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How to help Manage Pain (Lifestyle Therapy)
Susan Leigh is a long established Counsellor and Hypnotherapist. She often works with clients with pain management issues, complementing and liaising with their other health care providers. For more information see www.lifestyletherapy.net.
Pain in itself is a useful indicator that something is wrong. That is why pain management treatment usually does not aim to remove it completely, but rather, manage it efficiently and effectively. By removing it completely a person may do something that could cause lasting damage or harm. So an awareness of the pain is a reminder to take care.
With any physical symptoms it is important to firstly get a medical diagnosis. Is there physical injury ? Has there been an accident or illness ? Is there a psychological component ? There are different types of pain. Pain from an accident may be short lived. Whereas pain from an illness may be continuous or intermittent, low grade or chronic. How a person holds themself physically and their expectation of pain levels must also be factored into the equation.
The way a person feels about themselves, their diagnosis, their prognosis is often a significant part of the recovery process. A combination of medication, counselling, self help techniques, physiotherapy, diet management, whatever else may be of help, should all be included into the management and /or recovery programme. Certainly quality of life can be significantly improved by the patient feeling that they are taking some control over their treatment.
Increasingly hospitals are finding that by allowing the patients to self medicate has significantly reduced the quantity of pain killers that they use.
Techniques for pain management that I use with my clients can include:
- pain scaling. Using a imaginary scale allows the patient to turn the pain up or down. This starts by turning the pain level up. This teaches that a person does have some ability to adjust their pain levels. In fact in some disciplines, people have learned how to spread pain throughout their whole body, so that intense pain in one small area can become minimal when spread widely.
- self hypnosis can help a person detach themselves for a time from unpleasant or painful situations. This can be used to great effect in childbirth and dentistry.
- self hypnosis links in with relaxation techniques by allowing the body to relax and become less tense, eg progressive relaxation. Becoming aware of each muscle group as the relaxation moves through the body.
- positive affirmations help a person to notice how often we talk negatively to ourselves and so build up long term pessimistic expectations. By changing the negative way a person talks to themselves into something realistic but more pleasant or optimistic can improve mindset and outlook.
- distraction techniques are another tool. A person can only think of one thing at once. So trying to focus on something different or pleasant for a time can provide useful respite.
- anchor good feelings. A mother's kiss on a child’s sore knee can make the pain go away and the child feel better. That is a powerful anchor and using that facility is another effective pain management technique.
- creative visualisation is a powerful tool for importing resources into a situation. Learning to imagine healing or easing, again can improve a persons' feeling of having some control over their body and well being.
It is a fact that attitude and expectations are an important part of supporting a person's health management and recovery. Working to complement the health care team is a useful part of hypnotherapists role.
For further information:
How to help Manage Pain
Lifestyle Therapy
3 Alstone Drive
Oldfield Brow
Altrincham
Cheshire
WA14 4LD
United Kingdom
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