Integrative medical interventions intended to address allergies and other autoimmune disorders usually fail to adequately address the nature of the human immune system.
The body's homeostatic balance should assume that our immune system can properly identify times when a foreign body is a threat and when it is not.
However, to fully understand its true nature and how integrative interventions may apply, the clinician must realize its duality.
We actually have two immune systems, not one.
Our first responder is our innate immune system.
It digests certain foreign bodies and marks others for destruction.
Its components include white blood cells, such as Null Cells (also called Natural Killer Cells and NK Cells), monocytes, and B-Cells.
On the other hand, our longer-term immune system is our adaptive immune cells.
This includes basophils and T-cells.
Generally, the adaptive system is slower to respond, but longer lasting.
Autoimmune disorders such as allergies, rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma, multiple sclerosis, anklosing spondylitis, and Chrons disease represent a failure of our learning system.
In order to respond correctly, the many components of our immune system must have the knowledge of what intrusions are actually threats.
What medical scientists realize is that overreactions are potentially harmful and deadly as under reactions.
The goal is to retrain a dysfunctional system to properly react.
However, to do this using integrative intervention, the clinician must respect the fact that both the fast innate system and the slower adaptive system are retrained differently.
My theory is that that innate system is more responsive to rapid, direct suggestion hypnotic techniques and that the adaptive system requires the slower approach offered by guided imagery, Ericksonian hypnosis, and Neuro-Linguistic Programming.
The techniques used by stage hypnotists and taught to over 3,000 clinicians in the 1950's and 60's by former stage hypnotist David Elman, appear to be more capable of creating rapid physiological changes.
Elman believed that hypnosis is a state where the critical factor of the mind is bypassed and selective thinking is allowed.
Therefore, the relaxing trance state, even if it is induced by his rather fast methods, is not necessarily a requirement for altering the innate system.
Direct suggestion, to include his waking hypnosis techniques, could also affect changes without relying upon a parasympathetic activation.
My suspicion, however, is that while these techniques may be great for rapid symptom relief, more permanent changes are rather doubtful.
After listening to hours of the original Elman recordings, I feel that he would agree with this conclusion.
(Note that many of Elman's techniques were meant to work instantly in the case of a waking hypnosis or post hypnotic suggestions.
Or, he required his medical and dental students to achieve somnambulism in one to three minutes.
) Conversely, retraining the adaptive immune system as a part of a long lasting cure, will be affected by hypnotic techniques which would require substantial re-programming of the subconscious mind.
This more naturalistic approach was championed by Dr.
Milton Erickson.
This allows the therapist an opportunity to interfere with dysfunctional patterns and to empower the subconscious mind to restructure learnings in a way that promotes lasting change.
Other than Erickson, I put into this category the wonderful guided imagery work by Belleruth Naparstek, LISW, and the NLP allergy work by Anne King, PhD.
The correction of autoimmune dysfunction requires a re-training of the rapid innate immune system and the slower, more permanent adaptive system.
If hypnotherapy is to be effective for this purpose, the clinician needs to use the appropriate hypnosis protocol.
Rapid methods, which can quickly address symptoms, seem to be the best for the innate system.
And, the subconscious reprogramming of the naturalistic Ericksonian tradition, guided imagery, and NLP appear to have the most promise for lasting change.
By using the right tools psychotherapists and hypnotherapist will have the most chance for success.