The 7 Benefits of Hypnotherapy: What the Research Shows

People often ask me what hypnotherapy is actually good for. It is a fair question, because the internet is full of lists that promise everything from weight loss to instant confidence, usually without a single study behind them.

The short answer is: The research is strongest for anxiety, IBS and pain, promising for sleep, and mixed for habits such as smoking. I have practised hypnotherapy in London since 2010. In this article I go through each of these hypnotherapy benefits: what the studies actually show, what I see with my own clients, and where the limits are. It is important to understand that studies do not address all the ways in which hypnotherapy can be effective as a treatment, they cover specific topics. In my experience there is a much wider spectrum of concerns and issues that hypnotherapy can treat effectively, but as they are not covered by peer reviewed evidence, I am not addressing them in this article.

What is hypnotherapy?

Hypnotherapy is the therapeutic use of hypnosis, a natural state of focused, absorbed attention. In hypnosis the critical, analytical mind quietens and the nervous system settles, so you can experience a new response rather than only talk about it. You stay aware and in control throughout. If you would like a fuller picture, read my guide what is hypnotherapy?, or see how hypnotherapy works step by step.

The 7 benefits of hypnotherapy according to evidence

Hypnotherapy has been studied for decades. The largest overview so far, a 2024 review in Frontiers in Psychology, brought together 49 earlier reviews covering 261 studies. Almost every result pointed in a positive direction. The authors also note that only nine of those reviews were of high quality, so there is still room for better research.

These are the seven benefits with the most support, starting with the strongest:

• Less anxiety and stress
• Relief from irritable bowel syndrome
• Less pain, and calmer medical procedures
• Better sleep
• Help changing habits
• More confidence when it counts
• A more flexible relationship with yourself

1. Less anxiety and stress

Hypnosis settles the body's alarm response, and anxiety is where the evidence is clearest.

• A 2019 review of 17 controlled trials found that the average person treated with hypnosis reduced their anxiety more than about 79% of people in the control groups.
• At the longest follow up, that rose to about 84%, so the benefit tends to last.
• Hypnosis worked best when it was combined with other psychological approaches.

In sessions, the first thing many people notice is the body settling. The breath softens, heart rate slows down, and the shoulders drop, meaning your overall muscular tone and tension relaxes. From there we can work on whatever keeps the anxiety going. Read more about hypnotherapy for anxiety and hypnotherapy for stress.

2. Relief from irritable bowel syndrome

IBS is the benefit of hypnotherapy with the most medical recognition in the UK.

• NICE guidance says people whose IBS has not responded to medication after 12 months should be considered for psychological therapy, and it names hypnotherapy.
• In the IMAGINE trial of 354 adults, published in 2019, 40% of people who had individual hypnotherapy reported adequate relief after three months, against 17% of those who had education and support.
• Group hypnotherapy helped too, at 33%, and the benefit was still there at nine months.

The gut and the nervous system are in constant conversation. Gut focused hypnotherapy calms the stress response that so often makes symptoms worse.

3. Less pain, and calmer medical procedures

Hypnosis can turn down how strongly pain is felt.

• A 2019 review of 85 controlled trials found around 42% less pain in highly responsive people and around 29% in moderately responsive people.
• Those trials used pain created in the laboratory, so more research on chronic pain is still needed.
• A 2013 review of 34 trials with more than 2,500 patients found less pain and distress around surgery and medical procedures.

This is why hypnosis can help before an operation, a dental appointment or a scan you are dreading. It should always sit alongside medical care, never replace it.

4. Better sleep

The evidence for sleep is promising, and it is where I often see change happen fastest.

• A 2018 review found that more than half of the studies it examined reported better sleep after hypnosis.
• Many of those studies were small, so the evidence is promising rather than proven.

When the mind learns to switch off its alarm at night, sleep often begins to regulate on its own. Read more about hypnotherapy for insomnia.

5. Help changing habits

Hypnotherapy can help with smoking, emotional eating and procrastination, but the research is mixed.

• A 2019 Cochrane review could not say for certain whether hypnotherapy helps more people stay smoke free after six months than other approaches.
• Many of the trials were small, and some found it as effective as standard counselling.

Habits usually do a job: they calm, soothe or distract. Change tends to come when we work with the feeling the habit was managing. Some clients stop after a session or two; others need more time. See stop smoking hypnosis, hypnotherapy for emotional eating and hypnotherapy for procrastination.

6. More confidence when it counts

Hypnosis lets you rehearse a difficult moment while your body stays calm.

• Think of a presentation, an interview or a first night on stage.
• Direct research on confidence is limited, but the nerves behind it respond to the same methods that help anxiety.
• Mental rehearsal is widely used in sport and performance.

Read more about hypnotherapy for confidence and hypnotherapy for self esteem.

7. A more flexible relationship with yourself

For many of my clients, this is the benefit that matters most.

• Brain imaging at Stanford University shows that, in highly hypnotisable people, hypnosis quietens the brain's alarm network.
• It strengthens the link between the thinking brain and the areas that sense the body.
• It makes the inner voice that keeps telling us who we are less dominant.

In that state, beliefs such as "I am not creative" or "I cannot speak in public" begin to loosen. You get to feel something different, not just think it. Read more in what happens in the brain during hypnosis.

Who benefits most from hypnotherapy?

Responsiveness to hypnosis varies from person to person. In the pain research, people who were highly or moderately responsive benefited most, while those with low responsiveness gained little. Responsiveness is not a sign of weakness or gullibility. It is closer to a talent for absorption, like getting lost in a book or a piece of music, and in my experience it often grows with practice.

Other things matter too: a clear goal, feeling safe with your therapist, practising between sessions, and choosing someone properly trained. I am registered with the General Hypnotherapy Register and the General Hypnotherapy Standards Council, and I teach every client simple self hypnosis so the benefits continue at home.

What I have learned since 2010

What I notice most, after many years in the therapy room, is that the benefits rarely stay in one box. Someone comes for sleep and finds that their anxiety in meetings has eased too. Someone comes to stop smoking and discovers a calmer way of handling pressure. Hypnotherapy is not a quick fix, but it is often faster and more embodied than people expect.

If you would like to find out what hypnotherapy could do for you, you can book a session at my clinic in Camden, London, or online.

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