European Journal of Clinical Hypnosis
The Journal of the British Association of Medical Hypnosis

LISTENING VERSUS TREATING: A RATIONALE FOR UNDERSTANDING SYMPTOM FORMATION

Author:
Thomas B. Roberts

(uploaded 23/7/2002 - from Vol 5. issue 2)

Our comprehension of the interdependence between mind and body is challenging us to broaden our view of illness and healing. Too often the client’s symptom is treated as the problem and treatment is aimed at ridding the client of the symptom. The approach proposed here is based upon the postulate that certain experiences, if not allowed to discharge, become embedded within the client’s somatic network. Symptoms can therefore be understood as the client’s method of communicating about the nature of their stored significant experience, as well as rendering insight into what is needed for the client to complete their healing process. This article presents an explanation of symptom development based upon the theory of Somatosensory-Hypnotherapy and concludes with a case study which illustrates the application of this approach to healing.

Our understanding of the interdependence between mind and body is challenging the healing professions to relinquish their investment in the medical model perspective for understanding illness and healing (Martin 1997; Pert 1999; Rossi 1993; Sarno 1998; Sharpe & Wessely 1997). The evolution of our understanding of healing, especially from the 16th century onward, has been influenced by a reductionistic philosophy from which the medical model emerged. The Cartesian dichotomy provided the philosophical underpinning of this outlook and helped support thinking about the body as independent from the mind (Martin 1997; Rossi 1993; Watkins & Lewith 1997). While the medical model approach has yielded significant advances to improve the quality of our lives, there has been a price to pay for such advancement. That price has been the dismissal of the importance of individual experience, intuitive knowledge, and embracing the wisdom of the body as important components in understanding illness and healing. The governing premise that “if it cannot be scientifically measured and categorised, it is of no scientific value”, continues to exert significant influence. On the contrary, Candice Pert states, “...absence of proof is not proof of absence.” (Pert 1999, p. 222).

We must broaden our view of illness and healing. The view presented here is based upon the belief that certain experiences, if not allowed to discharge, become embedded within the client’s psychosomatic network. Symptoms are therefore understood as the client’s method of communicating about the nature of their experience while providing insight into what is needed for the client to complete their healing process (Griffith & Griffith 1994; Kelleman 1981; Knaster 1996; Levine 1991; Levine 1997; Pert 1999; Pop 1999; Roberts 2000 & 2001; Rossi 1993; Rossi & Cheek 1988; Rothschild 2000; Shapiro 1990 & 1997; Terr 1990; Van der Kolk
1994; White & Epson 1990).

While there are numerous theories regarding the development of symptoms, this article will provide a design for understanding symptom formation based upon the principals of Somatosensory-Hypnotherapy (Roberts 2000; Roberts 2001). This paper will explore how and why experiences are somatically bound; to discern how the development of the client’s body posture, together with their life story, work concurrently to sustain the experience within the client’s somatic system; and how the significant experience communicates through both a functional and symbolic symptom representation. What distinguishes this perspective is the emphasis given to the client’s significant experience, as well as the dialogue between the client’s stored body posture and their life story. Much has been written about each independently, however this paper will introduce how the client’s body posture and life story interrelate and contribute to the formation of symptoms. Concluding this article will be a case presentation utilising this formula along with the approach of Somatosensory-Hypnotherapy.

PROCEDURE FOR UNDERSTANDING THE DEVELOPMENT OF SYMPTOM FORMATION
Significant Experience

At the core of this model is the client’s significant experience. It is significant in the sense that it is an experience which is perceived by the client as a stressful threat. This experience may be, as (Levine 1997) distinguishes, a sudden “shock trauma” (car accident, assault, witnessing a horrifying event), or it could be an experience of a more protracted fashion,  referred to as “developmental trauma” (continually being compared to a successful, favoured sibling, repeated forms of rejection or abandonment, living with a mentally ill or alcoholic parent). The significant experience can be hidden and silent and can occur even though there has been no bodily harm involved (Rothschild 2000). The experience, however, must be interpreted by the client as a significant stressful event in their life. The significant experience is not something that is defined and diagnosed, but rather experienced and explained by the individual. “We don’t need a definition of trauma; we need an experiential sense of how it feels” (Levine, 1997 p.24). If the significant experience is defined and diagnosed - via DSM IV criteria - it contributes to keeping the client powerless and out of touch with their innate healing capacities. Thus, sustaining the client’s experience of feeling as though something is ‘wrong’ with him/her and someone or something is needed to fix them. In describing the DSM IV criteria for the diagnosis of PTSD, Levine states that, “This description is somewhat useful as a starting point, but it is also vague and misleading. Who can say what is ‘outside the range of usual human experience’, or ‘markedly distressing to almost anyone’?” The events mentioned in the definition are helpful qualifiers but there are many other traumatising events that fall into grey areas (Levine 1997, p.24). If the significant experience is allowed to be defined by the client, the power to heal remains with him or her (Levine 1997; White & Epson1990). For these reasons, the term significant experience is used instead of trauma. The emotional and psychobiological effects of a person’s significant experience is well documented (Benson 1993, 1996;Cheek 1994; Conger 1994; Griffith & Griffith 1994;Hafen, Karren, Frandsen & Smith, 1996;  Kabat-Zinn, 1990; Knaster 1996; Kelleman 1981; Kiecolt-Glaser & Glaser 1991; Lowen 1972, 1983; Levine 1991; Martin 1997; Pert 1999; Rossi & Cheek 1988; Rothschild 2000; Sarno 1998; Siegel 1986; Shapiro 1997; Terr 1990; Van der Kolk 1994).

Body Posture
The client’s significant experience is held within the client’s psychosomatic network by a defensive body posture. Body posture is defined here as “...a process whereby chronic tension develops in the superficial muscles of the body to form a hard shell against insult from without and impulses from within” (Lowen 1983; p.182). Elsewhere it is defined as a “...defensive action during an earlier life trauma, a response which inhibits our somatic and psychic repertoire, collecting debris on the psyche-soma levels like a log jam in a stream.”(Conger 1994;p.92). Griffith and Griffith (1994) describe body posture as “...holding one’s body suspended within a particular emotional posture, readied for an action  that never arrives” (p.47). The body posture reflects  the transduction of energy from the significant experience into the energy of the body posture (Bernheim 1956; Rossi 1993). Levine states that, once this posture is adopted, and not allowed to discharge, it is carried into future experiences in the client’s life. We are learning how strong emotions that are not processed thoroughly can be stored within the cells of the body (Pert 1999).

From a physiological perspective, the body posturing process is recognised as an automatic, instinctual readiness response to a stressful threat which requires a fight or flight position. This process exists in both wild animals and humans. Wild animals, however, have the opportunity to give full expression and release through available flight or fight mechanisms. In humans, this expression and release is not often possible.

The correlative psychophysiological process in humans involving the hypothalamus- pituitaryadrenal axis response to a stressful threat is well documented (Hafen, Karen, Frandsen & Smith 1996; Levine 1997; Martin 1997; Pelletier 1993; Pert 1985, 1999; Rossi 1990, 1993; Rossi & Cheek 1988; Rothschild 2000; Selye 1976; Terr 1990; Van der Kolk 1994; Yehuda et al 1990). The manner in which experiential information is transduced through the hypothalamus- pituitary-adrenal axis via messenger molecules provides the physiological foundation for understanding how the body posture develops in humans. The hypothalamus- pituitary-adrenal axis transduces, encodes and stores information about experiences perceived as a stressful threat. Rossi (1993) states that “... it is precisely this type of psychobiological double bind wherein shock and stress strongly encode traumatic events and simultaneously impair effective coping behaviour that leads to the genesis of many types of mind-body dysfunctions that are typically called ‘psychosomatic problems’” (p.57). In response to such experiences, the body’s internal alarm system is turned on calling for a flight or fight action.

Humans are often unable to complete their psychophysiological readiness for flight or fight. The fear of the emotions (terror, fear, aggression, violence, loss of control), and specific binding social injunctions against expression (political, cultural, religious and family), play significant roles in interfering with the body’s ability to complete the discharge of this instinctual defensive readiness position (Cheek 1994; Kelleman 1981; Levine 1997;Griffith & Griffith 1994). As a result, the person’s state dependent alarm response remains active. “When the fight and flight responses are thwarted, the organism instinctively constricts as it moves towards its last option, the freezing response. As it constricts, the energy that would have been discharged ... is bound up in the nervous system.” (Levine, 1997;p.99). The body then turns to its freeze response and stores the physiological remnants of the client’s significant experience. The body posture forms a type of seal around the significant experience isolating it from being able to have full expression and thereby resolution. Such a posture restricts the client’s ability to experience their usual range of physical and emotional experiences, and paves the way for the development of their symptom. Rossi (1993) explains that, “The psychosomatic mode of adaptation waslearned during a special (usually traumatic) statedependent psychophysiological condition; it continues because it remains state-bound or locked into that special psychophysiological condition even after the patient apparently returns to his normal mode of functioning” (p.81). Wolinsky (1991), on the other hand, describes how this body posture is in fact a Deep Trance Phenomenon. The client “...will create whichever trance states are most helpful in buffering them against the first experience they are not able to integrate” (p.20). Research in these fields is revealing what healers have intuited for thousands of years.

Life Story
Having established how the significant experience is stored in the somatic system of the body, we now turn our attention to how the body posture is maintained. Posture and its correlative alarm state is held in place by a well-designed strategy of selfstories which provides a rationale and justification for retaining the stored experience.

Life stories are a set of meanings (the thoughts the client thinks, the words the client speaks, the attitudes the client takes, and the view of the world the client adopts) about the experiences he/she has accumulated throughout their life. They are powerful and indomitable since their existence does not require rational justification. The client is the ultimate authority in regard to these meanings since he/she holds access to the experiences related to their life story. “However your body, run by your unconscious mind, might not understand that you are speaking metaphorically. Your unconscious mind may create an unwanted condition in your body by taking your statements quite literally. At the cellular level, the mind does not understand what you really mean” (Levine, 1991, p. 40-41). Problems and symptoms are not created by some deficit but often by the meanings that people attach to their experiences. From this meaning the client develops an elaborate system of stories about their experience. They are the way that the client can ultimately make sense out of a highly distressing incident in their life (White and Epson 1990).

The placebo effect is a prime illustration of the power of the personal story. What a person tells themselves about their experience can have enormous impact on the psychophysiological systems of their body. Much of our understanding of the placebo effect involves how the client’s expectations yield demonstrable physiological alterations (Bolletino & LeShan 1997; Hafen, Karren, Frandsen, Smith, 1996; Goleman & Gurin1993; Luskin & Newell 1997;Martin 1997; Rossi & Cheek 1988). However, what we tell ourselves about our significant experiences often results in how a person functions emotionally, behaviourally and psychologically as well. The client’s life story becomes the frame of reference through which subsequent experiences are understood. The client’s life story restricts the body from being able to release from its protective body posture, preventing the client from experiencing their world as it is. The client’s physiology remains poised to react, mired in the belief that their life is as it was at the time of their significant experience. The body creates what it is repeatedly told (Kelleman, 1981; Levine 1991; Levine 1997; Miller 1997; Pop 1999).

The self-story, in conjunction with the body posture, keeps the significant experience secluded. As a result the initial significant
experience is kept from completing a healing expression, leaving the development of a symptom as its sole method of articulation.

An example of this process is offered by Rene. Rene is a 33-year-old female who was referred to me for treatment for her panic and anxiety associated with travelling out of town. As an adolescent, Rene continually suffered emotional, psychological, physical and sexual abuse from her boyfriend. On numerous occasions she attempted to extricate herself from this relationship only to be met with increased assaults, stalking and threats to her life. He repeatedly told Rene “you better not leave this town or I’ll hunt you down”. When she did date other boys, her perpetrator would stalk her and her date. He would show up wherever they were. He would use his car to run them off the road. This went on for many years. Rene stated that she wished she could have run away from her boyfriend or been able to fight back in an attempt to protect herself and to make him stop his abuse. Neither of these options
were available due to her fear of his doing more harm to her.

She suffered from this panic and anxiety for most of her adult life. Within the context of this model, her panic and anxiety was her body’s persisting in its readiness alarm state. This alarm state continued to communicate a sense of danger to Rene, which in turn reinforced her life story that her world was a dangerous place. It kept her from travelling with her family on vacations. The thought of leaving the city limits created an intense phobic response for Rene (increased heart rate, shortness of breath, clammy hands, mental confusion and tightness in her neck and shoulders). Previous treatments included medications, biofeedback, and cognitive behavioural therapy. None offered relief from her symptoms. She subsequently developed a life story which justified and maintained her physiological alarm state of readiness. She continually reminded herself that: “He’s still out there.” “I never know when he’ll show up.” “The world is a dangerous and threatening place.” “I have no control over what happens to me.” “I can’t leave the city.”

These life stories kept Rene’s body in a readiness alarm state. She reports her body posture as always being on edge, never being able to relax, being hypervigilant, freezing at the sight of a car that “looks like his”, waking up in the middle of the night and tightness in her neck and shoulders.

Rene’s case is representative of how her significant experiences of abuse were stored in her body and kept in place by her life story. Her abuse experiences influenced how she interpreted many aspects of her life. Her body posture required her to develop her life stories to help her to make sense out of how she was feeling. These life stories in turn kept her body in a continual alarm state of readiness which was then ample justification for her life story. Rene was kept in this on-going vicious cycle. Her body posture and life story continually reinforcing one another. The physiological remnants of her significant experience, unable to be discharged, remained stored within her body. They were state dependent learnings that were continually excited by both internal events (life stories and physiological sensations of her body posture) and external events (sight of a familiar car, approaching the city limits). These types of stored experiences are located at a deep level which is not responsive to traditional forms of talking therapy or medications.

Symptom Expression
Maintained by the body posture, justified by the selfstories, the symptom becomes the remaining vehicle of expression of the somatically-bound significant experience. The symptom is an example of how the energy of the somatically-bound significant experiences transduced into the energy of the symptom.

The emergence of the symptom has both a functional and symbolic capacity. Symptoms are functional because they are “...the client’s method of communicating exactly what experience is being stored, as well as what the client needs to complete their release” (Roberts 2000, p. 88). When clients seek help, the communicative function of their symptoms is frequently overlooked. Minimising this communicative significance only invites the continued expression of the unresolved significant experience as a symptom. The importance of listening to the functional and symbolic nature of symptoms has led to investigations into why people are turning to complementary methods of healing (Cummings, 1993; Goleman & Gurin 1993; Knaster 1996; Sarno 1998; Sharpe & Wessley 1997; Shapiro 1990 & 1997; Watkins & Lewith 1997). People want their symptoms listened to not just treated. Interventions, which solely treat the symptoms, are tantamount to ‘killing the messenger’.

“When a problem or symptom ‘haunts’ a patient, it is only because mind and nature are attempting to bring it up to consciousness so it can be resolved” (Rossi, 1986, p. 112). Wolinsky (1991), in his description of Deep Trance Phenomenon (or presenting symptoms), puts forth the concept that in order for a symptom to persist, there had to be at least, in his words, one “Deep Trance Phenomenon” which holds the symptom together. “Without the associated Deep Trance Phenomenon, the symptom could not repeat itself” (p.5). If the Deep Trance Phenomenon worked well in its initial context, the client will “...then use it to create an automatic response to the environment in general. The environment is no longer experienced in the present moment, but rather as it was in the past” (p.20). The communicative function of the client’s symptom, therefore, is to draw attention to an unresolved significant experience.

It is also vital to understand the symbolic nature of the symptom. The language of symptoms reflects the process of bringing together our life experiences within our unconscious mind (Pop, 1999). Understanding what the symptom is attempting to
communicate allows the therapist to apply the symbolic language of the symptom in their hypnotic intervention. In order to maximize its effectiveness, the therapeutic language must utilise the symbolic communication of the client’s symptom in conjunction with the themes relating to the client’s life story (Cheek 1994; Griffith & Griffith 1994; Knaster 1996; Levine 1991; Levine 1997; Rossi & Cheek 1988; Sarno 1998; Shapiro 1997). Numerous authors have advanced theories as to the symbolic nature of specific symptoms (Cornell 1996; Hay 1984; Levine 1991; Pop 1999; Shapiro 1990 & 1997; Steadman 1969). It is, however, important for the therapist to avoid using a ‘canned’ approach. The hypnotic language must put to use the influence of the client’s body posture and life story.

Understanding where the symptom manifests also distinguishes its symbolic value. Symptoms “...will arise in the area of the body that is the weakest link in the person’s mind-body system. This weakest link has a significant representation for the person and may organise around a dominant theme in the individual’s life narrative” (Roberts 2001, p. 13).

Returning to Rene’s situation, we see that her symptoms offered both functional and symbolic information. Past treatments focused only upon attempting to rid Rene of her symptoms. Rene came into treatment frustrated, “They just kept trying to make me feel better. Nothing worked. I know my problems go a lot deeper, and no one has been able to reach it on that level”.

Her panic and anxiety were communicative in the sense that her symptoms were the attempt of her significant experience to gain expression. Stored deep within her somatic physiology, her significant experience had no other way of gaining a voice other than through the development of a symptom. The panic and anxiety fit in well with the theme of her significant experience.

On the symbolic level, Rene’s symptom pointed to several circumstances. First her feeling trapped and frozen indicates an undischarged fight and flight response. Her clammy hands represented her inability to get a handle on her life and generally feeling out of control and at the mercy of others. Her tightness in her shoulders and neck points to two things: How she carried the burden of guilt for “not having done anything to stop him”; and her restricted view of her life. Her shortness of breath represented the feeling that her life had very little breathing room. Listening to both the functional and symbolic characteristics of her symptoms provided me with the information required to develop the language needed to help Rene release what her body had stored for so long. Through her releasing process in therapy, she was able to let go of her body’s need to store her abuse experience. She became free of her panic and anxiety and began travelling with her family.

The body’s information transduction and encoding process is a state dependent and unconscious action of the autonomic nervous system, and is therefore, responsive to hypnotic interventions (Rossi, 1993). Using hypnotherapy as the technique to communicate with Rene’s somatic physiology, allows for the words Rene uses in describing her symptoms to be transduced into a releasing and discharging action. The release and discharge frees her body from having to carry the burden of the stored significant experience as a symptom.

CASE PRESENTATION
Mary is a 20-year-old woman who experiences anxiety and panic associated with needles. She was referred to me by her physician for hypnotherapy for the phobia as she was preparing to travel abroad and needed to get the required shots. I followed the fourstep procedure stated elsewhere (Roberts, 2000) regarding history and context of symptom development, assessing client’s use of language, development and utilisation of the therapeutic, hypnotic language. Mary described her present reaction as one of great anxiety, fear and panic. She reported that her heart would feel like it was pounding out of her chest, she felt sweaty and her hands “got wet”. Her breathing became shallow and she would become light-headed. While in the doctor’s office she would shake, sweat, hyperventilate and cry, and eventually leave the office before the shot was even administered. She stated that this was a continual source of embarrassment and humiliation. “I’m 20 years old and I am acting like a child”. She avoided getting shots and having blood taken until this time as the trip to Europe was of great importance to her. She also said that she had been given medication to “stop me from having these episodes.” Medications were not effective in relieving her symptoms. Upon further examination, Mary revealed an experience when she was six years old whereby she went to the doctor to have blood drawn. The nurse was having trouble finding the vein and was puncturing Mary numerous times. Not only was this painful but the sight of her arm drenched in blood was horrifying to her (significant experience). She tried to resist by fighting back and attempting to get out of the chair and run home. She was subdued by two nurses and her mother (her body’s alarm posture of fight and flight developed but was not allowed to discharge). During the time the blood was being drawn, Mary was told to “shut up”. Afterwards, she was told that she would not get a sucker because only good children get suckers and she was not good. On the way home she was scolded for being a bad girl and for embarrassing her mom (social injunctions preventing Mary’s completing and discharging her body’s readiness posture). Mary then began to develop an “attitude” about needles and doctors and nurses. “I hate needles. I’ll never have a shot or blood drawn again. Doctors and nurses are mean. Nobody is ever going to do that to me again. I hate being out of control. No one has the right to stick things in me and take anything out of my body” (emerging self stories maintaining defensive body posture). Ever since then she expended significant energy avoiding getting shots. When she had no choice (i.e. school shots), the scene was chaotic with Mary screaming, biting, kicking and having to be subdued all over again (symptom development: phobic, anxiety, panic and fear).

I approached Mary’s symptoms as her body’s method of communicating that an experience has been stored and has not been able to complete its cycle and discharge completely. Her history revealed the reemergence of her fight-flight response every time she got a shot. Her fear, panic and anxiety were her body’s attempt at helping Mary pay attention to this experience which she had been avoiding. I asked Mary, “If all this fear, panic and anxiety about needles could talk, what are they saying about what they wish you could have done 14 years ago?” Mary responded instantly, “I wish I could have punched that nurse in the nose, knocked her out so she would stop stabbing me with that needle. I then would run all the way home and shut myself in my room where I would be safe.” It must be noted that while Mary is a 20-year-old woman her response was reminiscent of a very young child in her tone of voice and word choice. The “Coin Drop” (Gafner & Benson, 2000) method of initial induction was employed. While in hypnotic absorption I invited Mary to establish her hypnotic mind-body communication (ratified by ideomotor signals) and employed specific language intended to direct her healing abilities to the part of her body that required the release. “As your unconscious body-mind communicates, will it focus its attention to the area in your body which contains an experience which has never been given the opportunity to tell its story? An experience which involves needles and doctors and nurses? (ratified by ideomotor signals). That’s right.... Now that part of your body went through an experience during which it wanted to protect itself. That was a very natural thing for your body to want to do, you know... But your body was never allowed to complete and discharge its appeal to protect itself... This can be a wonderful time for you to allow that part of your body to finally tell its story. What it has always wanted to tell but was never allowed to express. That story has been shut up in your body for a very long time. It can talk now... In a way that is completely safe and secure...”

At this point Mary’s right hand began to twitch and eventually formed into a fist. “That’s right Mary... Allow that story to be told so your body can ultimately release its request to protect itself.” Mary’s upper arm muscles began to twitch culminating in her arm thrusting outward horizontal from her body. Her arm with the clenched fist then struck outward in a punching motion. “Your body can now finally do what it has always wanted to do to protect itself... Allow your story to be told and your body to be able to release and complete its need to fight and protect.”

During the next session, we continued to explore the themes exhibited in the previous session. In addition to her fist and arm muscles continuing to discharge and complete her fight response, Mary’s legs and feet began to express.

Her thigh, calf, and ankle muscles too began to move and twitch. “And you can also... allow that part of your body... that wanted to run to safety... to do exactly what it needs to do... now... to discharge and complete its need to flee. And isn’t it a pleasant thing to know... that having really listened... really listened... to what your body has been trying to say... that it no longer needs to have all those symptoms... all that fear... and anxiety about those needles and shots... anymore?”

The third session was spent reinforcing these themes and assuring that what was needing discharge and completion was allowed to do so. At the outset of our sessions, Mary was informed that I had a syringe in my shirt pocket. I told her it would remain there until our work was completed. After arousing her from her hypnotic absorption during this last session, I reached into my shirt pocket and removed the syringe and without delay handed it to her. She took the syringe in her hand, looked puzzled and then smiled. “Wow...
look what I’m doing”. She took the syringe home with her as a reminder of her no longer being afraid of needles and getting shots.

CONCLUSION
This article introduced a rationale for understanding symptom formation based upon the principals of Somatosensory-Hypnotherapy (Roberts, 2000; Roberts, 2001). A theory of how and why experiences are somatically bound and the manner in which the significant experience communicates through both a functional and symbolic symptom representation was proposed.

What distinguished this perspective was the emphasis given to the client’s significant experience, as well as the dialogue between the client’s stored body posture and their life story. Too often symptoms are treated as the ‘problem’.

Deriving understanding from the pioneering works in Psychoneuroimmunology and psycho-biology, we are learning how experiences are transduced into symptom expression. In our work with clients, we need to step back from automatically treating the symptom and expand our view to include the possibility that the symptom may well be communicative and symbolic in nature.

A case presentation utilising this formula along with the approach of Somato-Sensory-Hypnotherapy illustrated the effectiveness of approaching a client’s symptoms from this perspective.

Our bodies are an information transducing mechanism. The healing effects of hypnosis are based on the use of information transduction to elicit change. Is it then possible, by way of hypnotherapy, to communicate with the cells, nerves and even genes of the body?

Research is suggesting that indeed it is possible to do so (Pert 1999; Rossi 1993; Rossi & Cheek 1988; Siegel 1986). Investigation is needed to examine exactly how communication on this level can be best utilised to bring about healing that may have not otherwise been possible.

This is truly an exciting time in the unfolding of our comprehension regarding health and healing. A time which suggests vast possibilities for the field of hypnotherapy.

References
Benson, H. (1993): The Relaxation Response. In Goleman, D., & Gurin, J. (Eds.), Mind Body Medicine: How To Use Your Mind For Better Health (pp. 233-257). Yonkers: Consumer Reports Books.
Benson, H. (1996): Timeless Healing: The Power And Biology of Belief. New York: Scribner.
Bernheim, H. (1956): Suggestive Therapeutives: A Treatise on The Nature and Uses of Hypnotism. Westport:Associated Booksellers.
Bolletino, R. & LeShan, L. L. (1997): Cancer. In Watkins, A. (Ed.), Mind-Body Medicine: A Clinicians Guide to Psychoneuroimmunology (pp. 87-111). NY: Churchill Livingstone.
Cheek, D. (1994): Hypnosis: The Application of Ideomotor Techniques. Boston: Allyn Bacon.
Conger, J. P. (1994): The Body in Recovery: Somatic
Psychotherapy and the Self. Berkely: Frog, Ltd.
Cornell, A. (1996): The Power of Focusing. New York: MJF Books.
Cummings, N. (1993): Somatization: When Physical Symptoms Have no Medical Cause. In Goleman, D., & Gurin, J. (Eds.), Mind Body Medicine: How To Use Your Mind For Better Health (pp. 221-230). Yonkers: Consumer Reports Books.
Gafner, G. & Benson, S. (2000): Handbook of Hypnotic Inductions. Nwe York: W.W. Norton.
Goleman, D., & Gurin, J., (Eds.). (1993): Mind Body Medicine: How To Use Your Mind For Better Health. Yonkers: Consumer Reports Books.
Griffith, J., & Griffith, M. (1994): The Body Speaks: Therapeutic Dialogues for Mind-Body Problems. New York: Basic Books.
Hafen, B., Karren, K., Frandsen, K., & Smith, N. (1996): Mind/Body Healing: The Effects of Attitudes, Emotions, and Relationships. Boston: Allen and Bacon.
Hay, L. (1984): Heal Your Body. Carlsbad: Hay House.
Kabat-Zinn, J. (1990): Full Catastrophe Living. New York: Dell Publishing.
Kelleman, S. (1981): Your Body Speaks Its Mind. Berkeley: Center Press.
Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K., & Glaser, R. (1991): Stress and Immune Function in Humans. In Ader, R., Felton, D. L., & Cohen, N. (Eds.), Psychoneuroimmunology. (2nd ed.) (pp. 849-867). SanDiego: Academic Press.
Knaster, M. (1996): Discovering The Body’s Wisdom. New York: Bantam.
Levine, B. H. (1991): Your Body Believes Every Word You Say: The Language of Body/Mind Connection. Fairfield: Aslan.
Levine, P. (1997): Waking The Tiger: Healing Trauma. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books.
Lowen, A. (1972): Narcissism: Denial Of The True Self. New York: Collier Books.
Luskin, F. & Newell, K. (1997): Mind-Body Approaches to Successful Aging. In Watkins, A. (Ed.) , Mind-Body Medicine: A
Clinicians Guide to Psychoneuroimmuniology. (pp. 251-268). New York: Churchill Livingstone.
Martin, P. (1997): The Healing Mind: The Vital Links Between Brain and Behavior, Immunity and Disease. New York: Thomas Dune Books.
Miller, E. E., (1997): Deep Healing: The Essence of Mind-Body Medicine. Carlsbad: Hay House.
Pelletier, K. L. (1993). “Between Mind and Body: Stress Emotions and Health”. In Goleman, D. (Ed.), Mind-Body Medicine: How to Use Your Mind for Better Health. (pp. 19-38). New York: Consumer Rerprts Books.
Pert, C. (1985): Neuropeptides and Their Receptors: A Psychosomatic Network. Journal of Immunology 135 no. 2.
Pert, C. (1999): Molecules of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body Medicine. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Pop, C.V. (1999): The Symbolic Message of Illness. Fairfield: Sunstar.
Roberts, T. (2000): Somatosensory-Hypnotherapy: Integrating Mind-Body and Hypnotherapeutic Approaches to Facilitate Symptom Release. The Australian Journal of Clinical Hypnotherapy and Hypnosis, 21(2), 86-95.
Roberts, T. (2001): Symptom Release: Integrating Mind-Body and Hypnotherapeutic Approaches. Annals of the American Psychotherapy Association, 4(2), 12-14.
Rossi, E. (1990): From Mind to Molecule: More Than A Metaphor. In Zeig, J. & Gilligan, S. (Eds.), Brief Therapy: Myths, Methods and Metaphors. (pp. 445-472) . New York: Brunner/ Mazel.
Rossi, E. L. (1993): The Psychobiology of Mind-Body Healing New Concept of Therapeutic Hypnosis. New York: Norton.
Rossi, E. L., & Cheek, D. B. (1988): Mind Body Therapy. New York: Norton.
Rothschild, B. (2000): The Body Remembers: The Psychobiology of Trauma and Trauma Treatment. New York: Norton Books.
Sarno, J. E. (1998): The Mindbody Prescription: Healing The Body Healing The Pain. New York: Warner Books.
Selye, H. (1976): The Stress of Life. New York: McGraw Hill.
Siegel, B. (1986): Love, Medicine, And Miracles. New York: Harder and Row.
Sharpe, M., & Wessely, S. (1997): Non-Specific Ill Health: A Mind-Body Approach to Functional Somatic Symptoms.
In Watkins, A. (Ed.), Mind-Body Medicine: A Clinicians Guide to Psychoneuroimmunology. (pp. 169-186). New York: Churchill Livingstone.
Shapiro, D. (1990): The Bodymind Workbook:Exploring How The Mind and The Body Work Together. Boston: Element.
Shapiro, D. (1997): Your Body Speaks Your Mind: How Your Thoughts And Emotions Effect Your Health. Freedom: The Crossing Press.
Steadman, A. (1969): Whose The Matter With Me. Marina Del Rye: Devours and Company.
Terr, L. (1990): Too Scared to Cry: How Trauma Effects Children...And Ultimately Us All. New York: Basic Books.
Van der Kolk, B. A. (1994): The Body Keeps Score: Memory and the Evolving Psychobiology of Post-Traumatic Stress. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 1, 253-265.
Watkins, A., & Lewith, G. (1997): Mind-Body Medicine: Its Popularity and Perception. In Watkins, A. (Ed.), Mind-Body Medicine: A Clinicians Guide to Psychoimmunology. (pp.27-40). New York: Churchill Livingstone. White, M. & Epson, D. (1990): Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends. New York: Norton.
Wolinsky, S. (1991): Trances People Live: Healing Approaches In Quantum Psychology. Falls Village: The Bramble Company.
Yehuda R., Southwick,S. M., Nussbaum, G., Wahby, V.,
Giller, E. L Jr., & Mason, J. W. (1990): Low Unrinary Cortison Excretion in Patients With Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 178,366-369.

THE AUTHOR
Thomas B. Roberts, M.S., CICSW, DAPA, NBCFCH
Innerchange Counseling
757 Sandlake Rd.
Onalaska, Wisconsin 54650
608-783-2186
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Tom Roberts, M.S., is a psychotherapist in private practice in Onalaska, Wisconsin USA. He is a Certified Independent Clinical Social Worker; Certified Marriage and Family Therapist, Certified Addictions Counselor, Diplomate of the American Psychotherapy Association, and National Board Certified Fellow in Clinical Hypnotherapy. Over the past 25 years, Tom has worked in a variety of settings from inpatient addiction treatment programs to his present private practice. His practice specializes in hypnotherapy with
special emphasis in developing and presenting his Somatosensory-Hypnotherapy approach to healing. He has several articles published related to his approach to hypnotherapy. Two articles published in The Australian Journal of Clinical Hypnotherapy and Hypnosis, an article published each in the Annals of the American Psychotherapy Association and in the European Journal of Clinical Hypnosis. He has presented training and workshops at the local, regional and national level. He also consults with business, healthcare and education on issues of stress management, team building, and conflict resolution.

Copyright©2002 European Journal of Clinical Hypnosis