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INTEGRATING CBT & HYPNOSIS

accomplishes its goals through a structured collaborative process consisting of three interrelated components: exploration, examination, and experimentation. Each of these components is specifically designed to replace maladaptive negative thoughts with more adaptive beliefs. Exploration examines the patients dysfunctional beliefs or personal meaning system. Examination is comprised of reviewing the evidence for and against a belief, finding an alternative explanation or interpretation, and reviewing the consequences of adopting realistic or alternative beliefs. Finally, experimentation is designed to test the validity of a maladaptive belief system.

Hypnosis as a Treatment for Depression

Hypnosis has not been widely used in the management of depression, possibly due to the prevailing myth that hypnosis could exacerbate suicidal ideation in clinically depressed patients. Many writers and clinicians had the erroneous belief that failure to respond to hypnosis (in cases where depressed clients fail to respond to hypnotic induction) might cause disappointment and a sense of failure in clinically depressed clients, resulting in an increase in suicidal ideation. Recently many clinicians have argued that hypnosis, especially when it forms part of a multimodal treatment approach, is not contraindicated with depression (e.g., Yapko, 1992, 2001; Alladin & Heap, 1991). In fact, Yapko uses hypnosis to reduce symptoms of hopelessness, which is a predictor of suicidal behavior, in the early stages of his comprehensive approach to psychotherapy for depression. However, the bulk of the published literature on the application of hypnosis in the management of depression consists of case reports, and there is a great deal of variation in what therapists do with hypnosis in the management of depression (Burrows & Boughton, 2001).

INTEGRATING HYPNOSIS AND CBT THROUGH THE CDMD

Nevertheless, several writers (e.g., Golden, Dowd, & Friedberg, 1987; Tosi & Baisden, 1984; Yapko, 2001; Zarren & Eimer, 2001) have effectively integrated cognitive therapy and hypnotherapy for treating