Have you ever encountered a Doctor with a great bedside manner and felt very at ease? Or perhaps you have felt that during a hospital procedure you were made to feel more scared during a time when you would be in a heightened state of anxiety anyway?

As a hypnotherapist I work with people who are worried about health issues and may even have a fear of needles or an operation that they really need. I even work with dental patients who know that if they do not overcome the problem then their teeth could suffer, or even fall out. I know how much the words that I say help people and of course this means that I am very aware of the language and what can often be called converstainal hypnosis.

Study shows that words can help patients before surgery even more than pills.

In fact conversational hypnosis may do a better job than pills for relaxing patients before surgery according to a brand new study being presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY™ 2015 annual meeting. Anxious patients heading into surgery often receive medication to ease their fears, you may have been in this situation yourself, but in fact a few calming words from the health professionals might actually be an even more effective medicine.

Emmanuel Boselli, is the lead author of the study and a physician anesthesiologist at édouard Herriot Hospital, Lyons, France. He said...

"The anesthesiologist uses calm, positive words to divert the patient's attention and help him or her feel more comfortable. It reflects a change in the way the physician interacts with the patient and takes just a few minutes."

It's in the way that you say it.

The way that you phrase the information that you present makes all the difference. For instance talking quietly and with a positive aspect to the patient and saying things like  "Keep calm and quiet" instead of  "Please don't move". Alongside this they showed that focusing the patient's attention on something other than the preparations for surgery and anesthesia procedure has a great effect.

This was compared to the use of a standard medication called hydroxyzine, which is taken orally to relax patients before their procedure.

Asked to rate the effects on a scale ranging from 0 (no comfort) to 10 (maximal comfort) the results may well surprise you.

Words vs Pills

The average comfort scale of those who had received hypnosis was 6.7 before and 9.3 after, while patients who had medication averaged 7.8 before and 8.3 after. So clearly the calming words and distraction worked better than the drugs and medication.

It’s interesting to note how just the way that you are spoken to makes a real difference, and if even more effective that drugs.

It’s something that we see in dentistry. When the dentist says to you before an injection “This is just a little scratch” then that’s what you feel. If your dentist says “I hope this doesn’t hurt too much” then you would feel more pain...and perhaps it would be time to think about changing dentists too!

If you feel anxious about a medical procedure then you really can get help and learn to be more relaxed right the way through it.

Is Peter Powers really hypnotising people on Mesmerised?

Another new TV show starts this week that uses hypnosis for entertainment. In the UK we have had  “Back in the Room” which will return for a new series next year and has also aired around the world, including France where a new version has just begun.

Are they faking it on Mesmerised?

 This time the show appears on Australian Television on Channel 7 Starting on October 22^nd and is called “Mesmerised” The star and hypnotist of this show is British Born Peter Powers who has been living and working don under for many years.

When interviewed by the Sydney Morning Herald to promote the show he was asked if he was at all worried that the contestants on his tv show might feel humiliated. 

"They know it's a comedy. People who volunteer know what it will entail, but not specifically the routine, because the way hypnosis works, if the person knows in advance what is required of them, you will not get the subconsciously driven hypnotic response. I've been doing the stage shows for 31 years, and I've had no complaints from people saying, 'I didn't know you were going to make me squawk like a chicken or behave like a belly dancer'. I say to them in advance that their imagination can be played with, so I can make something appear that isn't really there, or I can make something disappear that is really there, I can change your mood, I can make you ecstatic, I can make you think somebody has a really bad smell if they sit next to you. 

But the assurance I could give them for this series, because this is Channel Seven, prime time, is you will not behave in any way that is sexual in nature, you will not be removing your clothes, you won't be swearing, this is a family show where people can watch with their children. There's no way we're going to expose people to something they find humiliating or that they'll never live down with their families.

Can they remember what happened when they come round?

Is Mesmerised a fake hypnosis show?

It’s interesting that when the British show Back in the Room aired with Phil Schofield presenting and Hypnotist Keith Barry working with his volounteers he made a big deal about the fact they would not remember what happened to them when they “woke up”  this is in fact far from reality. When asked the same question by the SMH Peter Powers gave a much more honest response..

"They don't forget, by the way. When you've finished filming, it's not as if they think, 'I've just come round, I've got no idea what just happened'. That's a misconception. The people who've been involved in a certain routine, they know about it."

You can read more about myths about hypnosis and see how you could hypnotise yourself with any pocket watch or even a swinging chain in this video...

Mesmerised airs on Thursday, October 22, at 8pm on Channel Seven in Australia.

Update from 22nd October..

Mesmerised the Hypnosis TV show fails to hypnotise the audience.

The latest news about this TV show is that it has been put to sleep after just one episode aired.

The second episode of Mesmerised, was to have aired on Thursday but the Seven Network has replaced it with yet another animal-based series called Dog Patrol, a documentary series about canine support teams who help the police fight crime.

Peter Powers may be well known in Australia for his stage shows featuring hypnosis but unfortunately his skills didn't convert into TV ratings.

The ratings showed that in fact the launch episode which aired on October 15 attracted just 411,000 viewers and was 22nd overall on OzTAM's overnight five-city metro ratings.

A Seven Network Television spokeswoman says Mesmerised is yet to be rescheduled.