School of Positive Psychology
Hypnosis, Parts
Therapy and Pain management
Pain,
a sensation experienced by both man and animals alike, “alerts us that
something is wrong” (DiscoveryHealth.com).
“Acute
or new pain serves an important and useful function. It warns you that damage
is being done to your body. But, when pain becomes chronic and continues long
after it has done its job of giving warning, and long after the physical
problem has been medically treated, it is no longer needed as a warning! Some
slight discomfort may be needed as a reminder not to overdo things or strain,
but the pain is no longer needed at the same degree of intensity or strength.
The pain can still remain as a reminder and be less intense and less
uncomfortable. This is where hypnosis comes in. Hypnosis is also an excellent
focusing mechanism - helping you to focus away from discomfort and to re-focus
on comfort. Some pain may be inevitable, but suffering is optional.” (Eimer)
History
has shown hypnosis to have been used a few centuries ago. However, with the
discovery of medicine to tackle pain, hypnosis became outdated. Unsurprisingly,
this technique is being heavily revisited today based solely on its benefits
and almost no disadvantages.
Hypnotherapy
has no side effects, and does not require medication that is to be consumed
orally or otherwise. Hypnotherapy involves utilizing the client and their own
abilities cognitively, emotionally and behaviorally. Hypnosis is also
cost-effective and with the use of self-hypnosis, the client is able to apply
therapy to himself/herself as and when needed. Hypnosis during surgery has
shown reduction in costs and the recovery time has also proven to be faster.
Hypnotherapy eliminates the risk of over-sedation that can slow down the
healing process (DiscoveryHealth.com). Medication in the form of heavy-duty
painkillers can also have an element of addiction to it (About-Hypnosis.com)
whereas with hypnotherapy not only do you not have that problem, you can also
treat addiction problems. Women in labor have found lots of benefits with
hypnotherapy that reduces or eliminates the need for epidurals for pain
management. This also prevents the harmful effects of painkillers from
affecting the baby (About-Hypnosis.com).
That
being said, hypnosis as a procedure for pain relief is “only effective in
patients with high hypnotic susceptibility” (Lee & Pyun, 2012). This is a
downside to using hypnosis for pain relief. If a therapist fails to deepen the
client sufficiently, then the client’s own analytical mind prevents the results
from being permanent because of insufficient hypnotic depth (Hunter, 2013).
Before
treating a client with hypnosis, a therapist has to engage in heavy pre-talk in
ensuring the clients understand the conditions around the pain and can judge
for themselves on the success of the therapy. A therapist should always ask the
client to “rank the degree of intensity of the physical symptoms on a scale of
1-10. Ten represents the worst or unbearable. Zero represents the absence of
the symptoms. A client ranks his/her pain before and after each session. This
gives us an objective method to determine the success of the hypnotherapy
session.” (DiscoveryHealth.com). At the same time, the client should also be
asked to describe the characteristics of the pain. e.g. Sharp or dull, mild or
acute or severe, etc. This leads the client to have a heightened level of
awareness of their pain which sets the stage better for the hypnotic treatment.
Before
I go any further, allow me to stress on one important point. Hypnotherapy is
not a substitute for medical diagnosis/intervention. Pain is often a warning
signal, a symptom of an underlying disorder that needs to be treated. In all cases involving the management of
pain, a medical referral should precede hypnotherapy. Hypnosis should be used only when there is
certainty that there is no underlying organic disorder. (Hypnosis Management
Center, 2011)
Hypnotic
approaches to pain relief take three forms:
·
Direct suggestion for symptom change
·
Dissociative approaches
·
Resource utilization - an Ericksonian
approach “utilizing” whatever unique, personal strengths the client brings with
him/her (Hypnosis International Training , 2012).
It
is with the resource utilization method where therapists can grasp the powerful
ability of the client’s mind and personality to bring about changes in the
perception of pain. A person’s personality is composed of various parts.
Personality parts are aspects of the subconscious, each with their respective
jobs or functions of the inner mind. In other words, a person tends to wear
many different hats as they walk through the path of life (Hunter, 2013). By
using Parts Therapy during hypnosis, by mentally dissecting, treating and
re-integrating the part into the body, therapists are able to help their clients
overcome or reduce the pain sensation.
Parts
therapy is used when a client faces an inner conflict that prevents them from
reaching their goal. In this pain scenario, the client wants to have reduced or
no pain (in specific situations) but the fear of suppressing a natural feeling
may prevent them from utilizing the method.
There
are two approaches to handling pain in hypnosis. Pain can be either removed or
managed. The initial attempt to handle pain in hypnosis should be to remove
pain. If that is not successful due to any reasons, then the next attempt
should be to maintain the pain at a manageable level providing least discomfort.
Parts
therapy technique involves the therapist asking the client to mentally separate
the painful body part from the rest of the body, or imagining the body and mind
as separate (Block) entities. “While in hypnosis, the client is asked to give
voice to the body part(s) in pain so that ‘it’ can say why it is causing pain
and what it wants in order to end the client’s discomfort. Often a dialogue
between that part and another dimension of the body or psyche ensues with
resolution coming with a win/win agreement between the parts. In this case of
pain management, the win/win situation refers to a client’s psyche agreeing to
reasons for the presence of the pain, but does not need to feel the same high
level of intensity or discomfort except to know its existence. Sometimes
regression is needed if the part became troubled originally in the client’s
distant past.” (Mancini, 2006). During therapy, the “part” is asked questions
to motivate it to disclose its purpose and to find the resolution to the
presenting problem. Since this is facilitated in a client-centered manner,
Parts therapy empowers the client. Rather than the client giving away his or
her power to someone else who implants the solutions in the form of
suggestions, the client discovers the best resolution to an inner conflict by
answering questions asked by the facilitator at appropriate times (Hunter,
2013). This is actually in line with APA (2002) notion of fostering
autonomy in a client.
The
following are the steps to employing a proper Parts Therapy technique:
1.
Identify the part
2.
Gain rapport (compliment the part).
3.
Call out the part.
4.
Thank it for emerging.
5.
Discover its purpose.
6.
Call out other parts as appropriate.
7.
Negotiate and mediate.
8.
Ask parts to come to terms of agreement.
9.
Confirm and summarize terms of agreement.
10.
Give direct suggestion as appropriate (only after terms of agreement, but NOT
before).
11.
INTEGRATE the parts! (The formal parts therapy process is completed.)
(Hunter,
2012)
Most
people just live with pain and don't realize a powerful source that each person
carries to relieve pain - their mind! (DiscoveryHealth.com). “The mind has an
exclusive ability to anthropomorphize anything. When the mind is coached to
give something a face, or body, it is able to tell you the reality it
represents allowing you to change the object or person accordingly, and in
turn, changing the underlying behavior it represents.” (Arrowwood, 2004).
Sometimes, the subconscious mind needs time to adjust to the new behaviors and
it may take four or five sessions, especially in chronic pain issues, to
eliminate the pain completely. However, with self-hypnosis, the client can
alleviate the pain in the meantime (DiscoveryHealth.com). Since the solutions come from the client's own inner mind (instead
of from someone else), the client often has greater confidence and greater
self-esteem as side benefits to a successful resolution of the primary concern
(Hunter, 2013).
Jayasim s/o Tharmapalan
School of Positive Psychology
References
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