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David Acunzo, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences, University of Virginia

Hypnosis is not just a parlor trick or TV act − science shows it helps with anxiety, depression, pain, PTSD and sleep disorders

Although hypnosis can help with a number of medical conditions, it doesn't work for everything. Paula Connelly/iStock via Getty Images Plus

We’ve all seen it, typically on television or on stage: A hypnotist selects a few members from the audience, and with what seems to be little more than a steely stare or a few choice words, they’re suddenly “under the spell.” Depending on what the hypnotist suggests, the participants laugh, dance and perform without inhibition.

Or perhaps you’ve experienced hypnosis another way – with a trip to a hypnotherapist for a series of sessions to help you stop smoking, lose weight, manage pain or deal with depression. This is no longer unusual; thousands of Americans have done the same thing. And many were helped.

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