Hypnotherapy & EFT for Pain Relief
Hypnotherapy and EFT have been used successfully for pain relief in the treatment of many conditions, including headaches and migraine, cancer, burns, surgical procedures, dental pain, irritable bowel syndrome to name but a few. Whether the pain is as a result from surgery, injury, illness or disease, many people suffering from acute or chronic pain can get substantial pain relief from hypnosis and EFT Tapping.
Hypnotherapy and EFT can help you turn down your painometer!
Both therapies offer help for pain control and pain management where perhaps medication has either not worked or they can be used as an additional measure as they have been shown to be beneficial for both the pain itself and the associated issues that can often occur as a result, eg. stress, depression etc.
Through hypnosis, and then often through self-hypnosis or EFT tapping , the person suffering from chronic pain is taught to alter the brain’s perception of the pain message, to turn down the intensity or to produce its own internal medication. Once you have experienced the trance state, it’s a relatively simple matter to learn how to re-enter it at will and learn to reduce the discomfort to a manageable level or even to eliminate it altogether. Equally once you have been taught how to do EFT tapping in the most effective way for you, you are then able to continue the tapping for yourself.
Pain Relief starts in the brain
Pain and the Brain
Pain itself is an essential element in our survival. In fact, acute pain is our body’s way of telling us we are being damaged and we’d better do something about it - fast!
A series of peripheral nerves send messages through the nervous system to the brain to register an injury, for example. The brain then sends a danger signal to that area of the body in the form of pain so that we are prompted to take the necessary action to avoid damage.
When the message reaches the brain, it is divided into two components. The first gives information such as the location of the pain and its sensory quality- such as sharp, throbbing, burning or stinging. The second component gives information regarding perception, or how much the pain bothers the sufferer and emotions arising out of the experience of the pain or what caused it.
Therefore pain can initially be very useful. However, long term headaches, back pain, arthritis and the terrible pain associated with cancer are just some of the chronic pains that can make life really difficult. Medication can't always help or may not be appropriate anymore and the pain can seem overwhelming.
Changing what happens between reception and perception is a key part of pain management. Here, Hypnosis and EFT tapping can bring about the perceptual and sensory changes addressing both physical and psychological aspects to help alleviate the discomfort being experienced.
Both therapies can help you to rapidly relieve pain which can very often be caused by or exacerbated by unresolved emotional issues. Using tapping, relaxation and visualization techniques, the sub-conscious mind can be programmed to let go of or turn down the intensity of the pain.
What does the research say?
Hypnosis and clinical pain - PubMed (nih.gov)
‘randomized controlled studies with clinical populations indicate that hypnosis has a reliable and significant impact on acute procedural pain and chronic pain conditions’.
Satisfaction with, and the beneficial side effects of, hypnotic analgesia - PubMed (nih.gov) Study participants reported a variety of both symptom-related and non symptom-related benefits from hypnosis treatment, including decreased pain, increased perceived control over pain, increased sense of relaxation and well-being, and decreased perceived stress.’
EFT for Chronic Pain | Foundation for Alternative and Integrative Medicine (faim.org)
There was a significant decrease in the severity and impact of participants’ pain, and a significant improvement in their overall psychological distress . There was also a significant improvement in participants’ depression, anxiety and stress. A significant association was found between pain and psychological distress. A significant overall main effect of time was found at six-months’ follow-up.
Participants demonstrated significant post test improvement in psychological symptoms and pain. The study adds further support to other clinical trials indicating that Clinical EFT is an efficacious evidence-based treatment for pain and psychological conditions.