Never one to dismiss heartfelt constructive criticism, *cough*bull*cough*, when a concerned reader expressed that she felt I wrote off Hypnotherapy too quickly, I went straight ahead and had a bowl of ice cream. Yum.
After that, I decided that maybe it was time I helped anyone who was in the market locate a hypnotherapist of their very own. And so I humbly do so.
The "it" place to find a Hypnotherapist online seems to be the
"find a referral page" of the
American Society of Clinical Hypnosis website. There you can search by state, which I recommend, or by specialty, which I don't recommend for the following reasons: Firstly, as you may have guessed, "Vaginismus" is not a specialty listed on their menu. The closest I could find were "Marriage Therapy", "Sexual abuse/trauma", or "Aerospace Medicine", because, let's face it, when we finally do have sex it'll be
outta this world.
The second reason I don't recommend searching by speciality is because I when I searched under "Marriage Therapy" and "Sexual abuse/trauma", I got no results for Maine, which was surprising because when I searched just for Maine, I got about twenty, which was a lot more than I was expecting. Long story short, you're probably better off finding the five or so on the list for your state that are closest to you, calling the offices and finding out if they've ever treated Vaginismus or anything similar.
The National Board for Certified Clinical Hypnotherapists also has a
"Find a Therapist" page. I'm seeing fewer listings but more detail, and they also have a few in England, one in Canada and one in Zimbabwe. I'm not making that up.
The American Psychotherapy and Medical Hypnosis Association has
a page with listings from some states and few straggling foreign (to me, not nessecarily to you, as this is the internet) countries, and a
"request a referral" form if you can't find anything on the list. I think this listing may include people who are hypnotists as opposed to hypnotherapists, but it's a little murky to me...I never realized there were so many associations these people could belong to. Also, this site has a place to order a "Deep Relaxation" Audio Cassette by Dr. Roger E Griswold, as well as a myriad of other cassettes. Not strictly related to Vaginismus, but it could be helpful,
so here's the link.
This site has quite the in-depth listing of Hypnotherapists all over England, and it links to this one, the
National Counsel of Hypnotherapy region search, which includes Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and a tidy little group called "overseas" which, from The Brittish Isles, is everything else.
And let's not us forget the usefulness of our local
Yellow Pages. Because they let your fingers to the walking...instead of
my fingers. You know how long it took to compile all those links? Jeezum.
Before signing off, I'd like to point out that my ever-error-conscious reader let me know that if I were to search the archives of the
Vaginismus Egroups, I would find a few accounts of people who have been cured thanks to hypnotherapy. I am, however, having the darndest time searching those things. So I will continue looking for the evidence that has been promised to me, and, until then, if you get antsy you can always join the groups yourself and take a look-see. Anyone out there who's got some feedback on hypnotherapy, hit the comments box.
Later, yo.
