CLINICAL HYPNOTHERAPY FOR
PAIN MANAGEMENT
When pain starts taking up too much of your life.
WHEN PAIN BECOMES PART OF EVERYDAY LIFE
Persistent pain can affect far more than physical comfort.
It can influence sleep, mood, concentration, confidence, movement and the things you feel able to do. And when you've been experiencing pain for some time, it's understandable that more and more of your attention can become focused on it.
Pain is a real physical experience and can have many different causes. But pain is also complex. The brain and nervous system are involved in how pain is processed, and factors such as stress, tension, attention and emotion can influence the experience.
This is where Clinical Hypnotherapy may sometimes have a useful supportive role alongside appropriate medical care.
HOW CAN CLINICAL HYPNOTHERAPY HELP?
Clinical Hypnotherapy doesn't replace medical diagnosis or treatment — and using hypnotherapy for pain does not mean suggesting that the pain is “all in your mind.”
Instead, Clinical Hypnotherapy can help us work with some of the processes surrounding the experience of pain: relaxation, attention, emotional responses and coping strategies.
Depending on your circumstances, I may combine Clinical Hypnotherapy with DAtechnique®, visualisation and other techniques to help you explore different ways of responding to discomfort and to the stress that can accompany it.
We're not questioning whether your pain is real. We're exploring whether your experience of it can change.
WHAT CAN WE WORK ON?
RELAXATION
Helping reduce unnecessary physical and mental tension surrounding pain.
ATTENTION
Exploring ways of changing how much of your attention is automatically drawn towards discomfort.
STRESS & ANXIETY
Working with emotional responses that can make living with persistent pain more difficult.
SLEEP & REST
Developing relaxation strategies when discomfort is making it difficult to settle or rest.
CONFIDENCE & COPING
Helping you feel less dominated by the presence — or anticipation — of pain.
SELF-HYPNOSIS & VISUALISATION
Where appropriate, developing techniques that you can continue to use yourself.
The aim isn't to promise that pain will disappear. It's to explore whether we can change your experience of it — and how much space it occupies in your life.
WHEN PAIN CREATES TENSION — AND TENSION CREATES MORE DISTRESS
When something hurts, it's natural to tense up, protect the area and become more alert to what you're feeling.
Persistent discomfort can also bring worry:
Will it get worse?
Will this hurt if I move?
Will I be able to sleep tonight?
That combination of pain, anticipation, tension and attention can sometimes make the overall experience even more difficult.
Part of our work can be about reducing some of that additional tension and changing the way you respond when discomfort is present.
MEDICAL ASSESSMENT COMES FIRST
Pain can be an important signal from the body, which is why unexplained or undiagnosed pain should always be medically assessed.
Clinical Hypnotherapy is intended to complement appropriate healthcare — not replace it or mask symptoms that need investigation.
Before beginning pain-management work, I may therefore require confirmation or referral from your doctor or another appropriate healthcare professional.
Once that's established, we can discuss what you're experiencing and whether Clinical Hypnotherapy could be a useful addition to your existing pain-management approach.
YOUR PAIN. YOUR APPROACH.
No two people's experience of persistent pain is exactly the same.
We'll look at how pain affects you, when it causes you the greatest difficulty, what happens around it and what you'd most like to change.
For one person, that might be relaxation. For another it could be sleep, anxiety, confidence or simply feeling that pain has begun to dominate too much of everyday life.
From there, we'll shape the work around you and your circumstances, rather than following a predetermined formula.
SUPPORT YOUR PAIN MANAGEMENT?
If your pain has been appropriately medically assessed and you'd like to explore whether Clinical Hypnotherapy could form part of your approach, let's start with a conversation.
We'll talk about what's happening, how it's affecting you and whether the way I work feels appropriate for your circumstances.