Hypnotherapy For Smoking Cessation

An Interview with Dr. Anne H. Spencer

Dr. Anne H. Spencer, PhD., is an author, educator, seminar leader and radio and TV personality who has been practicing and teaching hypnosis for over two decades. Past president of the World Congress of Professional Hypnotherapists and former vice president of the National Society of Hypnotherapists, Dr. Spencer has received prestigious awards from the National Guild of Hypnotists, Hypnosis Hall of Fame, and International Association of Counselors and Therapists.

Sixteen years ago she founded the International Medical and Dental Hypnotherapy Association (IMDHA), of which she is Director. Few people are aware of the dramatic story which inspired Dr. Spencer to begin this organization.

It all began with a phone call from her 79-year-old father in 1985. He had just been diagnosed with cancer of the gum in his lower jaw, and was facing surgery which would last 6 or 7 hours. Dr. Spencer immediately flew to be with her father. She told him that she would like to use hypnosis before the operation to lessen the amount of anesthetic needed and hasten his healing. He readily agreed.

Dr. Spencer then consulted with her father’s surgeon, saying, “I’m a hypnotherapist, and I have a few questions I want to ask you. What do you do in the operating room?” The surgeon replied that he played classical music.

“That’s a good start,” said Dr. Spencer. “Now, my father’s going to be sedated for hours, and I want to make sure that everybody only talks about positive things while the surgery’s going on, because he will still hear everything you say. I’m going to hypnotize my father, and I’m going to program his subconscious mind so that at a key phrase, his body will work with you as part of the medical team. Would you like that?”

The surgeon gave an enthusiastic YES. Dr. Spencer then said, “I’d like to know what blood cells you want to be most operative for this surgery, and how you want the fluids to go in that part of the body. I’m not a medical person; I’m a hypnotherapist. You tell me and those things will happen.”

The surgeon explained what his requirements were. She then assured him that the procedure would go effortlessly and easily. Upon hearing the key phrase, You’re doing fine, John, her father’s whole system would pull together, with no excessive bleeding, and with all of his vital organs and blood pressure operating perfectly. She added that only minimal amounts of anesthesia would be required.

The night before the surgery, Dr. Spencer induced hypnosis in her father using a rapid induction. She tested for eyelid catalepsy, and after deepening said, “Now, daddy, I want you to go fishing on a lake with one of your buddies, while I talk to your body.”

Her father cooperated and later reported that he had found himself fishing happily, accompanied by a long-time friend who had died some years before. He added that while they were in the boat, they listened to a ball game on the radio. Meanwhile, Dr. Spencer gave him suggestions based on the information she received from his physician, tying it all in with the posthypnotic trigger phrase.

When they arrived at the hospital and walked through the doors, she said, “This is where you’re going to get well, dad.”

He looked back at her and said, “I know what you’re doing! I understand the program!”

Before surgery began, Dr. Spencer consulted with both the anesthesiologist and the nurse anesthetist, explaining how she had tied her father’s body and healing system to cooperate with the code phrase, “You’re doing fine, John.” Both pledged to repeat those words frequently.

When the surgery was over, the anesthesiologist came out beaming. The surgery had taken two hours less than predicted. “He was leaping just like Bugs Bunny,” recalls Dr. Spencer, “saying, ‘It worked! It worked! It worked!’ He was very pleased, and impressed with how you could reprogram the body to work as a team.”

Dr. Spencer hypnotized her father again after surgery, suggesting that his circulation would improve, his edema disappear, and the sounds of hospital machinery would enhance his healing. The results of the suggestions were dramatic, and by the following morning, he had been taken out of the ICU and put in his own room.

“When I saw the surgeon afterwards,” relates Dr. Spencer, “he looked me dead in the eye and said, ‘when are you going to get certified hypnotherapists down here to work for me?!”

“I went home and wrote the whole protocol for the IMDHA : our goals, our purpose, our objective. I asked two physicians to go over what I had written. And we were off and running!”

Dr. Spencer is the first woman to have founded an international hypnosis organization based in the U.S.A. The IMDHA now has 3,000 members, a six-person staff, and over 50 schools worldwide. Jerome Beacham, PhD, who is Dr. Spencer’s husband, is the organization’s Certification Chairman and School Administrator.

The IMDHA hosts an annual education conference held on the 4th weekend of October in Detroit, Michigan. Other benefits to members are a referral directory, access to special training, a newsletter, and specially designed marketing tools, including a camera-ready brochure.

“Our whole idea is to help the hypnotherapists interface with their community in a professional manner,” says Dr. Spencer, adding, “The vision I have held is a door marked HYPNOTHERAPIST in every health care facility worldwide, staffed by a certified IMDHA member. The dream is happening!

“I was told by leaders in the profession that we couldn’t do this – that nobody would listen to me, and that doctors wouldn’t pay attention. I smile, because I’ve done what was said could not be done.

“This is my life now. There isn’t anything else I would rather do!”

(This article by Mary Elizabeth Raines, CI appeared in The Link magazine, August – September 2001)