Enhancing Hypnosis Training to Promote Transfer to Clinical Practice for Cancer Pain Management: A Qualitative Analysis of Providers’ Perceived Needs

Hypnosis is vastly underused despite strong evidence supporting its efficacy in the context of cancer care. Little is known about what providers need to feel confident moving from education in hypnosis to using hypnosis in clinical care. The goal of this study was to examine cancer care providers' ongoing needs post-hypnosis training to inform the development of future hypnosis training programs. We qualitatively examined open-ended responses about post-training implementation from trainees (<i>n</i> = 70) of our Hypnosis for Cancer Pain training program. Data were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. Four main themes regarding challenges to real-world implementation of clinical hypnosis were identified: 1) How do I "pitch" hypnosis to the people in my health system?; 2) How do I conduct hypnosis in my native habitat (aka the messy, imperfect real world)?; 3) How do I move "off-book" and improvise?; and, 4) I'd feel more secure with a "buddy system." These challenges have direct implications for the development of future hypnosis training programs to better facilitate post-training provider implementation.