CHRONIC PAIN
Amazingly, the subconscious mind has the ability to help a person decrease pain levels. In hypnosis, we use imagery to dial down that pain. Research in neuroscience shows how imagery can affect pain levels. In a 2008 study performed by Australian neuroscientists, people viewed their hands through both ends of a binocular, magnifying and shrinking their perception of their hands. They found pain levels increased with magnification and decreased with the smaller image (The Brain’s Way of Healing 22-23). Not only can a person’s perception alter pain levels, repeated visualizations can alter pain circuits themselves, according to Norman Doidge in The Brain’s Way of Healing (18-25). In hypnosis, imagery and suggestions work to deal with pain and pain circuits.
Hypnosis has helped manage pain for those who suffer migraines, fibromyalgia,vertigo, chronic cough, pain from car (or other) accidents, and many others.
Please note: Consulting your physician will be required prior to any hypnosis work related to managing chronic pain.
“I suffered back pain after I had my baby ten years ago and had four back surgeries. On a scale of 0 to 10, my pain level was an average of 5 and at times got as bad as an 8. After taking pain medications that kept me in a fog for about 8 years, I stopped. After one hypnosis session with Jeanne and a week of listening to my hypnosis recordings, pain was not on the forefront of all my thoughts. During the second session, Jeanne had me imagine a healing space to dial down the pain. During that session my pain level went down to a zero, and throughout the week, as I listened to my hypnosis recordings, my back pain became a manageable 2. At that point I began to see that I was in control of my pain. Until then, I never thought that was possible. I had lost hope for any future and thought I would never be able to do anything I loved doing. I thought my whole life would have to center around pain. After the second week of listening to my hypnosis recordings, I could control the pain, and I felt liberated. Suddenly my future opened up. I began to realize that having gotten my back pain under control, I now had the tools to work on my fibromyalgia pain. I feel I now have my life back again.”