A Modern Hypnosis Dictionary: The Letter T
- Tachycardia - Rapid heart beat
- Tactile induction - The method of inducing hypnosis by gently stroking the subject's body, usually the forehead but can be almost any part of the body. Not often used in therapy these days, it has it's roots in Mesmerism and animal hypnosis (trout tickling!).
- Taphophobia - Excessive dread of being buried alive.
- Thanatophobia - Morbid fear of death
- Tic - Involuntary muscle spasm, 'twitch', often facial and of psychogenic origin.
- Time Distortion - Typical hypnotic phenomenon, usually time appearing to have passed more quickly than usual but also refers to time appearing to pass slower than usual.
- Tinnitus - A condition where the sufferer hears or appears to hear noises, typically ringing in the ears. Can be distressing and is amenable to hypnosis even though it may have physiological or psychological origins. Usually the 'selective' hearing process has to be de-tuned.
- Toxophobia - Excessive fear of being poisoned.
- Trance - A big word in hypnosis which is not too easy to define! This is exacerbated by the fact that trance is associated with a wide range of ill defined phenomena ranging from drug abuse to spirituality to occultism. Never the less 'trance' as it applies to hypnosis is held to be a natural state which occurs easily (and frequently) to a person when their attention is, on the one hand, directed inward - and away from external sensory experience and on the other hand, narrowed and focused, usually on the hypnotist's voice. The hypnotic trance seems to have much in common with the dream state but without the usual unconsciousness. The deeper the hypnotic trance state the closer this comparison becomes, especially in regards to spontaneous amnesia and loss of criticality. Trance is subjective and difficult to measure but experienced hypnotist's know to look for certain physical signs to gauge the onset and depth of the state. For example you can observe:
Physical stillness
Change of breathing
Pallid / waxen complextion
Gradual postural slumping
Increased body temperature
REM type eye movements
Fluttering eyelids
Swallowing / gulping
Increased lachrymation
Redness around the eyes - Trance induction - The process of bringing about a 'hypnotic' state, either in oneself (self hypnosis) or in another (hetero hypnosis).
- Transference - A word that has come to us from psychoanalysis and refers to the way that patients sometimes 'project' unconscious associations onto the therapist. For example, patients may come to project emotional attachments that they cannot feel for a parent onto the therapist. Usually only a problem when therapy it protracted.
- Trauma - Shock to the person, either physical or psychological or both. Can have effects which endure beyond the immediate healing process.
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Tom Connelly© connelly@hypnos.co.uk