It has long seemed like our connected devices are conspiring to hypnotize us.
They lead us to waste countless hours scrolling through pointless content, they keep us hooked on shows that always end with cliffhangers and malicious endings, and they make us run out of money. It gives us a list of fine homes that we keep looking at anyway.
A question arises here. “If devices are so effective, why can’t our devices hypnotize us in a good way?” Quit smoking and drinking, exercise, eat well and embrace positive thinking. Let’s get it. And while we’re at it, they’ll probably have to kick us off the screen.
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As it turns out, many startups focused on hypnotherapy think there is merit to at least some of the idea. The same goes for investors. Over the past few years, they have supported seed and early stage rounds for multiple startups offering technology-enabled hypnosis and hypnotherapy platforms.
Who is being funded?
There were two large funding rounds this year. Mindset Health, a Melbourne, Australia-based digital hypnotherapy program, raised $12 million in Series A funding in March. And Oneleaf, a French startup that offers a variety of self-hypnosis tools, secured his $5.1 million seed round in January.
Using data from Crunchbase, we compiled a list of six companies founded or funded in the past few years that list hypnotherapy or hypnosis as a focus area.
hypnosis business model
Companies are marketing online hypnosis tools to cure both mental and physical ailments. For example, Mindset Health currently offers hypnotherapy apps that address irritable bowel syndrome, menopause, and smoking cessation. Oneleaf’s programs are designed to help you lose weight, reduce stress, build confidence, reduce pain, and more.
It seems to be still early days when it comes to determining the best business model. Oneleaf takes an unlimited subscription approach, charging U.S. customers $68 per year for access to its products. Mindset, on the other hand, offers subscription plans for each of its programs and works with clinicians to incorporate its services into their treatments.
WellSet, another Los Angeles-based company, takes the employer-paid route. Earlier this year, the company launched a self-care benefits package that includes self-hypnosis among its services. The company is pitching the package as a tool for employers to “address the burnout epidemic.”
VR and visualization
Several other startups, including heavily funded companies, offer marketing products under different names while sharing some similarities with hypnotherapy apps.
For example, Headspace, a meditation app and venture-backed unicorn, offers guided imagery. Although this healing practice is often replaced by self-hypnosis or guided meditation, it has its own unique techniques.
BehaVR, a virtual reality mental and behavioral health therapy provider based in Nashville, Tennessee and Oxford, England, is another company to watch. In December, the company raised $13 million in Series B funding following a merger with Oxford VR, another startup in the space. Its focus areas include anxiety regulation, pain management, and addiction recovery.
More broadly, startups are expanding their offering of a number of digital therapeutics with an eye toward health and mental health. Questions remain about whether health insurance companies will cover the treatment, but the bankruptcy of pioneering startup Pair Therapeutics this year shows that the field remains unresolved. .
you are your best medicine
If self-hypnosis and self-guided hypnosis apps really take off, proponents of the idea that your mind can sometimes provide more effective treatment than drugs or other more invasive treatments. It will be a big boost to
What is also interesting about the assortment of early participants is the extent to which they mix both physical and mental illnesses into their hypnosis-focused treatment plans. This may be a little surprising to people who can imagine how hypnosis can reduce anxiety, but not, for example, reduce inflammation in the intestines.
But if these startups are right, our minds may be able to exert more powerful healing powers than we ever imagined. Of course, to fully utilize your brain, you first need to eliminate mindless scrolling.
Illustration: Dom Guzman
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