Turn off the Pain by Distraction, Re-framing, Numbing and Dissociation.
Hypnosis allows us to immediately alter our mood, reduce stress and anxiety, and reduce pain intensity.
Compelling body of evidence has proven time and again hypnosis can numb, reduce pain, or even eliminate chronic pain completely.
That’s why hypnosis is a potential treatment for all types of pain:
Chronic, acute, labor pains and surgical pain, to name a few.
Hypnosis allows us to immediately alter our mood, reduce stress and anxiety, and reduce pain intensity. We’re able to do this in a few ways. Using hypnosis for pain management, we can help the mind think differently (or not at all) about the pain we feel, and there are four general ways we can do it.
1. Distraction
Have you ever been so deep into a thought that you forget your freeway exit? Or you accidentally cut your finger while chopping onions. In the moment, we’re often so distracted with stopping the bleeding – we forget how much it hurts. The pain comes after we’ve wrapped it with a paper towel.
Using hypnosis, we can train the mind to distract itself from the intensity of pain. We might suggest that the subconscious thinks of a pain-free time in our lives, or thinks about another pain-free part of the body. As a result, we can’t hyper-focus on the pain and how intense it is – which is a powerful method for helping to reduce pain.
Distraction can be effective for short-term and immediate pain relief.
2. Re-framing
When we use re-framing, we feed the subconscious with suggestions about how to perceive pain. For example, many chronic pain sufferers describe their pain as a “burning” feeling. Using hypnosis, we can begin to alter this description – from burning, to a feeling of warmth, and ultimately, to a cool sensation.
Often, for labor pain, a hypnotherapist might suggest to the subconscious that the feeling isn’t pain to discomfort, or pressure. Some re-framing techniques ask the mind to think differently about the pain in a more abstract way, i.e. not that it has control over our lives, but that it is something that happens in the background that we tune into, for example.
Re-framing works well long-term, as it may take multiple sessions to alter how the subconscious perceives and responds to pain. But over time, it can be a very helpful tool for reducing intense pain.
3. Numbing
When we guide ourselves into a deep trance, we can begin to work with sensory information. For example, a common hypnotherapy technique might require you to imagine your hand in ice-cold water. We can take that further and further, until, in your trance state, you perceive that your hand is actually numb.
Once this happens, you might visualize that numbness moving to where you feel pain. This technique – although advanced – does help to dull or numb the pain entirely. But it requires the right script, and can take time to master.
4. Dissociation
Finally, we have dissociation. With dissociation, we ask ourselves to separate the pain or ourselves from the body. We visualize ourselves across the room, watching ourselves. Or visualize the area of our low back that’s in pain, as floating behind ourselves.
It sounds abstract, but just try it for a moment. Imagine you’re sitting across the room, watching yourself reading this.
Did you notice a difference? Did you feel calmer, or more grounded? Where you able to break your focus from your pain?
Dissociation can be a helpful tool, but like numbing, it takes time to master.
Some of the Script of Hypnosis Pain Management below:
Imagine you/re standing in front of a circuit breaker box…
This is a special breaker box…
It is the breaker box for your body’s individual systems…
I want you to open the door and look at each breaker…
Notice each breaker has a label on it…
I want you to look for the breaker labeled old pain…
When you find it nod your head yes…
Wait for them to nod…
Now I want you to turn off the breaker…
As you turn the breaker off you will instantly feel your pain fade away…
Now close the door and take a deep breath…
Take another deep breath and now notice your pain is in fact completely gone.
