Pain Relief

Hypnosis is a wonderful tool for the use of pain relief. One has only to clench a tight fist and pinch its skin, then relax the same hand while maintaining that pinch to notice how the simple act of relaxation lessons the pain.

As a construct, pain is composed of not only the present experience, but in addition, is greatly enhanced by memories of past pain, and fears of future pain. This allows for many possibilities in the lessening and/or complete obliteration of the pain experienced with hypnotic techniques.

In order to make use of hypnosis to deal with pain, one needs to look upon pain in a most analytical fashion, that is that, it has certain temporal, emotional, psychological, and somatic significance's.

As mentioned, pain is a construct, composed of three parts; past remembered pain, the present pain experience, and the anticipation of future pain. Thus, immediate pain is augmented by past pain and is further enhanced by thoughts of future possibilities of pain. The immediate stimuli are only a central third of the entire experience. Nothing so much intensifies pain as the fear that it will be present in the near future. It is likewise increased by the realization that the same or similar pain was experienced in the past, and this and the immediate pain render the future even more threatening. Because pain is a complex, a construct, it is more readily vulnerable to hypnosis as a modality of dealing successfully with it, than it would be were it simply an experience of the present.

Pain, as an experience is also rendered more susceptible to hypnosis because it varies in its nature and intensity, and hence, through life experiences, it acquires secondary meanings resulting in varying interpretations of the pain.

To understand pain further, one must think of it as a neuro-psycho-physiological complex characterized by various understandings of tremendous significance to the sufferer.

The many hypnotic procedures used for pain relief and pain control include: direct hypnotic suggestion, indirect hypnotic suggestion for symptom alleviation; amnesia for eliminating past pain; which in turn would control fears of future pain; analgesia, and anesthesia for eliminating immediate pain, replacement or substitution of psychosomatically induced pain; displacement of pain, which increases a patient’s sense of pain control; dissociation for long-term chronic care, and the reinterpretation of pain, which helps reorganize one’s learnings, along with time distortion techniques to lesson the perceived time span of unpleasant experiences, and increase the perception of times of comfort.

The question now is how do we begin to help someone suffering pain, and how do we focus their attention long enough to apply hypnotic techniques to help eliminate, reduce, or control the pain experience.

Hypnotic relaxation automatically reduces about one third of the pain experience, because a large part of the pain experience is due to the tensions within the body produced by the person trying to control what hurts, in turn compounding the effect. By relaxing, which is one of the main benefits to hypnosis, the pain automatically diminishes. The question is how do you relax a person who is all tensed up. The best format I have found to be, by pacing the experience. Providing an acknowledgement of what is happening, will further establish a “yes set”, to help lead the individual into the trance experience. From there, you can ask for an intricate description of the pain. What kind of pain is it, is it a sharp pain, dull, stabbing, piercing pain, etc…This gets a person to identify what is happening so that they can confirm within themselves when something changes. Furthermore you can ask for the specific location, and how much of the area, the specific times, duration, and frequency. This will provide you with information that you can use to help the person control what is going on. From this point on, any number of the hypnotic techniques mentioned above can be used.

Milton Erickson recommended time distortion as one the most useful hypnotic pain control techniques. It is accomplished by having the patient remember how time flies when they are having fun, and yet slows right down and almost stops, when waiting for a kettle to boil. From this point on, you would use post hypnotic suggestion to have the good parts of the day appear to last longer, the person would go into trance during painful episodes, and if suggestions for amnesia had been installed, the patient would forget having had the pain, and we know how hypnosis can distort time as it is, but we can distort it into a very, very short time. Putting all this together could help some one with the most extremes of pain tremendously.

To summarize, pain is a subjective experience. Pain, during life's experience serves to establish body learnings, associations, and conditionings that constitute a source of potentials permitting the use of hypnosis for the study and implementation of pain relief.

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Pain is a warning that something is wrong, so the first step is consulting a professional to learn its cause. Once you learn what the cause of your pain is, only then should you ever use a program like this. Once you begin this program, you will be able to eliminate any pain killers you have been using, or at the very least reduce the amounts drastically so that you can enjoy life coherently. Pain doesn't have to stop you in your tracks preventing you from enjoying life. Get a grip on it, and control whatever is bothering you.

Mailing address:
Dr. Frank Valente Ph.D.(c)
Hypnotic Advancements
3126 McCarthy Court
Mississauga , ON
Canada L4Y-3Z5

© 2004, Dr. Frank Valente Ph.D.(c)

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