Due to certain shows and television programs, suggestive techniques have been greatly damaged, have lost credibility and are perceived as a kind of spell by which, a hypnotist can get anything from another person. From being a musical prodigy to making a complete fool of himself.

But nothing is further from the truth, suggestion is a highly studied psychological process and that, carried out by qualified health professionals, can be of great help in certain cognitive-behavioral treatments.

What is suggestion?

In literal terms, suggestion is known as the psychological process that allows the mental manipulation of other people through a series of techniques; other people, the media or all kinds of agents such as music or books, have the capacity to guide or lead people’s ideas, emotions or behaviour .

Although traditionally associated with hypnosis, the suggestions are effective and commonly used in other settings where the person is outside of a hypnotic state. For example, advertising in the media has always been accused of manipulating our behavior to achieve its own ends and benefits.

However, suggestion can exert enormous power over our behavior, as well as the way we perceive reality. But for this purpose, it is equally important the capacity of a person or agent to exercise suggestion, as well as the suggestibility or manipulability of the person who is the object .

This means that a highly suggestible person is susceptible to manipulation by any agent without being noticed. In these cases, it is very likely that he or she will get carried away by what is broadcast in the media, advertisements and publicity or by what other people tell him or her.

Its application in hypnosis and clinical practice

As described in the previous point, suggestion has traditionally been associated with the practices of hypnosis. And although they are closely related there are some factors that differentiate them. By hypnosis we can understand the complete process through which the person is immersed in a mental state of trance or altered consciousness, while suggestion would be the concrete act of transmitting a certain message or information to the person.

However, there is an extensive debate about whether hypnosis or the hypnotic state is a real trance-like state or whether, instead, the altered behaviour is explained through motivational factors or conditions such as the person’s attitude or expectations. Although for many years these techniques have been highly questioned, in recent years a progressive increase in their use in clinical and health contexts, both physical and psychological, has been observed.

The main reason why, traditionally, these procedures have been very much doubted is that they have been represented as an almost magical practice in which one person, looking more like a magician or wizard than a professional in psychology, exerted a series of spells on the other that led him to behave in an eccentric or strange way. Nevertheless, several studies have shown that, when carried out seriously and always by a professional in psychology and hypnosis, suggestive techniques can be considerably effective as an adjuvant to cognitive-behavioural treatments .

This means that, according to this research, treatments for a series of specific conditions or ailments that are accompanied by a few sessions that include hypnotic techniques, are more effective than if they were performed without them.

These interventions include treatments for smoking cessation and some behavioural addictions, physical pain management, sleep disorders, weight loss processes or nocturnal enuresis in children; for which hypnotic processes have been shown to be highly effective.

Similarly, many other experts highlight the possible effectiveness of hypnotic techniques such as part of cognitive behavioural therapy for the treatment of emotional disorders such as anxiety or depression.

Types of suggestions

There is an extensive classification of the types of suggestion, which are distinguished according to whether they are made directly or indirectly, according to the moment in which the effect of the suggestion is carried out or according to the reaction that is expected to be provoked .

Direct or indirect suggestion

The first classification is that which distinguishes between direct and indirect suggestions.

1. Direct suggestion

Also known as authoritarian, in this type of suggestion the person is told directly what is intended to be experienced . For example: “notice how your eyelids are getting heavier and heavier”.

2. Indirect suggestion

Incorrectly called permissive suggestions, in this case an attempt is made to obtain a response without the person’s conscious consent. These are especially useful for people who are sceptical or suspicious of treatment.

Suggestions according to the moment

On the other hand, depending on whether or not the effects of the suggestion end at the end of the hypnotic intervention, we can differentiate between hypnotic suggestions and post-hypnotic suggestions

1. Hypnotic suggestions

When we refer to hypnotic suggestions, we are talking about those that begin when the professional begins the suggestive technique and end with the end of the hypnotic state. That is, the person will only experience the effects of hypnosis for the duration of the session .

2. Post-hypnotic suggestions

In this second type of suggestion, which is more commonly used in clinical practice, the suggestions are given or ordered during the session, but are experienced by the person after the session has ended . The intention is for the person to modify their behaviour or thinking in daily life, not just during the consultation.

Suggestions according to the reaction provoked

The last and most extensive of the classifications is that which divides the types of suggestion according to the intended reaction. In this case we can distinguish between the following.

1. Motor suggestions

Motor suggestions aim at a physical or motor response. This includes both the induction of certain movements and the inhibition of these movements. They can be used to make a person move any of his joints or, on the contrary, immerse him in a state of paralysis or catalepsy .

2. Sensory-physiological suggestions

By sensory-physiological suggestions we mean the induction of all those responses related to the psychophysiology of the person , as well as to the proprioceptive capacity.

Examples of these suggestions are those that try to provoke or inhibit in the person sensations of pain, of changes in temperature, of heaviness or any sensation related to the senses, with the exception of life and the auditory sense, which are included in the cognitive-perceptive suggestions.

3. Cognitive-perceptive suggestions

Finally, the cognitive-perceptive suggestions refer to reactions provoked in the higher mental processes such as memory, as well as in the auditory and visual sensory processes .

Therefore, using suggestive techniques can alter a person’s ability to perceive a particular stimulus, as well as cause a kind of hallucination or visual or auditory images.

However, it is necessary to specify that these hallucinations have nothing to do with what the traditional hypnosis shows are intended to provoke or simulate, as well as with the hallucinations experienced in certain psychiatric disorders.