Adding Hypnotic Tools to your Toolbox

Intro: Hypnosis (also called Guided Imagery, Guided Meditation, Visualization and QUANTUM FOCUSING) utilizes relaxation and focused attention to ease or eliminate a wide range of acute and chronic pain including: gastrointestinal, postoperative, headaches, cancer, burn and Fibromyalgic related pain.

Therapists guiding their pain patients through the relaxation exercises and imagery below will be amazed at how easy it is to help their patients reduce or eliminate pain by simply helping the patient relax and focus his or her attention away from the pain.

Disclaimer: For the record, I am not suggesting that the following "guided imagery" be used as an alternative to conventional pharmacological treatments. I am saying that at the very least, therapists utilizing this evidence based technique can make it possible for pain specialists to lower the dose and reduce the adverse effects of painkillers.

The guided meditations below are designed to help your patients tap into their relaxation, coping and self-regulation resources. This, by itself, can make the pain feel less urgent and more manageable. But the real "magic" happens when your patient realizes that he or she can focus their attention away from the pain.

The Setup Ask your patient to decide if their pain would prefer to float away or drop off. Then, after they decide, choose the corresponding exercise below to bring this into reality. Or you could guide your patient through both exercises and then ask them to decide which one works best.

Pain Management Exercise One: Floating Away

Have your patient lie down. Ask your patient to close their eyes and make contact with their body as a whole. Ask them to notice how relaxing it is to make contact with their body as a whole.

Now, ask your patient to specifically locate the area of pain. Ask them to picture, hear and sense the pain. Ask them to notice how it is like, and how it is different from their body as a whole. Have them mentally surround the pain with a colored light which matches the intensity of the pain, e.g., red for searing pain, black for throbbing pain, etc. Let the colored light contain the sounds and the sensations (feelings, smells and/or tastes) of the pain. Let the color take on a harsh, or sharp, or throbbing, or searing, or whatever shape.

Now, ask them to mentally change this colored light into a brilliant white light. Have them watch the change as it occurs. Tell your patient that: "He or she may notice that, first the sounds, then the sensations of the pain also change as the color changes; other times the changes in sensations will precede the sounds. You may even see the color change shape into a more comfortable shape several full seconds before the pain subsides. The feelings of pain turn into mild discomfort as they begin to leave your body."

Then, have them see the package of brilliant white light simply floating up and out of their body, taking the residual discomfort with it. See the discomfort floating in the light, going farther and farther away. Listen to the sounds as they fade into the distance. Notice how the smell or taste fades away. Feel the increasing comfort filling in the space left for it.

Again, ask them to imagine their body as a whole. Ask them to notice how the picture has changed. Listen to the more comfortable sounds it now makes. And, most importantly, feel how much better it feels.

The Pain That Wasn't There

This particular approach has demonstrated marvelous results in many instances. Here is what happened with one reluctant individual, Henry, whose wife brought him into the office. Henry was an amputee who lost his left leg below the knee to diabetes. It had been seven months since his operation, but he was experiencing severe cramps in his missing left foot. He had been assured that there was nothing wrong with his operation. He had an artificial leg that he was learning to use and was surprisingly comfortable with it very quickly. Yet, he had these cramps and no foot to massage in order to relieve them.

There was no place in the office for Henry to lie down so he was helped into a relaxed state and guided through the above exercise while sitting in his wheelchair. His remarks afterward are typical.

"I didn't think this would work. I went along with your instructions just to get out of here.

In the beginning, I felt foolish. But then the most amazing thing happened. I didn't realize it happened until after you finished. I was picturing the color change and enjoying the look of it. I was so engrossed I forgot about my foot. When we were done, I went back to my foot, expecting to find the pain again. It was completely gone."

Pain Management Exercise Two: Dropping Off

Have your patient lie down. Ask your patient to make contact with their body as a whole. Have them picture their body in their mind. Ask them to: "Feel what it feels like. Listen to the sounds it makes.

Now, specifically locate the area of pain. Picture, hear and sense the pain. Notice how it is like, and how it is different from your body as a whole. Mentally surround it with a very heavy cover.

Now imagine that, enclosed in this covering, the whole package of pain its appearance, its sound, its smell, its taste and its feeling is sinking through your body and into the floor. That's it . . . just sinking right through your body, through whatever you are lying on, and right on through the floor. Sinking deeper and deeper into the floor. Watch the cover as it slips away until it is completely out of sight.

When you no longer feel the pain you may get up and leave any remaining discomfort behind you."

Results with this approach have been every bit as amazing as with floating away. One client who had bursitis but loved to play tennis said that what she liked best about it was that she could modify it and "use it anywhere and anytime." She liked being able to lie down and really concentrate on the exercise. But, in her words, "It works just as well if I imagine I am lying down."

You can do this!

For more information on QUANTUM FOCUSING visit: www.quantumfocusing.com