Dr. Barbara Schmidt, Jena University Hospital
Dr. Barbara Schmidt is an enthusiastic neuroscientist at the Jena University Hospital in Germany. She was born in Munich, studied Psychology at the Universities of Regensburg and Tübingen, finished her PhD at the University of Würzburg in 2014 and spent time at the University of Arizona, USA, and the University of Victoria, Canada. Since 2015, she does research on the impact of hypnotic suggestions on subjective perception and physiological processes. She uses safe place suggestions and shows that they reduce impulsivity-related EEG activity. Demonstrating the clinical relevance of safe place suggestions, she showed that patients in the intensive care unit accept non-invasive ventilation better with safe place suggestions. She also uses post-hypnotic suggestions of safety and shows that they have long-term beneficial effects. In her recent study, she showed that post-hypnotic suggestions of safety reduce acute stress during a standardized exam-like situation. She also runs a study where young children prepare themselves with a hypnosis audio before undergoing surgery to reduce their preoperative anxiety and postoperative pain and discomfort. Her goal is to show the potential and huge effect sizes of hypnotic interventions to encourage clinicians to use it in therapy so more patients can profit from them. Dr. Barbara Schmidt does a lot of science communication to promote hypnosis. You can follow her on Twitter https://twitter.com/NeuroBarbara and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/neurobarbara/