Editorial.

Abstract

This issue of the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis has been assembled at what is hopefully the conclusion of the COVID-19 pandemic era in the United States. However, the concerns for this and other viral threats remain globally. Individuals are still experiencing lock downs, work closures, and remote learning. As a result of these distractions and inconveniences, many have developed new problems and/or experienced an exacerbation of previous setbacks. While most of the articles in this issue do not directly address the problems caused by the pandemic, all have bearing on some of the threatening aspects that have resulted from it: learning difficulties, obesity, postponed dental treatments, anxiety, and needle phobias. I am happy to present a timely issue that includes several articles, which have bearing on treating the sequelae of these current worldwide problems. It is my hope that with a little creativity, many readers will be prompted to expand on these ideas and develop further realistic and needed advances in each of these relevant areas. The study from French researchers, Aurélie Untas, Kristopher Lamore, Fabienne Delestre, Guillaume Lehericey, Philippe Giral, and Emilie Cappe is “Psychosocial Effects of Hypnosis in Patients with Obesity: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.” As the title explains, this is a pilot study on the possible benefits of using interventions delivered in hypnosis with patients diagnosed with obesity. Most studies have only concerned themselves with measures of weight loss, but the authors wanted to address and measure changes in quality of life, coping strategies, and self-esteem issues with this study. Beginning with a group size of 82 participants, 41 were assigned to the hypnosis group and received eightgroup sessions over approximately 24 weeks. Both groups received nutritional education information and instructions. The authors describe the intervention delivered during hypnosis as therapeutic suggestions with “a metaphor of change compared to nature to promote psycho-corporeal changes.” Of special interest to reader, the group hypnosis sessions has an unique feature. Each session began with self-reports by participant on their experiences with hypnosis and self-hypnosis. These reports allowed the operator to identify emotion-keywords that would then be used during the subsequent hypnosis in a manner thought to personalize the suggestions. Two months after intervention completion, patients from the non-hypnosis group showed no significant changes on the studied factors. However, patients from the hypnosis group showed significant improvement using more task-oriented coping, less emotion-oriented coping, and reported higher levels for energy, that is, less fatigue. In an article titled, “Therapeutic Hypnosis in a Child With a Written Language Disorder” by Célia Hery-Niaussata, Auriane Grosa, Valeria Maneraa, and Philippe Penigaultc, the authors used a single-case design with repeated measures. They studied the benefits of a hypnosis-based treatment on progress with reading and verbal fluency with an 11-year old diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). They used four sessions of intervention with hypnosis over an eight-week duration. re-intervention scores, on-going, and post-therapy scores were accumulated and showed that the patient improved in selfesteem and attention. Despite the findings that verbal fluence improvement did not reach AMERICAN JOURNAL OF CLINICAL HYPNOSIS 2023, VOL. 65, NO. 4, 267–268 https://doi.org/10.1080/00029157.2023.2184167