the Free Online Hypnosis Community

Pain management advice

I have a client coming that has sciatica, this is the irritation of the sciatic nerve which comes down through your buttocks area to your leg.

The client wants to get rid of the pain. I have not done any pain work, can someone give me suggestions for techniques to help this guy? I was planning on the following..

1. Have him view the pain as a big red ball and then shrink the ball down and change the color and have the pain go away with that.
2. Set up an anchor pinching fingers together, and suggest that the pain go away when he does this.

What else specifically should I be doing to help this guy?

He did get a note from his doctor stating that no further damage will be done by eliminating the pain.

Thanks
Erik

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Scott Sandland, C.Ht. on August 14, 2008 at 11:45am: Hey Erik-
Instead of deciding what his pain looks like (big red ball) why don't you ask him instead? Find out what his construct and internal understanding of the pain is, then work with/manipulate that.

Sciatica, in my experience working with pain, has never been shaped like a ball. it tends to be shooting or throbbing more often than having a static shape and color. More often it is a motion than an object. You should think through your imagery appropriately.

I like the idea of the anchor that you mentioned. You may have to play with him on this one a little bit, but its definitely worth doing.

My generic advice goes a little something like this:

- elicit his construct
- induce hypnosis and visualize that construct
- manipulate it so that it goes away, gets smaller, changes color, etc. (depends on their metaphor)

that's it.

I know it's open ended, but that is what makes it fun.

Let us know when you have more details,
Scott Sandland; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Erik Blazynski on August 14, 2008 at 12:20pm: yeah I guess that is pretty obvious that I should use his construct. Thanks a lot for that advice and confidence that I am on the right track.

-Erik; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by James Hazlerig on August 14, 2008 at 11:51am: Control room technique helps some folks--basically have him imagine a dial that he can use to dial-down the pain.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Susan French on August 14, 2008 at 2:41pm: Both Melissa Roth and Ron Eslinger have excellent materials on pain management. One of the things that both of them talk about is that when you have pain, you usually have contraction of surrounding muscles as well as impingement by any body parts that become inflamed. (I hope I have the physiology right).

The bottom line is that the oxygen the client gets into his body through good breathing helps to oxygenate the painful area. Oxygen creates relaxation. If there is tension in the area in any way, the tension causes a decrease in blood flow, and therefore creates more pain (that is what causes the pain in a heart attack and in a headache, if I'm not mistaken...it's caused mostly by the constriction of the blood vessels, the tightness of the muscles, which causes even more decrease in blood flow).

Melissa, Ron and Dan Cleary all have excellent materials on pain. With sciatica and similar problems, I believe you need a certain kind of specific scripting that encourages muscular relaxation, decrease of inflammation and increase of blood flow.

I think just trying to eliminate the pain without addressing the cause is just going to frustrate you and client. Don't forget, if the cause of the pain isn't encouraged to heal itself, it's just going to hurt again. Done with just hypnosis, the hypnosis works more like a pain pill. The pain comes back after the hypnosis "wears off".

If you really want to be successful with this pain client, get Melissa's materials on pain, or Ron's, or Dan's or all three.

Susan; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Sanna Carapellotti on August 15, 2008 at 7:55am: All good advise below. I want to add the following.
With pain issues there is an emotional component. Ck for secondary gains by asking - "What if this pain went away, what would change in your life?" "Are there any risks of changing this pain experience?"

As one moves into the body to connect with pain, people, images, memories may be triggered, You may have to clear cause.

Also you can follow the energetic movement of the pain. A pulse has a feel, as does a sharp pain. Ask them in trance to create change like slowing it down or changing the color or to follow it and reverse the direction.

Anchor is good. Because he may also become aware that in certain instances in his life, the pain increases because someone is present, or bills ned to be paid ... etc.

You can do it!
Sanna; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Melissa J. Roth on August 15, 2008 at 5:50pm: You might want to check out the discussion on pain as a behavior on the medical group on this site.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Richard Nongard - HypnosisGurus.com on August 15, 2008 at 5:54pm: Melissa has a great idea on the pain management group.
Also, I am a big fan of Ron E=slingers work. It is VERY good.
For $59 you can't go wrong with this:
http://www.healthyvisions.net/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=139
I have used the ideas in this workshop since I first heard it a year ago....; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Michael Zappellini Ph.D. C.Ht. on August 15, 2008 at 7:36pm: Hi Erik,
as James Hazleriq said, the control room technique is very good , take him down to a decent depth
with quite a few deepening technique then have him visualize to enter a control room where on a console he can see a big dial with numbers from 0 to 10, ask him from a scale from 0 to 10 how he evaluates his pain (if he says 8 for instance tell him to dial up to 9 make it stronger) if he can make it stronger now you can make him dial it down to a desired level.
I hope it helps.
Michael; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Richard Nongard - HypnosisGurus.com on August 15, 2008 at 9:02pm: On a side note, I rarely use the word pain. Instead focusing on increasing awareness of comfort rather than decreasing pain.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Melissa J. Roth on August 16, 2008 at 7:26am: Richard is right. Do not use the words you want to eliminate. Try this yourself. Try not to think of a purple elephant right now. At all costs, do not think of a purple elephant. The lesson here is that you cannot not think of what you don't want to think about. Instead of using the words pain or hurt or similar words use the words comfort and discomfort. I tell my clients that pain is a four letter word and that I'm a nice Southern lady who doesn't use four letter words. I would appreciate it if they didn't either.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by James Hazlerig on August 16, 2008 at 6:38pm: A note on that--after establishing the scale, never refer to the upper end. Always say, "How much closer are you to zero now?" or something like it.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Doreen Cohanim C.Ht on August 16, 2008 at 7:51pm

Hi Erik,
Here is some tips from my article, hope it helps.

Hypnosis for Pain Management, Relieve Sciatic Nerves.
By Doreen Cohanim C.Ht, MM

Back in 1999 I was involved in a car accident that it left me nearly paralyzed, my pain started with sore and muscle aches that gradually followed with sharp pains radiating all the way to my legs. My back pain wasn’t just a pain; it was a battle of chronic pain where pain killer and other related drug were not eliminating my agonizing pain at all.

Please read the rest of the article...
You all welcome to publish it with my name and my website link.
It was submitted to few places and I am waiting for their approval :)

Thanks Doreen

Attachments: