Reduce Chronic Pain with Hypnotherapy
Learn to Relax and Manage Your Pain for a Better Quality of Life
Pain is a necessary and important condition within the body’s system. You should therefore ensure that you seek medical attention in order to have the condition diagnosed and treatment options outlined by your doctor, prior to hypnotherapy.
What if we have done this, what if we have understood pains message, done all that the Doctor and we can do and the pain still exists?
This is the situation that millions of people face on a regular basis.
Recent evidence has shown that hypnosis can help relieve pain in 75% of the population.
Pain itself is an essential element in our survival. In fact, acute pain is our body’s way of telling us we are being damaged and we’d better do something about it -- fast! Without this kind of pain, our very survival would be threatened.
It is when pain serves no useful purpose, when we have nothing to learn from its message, that we need some way of forcefully handling it. Medication can only do so much, and there is some pain that even powerful medicines have difficulty controlling. Migraines, back pain, arthritis and the terrible pain associated with cancer are just some of the chronic pains that can make our lives really difficult.
Being in long term pain is a source of stress and often people report feeling depressed, unhappy, anxious, angry just unable to cope. These strong emotions can all amplify pain and cause increased muscle tension.
Types of Pain
Acute pain - this can be intense and short-lived. Acute pain may be an indication of an injury. When the injury heals the pain usually goes away.
Chronic pain - this sensation lasts much longer than acute pain. Chronic pain or persistant pain can be mild or intense (severe). With this kind of pain we have understood pains message yet it still persists and the brain continues to receive pain signals even though there is nothing there to cause pain anymore. In some cases pain can be present even when there hasn't been a trauma of any kind. Chronic pain usually lasts longer than 6 months. It is ongoing and relentless. We seem to be stuck with it.
In fact, pain is both physical and psychological. The simple existence of psychological pain – phantom limb pain, for example, where pain continues to be felt in an amputated body part – clearly demonstrates the fact that the brain itself is capable of not only interpreting messages of pain that come from the body, but that it can even initiate these messages independent of any physical cause. Such pain can be as real and intense as pain coming from any injury.
So How Does Hypnosis Work for Pain Relief?
During hypnosis there is a suppression of neural activity, which inhibits the emotional interpretation of sensations such as pain. During hypnosis the parasympathetic nervous system is dormant and this reduces pain as fewer pain messages are sent to the brain. Specific techniques are also used to help control the perception of pain. This has been show to deactivate those areas of the brain that control pain thus altering our perception.
Pain is purely a process initiated by messages sent to the brain. If you can alter these messages then less pain is experienced.
In fact, there's a saying in hypnosis chronic pain control: ‘There is no pain until it reaches the brain’
General Practitioners are very receptive to the use of hypnotherapy to help with reducing the symptoms of pain, as they are very aware of its benefits.
Often people who suffer with chronic pain experience sleeping difficulties. If your body becomes stressed due to lack of sleep, you often experience more pain. Hypnotherapy helps improve your sleeping pattern, which allows your body to heal faster, and reduces your pain.
Hypnosis Can Help You Manage Chronic Pain
Solution Focused Therapy, combined with hypnosis, gets you to learn to relax and concentrate on the positive things in your life. Giving you more control of your thoughts and feelings. It will help reduce your stress and anxiety levels and in turn allow the brain to produce its own natural painkillers (endorphins).
By learning techniques to direct attention away from the pain sensations as well as transform your perception of the pain, your body will activate the parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system, which will help to turn down the intensity of your pain.
Clinical hypnotherapy has been shown to be useful in alleviating pain relating to migraines, burns, back or neck pain, sciatica, childbirth, myofascial pain syndrome, phantom limb pain, dentistry and minor procedures. There is also evidence that major procedures such as operations can be carried out with out the need for analgesia with the use of hypnosis, but this is still relatively rare. It has however, been shown to improve recovery times and reduce pain and nausea following surgery.
Hypnotherapy is also useful in helping reduce the symptoms of various conditions such as asthma and other respiratory problems, allergies, Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS), digestive disorders such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) / Myalgic Encephalopathy (ME).
Cheltenham Hypnotherapy for Managing and Reducing Chronic Pain
The number of sessions you will require will depend on a number of factors such as your current stress and anxiety levels, how long you have experienced your pain and how you feel about yourself and your life. This can be discussed more in detail during the initial consultation.
Take a positive step to change now by calling 07739 085 686 or 01242 279 562 to find out how hypnotherapy can help you manage chronic pain and to book an initial consultation in Cheltenham.