FND Education Project

REFERENCE · RECOVERY TECHNIQUE

Hypnotherapy and Transparent Therapeutic Suggestion

Most likely fit: A person wishes to discuss an optional clinician-delivered approach after the diagnosis and uncertain evidence have been explained. [Emerging, very limited visual-specific evidence; not established routine treatment]

For the Person With FND
For Family, Friends, and Other Supporters
For Clinicians and the Care Team
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For the Person With FND

What this approach is for

Hypnotherapy uses guided attention and suggestion. In this setting, a clinician might invite the experience of an easier visual task without promising that it will happen. It should be clear what is being proposed and why.

Hypnosis does not establish that symptoms are imaginary or caused by a hidden memory. It is not required for recovery, and declining it should not interrupt other care. Practitioner qualifications and experience with both FND and visual symptoms matter.

Terms in everyday language

Suggestion is an invitation that may influence expectations or experience. Hypnotherapy is a structured clinical use of guided attention and suggestion. Relaxation, hypnosis and ordinary reassurance are not identical interventions, and their results should not be pooled casually.

Practical discussion and flare adaptations

Before agreeing, ask about the practitioner’s clinical credentials, the intended goal, alternatives, likely costs and how a lack of benefit will be handled. Agree on a stop signal and what support you need if the session causes discomfort or disconnection.

This page is not an induction script. Do not use recordings that promise a cure, provoke intense visual experiences or claim to uncover the cause through recovered memories. During a visual flare, use the agreed safety response rather than starting an unplanned hypnosis session.

These examples require selection for your assessed presentation. The clinical rationale and its limits are described in the sources below. (Sources: 1, 2)

For the Person With FND
For Family, Friends, and Other Supporters
For Clinicians and the Care Team
Research and Sources —

For Family, Friends, and Other Supporters

Respect the person’s choice about participation and privacy. Do not pressure them to “be suggestible” or interpret the response as evidence about willingness.

Support reporting adverse experiences and retaining ordinary visual assistance. If a session helps, its benefit can be valued without claiming that the whole condition has been cured.

For the Person With FND
For Family, Friends, and Other Supporters
For Clinicians and the Care Team
Research and Sources —

For Clinicians and the Care Team

Selection and assessment

Ensure a positive diagnosis, relevant comorbidity assessment and an explicit treatment rationale. Assess communication, capacity to consent, dissociative vulnerability and the suitability of the setting. Differentiate supportive suggestion from deception and from memory-recovery practices. Stay within the practitioner’s professional competence.

Explicit procedure

  1. Explain that visual-specific efficacy is uncertain and that other care continues.
  2. Agree a modest functional goal and how it will be evaluated.
  3. Obtain consent for the actual method and establish stopping and reorientation plans.
  4. If treatment proceeds, use an appropriately qualified clinician and a tolerable environment; do not impose a generic protocol from this page.
  5. Review immediate and later experience, distress and usable function.
  6. Discontinue or revise treatment when unhelpful or adverse; do not escalate claims or attribute nonresponse to resistance.

Review, progression and stopping

A subjective or short-lived visual change is not proof of lasting functional improvement. Keep access supports and follow-up. Do not promise an outcome or make treatment eligibility depend on an assumed psychological cause. The person can withdraw consent at any point.

This is an educational implementation example, not a validated standalone treatment protocol. (Sources: 1, 2)

For the Person With FND
For Family, Friends, and Other Supporters
For Clinicians and the Care Team
Research and Sources —

Research and Sources

The 2024 review describes small visual-loss reports and broader FND hypnosis/suggestion literature. Mixed diagnoses, younger populations, uncontrolled designs and combined treatments limit inference. Broader FND trials do not establish visual-specific efficacy; the 2026 synthesis still finds very limited treatment data.

Citation Full citation
[1] Ramsay N, McKee J, Al-Ani G, Stone J. How do I manage functional visual loss. Eye. 2024;38:2257–2266. FND-CIT-0024. Source
[2] Ramsay N, Tessmann H, McKee J, Ercoli T, Stone J. Functional visual loss: a systematic review and meta-analysis of epidemiology, prognosis and treatment. Eye. 2026;40:1784–1793. Published online June 26, 2026. FND-CIT-0103. Source

Source check: September 16, 2026 · Ophthalmology, neuro-ophthalmology, orthoptics, migraine, psychological, lived-experience, supporter and accessibility review pending.

For the Person With FND
For Family, Friends, and Other Supporters
For Clinicians and the Care Team
Research and Sources —