While some people may view hypnosis as contrived entertainment, it's progressed far from the days of being performed on volunteers in nightclubs. Hypnosis is not hocus pocus; it’s a tool used by an alternative pain management used by professionals to treat pain of all kinds from arthritis to dental procedures.
Joseph Barber, PhD, a clinical professor of anesthesiology and rehabilitation at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, uses hypnosis for pain caused by arthritis. One patient, a 73-year-old grandmother with severe pain from knee osteoarthritis, couldn’t tolerate anti-inflammatory drugs. With just three hypnosis treatments – an unusually fast response – the pain in her knee decreased and she was able to return to normal daily activity. An analysis of 18 studies of hypnosis and pain with more than 900 people conducted by researchers at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York bears out this patient’s experience, showing substantial pain relief in 75 percent of participants.
So, just what is hypnosis? Hypnotherapists say it’s a way to focus one’s imagination and attention to help alleviate physical and emotional problems. Brain imaging has shown that some hypnotic suggestions reduce activity in brain areas associated with emotional responses to pain, while other suggestions reduce activity in an area of the brain more directly involved with the physical sensation of pain.
Most hypnotherapists have patients stare at a fixed object, sometimes just a colored thumbtack stuck in a wall. The hypnotherapist then describes relaxing images, such as a walk along a beach, and asks the patient to focus on those images. Next, he uses imagery and suggestions to block out or transform pain, such as, “Lock away the pain in the box in the basement of an abandoned house.”
While hypnosis typically helps relieve pain in four to 10 sessions, some people benefit faster and others not at all. Practitioners usually teach ways to continue therapy at home, and as long as the techniques are followed, people may not have to return for further sessions.
To find a qualified hypnotherapist, ask your doctor for a referral or contact the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, or the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis. Most health insurance companies cover hypnosis for pain therapy, if performed by a medical or psychological professional.
Hypnosis as a form of pain management can be very effective through visualisation techniques.
However there are many different techniques one can use via hypnosis.
One such technique which is can be very effective is from the practice of 'New Code NLP' (the Dr. Within). The intervention is used in a light hypnotic state. The technique is conducted via an unconscious signal from the clients unconscious mind (not exactly the same as an ideomoter signal used in hypnosis).
If the unconscious mind will agree to reducing the pain it can take just one session to make instant changes. It is ecologically set up so there are no issues with conflict of medical conditions. It can also be used to heal many other medical conditions.
Pain management via hypnosis or NLP should ideally only be used after medical diagnosis has been confirmed.
Pain can be a signal system (messenger) and often serves a purpose. It is a way for your unconscious to alert you to take action. How would you know you were ill if you did not have a pain in some affected part?
My advice is "Do not kill the messenger until you have first listened to the message." Pain and illness can be both physical and/or psychological. Sometimes unblocking a psychological trauma is all that is required to change a physical condition.
As with all techniques and clinical interventions it is important to understand that we are dealing with individual people not techniques for specific conditions and as such each individual will respond according to their own set of circumstances.
Peter Salisbury
Cognitive Hypnotherapist.
Cert AdvHyp. Hpd.C.Hyp. Anlpts
www.livingahappylife.co.uk