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Post-hypnotic safety suggestion improves stress coping with long-lasting effects
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Abstract
Effective coping with acute stress is important to promote mental health and to build stress resilience. Interventions improving stress coping usually require long training periods. In this study, we present a hypnosis-based intervention that produces long-term effects after a single hypnosis session. In that session, we established a post-hypnotic safety suggestion that participants can activate afterwards with a cue, the Jena Safety Anchor. We tested 60 participants in our study who all received the hypnosis session and a stress task. The safety group used the Jena Safety Anchor during acute stress (Trier Social Stress Test, TSST). The control group used a neutral anchor. We measured subjective stress responses via self-reports and physiological stress responses via saliva and blood samples as well as heart rate. One week later, all participants filled in an online survey to measure long-term effects of the post-hypnotic safety suggestion. We found that participants using the Jena Safety Anchor during the TSST reported significantly lower stress compared to the control group. The safety group also reported significantly fewer negative thoughts concerning their TSST performance than the control group during the stress recovery phase and 1 week later. All participants indicated that the Jena Safety Anchor still worked 1 week after its establishment. Suggestibility did not affect the efficacy of the Jena Safety Anchor. Our findings demonstrate that post-hypnotic safety suggestions improve stress coping with long-lasting effects, which makes it a promising intervention to promote mental health and establish stress resilience in just one hypnosis session.
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Many studies show hypnosis to be effective for clinical anxiety and for managing stress by modulating stress reactivity.
“Many studies show hypnosis to be effective for clinical anxiety, and for managing stress by modulating stress reactivity24,25.”
From Effects of app delivered self hypnosis on stress management (2025) · cites this paper as [25]
The Introduction reports studies in which hypnosis reduced stress reactivity or alleviated mental stress, and the Results find lower subjective stress after a post-hypnotic safety suggestion. The paper does not establish effectiveness for clinical anxiety; its Results also report no significant group differences in the physiological stress markers measured. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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“For example, a study using a 3-day mindfulness meditation training observed a decrease of subjective stress and an increase in cortisol responses in a subsequent TSST 5 , which is the opposite of what we would expect when stress is reduced.”
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Remembering what did not happen: the role of hypnosis in memory recall and false memories formation
Leo, D. G., Bruno, D., & Proietti, R. (2025) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1433762 · Cited by 7
Effects of app delivered self hypnosis on stress management
Tran, N., Saperia, C., Neri, E., Jo, B., Kim, B., Zewde, N., Nouriani, B., Kinderman, C., Jagielo, A., Faerman, A., et al. (2025) · npj Digital Medicine · doi:10.1038/s41746-025-02182-0 · Cited by 3
“Many studies show hypnosis to be effective for clinical anxiety, and for managing stress by modulating stress reactivity 24,25 .”
Metadata
- Authors
- Schmidt, B., Rohleder, N., & Engert, V.
- Affiliations
- Jena University Hospital (DE)
- Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (DE)
- Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Schmidt, Barbara
- Venue
- Scientific Reports
- Published
- 2024-02-12
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 3548-3548
- ISSN
- 2045-2322 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC10861489
- OpenAlex
- W4391743631
- Cited by
- 12
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 4
- FWCI
- 2.91
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Scientific Reports (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Research Square (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SCHM 3129/5-1)
- Universitätsklinikum Jena
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Pain Management and Placebo Effect
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Keywords
- hypnosis, stress coping, acute stress, Trier Social Stress Test, stress resilience, long-term effects, physiological stress response, heart rate, negative thinking, suggestibility, mental health interventions
- MeSH terms
- Coping Skills, Humans, Hypnosis, Surveys and Questionnaires, Suggestion, Self Report
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