Is Hypnosis dangerous? Contraindications and side effects

Situations that call for medical advice first

This list is not a closed door. It says: this decision is not ours, it belongs to your doctor or psychiatrist. In several of these situations an accompaniment is still possible, but within a framework that has to be set with them.

Psychotic disorders

Schizophrenia, delusional disorders, a current psychotic episode. The reason is technical: a session draws on imagination, representation and a light form of distancing. For someone whose relationship with reality is already fragile, that can be poorly tolerated or misinterpreted.

If this concerns you and you are being followed, talk to your psychiatrist. It is their decision, not ours.

Dissociative disorders

Dissociative identity disorder, depersonalisation, derealisation. The same logic, and even more so: these disorders require specialised care, from professionals trained in that specific framework.

Bipolar disorder in an unstable phase

In a stable period and with the agreement of the doctor following you, an accompaniment is often possible. In an acute phase, no.

Severe depression, or suicidal thoughts

The priority is medical, without discussion. A complementary accompaniment may have its place afterwards, once follow-up is in place — see our page on depression.

Recent or unstabilised trauma

No. It is a contraindication, not a precaution.

The hypnotic state can trigger a reliving that nothing allows you to anticipate and that has to be contained. A recent event, or older trauma that still shows itself through intrusive images, nightmares, hypervigilance or avoidance, calls for specialised care: a doctor, psychologist or psychiatrist trained in psychotrauma.

Hypnosis can have its place later, once the situation has stabilised and in liaison with the professional following you. Not before, and never in their place.

Significant cognitive impairment

A session assumes you can understand and follow what is proposed. In the context of a neurodegenerative disease, adapting it is discussed with the care team.

An addiction without care in place

The accompaniment is designed in coordination with medical follow-up, not in its place.

Under the influence of alcohol or substances

A session does not take place in those conditions. It will be postponed.

The risk nobody talks about, and it is the main one

It is neither the hypnotic state nor the session. It is lost time.

Someone who has had abdominal pain for six months and books a hypnosis appointment rather than seeing a doctor. Someone who puts their exhaustion down to stress and has never had their thyroid checked. Someone working on their anxiety when they actually have sleep apnoea.

In all these cases, hypnosis does no harm in itself. The problem is what was not done in the meantime.

That is why most of our pages begin by sending you to a doctor. It is not a legal precaution: it is the only serious risk of this approach, and it is entirely avoidable.

The second risk: the practitioner

The title of hypnotherapist is regulated neither in France nor in Quebec. Anyone can use it.

The signals that should make you leave:

• You are offered or encouraged to stop, reduce or change a treatment. No non-medical practitioner has any business giving an opinion on that.
• You are guaranteed a result, or told a number of sessions before they have even met you — as our page how many hypnosis sessions do you need explains.
• You are offered a cure for an illness, or the word "heal" is used.
• You are asked to commit and pay for several sessions in advance, before even the first meeting. Not to be confused with a format announced for a specific goal, for example a quit-smoking session sold with its reinforcement: content and price known in advance, it is a common and legitimate practice.
• You are discouraged from seeing a doctor, or your diagnosis is called into question.
• You are offered a search for buried memories, or past lives.
• They refuse to tell you where and for how long they trained.

Questions to ask: the school and the number of training hours, whether there is supervision, experience with your specific subject, and what they do if it does not work. Our page which type of hypnosis to choose helps you find your way among the approaches.

And self-hypnosis, apps, videos?

Self-hypnosis is useful, and most of our practitioners teach it. Two reservations all the same.

Learned first with someone. If a strong emotion comes up while you are alone with headphones on, nobody is there.

Not just any content. Online videos vary greatly in quality, with no control over what is suggested or over the competence of whoever produced them.

And if one of the situations that call for medical advice first applies to you, self-hypnosis is subject to the same precautions.

Book an appointment

Unsure about your situation? Write to us before booking. Ask us your question: we will tell you frankly whether hypnosis seems suitable, and where to turn if it is not. These questions are asked at the preliminary conversation, before any session. Wherever you are in the world, video consultation offers the same preliminary conversation and the same session as in the consulting room. We see people this way from France, Quebec, Morocco and well beyond. Here is how it works.