Hynotherapy for Chronic Pain
Living with Chronic Pain can feel like a life sentence. People can feel stigmatised, misunderstood. And managing our daily lives whilst feeling that way, can feel overwhelming. Sometimes the causes of chronic pain are understood, but often they’re not. And it’s hard for medical professionals to pinpoint the exact cause, let alone treat it.
However, what we do know about pain is that it’s designed to support us. That its job is to be a signal to tell us that somethings wrong. Research tells us that the pain we experience is separate to the injury itself, or separate to the place that the pain is trying to warn us about. They are two separate things. In other words, our body experiences an injury, our brain analyses it, and then our brain sends out a signal, which is the pain, so that we can become aware, do something about it, take action, and allow ourselves to heal.
I mean, if you were to break your foot, and then put your full weight on it, you’d cause more damage, wouldn’t you? So, the pain reminds us that the injury is there. It tells us to be careful, to protect us. Then, it switches off, or at least it’s supposed to. Only activating again when needed.
How Can Hypnotherapy (hypnosis) Help?
Hypnosis was probably the earliest form of anaesthetic. People used it to perform surgeries, things like amputations. In fact, hypnosis is starting to be used in surgical procedures again, and with great success, because of the following:
General anaesthetics require the entire system to shut down. That means that machines are needed to keep our bodies functioning. Post-surgery, all of our bodies systems then have to restart, which takes time, making recovery times that much longer. With hypnosis, that isn’t the case. During surgery, the bodies entire system remains functioning independently, without interruption. That means that recovery times are much quicker.
Then there’s the fact that Hypnosis can help a person slow down the blood flow to the area being operated on. This reduces blood loss during surgery, allowing us to heal more quickly.
With these two incredible benefits, complications associated with surgery, can be reduced significantly. That’s because our bodies are amazing.
But it’s not the hypnosis, that allows your system to remain functioning, or slows down the blood flow, It’s you, your unconscious mind. That’s the thing that does it, which is why I say our bodies are amazing. Hypnosis is just a way of communicating with that bit of ourselves, the bit that’s in charge, the control centre, which then allows us to make the changes we need to make.
I don’t know if you’re familiar with the TV show Star Trek. Well even if you’re not, let’s imagine that we’re all on board a spaceship, and our computer, the control centre of this particular spaceship, detects some bad guys approaching. An alarm sounds, a big claxon, and red lights start flashing, really brightly. Now, the crew of the ship, which is us, know that the bad guys are there and so we have time do something about it, to take evasive action. The systems done its job, it’s saved us. Imagine though if the alarm kept sounding, just as loudly, and the lights kept flashing, just as brightly – do you think it would be easy to think clearly, to take the action we needed to take – probably not.
So, in relation to chronic pain, hypnosis can help us take back control of the control centre. Which is our control centre. The warning system that keeps us safe, by sounding its alarms and flashing its flashing lights.
Now we know that there are physical and psychological factors involved in chronic pain, and hypnosis can help with both.
It can help with the physical factors: by helping you to change the way your bodies nervous system perceives and process the issue it’s facing. This is done by using the latest information and research we have, to help you to explore how your nervous system responds to the world. And to help you take back control of the way your body makes use of its warning systems. And by helping you to find ways to reach a state of deep relaxation.
The psychological: When you’ve taken back control of those warning systems, a lot of the psychological impact of the chronic pain, you were experiencing, will reduce. But there are also other psychological factors, that may well have played a part in your experience of chronic pain, and these can be explored too, using hypnosis. Hypnosis can help you to find ways to manage those issues differently. Issues that may include: stress, anxiety, trauma, grief, loss, anger, or whatever else it may be.
As I said, pain is a signal, it’s designed to warn us that something needs to be looked at. So, given that, please ensure you’ve had a medical doctor look into the possible causes and solutions prior to booking an appointment to see me. I can work with you and your doctor in treating chronic pain, or I can work with you separately, if all physical causes and treatments have been ruled out.
