Self-esteem has a significant role to play in the successful therapeutic outcomes irrespective of the fact whether the nature of an illness is physical or mental or psychosomatic. This is because self-esteem is seen as a basic feature of mental health. In addition it also contributes to better health and positive social behavior because existing pieces of evidence of successful people suggest they are seen to be one having high-self esteem and also do not feel shy of stating it as one of the important factors that has helped them in not only achieving life satisfaction, and deriving personal satisfaction out of such successes by demonstrating an ability to cope up with challenging and many a times adverse circumstances. Such people also demonstrate distinct characteristics of being less anxious, less sensitive to criticism, ability to cope up with stress, lesser isolation and above all give high priority to attaching personal values in whatever they carry out whether it is under favorable, hostile, or exploitative environments.
On the other hand, low self-esteem does exactly the opposite to those individuals who are suffering from it. They constantly need a sense of approval from others, demonstrate a feeling of apathy and consequently are dogged by negative behaviors in their thinking and action. Such a demonstration results in their becoming isolated, submissive and eventually withdrawing from all that otherwise could have brought a sense of purpose and meaning to their lives. Such negative feelings arising out of low self-esteem take a toll in their health leading to physical as well as mental illness. All the scientific evidence available on self-esteem links it with anxiety in one way or another.
Fortunately for such of those who are suffering from conditions of low self-esteem relief is available in the form of hypnotism which combines the art of changing the self-defeating behavior of such individuals with the science of psychotherapy. Even though hypnosis has been in vogue in one form or another right from ancient times, scientific explanations of how it works is taking place in the last few decades only which too is advancing only on a gradual scale. This in no way undermines the effectiveness of hypnotic techniques in bringing about relief to those who are suffering from low self-esteem and the attendant consequences. What is needed at this stage is to propagate some of the demonstrated techniques that are available to show how they have been and helping and can help those who are in need of it in realizing the full potential of their lives. While determining the criterion of successful outcomes of hypnotherapy on self-esteem, if we take it as the one that has the major impact on bringing down the anxiety of the people suffering from it, then it can be considered to be falling under the category of ‘specific’, whereas, if we take the anxiety of the individuals can be traced to particular disorders they are suffering from as obesity, anorexia, it would fall into the field of ‘can be considered effective’. On the other hand, if the low self-esteem is due to anxiety in the form of fear of public speaking, or taking an examination, depression, then it falls into the domain of being considered as ‘possible ’ in terms of reliefs it can deliver.
The applications of hypnotic techniques vary from situation to situation in delivering outcomes. This is because hypnotism works on a mix of factors that touches on the human lives as a whole, whether it be on their behavior or cognitive psychology or combination of these and many other not so easily quantifiable factors which works on the psyche. We also have to remember that hypnosis could be applied to a variety of population right from a child to adult to senior citizens and it is also gender neutral. For example, by rehearsing positive self-statements which also contained an element of restricting negative self-statement by making those more adaptive are found to increase the self-esteem scores of participants who are afflicted with depression essentially arising out of self-esteem related factors. In one study that took an elaborate review of 400 Meta analyses which focused on positive aspects of self-concept for a period of thirty minutes on each day throughout the duration of the hypnosis program, the positive benefit of the application of hypnotherapy was seen in the improvement of self-esteem via reduction in anxiety.
Yet another mostly talked about but leastly documented technique relates to the one known as ‘ego strengthening’. Its importance is seen in the holistic benefits it delivers to the affected ones by way of improved therapeutic outcomes, gaining of an exalted insight and consequent heightened clarity of thinking. The aggregated output of all these is seen in an improved self-esteem which in other words imply self-esteem is the resultant product of high ego strength. Scientific pieces of evidence are available from scholars in the field to prove that hypnosis protocols which aim at the strengthening of ego result in statistically significant increase in the mean self-esteem scores.
It may be interesting to know how higher scores of self-esteem is achieved via practicing ego-strengthening hypnotic protocols. It is posited that hypnosis has the ability to enhance all forms of psychotherapy at three levels. In the first stage, patients when they attain the relaxed- trans, become adaptable to accept the suggestions from the therapists, and absorb them without resistance into their unconscious minds. In the second stage, such learning and absorption become an integral part and parcel of their inner resources and in the third stage they are able to apply them towards a problem disturbing them and either get rid of them or handle them effectively without causing harm to their health and environment. Increased response to the suggestions of hypnotherapist is seen as a salient feature of hypnotism. A possible explanation for this could be found in the opinions of the scholars who believe that hypnotized subjects are favorably dispositioned in taking up the suggestions of the hypnotists and strive to implement them to the best of their abilities.
We may then conclude that hypnotic interventions may offer superior advantages over other therapeutic enhancement procedures for bringing about a better self-esteem. Nonetheless, we may need more evidence based facts to demonstrate the effectiveness of hypnotherapy especially on some of the limitations that are talked about it. For instance, there is an underling assumption in the application of hypnotherapy which is that it is difficult if not impossible to treat those subjects who are not in the first instance amenable to hypnotization. In other words, effectiveness of hypnotherapy seems to revolve around the concept of hypnotizability. When more scientific evidence emerges, the prefixing of this condition for achieving the benefits of hypnosis would hopefully get relegated to the background and the humankind may be able to reap the benefits this wonderful concept, viz, hypnotism, which blends arts with science.
