Authors Biography:

Gerard V. Sunnen, M.D. received his medical degree from the State of New York Medical School, Downstate Medical Center. Following an internship in surgery and medicine at Bellevue Hospital, New York, he was appointed resident, then chief resident at Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital.

He has practiced medicine and psychiatry in the Air Force, in forensic, acute care, and general hospital settings, and is currently in private practice and a consultant to several corporations and agencies

Dr. Sunnen has for many years applied medical hypnosis to several dimensions of patient care. It was during his internship that he began to enlist hypnotic assistance to anesthesia, to the preparation of body and mind prior to operations, to accelerating the recovery process, and to the soothing of discomfort and tension so commonly found in hospital settings. During his residency he applied medical hypnosis to the treatment of phobias, anxieties -- such as performance anxiety -- habit disorders, certain types of depression, and to the goals of psychotherapy itself, namely self discovery and positive personal transformation.

Both in the United States and his native France, Dr. Sunnen has lectured on the theories and practical aspects of hypnotic treatment, as well as on related topics, including innovative techniques of psychotherapy, the therapeutic potential of special states of awareness, and the workings of creativity. As president for two terms of the International Association for Emergency Psychiatry, he has investigated the application of medical hypnotherapy to traumatic stress reactions.

In his book "A Primer of Clinical Hypnosis", PSG Publishing Company, Inc., he explores a realm of special interest to him, namely the relationship between medical hypnosis and meditative states. For these insights, he expresses everlasting gratitude to his late parents who were both students of Paramahansa Yogananda.

In an article entitled "Medical Hypnosis in the Hospital" Advances, Institute for the Advancement of Health, Vol. 5, No 2, Dr. Sunnen states "As therapeutic trance states become more accepted as valuable gateways to the enhanced communication between mind and body, medical hypnosis will increasingly solidify its role as an agent capable of assisting the individual toward global health and well-being."

Aside from his work in medical hypnosis, Dr. Sunnen maintains close connections to his medical background through studies of body/mind medical interactions. He is quoted in works dealing with complementary medicine, such as "What Your Doctor Didn't Tell You" by Jane Heimlich; "Options -- The Alternative Cancer Therapy Book", by Richard Walters; "Oxygen Healing Therapies" by Nathaniel Altman; and "Alternative Medicine -- The Definitive Guide", Future Medicine Publishing, Inc. He is currently writing a book on international natural remedies and transcultural medicine.

Dr. Sunnen, with the generous assistance of his many patients, has developed a unique method of therapy, bringing together self hypnosis, meditative techniques, and established approaches to human energy and health that have evolved for centuries in different regions of the world, as, for example, in Oriental medicines.

A diplomat of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, Dr. Sunnen has been an Assistant, then an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the New York University-Bellevue Medical Center for 20 years. He is a member of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis.

Interview....

Q. How did you become involved in medical hypnosis?

When I was a college student, I learned hypnosis and self-hypnosis. Years later when I was a surgical intern, I removed a small tumor from a patient's arm using hypnosis because he said he was allergic to the anesthetic. At first, I was hesitant to use hypnosis for a surgical procedure without anesthetic drugs, although I had read the literature that many operations had been performed with hypnosis alone. However, it went very well, and it impressed me very much. It was a personal step toward trusting hypnotic anesthesia. This was the pivotal point in my career.

Q. How has your work evolved over the years?

My internship was in medicine and surgery, and then I did my residency in psychiatry. I began to apply hypnosis to psychiatric problems. My current specialty is hypnotherapy, which uses hypnotic trance in combination with traditional psychotherapy. Hypnotherapy is sometimes used to find out why a change is not occurring--that is, if there is a "block." It can facilitate the translation of an insight into change as well as the discovery of the insight itself. The individual is more apt to be able to work through insights--to translate them into internal changes--in the trance state than in the normal waking state.

Q. How is this approach applicable to physical health?

Patients who are physically ill often need to gain a psychodynamic understanding of their situation. Hypnotherapy is used not only for removing symptoms or for giving direct suggestions. Hypnotherapy also has to do with the patient's interpretation and image of the situation, which involves a deeper level of understanding and change. 

Q. What difficulties have you encountered in pursuing a career in medical hypnosis?

One of the problems in this field is that there is no formal training for medical hypnosis. One has to find one's own way. There are no institutes of medical hypnosis. There is varied training, and one has to find one's own mentors.

Q. What have you learned from this work?

Throughout my hospital-based career, I have seen the need for relaxation training, with or without hypnosis, for hospitalized patients. Giving patients medication is not the answer to help them adjust to the hospital situation at all. Taking the time to talk with patients, explaining procedures, and paying attention to their mental state is more important. I have found that relatively little time is spent paying attention to patients' mental state. Their physical state and their basic needs are taken care of. However, if patients indicate that they are having anxiety, they are given tranquilizers. Sedating patients doesn't create positive moods and affects that aid healing. I see the role of hypnosis in the hospital as helping to allay patients' fears and anxieties. Usually, hospitalized patients are placed in a passive, dependent role. Not only do patients need to be involved in the decision-making process with regard to their care. They also need to become a force for healing themselves.

Q. What do you see as future directions in this field?

In the future, more work needs to be done not only with patients, but also with health professionals. Hospital personnel often do not see the value of helping patients through nonorthodox techniques. Nurses, physicians, and surgeons may be ignorant of or biased negatively against these techniques. These treatment personnel must be educated with regard to the value of hypnosis. For example, the surgeon mentioned in the preceding article, who called to ask me about the hypnosis for the woman who underwent a bronchoscopy, later referred several hospitalized patients to me because he saw how effective hypnosis had been in this one case.

Gerard V. Sunnen M.D. 200 East 33rd St. New York, NY 10016 
Tel No. 212/679-0679 (voice) 212-679-8008 (fax)