I spent over an hour composing a response to your cordial and thoughtful post...and it disappeared because I hit the wrong key on my computer. So I'm not going to try to reconstruct the whole (amazingly eloquent) reply, *sob*, but I'll try to make the main points.
• Good thought about the follow-up sleep study. I'll suggest it to my client.
• I saw a post (maybe yours) that said it couldn't be OSA if it was ameliorated (or vanquished) by hypnosis. Right, if you define OSA as something that can't be helped with hypnosis!
• I don't have the time, energy, resources, or inclination to marshal a clinical trial. (The grant-writing offer is appealing, though.)
• I can't seem to get the emoticons to work, otherwise I would have put in a *wink* after the previous parenthetical expression.
• Hypnotherapy is an art, not a science. The fact that "science" doesn't understand how it works (when it works) doesn't mean it doesn't work. (Do you remember the skepticism that greeted acupuncture?) People often come to see me after generally accepted medical protocols haven't worked for their physical conditions. Often, I'm able to help them where others haven't.
• What I can say w. reasonable certainty about my work is that it involves the subconscious and the emotions, and that people seem to get better when energy that is stuck or blocked gets to move. That's about all I know.
• People are not machines. We're extremely complex beings (well, most of us)
and the mind is ultimately unfathomable. Emotionality is inextricably linked to health and well-being. That said, I wouldn't see an "alternative" practitioner if I had a broken arm or a staph infection. Nor would I seek a pill to fix my broken heart.
• The sleep lab my client worked with is pretty darn prestigious, but I admit I'm not up on the comparative reputations or records of sleep labs. If you want to contact me off-forum, I'll let you know who did his sleep study.
• I try to be ultra-scrupulous in not making false or misleading claims about the efficacy of my work. In fact, I offer clients their money back if they're dissatisfied with their session. (Try finding an m.d. who'll do that.) I don't make irresponsible suggestions to my clients like telling them to ditch their meds or stop following their doctor's recommendations. And while I try to elicit hope, I try never to elicit false hope.
• I like to quote my psychopharmacology professor who said "Some things work for some people some of the time."
• "Science" comes from the Latin "scio" = "I know." Evidence that doesn't fit into consensus reality or conventional belief systems doesn't go away just because it doesn't fit.
• Recommended reading--
The Undiscovered Mind: How the Brain Defies Explanation, by John Horgan (a science writer examines the state of the art of brain research, c. 1999)
Paradox and Healing: Medicine, Mythology, and Transformation, by Drs. Michael Greenwood and Peter Nunn. Two Canadian physicians take an expansive view of illness and healing.
Afterwards, You're a Genius, by Chip Brown. A reporter with a skeptical bent takes a look at some "new age" healing techniques, even participating in training.
The Dancing Healers: A Doctor's Journey of Healing with Native Americans, by Carl Hammerschlag, M.D.
Toxic Psychiatry &
Your Drug May Be Your Problem
Peter Breggin, M.D. In these books, a compassionate Harvard-trained psychiatrist deconstructs modern psychiatry.
Thanks again for your welcoming post. Hope I can be of some use.
Vicki wrote:
Hi Wholenewlight and Welcome!
You have one example of someone whose emotional trauma you corrected and they are sleeping better. I do not doubt that in a minute. But the true test of success in OSA "cures" is a follow-up sleep study after the "cure". Please have your client repeat the sleep study and post his normal results and I absolutely guarantee that you will have thousands of people at your door, including me!! If your client's OSA is not really fixed, then his life is at risk. OSA carries with it increased risk of heart attack and stroke among many other severe effects. It is a very complex disorder with devastating consequences if not adequately treated.
Hypnotherapy has worked for me in the past and I would happily be your first test subject if you wanted to run clinicial trials and publish your results! Or just treat me and pay for my follow-up sleep study! I'd help you write a research grant! We go to the same place but from different sides. NIH now has a center for alternative med. but I know it is hard to get alternative med accepted. However, the way to get it accepted as an option is to have hard core data available for peer review. OSA, is just to dangerous a condition to recommend an alternative approach as a first line of therapy.
However, you are correct surgery has a low success rate and we highly recommend thoroughly researching outcomes and options before someone goes there. It also sounds like your client did not have a good sleep lab to work with.
Vicki
