Can hypnosis relieve pain?

Already in ancient Egypt, hypnosis was used in pain therapy and also during operations. It was the first effective anesthetic and is still used today for minor operations and dental treatment. The success of hypnosis in chronic pain is particularly great. This is especially due to the fact that hypnosis detaches the sensation, in this case pain, from the emotion. This reduces the fear of pain and its intensity. In addition, it is possible to influence the brain in the hypnotic trance so that it processes the pain signals differently. This usually involves the use of images, such as how a volcano, which symbolizes the pain of migraine, slowly cools down. All of this leads to the new, groundbreaking experience of the client that he is not helpless in the face of his pain, but rather is able to control it himself to a certain degree. This realization is another step on the way to a life without pain.

Pain control is probably one of the oldest areas of application of hypnosis and is now increasingly used again instead of anesthesia and other painkillers, for example, when anesthesia is not tolerated or the intake of sedatives or sleeping pills should be reduced.

Hypnosis can also be used and have a pain-relieving effect where drug pain treatment is not effective for chronic pain. Pain can be easily reduced to completely eliminated with hypnosis, whereas chronic pain therapy is more complex and requires a high level of expertise on the part of the therapist. Some examples of treating pain with hypnosis include acute pain such as dental treatment, childbirth or surgery, chronic and psychosomatic complaints and pain.
Hypnosis can therefore also be used for (chronic) pain and achieve very good results there. If you look at the brain waves under hypnosis, it becomes clear that the pain stimuli are transmitted to the brain quite normally, but they are processed differently there and do not enter the consciousness. That is, pain perception is virtually inactive during the hypnotic trance. Of course, hypnosis reaches its limits here if the pain has a pathological cause. In this case, a doctor should be consulted and the appropriate medical treatment should be initiated. However, especially in the case of psychosomatic complaints (pain that has psychological causes), hypnosis can alleviate or even eliminate the pain. It is believed that during hypnosis our brain regions are differently active and interconnected. Thus, with the help of modern hypnosis technique, it is possible to locate the actual source of pain. This is enormously helpful and valuable, because a problem can always be tackled most effectively when the cause is known. This can then possibly be isolated and re-evaluated under hypnosis. Instead of taking medication permanently, hypnosis can be used to activate the self-healing powers, which can lead to a breaking of the pain cycle. Hypnosis, then, can relieve pain by interfering with your stored and learned sense of pain.

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