Utilization approaches and psychodynamic psychotherapy in a case of hospital phobia: an integrated approach.

Milton Erickson's approaches, including utilization techniques, were integrated with psychodynamically oriented psychotherapy in the treatment of a woman with a hospital phobia. The patient was a 28-year-old married woman who met the criteria for both Somatoform Disorder and Dependent Personality Disorder, and who had a variety of obsessive and compulsive personality traits. In trance the patient was given permission to replace many aspects of the hospital setting (e.g., driving to the hospital, checking in, talking with nurses, etc.) with interactions with certain emotionally meaningful people from her past. The outcome was that the hospital experience was quite pleasurable, as have been subsequent hospitalizations. Two years later, the patient discussed her hypnotic experience and reported an increase in positive transference and also an increase in her ability to cope with other difficult aspects of her life.