Questions people actually ask

It works better than placebo in controlled trials, which is the relevant test. Systematic reviews find moderate effects for chronic musculoskeletal and neuropathic pain when treatment runs eight sessions or more, and a medium effect for acute and procedural pain against standard care. Neuroimaging shows hypnotic suggestions producing distinct changes in the brain regions handling pain intensity versus pain unpleasantness, which is difficult to explain as compliance. That said, effects vary widely between people and average reductions are meaningful rather than dramatic.

Almost certainly, at least to a useful degree. About one person in ten is highly responsive, most people are moderately responsive, and a small minority respond very little. Moderate responders still get meaningful benefit for pain. Responsiveness also improves with practice, which is one more reason the recording matters.

No. You remain aware, you remember what happened, you can talk throughout, and you can end it whenever you want. Hypnosis cannot make you act against your values. If you are picturing stage hypnosis, that is a performance involving pre-selected volunteers who came specifically to be entertaining.

Deeply relaxed but mentally clear — like the moment before sleep, or being so absorbed in something that you stop hearing the room. Most people's first reaction is that it was less dramatic than expected. That is completely normal and says nothing about whether it worked.

Plan on six to eight. The dose relationship in the research is one of its most consistent findings: short courses of two or three sessions underperform, and eight or more produces moderate-to-large effects for chronic musculoskeletal and neuropathic pain. Some people notice change in the first session; durable change takes longer.

Sessions are $250 for 60 minutes. You send an appointment request — no payment details there — and I reply with your intake paperwork and a secure Calendly link where you pay and book your time in one step. I do not bill insurance. Many clients pay with an HSA or FSA card, and I can provide a superbill for out-of-network claims, though hypnotherapy coverage is not guaranteed.

Sessions are online by secure video. Hypnotherapy suits video unusually well because your eyes are closed for most of it, and being in your own home means you practise the state in the environment where you will actually use it.

No. I am a Registered Hypnotherapist in Washington (#HYPN.HP.70073119) and I work with clients across the state, but I also work internationally. Hypnotherapy is not regulated the way psychotherapy is, so I can work across borders in a way a licensed therapist cannot.

Yes. Your intake, clinical notes and recordings live in SimplePractice, a HIPAA-compliant platform used across US healthcare, and session booking and payment run through a secure Calendly link. Sessions are held on encrypted video. I do not discuss clients, and I do not use anyone's story without written permission.

A private room where you will not be interrupted, a comfortable chair or bed, headphones (these help considerably), a device with a camera, and a decent connection. That is all.

No, and please do not treat it that way. Medication decisions belong to your prescriber. Some clients do reduce medication over time in consultation with their physician, but that is their doctor's call and never mine.

Yes. Hypnosis is generally not appropriate during active psychosis or with certain dissociative conditions, and I will not work on undiagnosed pain that has not been medically assessed. If you are in crisis you need urgent care, not a hypnotherapy appointment — call or text 988 in the US.

I will tell you plainly. If we reach session four with nothing shifting, we will have an honest conversation about whether to continue and what else might be worth trying. I would rather lose the booking than sell you sessions that are not helping.

A hypnosis session I record for you after we have worked together, built around your pain, your triggers, your imagery and your goals, in the voice your nervous system has already learned to settle to. Usually ten to twenty minutes. Yours to keep, and updated as things change.

Apps are excellent and much cheaper, and if one is helping you, keep using it. The differences are that hypnosis for pain uses specific analgesic techniques rather than general relaxation, that the work is built around your particular presentation, and that there is a clinician noticing what is actually happening and adjusting. Many clients use both.

Yes, and it often works better that way. Physiotherapy rebuilds capacity while hypnosis releases the brake. If you are in psychotherapy, tell your therapist — most are supportive, and hypnotherapy is not a substitute for the work you are doing with them.