Hypnotherapist offers stress relief(2)

Invited by local police, Fang hypnotized the witness to a serious crime and managed to get him to refresh his memory regarding some crime details.

"But the outcome varies," Fang said, repeating the fact that a person can't be hypnotized "if he or she doesn't want to be".

Hypnosis has yet to be scientifically proven as a tool to enhance memory, said Tian Chenghua, a professor at the Institute for Psychiatric Research at Peking University's No 6 Hospital.

As a registered psychiatrist, "I don't practice hypnotherapy," he said. Instead he supplies mental counseling.

He pointed out that hypnotherapy is a practice that is poorly regulated by the health authority.

Fang agreed, saying she received her training and certification as a qualified hypnotherapist in Germany.

Since then, she has helped train others. She says that now there are several hundred qualified hypnotherapists in China.

Dai Wenji, a mental health doctor at Peking University's No 6 Hospital, provides hypnosis but said it usually doesn't work for serious mental illnesses like severe depression or schizophrenia.

Of Dai's patients over the past two years, most suffered from functional mental problems like anxiety or obsessive-compulsive disorder.

At most, she might see four patients a day, and to improve access to her services, the hospital may set up a special unit for hypnotherapy, Dai noted.

At the public hospital, it costs 60 yuan for each one-hour session, she said. And it's partially covered by public health insurance.

Fang has led efforts to establish a group for hypnotherapy under the auspices of the Chinese Mental Health Association.

"The initiative aims to help expand the development and academic evaluation of the practitioners. We don't want to see any patients cheated by substandard practitioners," she said.