December 2025
I first came upon the idea of clinical hypnosis when sitting in a dental chair in consultation with my dentist some dozen years ago. As we always did, he and I got talking about shoes and ships and sealing wax and cabbages and kings and the subject of hypnosis came up. My dentist disappeared into another room and came out with a book on the history of the use of hypnosis in dentistry in Australia and invited me to borrow it. My interest was sparked.
Yes, I knew about hypnosis from my studies in psychology decades previously, and yes I knew about hypnosis as entertainment, but that was it. It really hadn’t entered my consciousness very deeply until now. So I got to thinking, incorporating hypnosis into my psychotherapeutic work would be very useful. I set about looking for decent courses in clinical hypnotherapy and found one down in Sydney. This course was spread over several months and required me to fly down to Sydney every month, find a place to stay and immerse myself in the theory and practice of this art. It also required me to write essays, record my sessions with clients, and the like. We had a mountain of stuff to read, to critique, and to incorporate into our practice. It was a good course, and I came out with a Diploma of Clinical Hypnotherapy, which with my Master of Counselling degree has proved very useful.
I see people with all sorts of issues for hypnotherapy, as with non-hypnotherapy clients, but the most frequent issues are sleep disturbances, smoking, fear of heights, fear of falling, of flying, self confidence issues, etc. One client needed hypnosis because she had to undergo bone scraping under local anaesthetic because she’d had too many full anaesthetics for the same procedure and the surgeon was concerned that her recovery rate was too compromised by full anaesthesia. The bone scraping was to stimulate healing. She’d been in horse riding accident and had nearly torn her foot off. The injury had become infected. A truly horrible condition. And so I was called in to hypnotise her, which I did and her recovery was hugely improved.
It is very interesting to me that it is only now, nearly 13 years later that I have my very first client receiving hypnosis for dental anxiety, particularly since I began with this as one of the reasons I chose to learn hypnosis in the first place.
Dental anxiety refers to fear of dental procedures and a reluctance to seek dental care, even when the person has major dental issues. According to the literature, the prevalence of dental anxiety is anything up to about 58% of people, but gauging real numbers is difficult. If someone is avoidant, are they going to own up to it? Avoidance of dental care can lead to significant health issues, including heart disease. The oral cavity can become septic and then the person is in grave danger, beyond just losing their teeth to chew efficiently. So avoiding dental care through anxiety worsens dental problems and that creates even more anxiety and more dental issues.
And then there’s the problem of pain. In the context of dental fear and anxiety, one can never ignore the topic of pain. Although pain has a clear physiological process which is the pain pathway, it also has a strong cognitive component. This means that a person who already has dental anxiety may have an exaggerated pain perception and experience, sometimes to the point of fainting. This is where hypnosis is very useful. The dentist can numb the physical pain, but the hypnotherapist can switch off the psychological fear.
So, if you have dental anxiety consider hypnotherapy for helping you overcome it and give you the means for attending important dental appointments. Hypnotherapy is very useful for many things, and this is there among them. Your overall health matters.
Please contact me via dr_mccardell@yahoo.com to make an appointment.
