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PAIN
MANAGEMENT
Applications and Techniques
Hypnotherapeutic methods for
achieving pain relief are numerous. Effectiveness can vary and the
choice may depend on the condition and personality of the patient.
Suggestions may be direct or indirect, interpersonal, or utilize anesthesia,
guided imagery, hypnoanalysis, or other procedures.
As is so important in hypnosis,
attitude is a major factor. It is important that the patient
accept that relief is possible. Constant pain needs to be
approached on a different basis than interim pain. Constant pain
is not to be relinquished completely even for a few minutes, since it is
identified with the life force. The patient likes to feel it is
there, however reduced, even during periods of sleep.
Physical pain is seldom
constant. The therapist will determine if the patient has
experienced periods, however briefly, which were free of pain. If
the patient claims the pain is constant, it is more likely to be
psychological in origin and may indicate a constant pain syndrome.
Treatment will likely involve the establishment of rapport with empathy
and appreciation of the value of pain. Hypnotic regression to the
cause of the problem can lead to understanding and relief.
A reasonable therapist usually
will not work with physical pain without being in communication with an
appropriate physician, for the simple reason that pain is more of a
symptom than a condition. Pain indicates that something is wrong,
somewhere, and that it is true whether the pain is physical or
mental. It would be the height of folly to treat a migraine
headache only to have it turn out to have been a brain cancer.
It is important to remember that
some patients value their pains highly, just as a hypochondriac can be
said to enjoy poor health. Through hypnosis patients frequently
can be shown that they can control their pains and being able to do so
they also can diminish pain to tolerable levels or turn it off
completely at will.
Seemingly endless periods of
tests which prove inconclusive, often accompanied by conflicting
diagnosis, can instill levels of fear which may be dealt with through
hypnotherapy. Guilt, anger, or other emotional problems often
enter into the picture when accidents are involved as source conditions.
Negative attitudes must be dealt
with, and again the capability of hypnosis to modify trends of thought
becomes important. In difficult cases the power to cope can be
programmed into the patient's mind possibly together with cues to make
the process more or less automatic.
In dealing with pain situations,
teaching the patient the use of self-hypnosis techniques can be highly
beneficial, reinforcing the programming that has been done in the case.
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