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SELF-HYPNOSIS FOR DEPRESSION IN PRIMARY CARE
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changes in activity within brain structures essential for the basic regula-
tion of states of consciousness, self-monitoring, and self-regulation . . .
diminished tendency to judge, monitor, and censor . . . the suspension
of usual orientation toward time, location, and/or sense of self; and the
experience of one’s own response as automatic or extra-volitional.
(p. 898)
This is reinforced by thinking-style research, where it appears that the
diminished tendency to judge, to monitor, and to censor and a reduced
sense of self are both part of decentered thinking. The posterior pari-
etal lobe of the brain is a key structure in our sense of agency. When
we see movements in others, neurons in our premotor cortex makes us
mirror the same actions—so called “mirror neurons” (Gallese, Fadiga,
Fogassi, & Rizzolatti, 1996). Rainville et al. particularly note decreases
of right posterior parietal rCBF (regional cerebral blood flow). The
parietal lobe distinguishes our own movements from other people’s, “sup-
porting . . . a visuospatial description of one’s own body” (Chaminade,
Meltzoff, &Decety, 2005, p. 115), defining our personal locus of control, that
we are the agents of the movements we are seeing (Keysers & Perrett, 2004),
which may explain the experience of anasognosia (neglect) in right-
sided parietal stroke, the patient losing their recognition of the left side
as part of “me,” so denying there is any problem.
Rainville et al. (2002) speculated that “changes in subjective experi-
ence and brain activity may contribute to other hypnosis-related
effects such as the altered feelings of agency experienced in hypnosis”
(p. 898). In ideomotor movement, the subject views their movements
as an external event, as if the movement is not under their control, and,
in the style of Cheek and Lecron (1968), this can be taken even further
with the therapist and client taking a powerfully decentered observer
perspective (Heap et al., 2002, p. 218). Many techniques in hypnother-
apy share this observer perspective where we “notice how” (dissoci-
ate, decenter) rather than “think about why” events unfold, such as the
cinema technique, the rewind technique, and the split-screen technique.
“Noticing” as an activity is implicit in many hypnotic inductions, for
instance where focusing on the motor and sensory associations of
breathing and in “progressive relaxation” (Jacobson, 1929). It may be
that, among its other actions, the practice of hypnosis may promote
decentered thinking and may facilitate movement between ruminative
and decentered (abstract and concrete) thinking styles. An example of
this would be the level alignment process exercise devised by Robert
Dilts (Dilts & Delozier, 2000). Collapsing anchors (Cameron-Bandler,
1978) initiate a change of internal state as a marker for unconscious
triggers then short circuits this by a cognitive tool (positive anchor)
with a positive effect and mastery of the client’s choosing. This latter is
an excellent model for frontal-lobe-driven extinction (DLPFC inhibit-
ing amygdala on activation of a preconscious trigger via the vmPFC).
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