Hypnosis and Pain: Hypnoanalgesia, Chronic Pain

Hello. My name is Christian Rocher. I'm a neuro-linguistic programming coach and a hypnotherapist. Today I'm going to talk to you about pain. What is pain? Well, pain, simply put, and it's a paradox to say so, is a signal that travels from the body to the brain to inform us of a problem situation that it wants us to act on. What does that mean? If I put my hand in the fire, I'm informed that it burns, and I pull my hand away: I've taken action.

And that allows me to ensure my survival and my well-being. Of course, pain has several sources: it may be an illness, an injury, or something somatic. So what does somatic mean? It means I'm facing a difficult problem situation that I'm not able to resolve, voluntarily or involuntarily, for all sorts of good reasons, and my signal will go off to tell me: "Do something and solve this problem."

And since I don't listen to it, the signal increases, the pain starts to appear, and the less I listen to it, the more the signal increases and the stronger the pain becomes. So you'll find plenty of people who tell you they don't know why their back hurts, why their shoulder or their leg hurts… Then they go on holiday and they no longer hurt… interesting! Or all sorts of situations like that.

What this means is that, depending on the source of the problem, there are several ways to approach the solution. Think about it for a moment: some hospitals now use hypnosis alongside anaesthesia for certain surgeries, sometimes with less medication, and some dentists here already work with hypnosis. It's a good sign that hypnosis and self-hypnosis have a real place in pain management.

So when people come to my office, because I practise hypno-analgesia, that is, hypnosis for pain, to learn to manage their pain better, there are two situations. 1. You have an illness, an injury, a medical condition that is, I would say, known and monitored, and it's clear to you, because your doctor or your specialist has told you, and you've discussed it, that apart from taking pain medication there is nothing else you can do at this stage.

So that is known and under control. In that case, you come into my office with that, and I teach you pain management techniques. I also teach you to be responsible for your pain. What does being responsible for your pain mean? It means you can't just manage the pain and reduce the strength of the pain signal. You also have to pay attention to what is going on.

For example, if you have a stomach ache and you ignore that pain by using the techniques I teach you too readily, you could go from appendicitis to peritonitis without realising it, because you ignored the signal. So not only will you learn techniques, you will also learn to be responsible for your pain. Because if it isn't going to go away, you're better off being responsible for it and making sure everything is all right.

And going back to see your doctor if needed, if the situation gets worse, so as not to end up in a worse situation. 2. Now, if you come to me and you don't know why you're in pain. And your doctor doesn't know either. Because if you haven't checked with your doctor, it's probably normal that you don't know. If they don't know, then we're in a different situation. It may be what is called somatisation.

What that means, once again, is that you are facing a situation you are finding hard to manage, consciously or unconsciously, and your system is sending you this message to say: "Take action, solve the problem." In that case, we take a different path. We sit down together, look at your issues and your goals, and together define a strategy to help you reach those goals.

Whatever they may be. And if they aren't realistic as they stand, we find a way to set realistic goals, because once you reach that goal and resolve the issue that was preventing you from reaching it, the pain may ease on its own, since you will have taken action and dealt with the situation. So it's very important to understand the distinction between the two: in one case it really is a known medical situation, with an identified source of information; in the other case, we don't know what is going on, no examination and no test tells us what is happening.

The doctor or the specialist cannot tell you what is going on, and then it can be very worthwhile to look into what is happening in your life and what your issues are. To see how you might move beyond them and go on to another stage, which at the same time may help you clear up that pain, since the signal will have less reason to exist. So I hope that has shed some light.

If you have any questions, just let us know. If you are interested in learning to manage pain yourself, alongside what your doctor prescribes: remember, if I don't have my bottle of pills with me, I'm stuck, whereas self-hypnosis, cardiac coherence and all those tools I can do anywhere, anytime, without needing anything. So it's natural, it's always available to you, and it has the advantage of helping you manage pain flare-ups and ease pain over periods of time, so you can live better and have a better quality of life.

So don't hesitate to contact us, and above all, if you contact a specialist, check that the person has expertise in pain management. I, for example, have training in hypno-analgesia in addition to my hypnosis training, and the reason is simple: pain management has to be understood, it has to be approached the right way, and people have to be made responsible, once again, that's very important, and above all it must not be used indiscriminately.

So I hope this has given you some useful information. If you search the internet, you'll also find an organisation that talks about chronic pain, with resources on cardiac coherence, meditation and more, which could be a starting point if you're interested. I invite you to have a look. With that, I wish you a good day. Take care of yourself.

Hypnotherapy is a complementary form of support and does not replace medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you have any concerns about your health, please consult a physician first.