Complex Regional Pain Syndrome

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Dennis Atkinson on September 24, 2009 at 10:38am

You might want to contact Melissa Roth, Alabama Hypnotherapy. Her speciality is medical / clinical hypnosis and she has done quite a bit of work with pain victims.

Permalink Reply by Dr. Tom Virden on September 24, 2009 at 11:38am

Hrmn...I've only had one CRPS client, but what I used worked rather well. I simply used a fairly standard physical induction (I think I used the finger spreading test), and used a guided imagery with words such as "comfort" repeated throughout the session. During the imagery, she "received" an object that she would bring to mind as a symbol whenever she desired a dose of comfort, as a posthypnotic suggestion.

At each session, as with I do all of my pain clients, I had her rate her pain leverl (1-10) before and after the session. After a few successful sessions, I had her go through a few autoinductions with me for her to do daily that were similar in nature to the sessions we'd had.

Sessions also included, however, not just getting rid of the pain, but living a fulfilling, vibrant life even if pain is present.

While the former worked well, I think she got the most benefit from the latter.

Tom
www.creativepsychological.com

Permalink Reply by Dean Badcock on September 25, 2009 at 11:04am

Hi Dennis,
Thanks for your advice.

Regards
Dean

Dennis Atkinson said:

You might want to contact Melissa Roth, Alabama Hypnotherapy. Her speciality is medical / clinical hypnosis and she has done quite a bit of work with pain victims.

Permalink Reply by Dean Badcock on September 25, 2009 at 11:28am

Hi Dr Tom,
Thanks for sharing your experience.
Your post sparked the thought in me about how frequently this condition is presented to a hypnotherapist for treatment? I know I used the label for CRPS but when it comes to the presenting signs and symptoms, those understood to be characteristic of CRPS are possible to be seen in other conditions as well, perhaps not in the exact format/combination/intensity etc.

I have a client I am about to see regarding this condition, I have endeavoured to learn about its nature because my client is very knowledgeable about the condition. I intend to keep the medical explanation in mind as it may be good fodder for metaphor generation.

Regards
Dean

Dr. Tom Virden said:

Hrmn...I've only had one CRPS client, but what I used worked rather well. I simply used a fairly standard physical induction (I think I used the finger spreading test), and used a guided imagery with words such as "comfort" repeated throughout the session. During the imagery, she "received" an object that she would bring to mind as a symbol whenever she desired a dose of comfort, as a posthypnotic suggestion.

At each session, as with I do all of my pain clients, I had her rate her pain leverl (1-10) before and after the session. After a few successful sessions, I had her go through a few autoinductions with me for her to do daily that were similar in nature to the sessions we'd had.

Sessions also included, however, not just getting rid of the pain, but living a fulfilling, vibrant life even if pain is present.

While the former worked well, I think she got the most benefit from the latter.

Tom
www.creativepsychological.com

Permalink Reply by Michael Ellner on September 25, 2009 at 1:07pm

Hi Dean,

Complex Regional Pain Syndrome AKA Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy is quite rare -- I have never met a sufferer and I have specialized in helping people living with chronic and cancer related pain for 28 years .

Contact Anne Spencer (dranna@wowway.com)-- One of her students (Gary) recovered from RSD - complete remission and had a series of thermographs to prove it -- He put together a program based on his personal hypnotic program and it would be helpful

Some of the imagery he used was warming the foot several times a day --

FYI- I offer a guided self-help program to hypnos who want to help people with IBS which can easily be modified to help this client -- It teaches relaxation techniques, imagery for pain relief and self-regulation skill building and I am confident the basic program would be helpful
www.quantumfocusing.com

Consider me a resource-
Michael E.

Permalink Reply by Dr. Tom Virden on September 25, 2009 at 1:29pm

Dean...

Good question regarding frequency. The bulk of my practice is chronic pain, and I've only seen one person who was diagnosed with CRPS, so I'll agree with Michael regarding the rarity. Hrmnn....I wouldn't be too surprised to see the frequency of diagnosis vary based on geography and insurance reimbursement.

Michael....

Very cool program idea...may have to check it out myself and see if I can pick up some fresh ideas!

Tom
www.creativepsychological.com

Permalink Reply by Michael Ellner on September 25, 2009 at 2:35pm

Thanks Tom-

There are 90 million Americans suffering from chronic pain who could benefit from our hypnotic assistance.

I am sure there is a lot that we can learn from each other.

Hey Dean,

Dan Cleary is another excellent resource - We just returned from PAINWeek a CME conference for frontline licensed Pain Specialists -- we we taught 2 four hour introductory programs in conversational and conventional hypnotic pain relief to about 300 doctors.

FYI - Dan offers hypnosis practitioners interested in working in this area a several session tele-seminar program -- He has one starting up next week --

http://danclearyhypnosis.com/home.html

If you want a hands on - live-in-person workshop -- I have a 2-1/2 day Certifiication training coming up in November

http://hypnosischangeslives.com/thhi/courses/painrelief.cfm


Dr. Tom Virden said:

Dean...

Good question regarding frequency. The bulk of my practice is chronic pain, and I've only seen one person who was diagnosed with CRPS, so I'll agree with Michael regarding the rarity. Hrmnn....I wouldn't be too surprised to see the frequency of diagnosis vary based on geography and insurance reimbursement.

Michael....

Very cool program idea...may have to check it out myself and see if I can pick up some fresh ideas!

Tom
www.creativepsychological.com

Permalink Reply by Kim Flexer on October 2, 2009 at 6:47am

I had Bi-lateral carpal tunnel release surgury 11 weeks ago and have now been diagnosed with CRPS. I am visiting a hypnotist who specialises in pain therapy next week. The consultant has so far prescribed Gabapentin, but this isn't working at all. I will let you know how i get on with my experience of hypnosis from the clients perspective if you are interested. I live in the UK by the way.
Kim

Permalink Reply by Dr. Tom Virden on October 2, 2009 at 9:07am

Thanks so much, Kim, for your willingness to share your experience with us. Wishing you best success!

Tom
www.creativepsychological.com

Kim Flexer said:

I had Bi-lateral carpal tunnel release surgury 11 weeks ago and have now been diagnosed with CRPS. I am visiting a hypnotist who specialises in pain therapy next week. The consultant has so far prescribed Gabapentin, but this isn't working at all. I will let you know how i get on with my experience of hypnosis from the clients perspective if you are interested. I live in the UK by the way.
Kim

Permalink Reply by Kim Flexer on January 12, 2010 at 3:58pm

Hello All

Well i have finally managed to find some time to come back to this site!

I thought i would give you an update. I had 4 sessions with my hypnotherapist and can't wait to go back for some more. After session one which was very much an introductory and information sharing one, followed by session two where we did time line therapy, we then tried some more direct pain therapy. We used two approaches, one was for me to conjure up the feeling in my mouth when i have had an injection at the dentist. Once i had the complete dull feeling in my mouth i then touched my lips with my fingers and then transferred the feeling through my hands. This took a couple of attempts to master. This worked extremely well and gave me a break from the pain for about 20 minutes. Unfortunately i have only been able to successfully repeat this process once on my own.
What has worked really well for me was the second approach using colour. I had to choose a colour that i wasn't very keen on and imagine that was the pain, then imagine the colour all over my fingers and hands and then drain the colour into my palm and tip my hand up and pour it away. I then chose my favourite colour and painted it all over my hands and relished the colour. This gave me back so much more flexibility immediately and left me feeling much more positive. This has worked very well for me and is easy for me to do in a short space of time by just closing my eyes.
Unfortunately the CRPS has now spread over a large extent of my body. Once finances allow, i will return to my Hypnotherapist for more help.

Kindest regards
Kim

Permalink Reply by Laura Rude' on January 19, 2010 at 8:27pm

Hello, all. I have only been in practice six months, and have a client with CRPS coming in on Friday. I have not even had a client with IBS. I am going to download Michael Ellner's IBS hypno program, which he wrote can be easily modified for this condition. Michael or others, is there anything in particular I should know when modifying from IBS to CPRS? (other than the symptoms)

Thank you all for your knowledge and assistance. I was so glad (and surprised) to do a search on this and immediately pull up a very helpful discussion on this disease.

Laura

Permalink Reply by Rene Frederiksen on April 6, 2010 at 10:27pm

Hello Kim
I work with Pain Management too BUT in Denmark (A bit of a trip for you ):-)
In 4 sessions I teach my clientes to handle pain and do EXACTLY what you mention - Move the "non pain" areas to the discomfort zone :-) so to speak - And MOST IMPORTENTLY learn them to do a REALLY GOOD Selfhypnosis.
Most of my clients (Some always misses out on this technique) learn this and can do exactly that - Make them self painfree during the normal day ....BUT WITHOUT doing a deep selfhypnosis - They simply are there SO FAST that its almost instant pain releif ....
you can learn that too my friend :-)
Just have to find the rigth Hypnotherapist that know HOW to teach that to you :-)
Off course - You WILL have to deal with the Psyk. problems that follows jugment like "Cronic Pain" - Most people that end up there - REALLY think they are doing fine - Yesterday I had a lady in for pain managemen - and the problems in her life was SO HUGE I couldnt belive it.....However she said - "...Im past all that....No problem for me any more..."
But in the hypnosis she had an abreaction exactly to those causes without doing regeression work at all...
So was she "over it...or PAST it..." NOPE
We have to handle ALL the aspects we meet - NOT just the fysical pain.
You can do that too - I KNOW
(Sorry for the late answer - First notised the post today!)

Kim Flexer said:

Hello All

Well i have finally managed to find some time to come back to this site!

I thought i would give you an update. I had 4 sessions with my hypnotherapist and can't wait to go back for some more. After session one which was very much an introductory and information sharing one, followed by session two where we did time line therapy, we then tried some more direct pain therapy. We used two approaches, one was for me to conjure up the feeling in my mouth when i have had an injection at the dentist. Once i had the complete dull feeling in my mouth i then touched my lips with my fingers and then transferred the feeling through my hands. This took a couple of attempts to master. This worked extremely well and gave me a break from the pain for about 20 minutes. Unfortunately i have only been able to successfully repeat this process once on my own.
What has worked really well for me was the second approach using colour. I had to choose a colour that i wasn't very keen on and imagine that was the pain, then imagine the colour all over my fingers and hands and then drain the colour into my palm and tip my hand up and pour it away. I then chose my favourite colour and painted it all over my hands and relished the colour. This gave me back so much more flexibility immediately and left me feeling much more positive. This has worked very well for me and is easy for me to do in a short space of time by just closing my eyes.
Unfortunately the CRPS has now spread over a large extent of my body. Once finances allow, i will return to my Hypnotherapist for more help.

Kindest regards
Kim

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