Dr.ª Cristina Miguel 

Psychiatrist
Specialising in Clinical Hypnosis
Post-Graduate in Cognitive-Behavioural Psychotherapy, Forensic Psychiatry 
and Clinical Investigation

Hypnotherapy program

Become your own therapist

HPA Magazine 9

You probably know that everything that happened to us during childhood, as well as everything we have lived through since then, is not altered or erased. But perhaps you didn’t know that you can change the interpretation and understanding about these experiences, making them more advantageous emotionally and above all, become stronger with them. This is the possibility given to us by the Hypnotherapy Program, a therapy developed by psychiatrist Dr Cristina Miguel, which can strengthen the individual by helping to overcome life’s adversities and psychological vulnerabilities.
The Hypnotherapy Program is available in the Mental Health Inpatient Unit at the Clinica Particular SIIPEMOR (in São Brás de Alportel), but also for outpatients at the Clinica Particular de Vilamoura.

Clinical Hypnosis (or hypnotherapy) is a therapeutic process that uses the induction of a state of heightened focussed attention that can also include a lighter or deeper degree of relaxation. Under hypnosis, a modified state of consciousness is reached, with facilitated access to memories kept in the subconscious, in which the mind is more open to therapeutic suggestions. This is why such a state is ideal for producing significant and sustainable changes in the subconscious mind.
Hypnotherapy is a safe therapy, where individuals are never forced (or subjected to suggestion) to do anything against their free will or their moral values, remain in control throughout the session and usually remember everything that took place.
The use of hypnosis in clinical treatment is not new; it has been recommended by the British Medical Association and the National Institutes of Health since the beginning of the 1990s.
Despite many studies corroborating the benefits of hypnosis in coordination with the treatment of depressive disorders, problems with anxiety, sleep, psychosomatic diseases, pain control, etc., scientific evidence of its efficiency in psychological disorders is still scarce. This fact is due to a number of difficulties: I) errors in the methodology of investigation; II) difficulty in applying subjective variables of the individual and of the therapist (imperative to the result of the hypnosis); III) improvements and “defences” of the individual (opposition/subconscious resistance to change); and perhaps the most important argument IV) the fact that the best practical results with hypnosis are obtained with dynamic exercises, whose course is characterised by unexpected moments, creating the necessity for the therapist to adapt the discourse to whatever has “come up” (ideas, memories, images, emotions, feelings), with the results also dependent on the experience, knowledge and sensitivity of the therapist. 
Nevertheless, these same difficulties, together with the limitations of medication and other more conventional methods of psychotherapy (especially in the prevention of recurrence of episodes of depression and anxiety), are what inspired Dr Cristina Miguel to develop her own hypnotherapy method. 
The Hypnotherapy Program is the result of her search to find the psychological antidote capable of strengthening an individual when facing life’s adversities and psychological vulnerabilities, whose manifestations most frequently lead to suffering and chronic mental disorders.
The program is intended for those who are looking for a way to overcome insecurity, fear, problems with self-esteem and ways or thinking and/or habits that jeopardise their health, well-being and self-fulfilment, evolving through fifteen sessions of Clinical Hypnosis. 

HYPNOTHERAPY PROGRAM SESSIONS:
 

MORNING RITUAL
Morning Mental Preparation

• This morning exercise in self-hypnosis will influence your mind, body, decisions and actions in a positive way throughout the day. This is a ritual inspired in the daily practice of many people who maintain their physical and psychological equilibrium, conciliating it with their personal and professional fulfilment. This daily session is exclusively for inpatients.

TEACHING SELF-HYPNOSIS
Learn to Hypnotise Yourself

• Hypnosis allows you to reach a combined state of relaxation and extremely focused attention, during which the subconscious mind is particularly open to suggestion. In this session, by understanding the principle dynamics of your subconscious mind, you will know how to question yourself in such a way as to produce positive and sustained changes in your life. You will learn the practice of self-hypnosis and discover just how extraordinary this resource can be.

INSTALLATION OF RESOURCES
Activate Your Internal Resources

• In this session, in hypnosis, the installation of extraordinary interior resources will help you in your transformation throughout the Hypnotherapy Program and – well beyond that –  to deal positively with any of the more difficult moments of your life.

PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDER
Recognise It and Fight It With Your Mind

• In order to confront any challenge, we must be well prepared. Understanding the illness is the start of any treatment process. In this session, you will begin to acquire an explanatory vision of the causal factors of a psychological disorder and its neurobiological and psychological impact. With this understanding, you can fully participate in your treatment by taking responsibility and acting on the causal factors that depend on you in order to be able to change.

THE POWER OF BELIEF
Transform Your Thinking and Change Your Life

• In this session, by understanding the roots of your beliefs and the influence they have on the significance attributed to life events, you will understand the impact of what you think in your emotional state, in self-esteem, in decisions you make and the results you achieve.

THE POWER OF EMOTIONS
Understand Them and Learn to How to Cope with Them

• The art of accepting, understanding and coping with emotions will be revealed in this hypnotherapy session. After this valuable learning experience, the invitation is extended and you will revisit your past under a different emotional perspective, giving each critical event new meaning in a more positive form. Besides being therapeutic, this process will strengthen you for future challenges to facilitate (self) knowledge, a change in dysfunctional ways of thinking and the acquisition of more efficient coping strategies in the face of adversity.

GUILT
Accept It, Understand It and Let It Go

• You surely know that the way you cope and connect with emotions has a decisive impact on your health. And by understanding this well, you appreciate the importance of letting go of the guilt to which you might be negatively linked and doing so, recognise that nothing and no-one will be harmed by this process.

REVOLT AND PAIN
Accept Them, Understand Them and Let Them Go

• This session is an open invitation to letting go of the feelings of revolt and pain that are disturbing your equilibrium as well as your physical and psychological well-being. By freeing these emotions, you will feel more at peace with yourself and with others and will see that without revolt, the capacity for self-affirmation and coping with injustice will improve because you have never before felt so aware, decisive, calm and confident.

SELF-ESTEEM

• The next sessions open the way for a very important step in personal growth and bolstering of self-esteem, offering immunity to criticism and rejection of others, overcoming the fears of disillusion with others and yourself, learning to overcome and grow with crises in life, understanding the power of making decisions and choices and ultimately, fine-tuning your purpose in life.

COPING WITH OTHERS
Becoming Immune to Being Disillusioned by Others

• In order to free yourself from the fear of suffering from being disillusioned by someone, you need to overcome the hurt feelings connected to the fact of having created incorrect expectations about that person in the past. This is the purpose of this session. Therefore, by accepting this invitation you will ultimately feel more confident in the relationships you establish with others and more self-assured in these relationships.

COPING WITH OTHERS
Become Immune to Criticism

• This session aims to desensitise you from comments or non-constructive or negative criticism. At the end of this session, you will understand that only you have the right to judge yourself and therefore you will leave behind the fear of being negatively judged, evaluated or criticised by others.

COPING WITH OTHERS
Become Immune to Rejection and Abandonment

• The fear of rejection and abandonment negatively affects all of the meaningful decisions and choices in life. In a social context, the lack of affirmation and subjugation of your interests and desires leads to anxiety, depression and frustration. This problem is implicit with the (subconscious) need to please, be recognised or loved by others. In this session, by letting go of the fear of being rejected or abandoned, you will understand that you are the only one who can truly reject yourself.

COPING WITH MISTAKES AND FAILURES
Correct, Learn and Grow

• Accepting mistakes and failures is a quality of the most successful people. It is also true that it is the repeated attempts and negative learning results that perfect the method and bring us closer to our goals. In this context, there is no room for guilt, regret or shame, and even less for feelings of incapacity, inferiority or inadequacy. Therefore, there is no fear of trying or taking a risk. By embarking on this journey, you will understand and rid yourself of the fear of making a mistake.

COPING WITH LIFE CRISES 
Overcome Them and Empower Yourself with Them

• No doubt you have encountered crises throughout your life or perhaps are facing one at the moment. You might have lost something or someone, you might be disillusioned, feeling wronged or perhaps sad or frustrated with your life and therefore question your choices or beliefs. In this session, you will understand the positive value of life crises and how to overcome these phases of suffering, grow and empower yourself with them, reinforce your capacity to cope with adversities and future challenges.

THE POWER OF DECISIONS
Follow Your Values and Achieve What You Want In Life

• Life is a series of various challenging events and this is not a pessimistic point of view. It is realistic. It is by coping with these challenges that we evolve, grow and gain strength when faced with adversity. We possess something within ourselves that is extraordinary and where all of our power resides: the innate capacity to make decisions under any circumstances. In this session, you will fully understand the power to make conscious decisions, and how to do so in such a way as to achieve the equilibrium, well-being and personal realisation we are searching for.

 
FINDING THE PURPOSE OF LIFE
Respect Your Individuality, Express Your Potential and Make a Difference

• By accepting the challenge of this session, you will follow the path to search for and find your identity and your true purpose and meaning in life. At the end, you will understand that only by respecting your individuality and exploring your abilities will you live a full, purposeful life.

BOLSTERING SELF-ESTEEM
Synthesis of The Hypnotherapy Program

• This session focuses on the pillars of Self-esteem, offering a resume of the main topics dealt with throughout the Hypnotherapy Program.

The Hypnotherapy Program also includes extra sessions for health conditions or specific emotional states, e.g. overcoming procrastination, attaining an ideal weight and body, achieving restful sleep or getting rid of fear or a specific phobia.

INPATIENT HYPNOTHERAPY PROGRAM

Clinica Particular SIIPEMOR
Two daily group sessions (maximum 10 people): morning session (mental preparation) and afternoon session. The afternoon session follows the sequence scheduled in the program and can be administered in two versions: Hypnotherapy (original hypnosis sessions of the Hypnotherapy Program or Meditation (meditation sessions based on the Hypnotherapy Program).
Admission to the inpatient Hypnotherapy Program can be made directly through an outpatient consultation, by a psychiatrist or psychologist of the Team, or alternatively, through other physicians, psychologists, health technicians, oneself or family.

OUTPATIENT HYPNOTHERAPY PROGRAM

Clinica Particular de Vilamoura
A monthly group hypnosis session (maximum 8 people) during a 15-month period and individual psychiatric/psychology consultations (optional in the first 7 days following hypnosis). For admission to the Hypnotherapy Program at the Clinica Particular de Vilamoura, the individual should previously have a consultation with a psychiatrist or psychologist from the team. 

For either situation, bookings should be made through the Call Center of the HPA Health Group (282 420 400).