Why The Doctor Turned to Hypnotherapy

“Many times the root cause of an illness is a psychosomatic problem. I knew a tablet wasn’t helping and I as a doctor wanted to be able to truly help my patients address their problems.”

Namibian Medical Doctor, Anton Schroeder was in private practise in Windhoek for 24 years when he decided that his career needed a dramatic change. Facing his own fears about the idea of leaving the life he knew, Dr. Schroeder felt he could not continue to treat patients the way he had been with a clear conscious. The reason for the desire for the dramatic change came from being unable to treat many of his patients because of the psychosomatic nature of a lot of his patient’s aliments. He knew that to be able to truly help his patients he needed to be able to address the root cause of their illnesses. He turned to Hypnotherapy. Not just any hypnotherapy, but Ericksonian hypnotherapy. Now he has been invited to Germany to continue his learning and treating using ground breaking methods of treating illness. 99FM’s MYD Heart sat down with Dr. Schroder to talk hypnosis as an effective way of treating illness.

99FM’s MYD Heart asked :
Why did you as a medical doctor start practising hypnotherapy?

“I started looking for alternative forms of treatment to treat my patients. Many times the root cause of an illness is a psychosomatic problem. I knew a tablet wasn’t helping and I as a doctor wanted to be able to truly help my patients address their problems. Very often medication alleviates the symptoms but does not solve the problem. So I started looking for alternatives. I was interested in hypnosis but had been put off the idea because often hypnosis is practised by non-medical people and this can cause a lot of harm.”

“Hypnosis is something that is often misunderstood. We often think of hypnosis as somebody on stage taking control of someone else’s mind.  This style of hypnosis is often not practised by medical professionals which can be very dangerous especially considering that there is no regulation body to govern who is going to do hypnosis. This can result in more damage than good. What I do is what is called Ericksonian hypnotherapy. This style of hypnosis was developed by Milton Erickson who had many disabilities and whose idea was that we have all the resources we need to change ourselves but you need to go and access these resources.”

Tell us some more about Ericksonian hypnotherapy?

“Milton Erickson developed a style of hypnotherapy where you help a patient into a hypnotic trance and while the patient is in this hypnotic trance, you can take him/her to their subconscious mind or unconscious mind to access resources and strengths that enable them to help themselves.”

“Ericksonian hypnotherapy can only be done by a medical doctor or clinical psychologist.”

“The brain consists of three main parts. One part is the brain stem, which is the most primitive part of the brain. It is the part that evolved in reptiles and it controls our involuntary actions. Things like blood pressure, pulse, digestion etc. Things that keep your body alive but you are not aware of.”

“Then we have the limbic system, which is our fear, fight and flight system. It sits on top of your brain stem. We developed this part of the brain for survival. It is what is called the monkey brain.”

“And then, the third part we developed is our cortex which sits on top of the limbic system. Our fears and worries play out in the pre-frontal cortex.  These fears affect the limbic system, which in turn affects the brain stem. Ultimately, our brain and our bodies are one system.”

“If you have too much fear in your limbic system, this will affect you brain stem which gives you spastic colon, irritable bowel system and many more health complications. It can also result in depression and anxiety.”

“In psychotherapy you talk to the thinking part of the brain which tries to rationalise things and you struggle to address the root problem. With Ericksonian hypnotherapy you are keeping the thinking part of the brain busy and you then can access the limbic system and brain stem, there you can access all your resources and strengths which you can’t normally access because they are unconscious.”

How is this treatment helping to heal patients?

“By showing people the strengths and resources they have, that you can empower them to change. This is because too, we are held back by perceptions. It’s the story of the Indian elephant that is tied to a tiny little pole in the ground by a rope. Because from a young age it has been trained to think that this little peg in the ground holds it back and so now it stays trapped and tied to it but could actually just pull it out the ground and free itself.”

“A child is born without fear of the dark; in fact, a child is born without fear. A lot of the problems we have as adults are problems that we are socialised to have.”

“Damaging information can come from many places, not only by our parents but also perhaps by teachers who tell us we will never amount to anything. That information goes and sits in our unconscious and that is where you get to the beliefs that guide and drive you.”

“We are all made up of different personalities, you may be a father and a friend and a partner for example. We are made up of different personalities and if these personalities don’t work together we can be held back. For example, one personality is fear. If our personalities are not in sync and the one overpowers the other one then you will be held back. It’s that voice that keeps us back. If you have been told you will never amount to anything, it’s that voice in our subconscious that holds us back.”

“When you do the Ericksonian hypnotherapy you can, in a hypnotic trance, call these personalities to a meeting and you can sit and talk to them. It is quite amazing. The results are especially amazing.”

If you want to get in touch with Dr. Schroeder you can reach him on his email : dr.anthon@icloud.com

For more information about Ericksonian hypnotherapy have a look at the website : Ericksonian hypnotherapy