When Increasing Pain Can Reduce Pain

As wellness practitioners, many times in the course of our work we encounter a client who has endured pain that just doesn't seem to respond to any therapeutic approach. A very simple Hypnotic technique can teach them that they have the ability to control the intensity of the sensation. The key to the success of the technique is surprisingly in teaching them how to increase the pain.

Even in the hypnosis world, many practitioners fail to take advantage of using the client's own understanding of the pain to its full advantage by immediately working on reducing the pain sensation. For a client who has unsuccessfully tried every available means of pain reduction, this approach is often destined to fail, because they have developed a belief system that proven pain reduction methods do not work for them. The instant the concept of reducing or eliminating the pain is introduced, their belief in the indestructible nature of their pain overrides the suggestions for relief. While the suggestions may be expertly provided and may often bring the desired relief, they are not appropriate in every situation with every client.

In some instances it is best to teach the client that they can control the pain by first offering hypnotic suggestion to allow them to increase the pain sensation a bit. During session work the client will be asked to rate the sensation on a pain scale before beginning the trance work. The induction of hypnotic state is then processed and again they are asked to rate the pain. At that point suggestion is then given to focus their attention completely on that sensation and to begin to use a dial or some similar metaphor to slowly INCREASE the pain. They are given a moment to process this and then asked to rate the pain once more. It is at this point that we have made the subconscious acknowledgement that they can control the sensations they experience.

The key to using this increased pain and subconscious understanding to the clients advantage is to now fully explain in the session that they have just demonstrated quite easily how they are able to control the pain by increasing it. This is the transformation point of their pain experience. We then use this understanding by suggestion that they now use that same dial, or whatever metaphor that was chosen, to slowly dial down the sensation. First by bringing it back to the original level the client had stated in increments, and then continuing that dialing down of the sensation to a lower level. When they have achieved this goal, reinforcement of the accomplishment is anchored.

It is often beneficial to repeat the process of increasing the sensation again and then reducing it even farther. This demonstrates for the client that the reduction was indeed in their control and not a singular event. This success is also reinforced. At that point it is best to have the client dial down the sensation to the level that is best for them right now and allow them to confirm when they have reached it. The client is then asked if this level would be good to keep in place for the remainder of the day. If so, suggest that they lock this setting into the dial for the remainder of the day. If they feel that it should be even lower, have them dial it to that setting and when they acknowledge success, lock that into the dial.

Additional suggestions are now given that they are easily able to close their eyes and count down from 10 to 1 will cause them to easily access this state at any time they need or desire to adjust the dial as they see fit. It may be beneficial to offer suggestion that every day now that they have mastered the control of the situation that they easily and comfortably awaken each day at the lowest level of discomfort that they experienced the previous day, and they easily access this state to dial the sensation down even further to the best level for them until they have completely dialed the sensations down to zero and maintain that level permanently.

The amazing benefit of teaching a person to increase their pain in the process of reducing it cannot be stressed enough. The goal is to give every client a feeling of control of every aspect of their well-being and this technique is one of the most tangible aspects of regaining that feeling of control.

Many Blessings

James Duncan, CHt

www.DuncanHypnotherapy.com