Hypnosis and Pain Control

Yesterday someone in my YahooGroup asked if hypnosis could help with pain control and if the relief could be instantaneous. My answer is an emphatic "yes".

As many of my readers know, I am a live-in nurse for a man who has cancer. We use hypnosis for dealing with the anticipatory nausea people get with chemo and for pain related to side effects from his medication. For him, it doesn't happen "instantly" and because we're talking about chemicals (poisons in a sense) in his body, it doesn't always eliminate the nausea after chemo. At one time for 2-3 days prior to chemo he would start getting sick just thinking about what was going to happen. We've totally eliminated that thanks to hypnotic suggestion. We've also managed to reduce the after chemo nausea but haven't totally eliminated it. Even though he still gets sick we both agree that it doesn't seem nearly as bad as it did prior to the onset of his hypnosis sessions.

Bill has a physical trigger where either he or I rub the back of his hand and he begins to go to a very relaxed place... a very comfortable place.. a very suggestible place. I then use a lot of guided imagery (imagining the pain or nausea leaving his body, imagining it being absorbed like a sponge and him seeing himself throwing the sponge away, etc). You use what works for the person as some people find imagining specific things easier than others. We also use a "dial" that he can see and turn down the pain and the nausea. For kids with cancer, it's common to use "pac-men" inside their bodies eating up the cancer cells.

I would definitely recommend using caution when thinking of taking away pain through the use of hypnosis because pain is a warning sign from the body (usually) that something is wrong. For example, pain in a sprained ankle is there to keep us off of it so we don't injure it more. (Once the person has enough sense to stay off it, I use hypnosis to minimize the pain and often give the suggestion that any "unnecessary pain" will slip away.) Frequent headache pain could be a symptom of high blood pressure, malignancy, etc. I use hypnosis for pain control for the rare headache without asking a Dr. but for anything that someone would normally seek medical advice the person should always do so. After being diagnosed then you know when it's safe to take away the pain.

There's a particular imagery suggestion that I've heard used quite often. It's called the "Glove of Analgesia" (analgesia means the absence of pain). The suggestion is given that the subject can use this glove on the area of pain and that the pain will numb or fade away thanks to the wonderfully soothing glove of analgesia. "You may keep this glove with you in your mind and when the pain returns or increases, you may place it on the source of your pain once again - feeling that wonderfully soothing release of pain once more..." (Again all precautions about use should apply when using suggestions such as these.)