HYPNOTHERAPY FOR PAIN
When you have chronic pain, you become extremely aware of painful sensations, and this focus on pain, makes pain worse, and can lead you to worry about your pain excessively. These negative perceptions and emotions about chronic pain can reinforce to our brain that it needs to continue producing pain messages, therefore perpetuating the pain cycle and even worsening it.
There are numerous strategies for dealing with pain with hypotherapy, it can be used to effectively reduce awareness of any pain, independent of the location, intensity, and the underlying cause of the pain. One method is to focus on the acceptance of your chronic condition, with the aim of reducing the fear and anxiety around it. Your perceptions of pain can greatly influence your pain levels and how you manage your pain. Being afraid can lead us to avoiding situations we perceive might worsen our pain, which may in fact worsen our symptoms over time. By addressing these negative emotions and reducing fear, your quality of life can be vastly improved and your pain levels considerably reduced.
Another method involves suggestions of being pain free, having reduced pain, or having increased functioning to help patients reduce pain levels - this has been used in many pain scenarios with success. This indepth study explains that it has been highly effective in treating many types of acute and chronic pain including: “chronic oncological pain, HIV neuropathic pain, pain during extraction of molars, pain associated to physical trauma, pain in surgical procedures, pain associated to temporomandibular joint disorder, phantom limb, fibromyalgia, pain in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, acute pain in children, lumbago and pain in childbirth” This type of hypnoanalgesia session can have fantastic results for pain patients. This study states that, “hypnosis results in greater pain reductions across a variety of chronic pain conditions and pain-related outcomes, including intensity, duration, frequency, and use of analgesic medications when compared to standard care”
Another method focusses on forgetting past negative memories of pain, effectively trying to retrain the brain to forget that certain situations should cause pain. Imagery is used by the Hypnotherapist to replace the sensation of pain with a more pleasant sensation, such as warmth or cool. Incorporating this regularly into sessions makes it a habit which happens in your day-to-day life without you thinking about it. This could help your brain to break the association between certain painful movements or situations and in turn, help you to break free of the chronic pain cycle.
PHYSIOTHERAPY -
Hypnotherapy is now a validated evidence-based science, demonstrated on brain imaging, thanks to modern techniques of medical imaging. Imaging studies further enabled the hypnotic state to be described as a specific state of consciousness, differentiating it from other states of consciousness. This state of consciousness is primarily characterized by a state of mental suggestibility, showing an increased ability to produce desirable changes in motivation, habits, lifestyle, health, perception and behavior as well as modifying physical sensation. Its usefulness is interesting for physiotherapists since hypnosis has higher levels of evidence than many other conventional tools used in physiotherapy. It is often used by physiotherapists in traumatologic, rheumatologic and neurologic rehabilitation, where efficacy is improved by hypnosis. Hypnosis affects the subconscious, which is the center of emotions, habits and automatisms. The subconscious transmits commands to the unconscious mind, which in return translates these emotions into somatic feelings and reactions. In parallel, the neurophysiology of hypnotic suggestion is currently well-defined, as is the brain permeability associated with increased regional cerebral blood flow in the attentional system of the brain. Furthermore, positive expectation and labeling of “hypnosis” seem to have remarkable effects on the efficacy of the procedure. Clinical randomized controlled studies have shown efficacy on pain in general, tension headache and migraine, temporomandibular pain, chronic low back pain, osteoarthritis and bone and joint pain, fibromyalgia, regional pain syndrome, phantom limb pain, sports rehabilitation, irritable bowl syndrome, stress and anxiety, and many other pathologies. Hypnosis is a powerful and very useful tool in everyday physiotherapy
CANCER - Psychological approaches are important in the management of cancer pain, and hypnosis is an especially useful technique that can be integrated into total care of the patient. Although a major application of hypnosis to cancer patients is the direct relief of pain, there are wider psychotherapeutic benefits as well - inner strength or the will to live can be increased and directed to the patients development of greater personal responsibility for his or her wellbeing Hypnosis has been used throughout this century as both a medical technique (for analgesia, muscle relaxation and in some cases to facilitate healing) and as a psychosomatic tool (to alleviate symptoms, uncover forgotten material and facilitate behavioural change) The current scientific understanding of hypnosis is rooted in rational, demonstrable psychological principles. It is a natural human ability, not an aberration'
If you follow my instructions, hypnotherapy can put you in a highly relaxed state, it can help to reduce stress levels and break the stress and pain cycle. Muscle tension can be eased and stiffness reduced. Regular hypnotherapy can result in a significant reduction in stress can markedly improve chronic pain symptoms.
Each pain program I run is suited to your needs and to your own personal circumstances.