How can hypnotherapy help with chronic pain?

Please note - this article is not intended to replace any medical advice, and if you are suffering with chronic pain, it's important to rule out any underlying causes with your doctor.

Living with pain can be exhausting, and can really erode your quality of life. To make matters worse, the current medical model doesn’t address the complexity of chronic pain. Being prescribed painkillers and antidepressants, then put on a long waiting list for surgery (that may not help) is really just a sticking plaster and doesn’t address the root causes. Also, if you aren’t taken seriously by your healthcare provider, and they don’t believe you or understand you, your pain is likely to be felt more intensely.

What is chronic pain?

‘Chronic’ pain is defined as pain lasting three months or longer. However, the word ‘chronic’ doesn't mean permanent. If this is something you are currently living with, or you know someone who does - read on because there is hope.

Persistent pain actually has less to do with tissue damage and more to do with changes in the way the brain interprets sensation. In fact, there is only a weak correlation between pain and tissue damage! Whilst damage is one of the factors taken into account to produce pain, there are many other factors, and the brain will weigh all of these factors up before making an interpretation of sensation.

This process happens completely unconsciously - it's not something you choose to do (and is a normal part of having a human brain) there is no part of it that is ‘your fault’.

Other factors that the brain takes into account include:

• how much stress you are currently under
• how much trauma you have
• any unprocessed, repressed or suppressed emotions
• how supported you feel
• any other troubles in your life (for example, financial or relationship worries)
• how much (or how little) you look after yourself - diet, exercise, sleep etc.
• any unmet needs eg. solitude, connection, being in nature
• a critical inner voice
• hypersensitivity in your nervous system 
• your external environment

A useful metaphor is this - think of a donkey that has a heavy load on its back. The poor animal has slipped, and broken its leg. How do we help the donkey’s broken leg? What's the first thing we do? Thats right. Take the load off.

This is where hypnotherapy comes in.

How hypnotherapy for chronic pain helps

The way your brain changes in response to certain stimuli is called neuroplasticity. And if it can change one way (by producing pain) it can change back again when given different stimuli (by reducing or eliminating the need for pain) 

Hypnotherapy can help with chronic pain in the following ways:

By teaching you how to relax

Sounds simple right? But relaxation isn’t just crashing on the sofa at the end of a long day. By activating the parasympathetic arm of your central nervous system, your body and mind will benefit from being able to access rest, digest, growth and repair - and this is where the magic happens.  

This healing state is the opposite of fight, flight, fawn, and freeze, and spending time here gives all the cells in your body permission to repair, recover, and renew. Stress is the biggest cause of disease - learning how to unwind is the antidote. Hypnosis is a wonderfully relaxing state for your body and brain, and it's a state you can learn to apply to yourself. The right therapist will teach you these skills, so you can use them whenever you need them.

By unpacking and releasing trauma

By unpacking and releasing trauma, you can let go of old emotional wounds and move into a lighter and happier state. Hypnotherapy can help you gently let go of difficult memories and move on, into a mindset and feeling state where the past no longer pulls you down.

By working through unprocessed emotions

Hypnotherapy can help you safely work through unprocessed emotions. Releasing and letting go of suppressed emotion helps you to move into an open-hearted state - feeling calm, curious, and courageous. Seeing the world through this lens brings resilience and an internal sense of safety.

By supporting you emotionally

Hypnotherapy can support you emotionally. Feeling supported is innately healing - we are wired for connection and we heal in the presence of trust, empathy and compassion. This is called co-regulation, and the right therapist will hold your trust in them in the highest regard.

By helping you build confidence

Hypnotherapy can build your confidence in yourself, and teach you to value yourself - which means you are more likely to advocate for your needs, assert healthy boundaries, treat yourself kindly, and talk to yourself in the same kind way that you would a dear friend. All of these help to turn down inner alarm bells that heighten your perception of pain, and bring a sense of safety that turns down pain signals.

By changing your relationship to painful sensations

Hypnotherapy can help change your relationship to painful sensations, for example suggesting that any flare-ups seem shorter, the time between them is getting longer, and that the discomfort is less noticeable. Hypnotherapy can also help you focus on more neutral and pleasant sensations in your body - and when you do this habitually, it becomes easier to do.

By helping you change your mindset

Hypnotherapy can help change your mindset, which can lead you to make good choices about changing things in your external environment that may be causing you stress - for example, asking for a raise, improving your relationships, saving for a much-needed holiday etc.

All of these things can tip the balance for you from a state of alarm into a state of safety.

At its very simplest, pain is your brain’s interpretation of how much danger you are in. When we shift into a safe nervous system state, dial down any hypersensitivity, and release any unconscious roadblocks and triggers, our inner alarm bells no longer need to ring, and our pain has the opportunity to go down.