Stress triggers complex physiological stress reactions in the body, which also stimulate the immune system and initiate chronic latent inflammatory processes. These processes strain the entire body and represent, in the absence of inactivation, an important risk factor for the etiology of psychological and psychosomatic disorders. Chronic or traumatic stressors can thus be regarded as physiological burdens which lead – if not treated - to chronically increased inflammatory processes and oxidative stress. Hypnosis presumably has the ability to counteract and influence inflammatory processes in the body. Hypnosis is therefore used as a relaxation method to reduce acute and chronic stress syndromes. In cooperation with Prof. Dr. Walter Bongartz and the German Society for Hypnosis and Hypnosis Therapy (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Hypnose und Hypnotherapie e.V.), the Department of Clinical & Biological Psychology is conducting a study to investigate the efficacy of hypnosis to counteract the biomolecular consequences of traumatic stress.

• Deutsche Gesellschaft für Hypnose und Hypnotherapie e.V.
• Prof. Dr. Walter Bongartz, Klingenberger Institut für klinische Hypnose