could hear you the entire time."
Yes.
You are supposed to be able to hear me.
You haven't failed hypnosis because you remained aware of the room.
Are you asleep during hypnotherapy?
No.
Despite the language historically associated with hypnosis — including the word itself — hypnosis is not the same thing as sleep.
You are generally conscious and able to hear what is happening.
You can think.
You can speak.
You can move.
And you can choose whether or not to engage with a suggestion.
A useful way of thinking about hypnosis is absorption rather than unconsciousness.
We experience forms of absorption naturally.
You might become so immersed in a book that you temporarily stop noticing the room around you.
You may drive a familiar route and realise you have little recollection of consciously thinking about each turn.
You can become completely absorbed in music, imagination, prayer, meditation, movement or a memory.
Clinical hypnosis is not identical to those experiences, but they help illustrate something important:
human attention is capable of narrowing and becoming deeply absorbed.
Hypnotherapy uses that capacity deliberately and therapeutically.
Can a hypnotherapist control your mind?
No.
This is probably the biggest misconception I encounter.
Clinical hypnosis is not mind control.
A hypnotherapist cannot take possession of your mind, erase your values or force you to become somebody you do not want to be.
Therapeutic hypnosis requires your participation.
The aim isn't for me to take control away from you.
It is almost the opposite.
I want to help you develop greater flexibility and choice around responses that may currently feel automatic.
That could be the panic that arrives before you have had time to reason with it.
The body tension that appears whenever you anticipate pain.
The compulsion to analyse every text message when somebody feels distant.
The shutdown that appears around intimacy.
The shame response that is activated when you look at your body.
The belief that you have to earn love by over-giving.
The conscious part of you may already know:
"I don't need to react like this."
But knowing something and experiencing it differently are not always the same thing.
That gap is a large part of what interests me clinically.
If I already understand my problem, why hasn't it changed?
This is one of the most important questions in my work.
Many of the women I see are extremely self-aware.
They have read the books.
They understand attachment theory.
They know what their childhood was like.
They know their ex was emotionally unavailable.
They recognise that their anxiety is disproportionate to what is happening.
They understand that their body is not the enemy.
And yet the reaction continues.
This does not mean insight is useless. Insight can be enormously important.
But human learning does not exist only at the level of conscious explanation.
We learn through repetition.
Emotion.
Association.
Expectation.
Attention.
Memory.
Sensory experience.
Relationships.
And the predictions we make about what is going to happen next.
So sometimes the question isn't:
"How do I understand this more?"
It becomes:
"How do I help myself experience something different?"
This is where I find hypnotherapy particularly interesting.
Rather than only discussing a feared experience from a distance, we may be able to work with imagery, sensation, meaning and expectation while attention is highly focused.
It gives us another pathway into the experience.
How does Clinical Hypnotherapy work?
There is no single universally agreed mechanism that explains every hypnotic effect.
Researchers continue to debate exactly how hypnosis should be conceptualised.
What is well established is that hypnosis involves changes in attention and responsiveness to suggestion, and research using brain imaging has investigated changes in networks involved in attention, self-referential processing, salience and cognitive control during hypnotic experiences.
That does not mean hypnosis "switches off the conscious mind."
And I would be cautious of anyone who tells you that hypnosis simply bypasses your conscious mind and allows them to "reprogram your subconscious."
The brain is more sophisticated than that.
I prefer to understand Clinical Hypnotherapy as creating a therapeutic context in which attention becomes highly focused and a person may be able to engage particularly vividly with suggestion, imagery, sensation, expectation and new experiences.
That can give us opportunities to practise different responses rather than simply telling ourselves what we should feel.
What is suggestion in hypnosis?
The word suggestion sometimes makes people uncomfortable because it sounds like manipulation.
In clinical hypnosis, it doesn't have to be.
A suggestion is essentially an invitation to experience something differently.
For example, in pain-focused hypnosis, attention might be directed toward changing the perceived qualities of a sensation.
With anxiety, a person might rehearse encountering a previously triggering situation while experiencing greater steadiness or choice.
With self-worth, therapeutic suggestions might be incorporated into broader work around deeply learned beliefs and emotional responses.
Suggestions can be direct or indirect.
They can involve words, imagery, metaphor, sensation, memory or imagined future experiences.
Importantly, good therapeutic work is not about forcing generic suggestions onto somebody.
It should make sense within that person's experience.
Does Clinical Hypnotherapy actually work?
The most accurate answer is:
There is credible scientific evidence supporting hypnosis for some clinical applications, but it is not a miracle treatment and the strength of the evidence varies depending on what is being treated.
That nuance matters.
Research on hypnosis spans pain, medical procedures, psychological symptoms and a range of other clinical concerns.
A large review of meta-analyses published in Frontiers in Psychology examined 49 meta-analyses incorporating 261 distinct primary studies. The strongest bodies of evidence were found in areas including pain and medical procedures, although the researchers also noted substantial variation in study quality and called for more direct comparisons with established treatments.
Pain is one of the better-researched applications.
For example, a systematic review and meta-analysis examining hypnosis alongside other treatment for clinical pain included 70 studies and more than 6,000 participants. It found additional reductions in pain in several contexts, while rating the overall certainty of the evidence as very low and emphasising the need for further research.
More recently, a large systematic review of clinical pain research found that hypnosis produced modest reductions in pain compared with non-active controls and did not clearly outperform established psychological approaches such as relaxation, pain education or cognitive behavioural therapy.
I actually think findings like this are important.
Evidence-based practice doesn't require us to pretend that one modality is superior to everything else.
It means asking:
What does the evidence support?
What are its limitations?
Where might this intervention fit within someone's broader care?
That is the standard I want my own work to meet.
So is hypnosis "evidence based"?
It is more accurate to say that hypnosis has an evidence base for particular applications, rather than making the sweeping claim that "hypnotherapy is scientifically proven" for every problem.
There is meaningful research behind hypnosis.
There are also areas where evidence remains preliminary, inconsistent or limited.
This is particularly important online, where hypnotherapy can sometimes be marketed as though it can permanently cure almost anything.
I don't believe that communicates expertise.
It communicates certainty where certainty may not exist.
For me, authority means being able to tell you both where a therapeutic approach may be useful and where its limits are.
Is hypnotherapy the same as positive thinking?
No.
Clinical Hypnotherapy is not about lying on a chair while someone repeatedly tells you:
"I am confident."
"I am calm."
"I love myself."
Suggestion can form part of hypnosis, but meaningful therapeutic work can be significantly more nuanced.
Imagine a woman who consciously tells herself:
"I am worthy of love."
Yet every time somebody she's dating becomes slightly distant, her entire body enters panic.
Repeating "I am worthy" another fifty times may not address why closeness and uncertainty have become associated with threat.
Similarly, telling a woman experiencing persistent pelvic pain:
"My body feels wonderful and pain-free"
may feel completely disconnected from her lived experience.
I am far more interested in understanding the response.
What is the system anticipating?
What does the sensation mean to her?
Where does attention go?
What happens immediately before the familiar emotional reaction?
What is she protecting herself from?
What has her mind and body learned to expect?
And what new experiences could begin creating greater flexibility?
That is very different from simply replacing a negative sentence with a positive one.
What can Clinical Hypnotherapy help with?
Clinical Hypnotherapy is used in many different areas, and different practitioners have different scopes of practice and areas of expertise.
My own practice is specifically focused on women.
I work with women around areas including:
anxiety, overthinking and emotional overwhelm
persistent pain and women's health concerns
stress associated with pelvic pain and endometriosis
body image and self-worth
relationship and attachment patterns
people-pleasing and self-abandonment
emotional triggers and hypervigilance
intimacy and body reconnection
fertility-related emotional support
grief, loss and major emotional transitions
patterns that a woman may understand intellectually but still feel caught inside
Hypnotherapy may form one part of that work rather than the entirety of it.
My sessions combine therapeutic conversation with Clinical Hypnotherapy, and the work is individualised according to what you are experiencing rather than fitted into a generic hypnosis script.
Can hypnotherapy cure anxiety, trauma, endometriosis or chronic pain?
This is where language matters.
I would not tell a woman that hypnosis cures endometriosis.
Endometriosis is a medical condition and requires appropriate medical care.
I would not tell someone that every experience of persistent pain can be removed through the mind.
Pain is real, complex and influenced by interacting biological, psychological and social processes.
I would also not promise that one hypnosis session can permanently erase trauma, anxiety or deeply established relational patterns.
Clinical Hypnotherapy may be used as part of appropriate support for the emotional, cognitive, behavioural and perceptual components associated with these experiences.
For someone living with persistent pain, for example, therapy may work with fear, anticipatory anxiety, attention, stress responses, pain-related imagery and the person's relationship with their body.
That is not saying:
"Your pain is all in your head."
It is recognising something far more sophisticated:
pain is a real experience produced by a nervous system and brain whose job is to interpret, protect and predict.
Medical care and psychological support are not mutually exclusive.
Often, good care is multidisciplinary.
Will I have to talk about everything that has happened to me?
No.
You are not required to disclose every detail of your history in order to participate in Clinical Hypnotherapy.
And hypnosis should not be used to pressure somebody into revealing material they do not want to discuss.
How much history we explore depends on the person, the presenting concern, the therapeutic approach being used and what is clinically appropriate.
This is especially important where trauma is involved.
"Going deeper" is not automatically better therapy.
Neither is forcing somebody to relive a painful experience simply because it occurred in the past.
My interest is not in making the session as emotionally dramatic as possible.
My interest is in creating work that is useful.
What about regression hypnotherapy?
Regression is one approach sometimes used within hypnotherapy to explore earlier memories or experiences associated with a current pattern.
I use regression selectively rather than assuming every issue requires us to find a single childhood event.
Human beings are rarely that simple.
There is also an important scientific caution here: memory is reconstructive.
Hypnosis should not be treated as a magical truth serum capable of retrieving perfectly accurate forgotten memories.
A memory experienced vividly under hypnosis is not automatically historically accurate simply because it feels real.
That distinction is essential in responsible practice.
Where past experiences are explored, I am much more interested in their therapeutic meaning and present-day relationship to the pattern than using hypnosis to make unsupported claims about objective historical truth.
Can everybody be hypnotised?
People vary in hypnotic responsiveness.
Some experience suggested changes very readily.
Others experience hypnosis more subtly.
That doesn't mean you need to be an exceptionally "hypnotisable" person for every clinical use, nor does it mean that somebody who remains very aware during a session is doing it incorrectly.
What matters is not whether you perform hypnosis dramatically.
What matters is whether the therapeutic process is useful.
What if I am very analytical or struggle to switch my brain off?
You do not need to empty your mind.
You don't even need to be perfectly relaxed.
This is particularly relevant to the women I work with because many arrive saying:
"I'm worried it won't work on me because I overthink everything."
I am not trying to defeat your analytical mind.
I'm interested in understanding it.
Sometimes analysis itself has become a strategy for creating safety:
If I understand everything, maybe I can prevent something going wrong.
If I replay the conversation enough times, maybe I can work out what I did wrong.
If I anticipate every possible outcome, maybe I won't be blindsided.
The goal isn't necessarily to rip that strategy away.
It's to understand why it became necessary — and to begin creating more options.
How is Clinical Hypnotherapy different from meditation?
There is overlap.
Both can involve focused attention and altered relationships with internal experience.
But their aims can be different.
Many meditation practices emphasise observing experience, present-moment awareness or non-judgment.
Clinical hypnosis frequently uses deliberate therapeutic suggestion intended to facilitate particular changes in perception, sensation, emotional experience or behaviour.
I practise and teach embodiment, yoga and contemplative work as well, and I see value in each of these modalities without needing to pretend that they are interchangeable.
What happens in one of my Clinical Hypnotherapy sessions?
My sessions are 90 minutes.
We do not immediately begin hypnosis the second you sit down.
The conversation matters.
I want to understand:
What is actually happening?
When does it happen?
What does it feel like?
What makes it worse?
What have you already tried?
What does the pattern seem to protect you from?
What would genuinely changing it allow you to experience?
From there, we determine what kind of therapeutic work makes sense.
A portion of the appointment may then involve hypnosis, commonly around 30–45 minutes depending on the session and individual circumstances.
The hypnosis itself is tailored to what we are working with.
You remain part of the process throughout.
How many hypnotherapy sessions will I need?
There is no ethically responsible universal number.
It depends on:
what you would like support with
how long the pattern has been present
its complexity
other factors affecting your wellbeing
what other support or treatment you are receiving
your response to the work
the goals of therapy
Be wary of anyone guaranteeing that an entrenched psychological or physical concern will be permanently "fixed" in a single session.
Sometimes meaningful shifts happen quickly.
Sometimes good therapeutic work requires time.
My priority is not making the most dramatic promise.
It is doing work that makes sense for the individual woman sitting in front of me.
Who should I see for Clinical Hypnotherapy?
The word "hypnotherapist" alone does not tell you everything you need to know about someone's training, professional memberships, approach or area of expertise.
Ask questions.
Look at their qualifications.
Look at the population they actually work with.
Look at whether they make extraordinary medical promises.
Look at whether they understand the issue you are bringing to them.
Look at their professional membership and scope of practice.
And pay attention to whether their explanation of your experience makes you feel reduced to a symptom — or genuinely understood as a person.
My perspective on Clinical Hypnotherapy
I don't see my role as "reprogramming" women into becoming better versions of themselves.
Much of my work is actually about helping women understand the intelligence beneath patterns they have spent years judging.
The overthinking.
The hypervigilance.
The people-pleasing.
The inability to rest.
The fear of abandonment.
The disconnection from pleasure.
The complicated relationship with their body.
The expectation that something will go wrong.
Very often, these patterns didn't appear because a woman is defective.
They developed within a history.
They made sense somewhere.
They may have protected something, prevented something, helped her belong or allowed her to survive circumstances in which certain responses were adaptive.
But a response that once made sense can eventually become constricting.
For me, therapy is not simply about suppressing the unwanted response.
It is about developing enough safety, awareness and flexibility that the old response no longer has to be the only response available.
Clinical Hypnotherapy gives me one powerful way of working within that process.
Not because hypnosis is magic.
Because attention, learning, imagination, expectation, emotion, memory and perception are powerful parts of being human.
And they are also places where change can occur.
Frequently asked questions about Clinical Hypnotherapy
Is Clinical Hypnotherapy scientifically proven?
There is a substantial research literature on hypnosis, with stronger evidence for some applications than others. Research has particularly examined areas including pain and medical procedures. Evidence varies by condition, intervention and study quality, so claims should be specific rather than treating hypnotherapy as universally proven for every concern.
Is hypnosis real?
Yes. Hypnosis is a recognised psychological phenomenon involving focused attention and responsiveness to suggestion. Researchers continue to investigate its mechanisms and the differences between individuals in hypnotic responsiveness.
Will I lose control during hypnosis?
No. Clinical hypnosis requires participation and does not give a therapist unrestricted control over you.
Will I be asleep?
Usually not. People commonly remain aware of the therapist's voice and may remember the session clearly.
What if I can't be hypnotised?
Hypnotic responsiveness exists on a spectrum. You do not need to have an extremely dramatic hypnotic response for therapy to be useful.
Can Clinical Hypnotherapy help anxiety?
Hypnosis has been studied for psychological symptoms including anxiety, but outcomes depend on the condition, individual and treatment context. It should not be presented as a guaranteed cure for anxiety.
Can hypnotherapy help chronic pain?
Pain is one of the more extensively studied clinical applications of hypnosis. Reviews suggest hypnosis can provide pain-reduction benefits for some people, although the size of the effect varies and recent evidence suggests it should be viewed as a supportive option rather than a treatment that reliably outperforms other established psychological approaches.
Can hypnotherapy help women's health concerns?
Clinical Hypnotherapy may be used to support psychological, emotional and pain-related aspects associated with some women's health experiences. It does not replace appropriate diagnosis or medical treatment for conditions such as endometriosis, PCOS, fibroids or other gynaecological concerns.
Where can I see a Clinical Hypnotherapist for women in Brisbane?
I offer Clinical Hypnotherapy for women from The Work Well in Paddington, Brisbane, as well as online appointments for women throughout Australia.
My work focuses particularly on women's health, persistent pain, anxiety and emotional overwhelm, relationships and attachment, fertility-related emotional support, intimacy, body reconnection, body image and self-worth.
Clinical Hypnotherapy for Women in Brisbane
If you have reached this page because you understand your pattern intellectually but still find yourself experiencing it emotionally, physically or relationally, Clinical Hypnotherapy may be one approach worth exploring.
My name is Prue Walmsley. I am a Clinical Hypnotherapist specialising in women's health.
I hold a Bachelor of Psychological Science and a Diploma of Clinical Hypno-Psychotherapy, and I am a member of the Australian Hypnotherapists Association (AHA).
I see women in person at The Work Well in Paddington, Brisbane, and online across Australia.
My work sits at the intersection of Clinical Hypnotherapy, psychological understanding, somatic awareness and nervous-system-informed therapeutic work.
Rather than only asking: "How do we make this symptom disappear?"
I am interested in the deeper question: "What has your system learned - and what might become possible when it no longer has to respond in the same way?"
Explore Clinical Hypnotherapy for Women's Health →
Learn more about working with me →
References & further reading
American Psychological Association. Uncovering the New Science of Clinical Hypnosis.
Elkins GR, Barabasz AF, Council JR, Spiegel D. Advancing Research and Practice: The Revised APA Division 30 Definition of Hypnosis. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. 2015.
Rosendahl J, et al. Meta-analytic evidence on the efficacy of hypnosis for mental and somatic health issues: a 20-year perspective. Frontiers in Psychology. 2024.
Thompson T, et al. The effectiveness of hypnosis for pain relief: A systematic review and meta-analysis of 85 controlled experimental trials. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. 2019.
Billot M, et al. Hypnosis to manage musculoskeletal and neuropathic chronic pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. 2022.
Adjunctive use of hypnosis for clinical pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis. 2024.
A Systematic Review of Hypnosis for Clinical Pain Relief. 2026.
