Hypnotherapy: The Key to Escaping the “Empty Room” of Chronic Pain
Living with chronic pain can be a lonely experience. Maybe this loneliness is due partly to the invisibility of pain. Other people cannot see the pain and may even doubt it exists. Even when a person with chronic pain has a strong support system and is surrounded by family and friends who would like to help, ultimately, just one person feels the pain.
How on earth can hypnosis be helpful to a person in that lonely place?
“All Hypnosis is Self-Hypnosis”
The answer, I think, lies in the concept that “all hypnosis is self-hypnosis.” Patients often ask when I am going to hypnotize them, viewing themselves as passive recipients of a technique that will transform them from the outside.
My colleagues have taught me a good response to that question: Does your soccer coach “soccer” you? Does your piano teacher “piano” you? Those people guide and instruct students to gain skills and improve their abilities in a given field, but the students are the ones playing soccer or piano.
It’s the same with hypnosis. I don’t hypnotize patients. Instead, I guide and instruct them in developing the skills to hypnotize themselves, going into a natural state of intense absorption that nearly everyone experiences spontaneously.
In other words, during a clinical hypnosis session, a person learns more deeply how to help themselves.
Alone in an Empty Room
We might think of a person who is disabled or debilitated by chronic pain as being alone in an empty room. On the other side of the wall is a broader world of increased comfort, less suffering, more joy and despair, more participation, and less isolation. My job when conducting a hypnosis session is to help the person get out of that room while acknowledging that as much as I might want to (and they might want me to), I cannot carry them out.
Depending on the situation, people need different types or levels of guidance:
- Sometimes, people feel overwhelmed, and by learning to calm their anxiety, they can make enough emotional energy available to look around and find a way out all by themselves.
- Sometimes, people assume (or are told) that there is minimal chance of escape. In that case, a guide or coach telling them that there is a door or window to be found provides enough of a boost that they can begin to explore and make their own way out.
- Sometimes, a person may need to be shown where the door is or how to open it. During the session, they might even get a glimpse of that wider world, reminding them of the possibilities and providing some encouragement and motivation to keep working on it.
- Sometimes, a person needs a companion to walk beside them and point out a few paths that might take them in the right direction.
Escaping the Empty Room
It can even happen that a person walks out the door without realizing it. Many times, I have had a patient come into a follow-up session discouraged because they are still having pain and aren’t feeling any better. However, they might mention that they have been able to attend school every day that week, walk a whole mile, or return to a favorite sport.
At those times, I have to stop and show them how much their function is improving. They have returned to the wider world and can anticipate feeling better the farther they get from that empty room.
