Cognitive Hypnotherapy for Major Depressive Disorder

Abstract

Since the publication of the special issue on cognitive hypnotherapy in the Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy: An International Quarterly (1994), there have been major developments in the application of hypnosis to the treatment of depression. However, there is no “one-size-fits-all” treatment for depressive disorders as the conditions represent a complex set of heterogeneous symptoms, involving multiple etiologies. It is thus important for therapists to promote a multimodal approach to treating depressive disorders. This article describes cognitive hypnotherapy (CH), an evidence-based multimodal psychological treatment that can be applied to a wide range of depressed patients. CH combines hypnosis with cognitive behavior therapy as the latter provides the best integrative lodestone for assimilating empirically supported treatment techniques derived from various psychotherapies.

Keywords:

• evidence based
• hypnosis
• major depressive disorder
• multimodal