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Body and psyche methods
Last reviewed: 04.07.2025
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Mind-Body Therapies are based on the theory that mental and emotional factors influence physical health through a system of primarily neural and hormonal connections throughout the body. Behavioral, psychological, social, and spiritual therapies are used to maintain health and prevent or treat disease.
Because scientific evidence supporting the benefits of mind-body techniques is overwhelming, many of these approaches are now considered part of the mainstream. Techniques such as biofeedback, guided imagery, hypnotherapy, meditation, and relaxation are used to treat coronary artery disease, headaches, insomnia, incontinence, and to assist with childbirth. These techniques are also used to help patients cope with disease- and treatment-related symptoms of cancer and to prepare them for surgery. Mind-body techniques are less effective in treating arthritis, asthma, hypertension, tinnitus, or ear pain.
[ Biofeedback
This technique uses electronic devices to provide patients with information about biological functions (e.g. heart rate, blood pressure, muscle activity). Patients can then use this information to properly relax, thereby reducing the effects of conditions such as pain, tension, insomnia, and headaches.
Hypnotherapy
This alternative therapy has its roots in Western practice. Patients are placed in a deep state of relaxation. They are absorbed in the images the hypnotherapist evokes and are barely aware, without being unconscious, of their surroundings and the sensations they are experiencing. Hypnosis is used to treat pain syndromes and conversion disorders; the method has been used with some success in smoking cessation and weight loss. Some patients learn self-hypnosis.