Chronic nagging pain can interfere with our day-to-day enjoyment of life. It can often limit what we can do as we are constantly reminded of it again and again. With the help of hypnosis, it's possible to turn down those pain signals so that the brain re-interprets unnecessary and unhelpful pain in a more comfortable way.
When you think about it, pain is very subjective. That's why a prize-fighter can withstand being punched in the face by a heavyweight opponent over and over again and just keep going. We might notice that one person can be hurt quite badly and just shrug it off, while another may suffer from a minor scratch and be reduced to tears. But hypnosis can help you control the level of pain you feel.
Perhaps we can all remember the film Rambo, where the hero quite happily stitched his own gaping wounds — a strong example of mind-over-matter, which is particularly relevant when hypnosis is considered as a form of pain relief.
Control Your Pain with Hypnosis
If we look at pain in more detail we will see that there are two types:
- Acute pain — sharp, sudden and of short duration. Stubbing a toe is considered to be an acute type of pain, for example.
- Chronic pain — more long-term, persisting for weeks, months, years or even a lifetime. This type of pain takes the form of aches, twinges, discomfort, and spasms that become the background noise of our lives.
It's always necessary to consult a medical practitioner for an official diagnosis prior to hypnotherapy treatment so that any symptom that might require medical attention can be investigated. Once this has been done then hypnosis can provide effective relief in a variety of ways.
The perception of pain involves a complex system within the body and brain. There are different pain gates that operate within us which carry pain signals through our nerve endings and into pain receptors in the brain. Acute pain signals travel very quickly — if we put our hand on a hot surface our reaction is immediate so that tissue damage is minimized. Following the initial acute response, slower pain signals occur so that the intensity of the pain is diminished but we can still feel throbbing, aching or soreness in the area. This is why the experience of sudden pain can make us momentarily forget the underlying pain that normally takes our attention.
Hypnotherapy to Desensitize Chronic Pain
Hypnotherapy can help people to desensitize from their chronic pain symptoms, enabling them to get on with their lives without the debilitating, constant nagging that pain causes.
The first way it can do this is by using a progressive relaxation induction, so that our muscles can loosen up and we can let go of any build-up of stress and tension. Sometimes holding ourselves in a tense or rigid posture can exacerbate the pain, even if we are doing so in an attempt to avoid it. When we are relaxed pain can lessen and start to become more manageable.
The hypnotherapist may gauge the intensity of the discomfort by asking the client to measure their experience of pain on a pain scale. This helps to monitor the subjective aspect of the pain and gives a foundation for calibrating progress in future sessions.
The client is given the opportunity to explore what their pain feels like in the safe and comfortable environment of the therapy room. It's often the case that when we have pain we feel like running away from it, rather than investigating it thoroughly with the mind. This exercise, therefore, can be very enlightening and liberating.
By exploring our pain, we can identify its components. It might feel hot or cool, tingly or dull. Perhaps it has a color, a texture or even a sound? There are hundreds of different ways that pain can be expressed and when this is thoroughly explored with the hypnotherapist, it can form the basis for future work, changing our conscious interpretation.
Visualization and Reframing Pain
Hypnotherapy can help us to develop that state of mind that turns down the volume of our pain. Various visualization and NLP techniques can be implemented, tailored on an individual basis to suit the pain and discomfort that has been identified. For example, if a client felt that their pain was heavy and dark, the hypnotherapist could create mental imagery and positive suggestions for lightness and weightlessness in that area, which could counteract the original sensations.
Through the use of hypnotherapy, we can give our brains the message that the pain signals are no longer necessary for that condition. By doing so, we can adapt our perception of the pain so that a more manageable and subtle message is received which is much easier to deal with.
Powerful positive suggestions can be incorporated into the hypnotherapy sessions, allowing the subconscious mind to reframe the pain in much more beneficial ways. Significant benefits may be achieved and a certain percentage of people may find that their tolerance to pain changes quite profoundly. It's been known for people to even undergo dental work or surgery without anesthetics or pain-relief by using hypnosis.
Clients can also be taught self-hypnosis techniques as a way of regulating their pain experiences. These techniques are easy to put into practice and can really help the client gain control of their discomfort at any time.
Addressing the Wider Impact of Pain
Often chronic pain affects many other areas of our lives too. It can stop us from engaging in certain activities, it can increase our stress levels and lower our self-confidence. We might even find our relationships undermined as others around us may not be as supportive or understanding as we would wish them to be.
Hypnotherapy can address the secondary aspects attached to the function of pain in our lives so that we can truly build on a strong foundation for change.