Hypnotherapy

What is it?

Hypnotherapy also called hypnosis, is a trance-like state where people can experience heightened concentration, suggestibility and focus.

A hypnotherapist usually uses spoken words and mental images to guide the patient into hypnosis, and when under, people say they often feel relaxed and calm. It's worth noting that although you are more open to suggestions while hypnotised, that doesn't mean you lose control over your behaviour.

How does it work?

Hypnosis is often used to help people manage and cope with pain or anxiety or eliminate undesired behaviours like smoking and over-eating. 

Many people use hypnosis to alleviate the pain of fibromyalgia, and it was shown to significantly better outcomes on measures of muscle pain, fatigue, sleep disturbance, and distress during a controlled study of fibromyalgia patients.

Here are some of the reasons people turn to hypnosis,

  • stress

  • phobias

  • anxiety

  • Pain control

  • Behaviour change

  • anxiety before a medical procedure

  • Hot flashes during perimenopause and menopause

  • Cancer treatment side effects. Mainly related to chemotherapy or radiation treatment

  • Mental health conditions. Hypnosis may help treat symptoms of anxiety and post-traumatic stress.

Hypnosis was brought into the modern era thanks to Franz Mesmer, although references to hypnotism have been found as far back as 1027 in the book "The Book of Healing" by Persian philosopher Ibn Sina.

During the treatment.

There are two main things to consider when undergoing hypnosis - make sure you are comfortable and have had a good night's sleep, so you don't fall asleep.

Once you've chosen a certified therapist, it is a good idea to ask some questions to get a feel for the type of therapy and techniques they use.

During the session, you will either sit or lie on a couch as the practitioner brings you into a relaxed state. Once they feel you are ready, they will continue using words and visualisations to guide you.

Once in hypnosis, the therapist will guide you towards whatever topic you would like to process, which could include deep trauma’s and working through those.

Hypnosis therapy can be incredibly emotional.

Towards the end of the session, the practitioner will carefully bring you out of hypnosis so that you are alert and ready to go about the rest of your day, and contrary to the hypnosis we often see online, you will likely remember everything that happens during your session.

Is this for you?

Much unlike physical therapy, dry needling, massage, Rolfing, and many other treatments focused on the physical aspect of the tension, hypnotherapy focuses on the psychological aspect that could be part of the problem.

That is also why it might be of interest for people with chronic pain. If physical therapies don’t seem to make a difference, perhaps working on the somatic/psychological side could give reprieve.

Especially when you feel like you’ve tried every treatment that is out there, it could be worth to approach the issue from a different perspective. As hypnotherapy may help treat any number of medical conditions in which psychological factors influence physical symptoms, it is definitely worth to consider if you struggle with chronic pain.

A potential important aspect of a successful hypnotherapy session is that you are open to the idea that physical pain could be derived from psychological triggers.

An interesting and well-received book on this thesis is: “The body keeps the score” by Bessel van der Kolk. In this book he unlayers a lifetime of research into the dynamics between psychological trauma (in any shape or form, big or small) and potential physical expression of these issues.

As you are perhaps venturing into new terrain where your emotions and past experiences will be put under focus, it wouldn’t be weird to assume that this could take on a bigger role in your life after the treatment.

It is therefore recommended to assess if you’re ready to dive a little deeper into this side of your life.

It wouldn’t hurt to prep yourself well before going: be clear upfront about why you want to go, and what you want to get out of the treatment. What would be the main focus for you to dive deeper into?

Another important step is to make sure that you’re able to track your progress in some way, that will also help you to pinpoint what other topics you would want to treat in future sessions.

Finally, it is totally worth to shop around. Make sure to find a therapist that you feel comfortable with, so that you can discover this new part of therapy step by step at your own pace.

What is my experience?

Of all therapies and treatments, -aside from DMT- I think hypnotherapy is the most difficult one to go through.

Even though I very much believe in a connection between the physical and the psychological, I did not go to a hypnotherapist with the intention to improve on my chronic pain. I thought it would be a nice side effect, but as I (like every person in the world) have had some challenging issues in my late childhood as well as early adulthood that I was still struggling with, I thought it could be a good idea to work through those with the help of a hypnotherapist.

A side note here is that I’ve worked with two different psychologists earlier in my life, to do the same thing, ‘clean up’ where possible, and find back a sense of flow in a life than succumbed by chaos. I loved most of that, but noticed that I could not easily access my ‘deepest’ thoughts and feelings on some of those issues through talk-therapy, and hence got the impression that I got a bit stuck or was stagnating.

In a way, I was hoping hypnotherapy could give me some extra push, a kind of breakthrough, or otherwise just another step in the right direction. Fast forward to the first, or following treatments: oh boy, this is tough.

The idea of hypnotherapy (or at least the way made sense of it) is based on you being able to immerse yourself in a specific situation that meant a lot to you. Whereas with talk-therapy it is easy to change from "feeling mode” to “rational mode”, during hypnotherapy you are working on a subconscious level and hence the “critical/analytical/rational mode” is switched off. This should help you to stay connected to your emotions, and allow you to go to the root of an experience without “judging’ the validity of it too much, and to tune in to the believe or “wound” that flowed from that moment.

Example: In a heated fight in your close family someone told you that you don’t even matter to them:

a) as an adult, your “critical/analytical/rational mode” sees at something logical, something you should not put too much value on, something that wasn’t meant by that other person, and something that has already been years ago, so shouldn’t matter in the first place.

>> this is how we often “step over” hurtful experiences that we had, without truly gaging or processing its effects. It could lead to unprocessed hurt, grief, resentment and become ‘trigger points’. When confronted with different situations people can react much stronger than they intended to because it ‘adds’ to the unresolved wound that was already there.

Example:
- your partner mentions they want to have some personal time instead of hanging out together
- as a response you believe and feel like you don’t matter to them, and start acting out.

b) your “emotional/feeling mode” sees it as something that hurt you deeply, and that forever made you see someone else in a different light, break trust, and on top, completely ruin your confidence, identity and sense of self.

>> this is where your feelings and its consequences are validated, no matter how “small” the hurt, no matter how long ago the situation. By truly feeling (again) how hard that situation was for you, you express your emotions and as such, give a “healthy” confirmation to this specific experience that it was very difficult to go through.

By doing so, you process the feeling and this should translate into it not being as much of a trigger point for you in later situations. It could still be a weak spot, but because you are aware of what you have gone through previously or where the feeling stems from, you are able to recognize whenever a similar feeling comes up, and anticipate on your own response.

In summary, the idea is that it gives you more agency over the situation, and your life in general, and you can choose how to respond to moments of challenge.

Example:
- your partner mentions they want to have some personal time instead of hanging out together
- as a response you feel the squeeze in your stomach and the words in your head form.. “am I important to this person”… but they are soon intercepted by the thoughts “ah, this feeling comes from when I was younger but is no longer relevant here. “Of course my partner thinks I’m important, and this is nothing to do with me as such.” As a result, you can manage your mood as well as the further conversation with your partner in a healthy manner.

Back to the therapy:

The goal of hypnotherapy is to let you have experiences that were challenging for you be seen from mode B: the emotional /feeling mode, so that you can work through your hurt in a kind and compassionate matter. That way, you can address the unresolved wound and ideally, let it heal.

Why I think this way of therapy is so hard is because you have to do a lot of work going through that hurtful situation again, Imagine it, feel it, go through the feelings that came up, and in the end, find a way to resolve it. It is not something you do everyday and it for sure drains your energy in all different ways.

I think it is a strong and beautiful way to ‘clean up’ ballast, extra luggage from your past you want to get rid off, and move on with your life, and for that reason I would recommend it a 100%. It is a big gift to yourself to be rid of living in the past or constantly be triggered in your current life.

With regards to chronic pain: I do believe that for some people it is the perfect match between their physical and psychological pain, and by improving one, it also effects the other. For me personally this has not yet been the case, though I will keep you updated if in future this changes.

How can I try this?

If you’re interested in this treatment, and you have no one in your network that can recommend you someone, Google is your best friend. With the above key-words and desired area you should get quite a lot of result. Please check out my article on How to book a treatment for the first time here.

Disclaimer:

This blog pro­vides gen­eral infor­ma­tion and dis­cus­sion about health, treatments and related sub­jects. I try to shine light on a vast and often ambiguous arena by sharing my own experiences. The words and other con­tent pro­vided in this blog, as well as any linked mate­ri­als, are not intended and should not be con­strued as med­ical advice. I’m not a medical expert. If the reader or any other per­son has a med­ical con­cern, he or she should con­sult with an appropriately-licensed physi­cian or other health care worker.