Beyond Empathy: The Tree of Compassion With Malevolent Ego States.

Therapy with seriously dissociated patients requires the transformation and integration of malevolent ego states that produce a wide assortment of negative experiences and behaviors in the patient. During the course of therapy, they can present dangers to both patient and therapist, as well as to the therapeutic process (Watkins & Watkins, 1984). Perhaps the greatest challenges for therapists in this work are the development and the maintenance of empathy for these personality aspects. Without some degree of empathy, a healing therapeutic alliance cannot be formed, and absent a secure, healing, intersubjective experience, it is unlikely that malevolent ego states can undergo sufficient transformation for integration. Essential elements for developing and sustaining both the necessary empathy and the compassion, the altruistic activity that empathy engenders, are presented.

The center core in ego state therapy and other hypnotically facilitated psychotherapies.

Center core phenomena have been utilized in the practice of ego state therapy and other forms of hypnotically facilitated psychotherapy for nearly 40 years. Despite the frequency with which they are employed, many confusions, contradictions, and questions remain concerning them. In this article relevant center core phenomena literature is reviewed and an essential differentiation between two different kinds of center core phenomena is clarified. Psychodynamic explanations are offered for the therapeutic benefits of archetypal center core experiences such as inner strength and inner wisdom. The information provided offers clinicians a sturdier platform from which to decide whether to incorporate center core experiences into clinical practice. The persistent question of whether center core phenomena are ego states is revisited and addressed.

Phenomenological and evidence based research in ego state therapy: recognized and unrecognized successes and future directions.

The status of research in ego state therapy is examined against the backdrop of 20th and 21st century developments in the philosophy of science and the emerging recognition of the subjective as a vital element in all science. Attention is paid to the phenomenological method because until recently phenomenological studies have been the basis for the standards of care and training in ego state therapy as well as in many aspects of hypnotically facilitated psychotherapy. The importance of bringing an end to the "science wars" through the integration of the subjective and the objective, of phenomenological studies and evidence-based studies in ego state therapy and hypnosis research, is proposed.

A new bioinformatics paradigm for the theory, research, and practice of therapeutic hypnosis.

In a 2008 pilot study we used DNA microarrays to explore the historical ideo-plastic faculty of therapeutic hypnosis. We documented how to measure changes in activity or experience-dependent gene expression over relatively brief time periods (1 hour and 24 hours) following a single intervention of therapeutic hypnosis (about 1 hour). In the present paper we utilize bioinformatic software to explore the possible meaning and significance of this ideo-plastic faculty of therapeutic hypnosis. Indications suggest that the ideo-plastic process of therapeutic hypnosis may be associated with (1) the heightening of a molecular-genomic signature for the up-regulation (heightened activity) of genes characteristic of stem cell growth, (2) a reduction in cellular oxidative stress, and (3) a reduction in chronic inflammation. We identify these three empirical associations as an initial beta version of the molecular-genomic signature of the ideo-plastic process of therapeutic hypnosis, which can serve as a theoretical and practical guide for clinical excellence by beginners as well as senior professionals. We propose this molecular-genomic level of discourse as a supplement to the traditional cognitive-behavioral description of therapeutic suggestion, hypnosis, and psychotherapy that is consistent with "translational research" currently funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

Hypnotically facilitated treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder: can it be evidence-based?

There are extensive evidence-based guidelines for the treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) with medication, behavior therapy, and cognitive therapy. Nevertheless, there remain a significant percentage of patients whose symptoms are more or less refractory to standardized treatments. This situation could be rooted in the phenotypic heterogeneity of the disorder as well as in its high rates of comorbid psychopathology. Studies have also found OCD to be associated with higher levels of dissociation. This paper examines what may be needed to establish evidence-based hypnotically facilitated therapies for treatment-resistant OCD. It provides an introduction to the complexity of the treatment issues surrounding OCD and considers both possibilities for and obstacles to setting up an evidence-base for using hypnotically facilitated psychotherapies for its treatment.