Lying on the shelf opposite me is a plaster roll made of green plastic. However, he warns me that one session won't suffice to give up the habit completely.Īlthough hypnosis can also take place whilst lying down, I am now asked to get comfortable in my chair and select a spot on the wall.

It is a good issue to work with, he says. 'Sometimes I pick at or bite my fingernails,' I reply, embarrassed. Teut wants to know whether I have brought an issue that I want to discuss. It can be applied to reduce anxiety and increase trust,' says Teut. 'Hypnosis is especially significant when it comes to medical procedures, such as minor operations. People who want to be hypnotized should go to a hypnotherapist who belongs to an accredited societyĪt the doctors, hypnosis can support people with irritable bowel syndrome, pain, or sleeping disorders, and people who want to change their habits around smoking, exercising or their diet. Hypnosis is further used to enhance psychotherapies in order to relax patients or encourage behavioral changes. Hypnosis helps them to relax, discover new perspectives and activate inner energy sources,' Teut explains.

'Many patients come to me because they are stressed and exhausted. One day, during a conference, he participated in hypnosis training and enjoyed it so much that he decided to train as a hypnotherapist. He is a specialist in general medicine and homeopathy. Michael Teut has been the head of the Charité outpatient department for several years now. He has a calm and trusting manner and I slowly feel the tension leaving me. He smiles and extends his hand: 'Michael Teut, it's nice to meet you.' I shake it. He is a professional, who has studied hypnosis and has probably hypnotized hundreds of people before me. Is it the fear of the unknown? Or the fear of losing control over my thoughts and actions, passing the reigns of my entire being into a stranger's hands? Immediately, I try to comfort myself: The man is a doctor. Conducting interviews is one thing, but being hypnotized does not happen every day, at least not to me. From time to time, small groups of people enter the department through a swinging glass door – an old couple supporting each other two students chatting loudly about an exam a small child playing on the staircase, its mother watching anxiously. The glare of the ceiling light bounces off the brown linoleum floor.

The waiting area of the outpatient department for natural medicine at Berlin's university hospital Charité consists of a few wooden chairs that are nailed to the grey wall of the corridor.

Hypnosis therapy