Pain Management - hypnosis can help with the treatment of pain

It is a little known fact that hypnosis is very effective in relieving and controlling pain, and the use of hypnosis to manage pain must therefore be approached with extreme caution. We know about hypnotherapy's effectiveness as a pain management tool largely through the research and publications of Ernest Hillgard, former emeritus Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, who used a control research group to show that hypnosis was highly effective in managing pain.

Pain relief and pain management with hypnosis

One of the biggest ethical considerations for hypnotherapists should be that they never use hypnosis to treat pain unless the cause of that pain is already known and has been diagnosed by a medical practitioner Pain is sometimes a symptom of a more serious underlying condition, for example, a persistent headache could be a symptom of a brain tumour. If the hypnotherapist were to treat the headache in this example, before the root cause of the pain was known, then this could well lead to the brain tumour not being diagnosed for longer. However, if the patient had already been to their doctor and more serious causes of the headaches had been eliminated, then it would be fine for the hypnotherapist to proceed.

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Treating pain with hypnosis - when can it be done?

Pain should never be treated for its own sake, but if the underlying cause is known and your doctor gives permission, hypnosis can be very effective in relieving pain. Hypnotherapy is used in a variety of situations for treating pain, including the following:

• Post-operative pain - where traditional painkillers aren't appropriate, perhaps because the patient is afraid needles or allergic to medication.
• Phantom limb pain - amputees sometimes experience pain from limbs which have been removed, and research has shown that hypnosis has had impressive results in treating this kind of pain.
• Palliative care - some hypnotherapists work with terminally ill patients to manage their pain and improve their quality of life. NB this is a specialism and not all hypnotherapists are happy to work with the terminally ill.