What is Hypno-CBT® (HCBT)?
Hypno-CBT® (HCBT) is one among several extant systems of cognitive-behavioural hypnotherapy. It is not simply “hypnotherapy plus CBT”, however. As opposed to “theoretical eclecticism”, HCBT is a tight integration of social, cognitive and behavioural psychology with traditional hypnotism. It is based upon various established models of theory and practice which pre-date the development of modern cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT). Nevertheless, HCBT embraces the principle of evidence-based “technical eclecticism” (Lazarus) which encourages clinicians to seek proven methods from different modalities of psychological therapy and attempt to incorporate them within a consistent theoretical model. Modern research on hypnotherapy is increasingly focused upon the integration of hypnotherapy and CBT since the publication in a mainstream peer-reviewed psychology journal of an influential meta-analysis carried out in 1995 by Irvine Kirsch et al. Kirsch’s research team pooled data from 18 separate
