In the labyrinth of chronic pain, where every move can feel like walking on broken glass, hypnotherapy can be the healing balm you need to make your journey a lot more comfortable. You could experience chronic pain relief with hypnotherapy in person in Hexham or Newcastle and just about anywhere in the familiarity of your own home with on line hypnotherapy that is personalised just for you.
Through no fault of your own you have found the center of your labyrinth of chronic pain and now you need to step back and get some distance from the heart of you pain, find a map, and find your way out.
As you know, your pain is subjective, known really only to you. Ensuring that you doctor or therapist really understands the extent of your suffering is important in creating a compassionate working relationship that you can trust has your best outcomes to heart. This is why we will have an in-depth and detailed conversation before we do any hypnotherapy together.
The Neurobiology of Pain
- Pain Perception involves neuronal networks within the brain and nervous system. Pain receptors detect these and send signals to the spinal cord. From there, these signals go to various parts of your brain, including the somatosensory cortex, thalamus, and limbic system. This is your subjective experience of pain.
- Neurotransmitters are chemicals that play a crucial role in the modulation of pain you experience. Some increase the experience of pain and some dampen your experience of pain. Endorphins, the body’s natural painkillers, bind to opioid receptors in the brain and spinal cord, inhibiting the release of pain dampening signals which is pain killing medications work for many people.
- Neuroplasticity is your brain’s ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections. Thinking about chronic pain, this is the result of your brain’s reorganisation to essentially make pain a habit! So neurons have reorganised to make structural changes in places mentioned before such as the limbic system and somatosensory cortex which contribute to chronic pain. Neuroplasticity is both a blessing and a curse but it is neuroplasticity – the brains ability to change connections which can lead to reducing chronic pain and this will take some effort on your behalf.
Recent clinical studies have shown that hypnotherapy can lead to a 90% reduction in chronic pain. This may sound incredible, especially when medications and physical therapy are no longer working to manage your pain. This specific study was posted in AXIOS in the context of spinal cord injuries and can be read here and the authors were very clear emphasis this is not stage hypnosis.
What is very important in the AXIOS study is that it is focusing on reducing unconscious and automatic fear responses to chronic pain. In other words helping you to reduce your worry and anxiety to anticipating and remembering pain.
Neuroplasticity in Reducing Chronic Pain
A world renowned pain specialist Michael Moskowitz has developed a methodology for treating people with intractable pain and involves visualisation, effortful concentration, imagining the areas of the brain that respond to chronic pain doing something else. The idea is very simple and profound. By concentrating, imagining, you are influencing your brain to to make neuroplastic change. Neuroplastic change can take months and its worth it.
[ For a detailed description of a clients experience with Moskowitz see The Brain That Heals Itself by Norman Doidge ].
My belief and experience is hypnotherapy can and does do two very important things in lessening chronic pain. Firstly there is the neuroplasticity element and secondly there is the reorientation of the meaning of your pain and thus lessening of the sensation of pain.
Chronic Pain Relief with Hypnotherapy
I suffer with chronic pain in my back and hips. This is managed with light exercise and lots of self hypnosis which works very well for me in staying mobile and able to function in the world. I am confident that I will be able to help you make some changes using hypnotherapy to help you manage your chronic pain much better.
When you would like to make an appointment to find out more you can send me an email or give me a call. In person appointments for help with chronic pain relief using hypnotherapy are available in Newcastle and Hexham. On line appointments are available via Zoom.
Call 0770 481 8467
Email nigel@nigelhetherington.co.uk
