Scared of Hypnosis?

Are you wary of hypnosis?  Many people are, which is a real shame because they are stopping themselves from receiving the very treatment that would help with their problem and greatly benefit them.  People have actually said to me: “I’d come and see you, but I’m too scared.  I don’t like the thought of being out of control.”  This is a really popular misconception, fuelled by current modern stage hypnosis tricks. Hypnotherapy is not stage hypnosis.

Right from the start it’s important you realise that you are in the driving seat.  You are in complete control of what you do and don’t do, what you think and don’t think.  I am quite simply the teacher, responsible for explaining to you how to achieve feelings of calmness and relaxation (or assertiveness and motivation).  The stuff you see in stage hypnosis is a trick.  It’s not like that in hypnotherapy.  You cannot be made to do anything you don’t want to do.  Quite the opposite.  Hypnotherapy is about empowerment!  

I usually begin by teaching you some relaxation techniques to get you started.  Regardless of your current suitability for hypnosis, you will more than likely be suitable for relaxation.  After that you will realise that hypnosis is not something to be frightened of and, depending on what you require, we can move on to your more specific needs.  These may involve more relaxation as well as cognitive-behavioural hypnotherapy, in order to rationalise your current thinking or come up with solutions to current problems you are having.  I can even help you with your irrational fear of hypnotherapy!

Read more about cognitive-behavioural hypnotherapy by clicking here.

Hypnosis as a Therapy for Illness

The healing benefits of hypnosis (hypnotherapy) is an area that receives little attention or recognition by the medical world. However, hypnosis has helped people with physical illness and pain for many years. Today we are seeing hypnotherapy, having a “knock-on” beneficial effect on often difficult to treat conditions such as high blood pressure, psoriasis and IBS.
In my experience, hospitals in particular are very stressful environments. High anxiety or stress levels make illness worse and vice versa. Hospitals and the medical profession ought to be working hand-in-hand with hypnotherapists to give patients a more ‘holistic’ care programme. Currently, counselling seems to be used as a last resort when no physical diagnosis can be given and the illness is deemed to be partially or wholly psychosomatic. This, of course, is a step in the right direction. However, the practise of hypnotherapy is evidence-based and we are working towards the same goal, with results! I feel it is time doctors took this on board, instead of viewing us with suspicion or not taking hypnotherapy as a potentially serious part of a treatment plan. We have a lot to offer sick people, and it would be beneficial to all concerned to be able to work alongside the medical profession.
Last year I spent quite some time in hospital. I noted that many patients were unnecessarily stressed and anxious about being ill and in hospital. One patient had a pain in her leg (possibly psychosomatic) that, had she been receiving a therapy such as Cognitive-Behavioural Hypnotherapy would have discovered quickly that the pain may have been linked to her husband’s death. Both occurred at the same time. Four weeks of tests revealed nothing. Despite a heavy regime of painkillers, the patient remained in agony. I simply asked if anything bad had happened in the last year. The patient told me her husband had died suddenly in September. I asked when the pain had started. The patient told me September. Unfortunately the patient was sent for more physiotherapy to a geriatric hospital soon afterwards because the bed was needed and because “the doctors could find nothing”, a phrase I hear many sick people saying. As far as I know, there was no form of counselling during her stay, or planned for the future.
Hospital and illness is a frightening experience. With such a bleak outlook for the NHS and nurse training courses, it has never been more important to stress the need for people who are totally committed to the holistic care of patients; people for whom the treating of the sick is not just a job, but a vocation; people who know the importance of giving, not just medicine, but also time, understanding and dignity to the patients under their care. Where doctors can prescribe therapeutic drugs and nurses can provide physical care and monitoring of patients, hypnotherapists can treat the psychological effects (and causes) of the illness.
I employed self-hypnosis, relaxation techniques and visualisation to help me through my own illness, a series of antibiotic-resistant infections. Of course, it was not the entire treatment. I am not pretending that medicine does not have a place. On the contrary, medicine is extremely important in treating some diseases. However, I would urge the medical profession to at least consider where hypnotherapy might fit into the equation. I eventually recovered after 3 courses of IV antibiotics. The difference in the end, I believe, was incorporating several holistic methods, including hypnotherapy.
One of my hypnotherapy peers had astounding success when his mother was to have her 8-year wart problem treated with harsh medicine normally used for cancer patients. Nothing so far had cured her. However, before she was to have treatment her son suggested he try hypnotherapy with her and had her visualise the warts disappearing one by one. In fact, and to the doctor’s amazement, the warts did begin to disappear!
One of my own clients has had less arthritic pain since beginning hypnotherapy. One morning she woke up completely pain free for the first time in over a year. She had only had two hypnotherapy sessions at that point. Neither of these sessions had been to address her physical pain, but we had used various hypnotic relaxation techniques and through Cognitive-Behavioural Hypnotherapy she was learning assertiveness and confidence. She has informed me that her pain levels have significantly lowered and her psoriasis has improved enormously.
Hypnotherapy has a vast array of benefits. It is something I conquered smoking with, and I have helped others to do the same. Many women are now having hypno-births. Some people are choosing to have medical or dental operations carried out with absolutely no pain relief, just hypnosis. This is particularly important where patients do not react well to anaesthesia. It has an amazing and profound effect on the quality of life and health of so many people, but it is a highly under-valued profession.
I would hope that soon there will be a turning point and hypnotherapy is given the recognition it most definitely deserves, without the usual mock or suspicion I and my peers have encountered in the past. I am in no doubt that hypnotherapy is that “little bit extra” patient treatment is missing. It is, of course, wonderful that some dentists, nurses and midwives have taken short courses in hypnotherapy. However, this is no substitute for a fully qualified specialist, who undertakes continuing professional development and research in hypnotic advancements throughout their career.

Alyson Dunlop

Coping with Illness and Pain

“Coping with Illness and Pain” Workshop –  Monday 22nd 6-7pm and Tuesday 23rd 12-1pm

In the days of ‘mesmerism’ (before the term ‘hypnotism’ was coined), hypnosis was already being used for anaesthesia!  In fact, the mesmerists would simply put the patient into a deep trance and omit further suggestions.

When people are anxious, stressed or depressed they may be more sensitive to feeling pain.  When we are distracted from pain, our pain threshold changes, which proves that we do have the ability to control and manage it.  In hypnotherapy, pain relief can be achieved in a number of ways which will be demonstrated at this workshop.

Consistent and on-going illness often gets people depressed, stressed and anxious.  On top of illness, these are emotions that we can well do without.  As well as feeling mentally worse, it is likely that the person will also feel physically worse. They may dwell on certain body sensations and start to suffer from hypochondria.  They may tense up the area of the body that is affected, or other areas, thereby causing even more pain.

It may be that the illness is long-term, even incurable.  Of course this will lead to feelings of sadness, depression and anxiety.  However, it is up to you how to cope and deal with your illness.  Hypnotherapy is invaluable in the many ways it can make us feel more accepting and positive when we are faced with difficult and life-threatening diseases.  In fact, this positive attitude can determine whether the rest of our life has quality or not.

One of the worst things, in my humble opinion, that a doctor can do is to give a time limit to a patient.  By doing so, the person inevitably begins the “Countdown to Death”.   We are so much more in control of our destiny than we realise. The mind is a very powerful tool, and can be put to exceptional use, during times of mental and physical crisis.

If you are suffering from illness or pain, come along to the workshop.  Experience the powers of mind over matter for yourself.

Please contact me to book your place: alysondunlop@achilleshealing.co.uk or phone/text 07852 575 184