Hypnotherapy on Mindfulness and Perceived Stress in Women with Emotional Failure

A highly painful event that individuals might experience is a romantic relationship collapse. Due to the subtle spirit of women, this group is more prone to suffer mental damages. The damages caused is increased perceived stress and decreased mindfulness in these individuals. Perceived stress is a psychological state or process in which individuals perceive their biopsychological well-being as threatening. Mindfulness defined as a state of understanding and being aware of what is going on at the moment. Mindfulness is a clear awareness of a person about what occurs inside and in interaction with the outside environment in the consecutive moments of perceptions. Given the depth of damage caused by emotional failure, hypnotherapy intervention could be beneficial in this group. Hypnotherapy is a Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) technique that could be effective in treating individuals with a history of emotional failure. Cognitive-behavioral hypnotherapy involves several basic methods, including relaxation, guided imaging, cognitive reconstruction, gradual desensitization, and hypnotic skills training. Due to the emergence of essential problems in women with a history of emotional failure, this study aimed to determine the effects of hypnotherapy on mindfulness and perceived stress in women with a history of emotional failure.

This was a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest and a control group design. The statistical population of this study was all 20- to 40-year-old women referring to counseling centers in Amol City, Iran, in 2017; of which, 30 individuals were randomly assigned to the intervention (n=15) and control (n=15) groups. The study participants were selected by convenience sampling method after establishing the signs of emotional failure. Rosschr('39')s Emotional Damage questionnaire (1999), Perceived Stress Scale (Kohen et al, 1983), and Mindfulness Scale (Brown & Rian, 2003) were used for data collection. The study subjects were then subjected to hypnotherapy for eight 2-hour weekly sessions. However, the control group received no intervention. The above-mentioned questionnaires were completed in two stages; after the completion of hypnotherapy and one month after the last session of hypnotherapy. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the achieved data. Various descriptive statistics, such as frequency table, frequency percentage, mean, and standard deviation were used for descriptive analysis. The Shapiro–Wilk test was used to examine the normal distribution of data. The repeated-measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was applied to analyze the findings at the significance level of p<0.05.

The repeated-measures ANOVA data suggested that 8 sessions of hypnotherapy training have increased the mindfulness scores in the experimental group (F=130.00, p<0.001). Furthermore, 8 sessions of hypnotherapy training have led to a reduction of the perceived stress scores in the experimental group (F=36.00, p<0.001). These results continued during the follow-up stage in the mind-reading (p<0.001) and perceived stress (p<0.001) variables.

hypnotherapy improves mindfulness with mental relaxation training, increased awareness, acceptance, and desensitization. Besides, it reduces perceived stress in women with a history of emotional breakdown by training diaphragmatic breathing, or deep breathing and progressive relaxation. Therefore, this treatment is effective in improving mindfulness and reducing perceived stress in women with a history of emotional failure. Moreover, it effectively increases the quality of life in this population.