Hypnosis for pain relief

A recent search term used to discover this site was, "Does hypnosis work for pain?". Here is some information on why it is commonly agreed that hypnosis (and also the placebo effect) are known to be an effective means of altering an individuals' perception of pain.

Why do we feel pain?

Although we all understand how frustrating it can be to be in pain with no rapid means of stopping it, pain plays an important part in our lives and without it we would find it very hard to function.

Pain is our body's way of telling us that there is a problem which demands our attention. Without pain we could be unaware when we damaged ourselves and cause further damage by not taking reasonable precautions.

For example?

A prime example of this is when you twist your ankle or stub your toe. A common reaction to the pain is to limp, taking the weight off of the damaged leg in order to prevent harming ourselves further.

So how can hypnosis help me?

Thankfully, we can effectively "switch off" or "turn down" pain almost as easily as we would switch off light or turn a dimmer switch.

Pain is an unconsciously controlled signal and hypnosis works best in helping us to exert some level of control over our unconscious mind and those functions which run 'beneath' our conscious awareness.

So, is it dangerous to get rid of pain?

Although caution should be exercised and we should never ignore pain, we can very quickly learn techniques which allow us to 'move' pain out of our conscious awareness in order that we can function normally in our day to day life.