Pain management

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Permalink Reply by Susan Franzblau, C.Ht. on June 27, 2008 at 12:44pm

I recommend getting a physician's referral on any pain complaint. It keeps you from being accused of practicing medicine without a license and from being sued. We have to always be vigilant about making it clear that what we do is not medicine. We help heal but we do not treat or cure. My father is a psychiatrist who uses hypnosis and always reminds me about that. Then again, he thinks I can do better with pain management than many physicians, even physiatrists.

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan Chase on June 28, 2008 at 4:24am

Although there is general agreement that hypnosis can permanently effect pain unless the pain is psychosomatic then it’s unlikely that relief can be achieved forever.

However change in the cause and the perception of the result can be affected and maintained for long periods. If it has a physical cause then the pain itself won’t go, unless you destroy the nervous system, but the pain response can be altered.

If this involves ignoring the pain as with some kind of anaesthesia then to my mind that is very silly – especially if you have nothing more than a cursory understanding of the cause. Pain isn’t just a useful thing it is often the difference between life and death so never aim for getting rid of it, manage what it causes.

So what to do. Focus on the pain, recognise it for what it is, take appropriate action.

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Permalink Reply by Mentat on June 28, 2008 at 5:01am

Since writing this my pain has almost entirely subsided and it appears as though the physical cause has gotten much better. Nature is rather good at healing problems, but it does take the element of time and it helps often to nurture things in the right direction. Pain management rather than its total ease was the right approach. Thank you all. Much of the pain was being intensified by physical and psychological tension while there was and still is a physical cause to my pain. But as I said the physical cause has gotten much better. I've been to a few doctors and one that I think is great said that it's nothing serious.

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Permalink Reply by Susan French on June 28, 2008 at 1:57pm

Hi,

The two people I would ask are Ron Eslinger and Dan Cleary. I think both can be found though google. I think Ron has some pain scripts on his website and Dan has a really inexpensive little booklet that he'll send you.

I did a pain intervention with Ron but then I used a medical intervention in addition (for back pain, a series of epidurals). I recorded my sessions with Ron and use them to reinforce what I got in the beginning. I also use and teach clients to use self-hypnosis to 1) escape from the pain, as if it were pain medication, and 2) to amplify and lengthen the results.

I have also found that depth of trance seems to be very important, though there are many who disagree. I believe that issues that require cognitive reframe do well in lighter trance but that pain issues and other autonomicly-involved issues need a deeper trance.

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Permalink Reply by Mentat on June 28, 2008 at 2:32pm

Very interesting. Thank you.

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Permalink Reply by Melissa J. Roth on June 28, 2008 at 2:32pm

If you have done a good job for yourself or your client and the pain still keeps coming back you need to start asking why. I see LOTS of pain control clients and they get totally out of pain and stay that way regardless of the intensity or reason. However, you cannot alleviate a meaningful pain using hypnosis or a pain that the client BELIEVES has meaning. You may give the client a temporary vacation of relief but the pain will continue to return until you get a correct diagnosis.

One day about 6 months ago I got a call from one of the local hospital's Palliative Care units asking if I could come see a patient. He had advanced bone cancer and they had not been able to get him out of pain in spite of installing a morphine pump. When I got there he was walking on top of the bed in spite of an injection for break through pain only 30 minutes prior. He only slept 20-30 minutes at a time. It took 5 sessions but he got totally out of pain and was able to enjoy his family for the few months he had left. He was able to sleep and to go on outings with his family. Sadly, he passed away a couple of months ago but he was comfortable until the end.

In my own case, I had recurring, intense pain in my foot. I had been to the doctor and had it x-rayed but nothing showed up. So, I went to several more doctors over a few months who also found nothing. But, I couldn't get the pain to go away for long and couldn't make it stop hurting if I walked on it. Typical of my nature, i figured I wasn't doing as good a job on myself as I did for my clients. Then, it finally dawned on me that you can't eliminate a meaningful pain. So, I went back to the doctor and insisted on an MRI. Sure enough, it was broken. Instantly, the pain was relieved. Now, it only hurts when I do something that puts stress on those bones that have not adequately healed yet.

So, the bottom line to you is..... do not give up getting a proper diagnosis.

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Permalink Reply by Mentat on June 29, 2008 at 6:20am

I greatly appreciate this writing of yours. However, I am absolutely convinced that I will never get a proper diagnosis. My condition is not in their text books. Anything that requires even a tiny bit of creativity is going to be utterly overlooked, and I also run the risk of being called a psychological case because they can't identify the cause of my pain.

The truth is the condition has gotten remarkably better. I am often in little or no pain without any kind of intervention. There is no way that they will ever find what is wrong. No chance. I am certain of that. I've been to enough of them.

Medical doctors do not have all of the answers. Sometimes you have to just deal with a problem. However, they were able to tell me that if I was injured, which they couldn't know for sure, it would take years to heal. I'm in the second year and I am about 80 percent better. So they did help me in knowing the time variable. It should take about 2 more years to heal fully according to them. So that's something that I can say medical doctors actually helped me with: knowing the time it would take to get better. Other than that I think most people have a very unrealistic idea of the understanding medical doctors have of their problems.

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Permalink Reply by Lee Darrow on June 29, 2008 at 2:32pm

Mentat, I am delighted to hear that your condition is so markedly improved and wish you all the best in your continuing exploration of hypnosis.

Lee Darrow, C.H.
www.stagehypnosissafetyclass.com

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Permalink Reply by Mentat on June 30, 2008 at 3:33am

Thank you so much!

Yes, HYPNOSIS does appear to be best for certain things that other treatments cannot touch. Hypnosis appears to be superior to a lot of things, but I do still find much value in therapy.

What was vital for me in hypnosis was keeping everything entirely mental while engaged in hypnosis rather than trying to urge the body. The body tends to follow what the mind does very often I've learned. If that makes any sense.

Thanks again to everyone.

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Permalink Reply by Jerry Bolduc aka Zoto! on June 30, 2008 at 8:00am

Anesthesia and Pain Management have become the bulk of my work. Most of the work has been with clients suffering from arthritis and other similar chronic pain. Some of the results have been spectacular. Lately I have been incorporating NLP techniques adding two dials. One for intensity and the other is a selector switch to change the sensations to anything they can think of. I deliberately leave that wide open. I tell the client to continue to use what ever pain medications they have been prescribed when they need it. Most say that one in the morning is enough to give them a break and establish the selective thinking that will carry their pain management for the day. I am thinking seriously about booking seminars in the senior centers in my area.

Zoto!

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Permalink Reply by Seth-Deborah Roth on June 30, 2008 at 12:37pm

Sounds like a great idea. Just make sure you get that physicians referral. Even though chronic conditions, it just makes good business sense to get the referrals also.

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Permalink Reply by Lee Darrow on June 30, 2008 at 7:35pm

AMEN, Sister!!

Even though the, admittedly screwed up Indiana law seems to state that a physician's referral is not required for pain management work (another example of just how badly the law was screwed up during the end-run, back when it happened), it is my firm and unchangeable stance that anyone seeking pain management from a Certified Hypnotist should come TO that hypnotist with a referral, or with a form for the hypnotist to send TO the physician-of-record for that worthy professional to sign off on, just to make sure nobody can say, "Well you are practicing medicine without a license," or worse, "you are interfering eith MY treatment program with MY patient!"

Those are words that NO hypnotist ever wants to hear about their work, especially coming from a licensed medical doctor!

Lee Darrow, C.H.

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