New Ideas in the world of Hypnotherpay, (and elsewhere)

• Hypnotherpay & IBS
  A recent study conducted at the Mind Body Digestive Centre In New York, by Mary Joan Gerson PhD, a Clinical Professor of Couple and Family therapy, and Charles Gerson MD, a Gastroenterologist, showed that hypnotherapy was of significant value in treating IBS.
  The 75 patients participating in the study underwent 45 minute hypnotherapy sessions every other week, supplemented group meetings and audio tapes.
  All patients shifted their categorisation of their IBS from “Severe and moderate” to “Mild and inactive".
  Gerson, M. & Gerson, C. "Gut-Focused Hypnotherapy in a Group Format Significantly Reduces Symptoms in Refractory Irritable Bowel Syndrome"

• Science Daily reports that Laurie Keefer, a clinical health psychologist and assistant professor of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, has begun a study of 80 patients over three years investigating the use of hypnotherapy in treating Ulcerative Colitis.
  Results so far are promising with participants showing a significant reduction in the number of relapses experienced.
  "These numbers are encouraging because the study specifically targets individuals who flare a couple times a year," Keefer said. Subjects are also expected to take their routine maintenance medication during the trial.

• Bringing Psychotherpay to Life: Legacies from the Society of Psychotherapy Research
  In this remarkable new book, Sixty authors were enlisted to chronicle the works of 28 national and international researchers who have been responsible for the major directions and the majority of the studies in the field over the last half century.
  Questions such as: Does therapy work? How does it work? Are answered through by leading researchers and specialists in the field.
  You can find a more detailed review here