Pain is classified as either acute or chronic. Acute pain is temporary while the latter exceeds three months. Research indicates that over 1.5 billion people around the world suffer from different types of chronic pain. It is caused by various factors and often does not go away with frequent treatments.
How It Works
Most people think that hypnotherapist help to reduce pain by convincing the patient that it does not exist. The process focuses on accessing the subconscious mind to manage the anxiety and fear that triggers the pain. It becomes easy to manage the pain.
Breathing motion is a common approach used by therapists to relax and drift the patient’s focus from the pain. They often encourage the patients to focus on a beautiful memory or place. The focal point becomes the pleasant state of mind that leads to relaxation. Repetition of the exercise enables the patient to deal with the pain with much less distress in future compared to now.
Common Types of Chronic Pains That Are Treated Using Hypnotherapy
Chronic pain is a multifaceted occurrence influenced by physiological, behavioural, cognitive and emotional responses. It can be used to minimize the negative impact of pains such as:
- Pain from advanced stages of cancer
- Chronic back pains
- Arthritis
- Fibromyalgia
- Sickle cell related pain
Treatment Techniques Used
Hypnotherapists use different approaches to understand chronic pain triggers in their patients. They use the approaches to minimize the pain effect by drawing the patient’s attention to a positive experience. Here are a few common stages commonly used:
- Induction- the therapist is able to introduce the patient to their abilities to focus attention on positive memories away from the pain.
- Deepening- the procedure focuses on creating a deeper relaxation state of the patient’s body.
- Proposals- both the patient and hypnotherapist consider different suggestions that will ease chronic pain management. The patient can suggest some approaches that reduce the pain’s impact on emotional, physical and mental health.
- Debriefing- they review the experiences that led to the chronic pain state with the aim of identifying the trigger. The therapist focuses on dealing with the trigger to provide a less painful experience for the patient.
Conclusion
It is impossible to take away chronic pain linked to some medical conditions. Continuous intake of medication might not improve the situation. Hypnotherapy is a good approach that does not take up many resources and makes it easy for the patient to deal with the situation.
