Symposium on Integrating Hypnosis and Spiritual Care

The complexity of providing pain and symptom management to patients with chronic nonmalignant pain or receiving palliative care has highlighted the need to develop evidence-based nonpharmacologic strategies as part of the treatment plan. Among the psychological and integrative medicine approaches, clinical hypnosis has received increased recognition for its potential not only to improve psychological well-being in patients but also as a modality for directly improving pain and symptom control. Clinical hypnosis, relaxation, and mindfulness are conceptualized as tools to achieve ‘‘the meditative state,’’ a quiet state of awareness and meditation that can help ‘‘release the old thinking patterns.’’ When that state is achieved, ‘‘You have reconnected with yourself as a spirit’’, in palliative care