Scientific Evidence Supporting Hypnotherapy & NLP

Published Research on Hypnosis, by Topic

Each entry names the study, what kind of study it was, and what its authors reported, including where results were mixed or the evidence was weak. Many of these studies were done with patients in clinical settings. We list them as published research on hypnosis. They are not a description of what our sessions treat, and individual results vary.

Anxiety

• Valentine KE, et al. (2019). The Efficacy of Hypnosis as a Treatment for Anxiety: A Meta-Analysis. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. Meta-analysis of 17 controlled trials. Hypnosis was associated with a larger reduction in anxiety than control conditions, and was more effective when combined with other psychological approaches than when used alone.

Sleep

• Chamine I, Atchley R, Oken BS (2018). Hypnosis Intervention Effects on Sleep Outcomes: A Systematic Review. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. Systematic review of 24 studies. 58.3% of studies reported a benefit of hypnosis on sleep outcomes, 12.5% reported mixed results and 29.2% reported no benefit. The authors rated the evidence as limited by small samples and low methodological quality.
• Elkins G, et al. (2021). Hypnosis Intervention for Sleep Disturbance: Determination of Optimal Dose and Method of Delivery for Postmenopausal Women. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. Randomised pilot trial, 90 participants. Sleep quality improved in all four hypnosis formats tested, with no significant differences between them. There was no comparison group without hypnosis.
• Cordi MJ, Schlarb AA, Rasch B (2014). Deepening sleep by hypnotic suggestion. Sleep. Placebo-controlled crossover experiment, 70 healthy young women. In suggestible participants, a hypnotic suggestion before a 90-minute nap was followed by more slow-wave sleep than a control recording. The effect was not seen in low-suggestible participants.

These studies vary in quality, and one was done with healthy sleepers taking a nap.

Weight management

Results in this area are mixed.

• Allison DB, Faith MS (1996). Hypnosis as an adjunct to cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy for obesity: a meta-analytic reappraisal. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. Meta-analysis, re-analysis of 6 studies. The authors concluded that adding hypnosis to cognitive-behavioral therapy for weight loss gives at most a small improvement.
• Bo S, et al. (2018). Effects of Self-Conditioning Techniques (Self-Hypnosis) in Promoting Weight Loss in Patients with Severe Obesity. Obesity. Randomised controlled trial, 120 participants, 1 year. Weight loss at one year was similar with and without self-hypnosis added to diet and exercise advice. The self-hypnosis group reported higher satiety and quality of life.
• Delestre F, et al. (2022). Hypnosis reduces food impulsivity in patients with obesity and high levels of disinhibition: HYPNODIET randomized controlled clinical trial. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Randomised controlled trial, 82 participants, 8 months. Participants who received hypnosis and self-hypnosis training alongside nutrition education had lower eating-disinhibition scores than those given nutrition education alone. The difference in weight did not reach statistical significance.
• Stradling J, et al. (1998). Controlled trial of hypnotherapy for weight loss in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea. International Journal of Obesity. Randomised controlled trial, 60 participants, 18 months. Hypnotherapy focused on stress reduction, added to dietary advice, was associated with a statistically significant weight loss at 18 months that the authors described as small.

Stress

• Fisch S, Brinkhaus B, Teut M (2017). Hypnosis in patients with perceived stress: a systematic review. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Systematic review of 9 randomised trials. Six of nine trials reported significant stress reduction with hypnosis compared with control groups. All nine had a high risk of bias, and the authors concluded that effectiveness remains unclear.
• Fisch S, et al. (2020). Group hypnosis for stress reduction and improved stress coping: a multicenter randomized controlled trial. BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies. Randomised controlled trial, 95 participants. Healthy adults with elevated stress who attended five weekly group hypnosis sessions reported lower perceived stress at 5 and 12 weeks than a control group given an educational booklet.
• Olendzki N, et al. (2020). Mindful Hypnotherapy to Reduce Stress and Increase Mindfulness: A Randomized Controlled Pilot Study. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. Randomised pilot trial, 42 participants. College-age participants in an 8-week mindful hypnotherapy programme reported a larger decrease in perceived distress than a wait-list group.
• Slonena EE, Elkins GR (2021). Effects of a Brief Mindful Hypnosis Intervention on Stress Reactivity: A Randomized Active Control Study. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. Randomised trial, 55 participants. Participants given a brief audio-based mindful hypnosis intervention showed lower stress reactivity in a laboratory stress test than those given a cognitive-training control.

Fears and phobias

Most controlled research in this area is on dental fear.

• Wolf TG, et al. (2022). Efficacy of Hypnosis on Dental Anxiety and Phobia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Brain Sciences. Systematic review of 19 trials. Cognitive-behavioral therapy had the most evidence. The five hypnosis studies that could be pooled showed contrasting results.
• Glaesmer H, Geupel H, Haak R (2015). A controlled trial on the effect of hypnosis on dental anxiety in tooth removal patients. Patient Education and Counseling. Controlled trial, 102 participants. Patients who received hypnosis alongside usual care reported lower anxiety during tooth removal than those given usual care alone, with no difference after the procedure.
• Moore R, Brødsgaard I, Abrahamsen R (2002). A 3-year comparison of dental anxiety treatment outcomes: hypnosis, group therapy and individual desensitization vs. no specialist treatment. European Journal of Oral Sciences. Controlled comparison with 3-year follow-up. After three years, 54.5% of hypnotherapy patients were attending the dentist regularly, compared with 46.1% of an untreated reference group, with few differences between the three approaches compared.
• Spiegel D, et al. (2015). Hypnotic responsivity and the treatment of flying phobia. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis. Follow-up of a case series, 158 participants, no comparison group. After one session of hypnosis with problem restructuring for fear of flying, people rated as hypnotisable were more likely to report a positive impact than those rated non-hypnotisable.

We did not find a controlled trial of hypnosis for fear of flying.

Chronic pain

• Langlois P, et al. (2022). Hypnosis to manage musculoskeletal and neuropathic chronic pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews. Meta-analysis of 9 randomised trials, 530 participants. Hypnosis was associated with a moderate decrease in pain intensity and pain interference compared with control interventions, with a significant effect for programmes of 8 or more sessions.
• Jones HG, et al. (2024). Adjunctive use of hypnosis for clinical pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Pain Reports. Meta-analysis of 70 studies. Adding hypnosis to usual care was found to have a small additional pain-reducing effect in chronic pain. The authors rated the certainty of the evidence as very low.
• Milling LS, et al. (2021). Hypnosis and the Alleviation of Clinical Pain: A Comprehensive Meta-Analysis. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. Meta-analysis of 45 trials. Across controlled trials of clinical pain of any kind, hypnosis was associated with a medium-sized reduction in pain relative to control conditions, with larger effects in more suggestible participants.

Irritable bowel syndrome

IBS is a medical diagnosis. This research is on gut-directed hypnotherapy delivered in clinical settings.

• Adler EC, et al. (2025). Gut-Directed Hypnotherapy for Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Neurogastroenterology and Motility. Meta-analysis of 12 studies, 1,158 patients. All 12 studies favoured gut-directed hypnotherapy over the comparator. In the pooled analysis the improvement was statistically significant for pain, but not for global symptoms.
• Schaefert R, et al. (2014). Efficacy, tolerability, and safety of hypnosis in adult irritable bowel syndrome: systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychosomatic Medicine. Meta-analysis of 8 randomised trials, 464 patients. Hypnosis was found superior to control conditions for adequate symptom relief at the end of therapy and at long-term follow-up.
• Flik CE, et al. (2019). Efficacy of individual and group hypnotherapy in irritable bowel syndrome (IMAGINE): a multicentre randomised controlled trial. Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology. Randomised controlled trial, 354 participants. At 3 months, 40.8% of the individual-hypnotherapy group and 33.2% of the group-hypnotherapy group reported adequate relief, compared with 16.7% of an education control group.

Smoking cessation

• Barnes J, et al. (2019). Hypnotherapy for smoking cessation. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Cochrane review of 14 randomised trials, 1,926 participants. The review found insufficient evidence to determine whether hypnotherapy is more effective for quitting smoking than other behavioural support or unassisted quitting.
• Carmody TP, et al. (2008). Hypnosis for smoking cessation: a randomized trial. Nicotine and Tobacco Research. Randomised controlled trial, 286 participants. With nicotine patches given to both groups, confirmed abstinence at 12 months was 20% with hypnosis and 14% with behavioural counselling, a difference that was not statistically significant.