In this presidential lecture research evidence is addressed for the effectiveness of clinical hypnosis as a psychotherapeutic and medical healing method. The state of the art is characterized by meta-analyses indicating the usefulness and effectiveness of clinical hypnosis and by neuroimaging data indicating hypnotic trance exists as a separate state of consciousness. Hypnosis research can profi t from mainstream psychological research as well as inspire it by putting the research focus on the underlying processes of communication, rapport, attention and perception. In future developments, hypnosis is also seen as the home-base for research and the therapeutic usage of suggestions. A new paradigm for pharmaceutical research is envisioned in which efforts to maximize substance-effects by proper suggestive communication are to be enhanced, once the effectiveness of the medical drug has been demonstrated.

There is ample evidence that hypnosis enhances the effectiveness of psychotherapy and produces some astounding effects of its own. In this paper, the effective components and principles of hypnosis and hypnotherapy are analyzed. The "special" hypnotic and hypnotherapeutic effects are linked to the fact that the ecological requirements of therapeutic change are taken into account implicitly and/or explicitly when working with hypnotic trances in a therapeutic setting. The hypnotic situation is described--theoretically and in case examples--as a therapeutic modality that gratifies and aligns the basic emotional needs to feel autonomous, related, competent, and oriented. It is shown how the hypnotic relationship can help promote a sound ecological balance between these needs--a balance that is deemed to be a necessary prerequisite for salutogenesis. Practical implications for planning hypnotherapeutic interventions are discussed.