Yulia Watters - Hypnobirth: Theories and Practices for Healthcare Professionals

Hypnobirth

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

Lanham Boulder New York London

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Watters, Yulia, author.

Hypnobirth : theories and practices for healthcare professionals / Yulia Watters.

p. ; cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4422-3704-9 (cloth : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-4422-3706-3 (electronic)

I. Title.

[DNLM: 1. Hypnosis. 2. Parturition. 3. Pregnancy. WM 415]

RG525

618.2--dc23

2014046827

TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

To my daughter, Allyson.

I have written three books about hypnosis and its use to help relieve suffering in psychotherapy settings.

But like many, before I learned hypnosis and what it is really all about I had two contradictory attitudes toward it:

1. I was curious, perhaps even fascinated, by hypnosis. What was it all about? Could I be hypnotized? Could I be controlled by hypnosis? Could it help me?

And, 2. I was frightened and wary of hypnosis. I didnt want to be controlled by someone else. I was concerned that I would go to a hypnotist and he (it always seemed to be a he in my fearful imaginings, a fellow with a goatee and mesmerizing eyes) would tell me to come back each week and pay him a princely fee I could scarce afford, and then to forget he had given me this suggestion.

When I finally experienced hypnosis, it was much different from what I had expected. More gentle, more empowering rather than controlling.

I felt more free, more in touch with possibilities than I had imagined I would.

I could hear and understand everything the hypnotist said while I was in trance. (I had expected to be knocked out in some way, I suppose.)

More than that, I was able to make significant changes more easily than I thought possible.

It did help that the person who first hypnotized me was one of the premier medical hypnotists of the twentieth century, Dr. Milton H. Erickson. Dr. Erickson, a psychiatrist, was a pioneer in exploring the possibilities of hypnosis for therapeutic purposes and was instrumental in getting it to be an approved tool for medical and psychotherapeutic practitioners.

Dr. Yulia Watters carries on in this Ericksonian tradition in several ways:

1. She is a committed researcher;

2. She uses a permissive, empowering, relational rather than authoritarian and controlling approach to hypnosis;

3. She is pioneering a new approach to using the hypnotic framework to the birth process, introducing medical practitioners to a new tool that can lead to better outcomes and lessen suffering in their patients.

This book can help any dedicated medical practitioner become more open, skilled, and knowledgeable about the powerful tool that is hypnosis, but more than that, it can help any medical practitioner (or therapist) shift their view of hypnosis radically from that old, fearful image to a new, relationship-based, permissive, and empowering image.

You will find in this book not only a solid summary of the history of hypnosis and the evidence that supports its use, but a clear guide to using hypnosis in your practice and medical setting.

One of the things that may stand out for you in reading Hypnobirth is the breadth and depth of the authors understandings and her use of various perspectives in understanding the experience of the person giving birth. This is no accident: Dr. Watters speaks three languages fluently and has lived in at least three different cultures for significant periods of her life. She is a practitioner, a researcher, and a scholar. She has worked with people giving birth, taught practitioners how to work with them using the hypnotic framework, and has given birth using the hypnotic tools she writes about in this book.

In other words, Dr. Watters is our best guide to using hypnosis to deepen connections between the mind and the body, between the practitioner and the patient, and between the practitioner and his or her creative self.

The thing that stands out for me in this new approach to hypnosis that Dr. Watters puts forth is that the person with whom we work hypnotically already has the answers and capabilities needed to have a more healthy and comfortable relationship to the pregnancy, labor, birth, and post-birth experience.

Just another note: I used hypnosis with my wife during the birth of our son in the 1980s. She had already mastered the Lamaze method of breathing and combining it with her previous hypnotic experience, hypnosis helped in the process, and created a nice collaborative, connective experience for us in the labor and birth process. Looking at the literature after this experience, I was surprised to find little on the subject of birth and labor, except for minimizing labor pains. There is clearly much more to this subject and Hypnobirth brings us that richness.

May this book help birth a new skill and a new phase in your professional work, one characterized by an increase in your confidence and effectiveness and in better and more meaningful connections to the people with whom you work.

And without belaboring the point any longer, let me pass you on to Dr. Yulia Watters and Hypnobirth.

Bill OHanlon

Santa Fe, New Mexico

November 2014

I was first introduced to hypnosis in graduate school. I was amazed at the incredible potential of this approach to treatment and, overall, to ones own life. It seemed to reveal ones own best ways of connecting with ones body, mind, and spirit, and through those, to develop similar connections with clients and teach them to develop connections with themselves. Following the teaching of Erickson, I saw hypnosis not as a set of techniques, but rather as a way of being, learning, teaching, and relating.

Much to my dislike, the sensational part of hypnosis was so emphasized that the most precious partits powerful way of developing the web of deep human relationshipsoften remained hidden, as a precious fruit in a tropical forest. I often wondered what it would be like if more people knew about the potential of hypnosis and were able to utilize it on a daily basis. In my work with patients suffering from chronic illness and pervasive symptoms, I used hypnosis to help them develop new connections with their sensations, while at the same time teaching them to acquire specific techniques to deal with pain, fears, or anxieties.

When I became pregnant, the most natural choice was to approach pregnancy and birth through a hypnotic lens. I knew that by continuing to develop a relationship with myself, I was building connections with my developing baby. Hypnobirthing was a logical conclusion or rather, the beginning of a new relationship and a means to welcome my baby into the world in my own way. After going through the experience of a hypnobirth in a medical environment, I realized how much of my hypnosis-related experience had been made possible and sometimes facilitated by the sensitive and knowledgeable medical providers I encountered during my pregnancy. I also realized that many healthcare providers, as well as many of my friends and other expecting women, do not know about the possibilities of hypnosis-assisted birth.