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Relieving Pain with Hypnotherapy
Kevin Hogan
Page One of Two
Authors note: Before working with any client who suffers from pain the hypnotherapist must be certain the client has sought a medical diagnosis of the cause of the pain. If you work with a client without a prior medical diagnosis, you are probably practicing medicine without a license. NEVER work with a client for ANY pain without your client having seen a medical doctor for the specific issue she is presenting to you, first.
What is Pain?
Pain is any sensation that is magnified to an uncomfortable level that includes a component of suffering from a cluster of negative emotions.
This article will touch on several important ideas. Did you know that pain can be culturally influenced? (Where you live can determine whether something will cause you to suffer from pain or not!) You may also be surprised to learn that not all pain can be alleviated but that most people who suffer from pain can experience a reduction in their level of pain.
Understanding pain and why we experience it helps us to optimize our work with our clients in therapy. Over the years you have read in my articles here in the Journal of Hypnotism that an effective modality for helping those who suffer from pain is combining regression hypnosis with ego state therapy. Others who write for the Journal advocate a cognitive behavioral approach to therapy. Still others advocate the utilization of hypnotherapy scripts and guided imagery in relieving pain. This article will help you understand why all of these tools are effective to some degree or another.
Pain is to be understood in two continuums of experience. The first is whether the pain is chronic (long term vs. something that is a new experience) or not. The second is the suffering the individual experiences because of the pain.
Pain travels through the body on two general pathways, the central nervous system (brain and spine) and the peripheral nervous system (everything else). It would take a book to describe the numerous incomplete theories about how and why people experience pain. For this article we will simply consider this two facts: Pain is a process and that is good news because even if you can’t stop a process you can probably alter it. Second, pain is always at least partially “in the mind” or “emotional” in nature. This to is good news for the client and the therapist.
Advanced Certification Research
At our most recent six-day intensive advanced hypnotherapy certification training we did a research project involving pain that reinforces current cutting edge medical research about pain and relieving it. Chris McAtee, C.I., led a research project where we first measured an individual’s threshold and tolerance of pain. (The balance of the next three paragraphs will share with you the highlights of the experiment. We will publish all of the data gathered at a later date.) We wanted to compare pain levels experienced by participants in a “normal state” with their experience in trance.
We began by filling an ice chest with ice-cold water. The temperature was maintained at 34 degrees. The first time each subject (mostly advanced hypnotherapy students) placed their arm in the bucket of ice water it was found to be very cold and in a matter of about one half of a minute, found to be very painful by most everyone involved in the project. Each person reported their level of pain using a number scale of 1-10. The experimenter (McAtee) asked for reports of pain intensity every 9 seconds and the information was recorded.
Later, all the participants were put in trance and again reported their level of pain to the experimenter. What we found was that approximately 1/3 of the participants experienced anesthesia (no pain) for the excruciatingly cold water while in trance. In addition, all of the remaining students experienced analgesia (significant pain reduction) while in trance. The results are encouraging but inconclusive as to how hypnosis will help those who suffer from chronic pain. The results also need to be compared to future research that examines hypnosis in the relief of pain to see if they might be replicated. (Other results were recorded that are not important to this discussion. They will be reported at a future date in this forum.)
Secondary Gain and Suffering from Pain
People’s reaction to pain and even their level of suffering can be related to something as unusual as the culture they live in. Did you know that if you lived in Lithuania you probably would never suffer from whiplash? It’s true! It just so happens that in Lithuania there are no laws allowing for financial compensation for something called whiplash. In a study of 200 people who survived serious car accidents in Lithuania, it was found that only 1/3 of these people reported headache or neck pain and most said they had the pain before the accident! There were no reported cases of whiplash. None.
The difference between Lithuania and the United States is that in the USA we compensate people for whiplash and therefore the secondary gain provided is often enough to culturally validate the extension and suffering of pain. When you work with your clients using ego state therapy you will ultimately discover what secondary gain is evident from the pain the person is experiencing. You should also be aware that the elimination of secondary gain (or any hypnotic experience or process) will not necessarily eliminate pain. You will likely find however that secondary gain does reduce pain.
It has recently been shown that emotions are inextricably linked to pain. If a person is suffering from depression and they are also in pain, they are far more likely to suffer from pain than someone who is not suffering from depression. Some scientists believe that depression has such a complex impact on the body that it suppresses the ability to tolerate pain.
Reducing the symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress, panic attacks and other emotional problems tends to raise tolerance to pain. This can be done through medication, psychotherapy, relaxation, increased or decreased interaction with people, or even hypnotherapy! (A combination of the above is normally the most effective overall therapeutic plan of attack.)
Go to Page Two of this article
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