Managing Pain
‘The Committee are of opinion that as a therapeutic agent hypnotism is frequently effective in relieving pain, procuring sleep, and alleviating many functional [i.e. neurotic] ailments.’ (British Medical Association, 1892)
Most people are unaware that hypnosis has been recognised as an effective form of treatment in the UK for 125 years and that today hypnosis is used by many doctors, dentists and other qualified medical practitioners across the world. (Click on the link if you would like to know more about the British Society of Clinical Hypnosis or the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis.)
While hypnosis use in giving birth is better known (and both my children were born using hypnosis), perhaps its most startling medical use is in replacing general anaesthetics during surgery. This technique, known as hypno-anaesthesia has been practised for more than 160 years.
Today only a handful of operations using hypno-anaesthesia take place in the UK but it is more widely used overseas, in Belgium for example.
At this point you will probably be very relieved to hear that I do not do invasive surgery under hypnosis! I simply use hypnosis to enable someone to better control their own body’s response to pain.
But what exactly is pain? At first glance this seems so easy to answer. We know what pain is, we’ve experienced it often enough. Yet why are there different types of pain? How come one person can be hurt and feel very little, whereas another feels great pain from a similar injury? Why is it that some people seem to just feel more pain than others?
A large part of the pain we feel is our perception of pain, and while some people naturally have a higher tolerance of pain, we can all learn to reduce or even get rid of pain by changing how we think about it. For example, one of the most effective ways of doing this is to be distracted, to be focused on something else, to be mentally elsewhere and so fully engaged in this process that the pain is no longer felt. When mummy kissed it better it worked!
And you don’t need to be an Indian guru or Buddhist monk to learn how to do this. Through hypnosis, I can show you how to use your mind to exercise much greater control over your own body.
While you may never be able to block it entirely, you should be able to alleviate your pain so that it does not hurt so much and makes your life much enjoyable and easier.
As part of our work together, I will show you how to use self-hypnosis and other techniques to manage your pain. We all know that when we put our minds to it we can accomplish great things, and in the case of pain management, this is so much easier to do with hypnosis. If you come to me for treatment and find it does does not help I am happy to refund the fee in full. You have nothing to lose and much to gain if you come to me and give it a try.
