Hypnosis in the Desensitization of Fears of Dying

Abstract

This paper describes two cases in which hypnosis was successfully used, in the context of an integrative approach to therapy, to treat pathologically obsessive fears of death. The hypnotic interventions employed in each case are described in detail. The cases illustrate how hypnotherapy can be adapted to clients with widely differing clinical contexts and demographics, with one involving a 40-year-old African-American man (Lawrence), and the other, a 36-year-old white woman (Betty). The latter case illustrates how clinical knowledge, transmitted via a published case of Milton Erickson's, provided the author the idea for developing a novel solution to the client's pressing clinical problem.