Chronic Pain Relief

Katherine Zimmerman discusses Chronic Pain and how hypnotherapy can be beneficial.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:02

Hi everyone, it's good to be here today. Hi, Catherine. Hi, Catherine. My topic today is using hypnosis for the relief of chronic pain. I want to start by sharing with you a case history of a gentleman I worked with some years ago. To this day, he is my favorite, my favorite chronic pain client. This gentleman was, when I saw him, was 86. He'd had several back surgeries and it had not stopped his pain. And he told me he had tried everything. And when I say everything, that's massage and chiropractic and acupuncture, and the list goes on. When he came to see me, he was taking eight pain pills a day. So first thing in the morning, two vicatin, a couple hours later, different pain, something different for pain. Two hours after that, he takes something else for pain. So they'd had him spread out these different pain medications throughout the day just so that he could function. First session, he came in. I worked in a building, long, long walk from the elevator, long walk, all the way to the end. He said to me, Could you have put your office any further from the elevator? He had to rest in the waiting room before he could walk the next 10 feet to get into the room with the hypno chair. The end of his second session, he said, Do these stairs over here go down to the parking lot? Because he felt that much better. Nice. I know. And the his complaint about all the other things he had tried was that he had to keep doing them, keep going to acupuncture, keep having massage. And so his last comment after that fifth session, he said, you know, this is great. He said, I take my mind everywhere I go. So he was in charge of how he felt. And he was down to from remember from eight pain pills, he was down to two a day. And everything else he could manage with the power of his mind. So, you know, when people talk about chronic pain, generally they think about the body. And as hypnotherapists, don't we experience this as something, understand it as something deeper? Because it's not just physical, it's processed, interpreted, and often amplified through the mind, and more specifically through the subconscious mind. Because we know, go ahead, Yvonne.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

How did he um at what point did he know to start backing off of his medication? Was he listening to his body or he must have been listening to his body?

SPEAKER_03 3:00

That's been so many years ago. I could I don't have an answer for that. Okay, yeah. But I still remember him. I can because at the end of every session, he was also like to do magic tricks. At the end of every session, he'd say, Now, now can I show you a magic trick? Yeah, pull something out of his pocket and show me. And then he'd say, Do you want me to tell you how that works? And I'd say, No, no, don't spoil it. I want, I want to think it's magic. It was just a delight. Anyway, here's the thing we're processing this chronic physical pain through the subconscious mind, which listens to every word we say, and that only has one response. No matter what we have said, positive or negative, it just says yes. It doesn't evaluate, doesn't analyze, it doesn't question. It simply accepts and then acts accordingly.

SPEAKER_02 3:59

Nondiscriminate.

SPEAKER_03 4:00

It is. So when someone says my pain is always there, or my back is killing me, oh, that one makes me cringe. Please don't say that's killing you. Because the subconscious takes what you say literally. So now that it's in conflict, subconscious mind's prime directive is to keep us alive. And you're affirming that it's this thing here is killing me. Or may they may be people say, I can't imagine being without this. No matter what it is that we're saying to ourselves about this pain, it subconscious mind just says yes. And then it provides more of that experience. And it's important to understand the difference between subconscious response and conscious mind, which listens, learns, reasons, judges, analyzes, and criticizes. It understands nuance, it understands humor. Subconscious doesn't get humor. If you're joking about being in pain, your subconscious doesn't get the joke. It's not funny. So the key is the majority of our mind, about 88%, functions at the subconscious level. So that's we need to be working with the subconscious in order to change our experience of any kind of physical pain. In fact, the first change that I'd encourage my clients to make is to stop calling it pain. Because as soon as I hear the word pain, I've had a lot of chronic pain over my life. As soon as I hear the word pain, pain, I came out of uh anesthesia after one of my uh procedures on my knee, that arthroscopic thing where they scrape all the bad stuff out. And the doctor had said, you know, this can be pretty painful. And I remember thinking, la la la la la, don't say that, la la la. And then I thought, well, maybe if he's telling me this can be painful, maybe I should prepare ahead. So that's what I did. I did self-hypnosis for a couple of weeks before I had this procedure. But I came out of the anesthesia and I'm just kind of back to awareness. And this kind nurse came up and she said, How much pain are you having? And I thought, pain, pain, I have that. I immediately associated into it. And then, of course, she offered me pain meds, which I swallowed. And of course, it's a drive-thru surgery, what isn't anymore? I got home a couple hours later, and I remember thinking, huh, I programmed myself to be comfortable. Why did I think that I needed pain meds? Because the nurse installed that word back into my conscious awareness, and I bought into it because I was not thinking clearly, I was still impacted by the anesthesia. And this is why people may stuck stay stuck. They're trying to think their way out of something that's being reinforced automatically at the subconscious level, and they're not even aware of it. So, first thing and most important thing when dealing with chronic pain is educating about self-talk. We can get ourselves in so much trouble the way we talk to ourselves. So we need to stop talking to ourselves in a critical way. Uh, it doesn't help to be correcting ourselves. We want to be aware and empowering. So we begin by listening. What are we saying to ourselves repeatedly?

unknown 7:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:38

What phrases have become habitual? Because those phases aren't neutral. Guess what they are? We all know this. They're instructions. Subconscious is just in there doing what it does. Yes. So I can't imagine being without pain because I easily imagine feeling comfortable and at ease in my body. My back always hurts when I get up. It becomes my back is relaxed, supported, and comfortable when I rise. And it's not about pretending, it's directing the subconscious mind toward a new possibility. Because the subconscious can't move towards something it's never been instructed to create. Here's something that I know anybody who's had chronic pain can relate to. And I've had clients burst into tears when I've said this to them, because it hits home, it resonates. Even low-grade chronic discomfort destroys the quality of your life. And even those periods of time when you feel fine, there's a bit of anxiety. How long is this feeling fine going to last? So I know for me, I would race around, excuse me, and get as much done as I could when I was in my comfortable phase, because I never expected it to last. This was pre-learning about the mind and becoming a hypnotherapist. And I would I would overdo and overwork myself and think myself into this negative state because I didn't understand how the mind worked. And there's that anticipation all by itself was creating stress. Stress causes us to tense up. The more tense we are, the more we feel discomfort. Anyone relate to that?

SPEAKER_00 9:43

Yeah, stress and anxiety ramps up all pain.

SPEAKER_02 9:48

Your body tenses up and it just manifests itself. Words are spells.

SPEAKER_03 9:53

They are, and that's why when clients come out of hypnosis and they've been in a state of deep relaxation, first thing they notice is, oh, you know, I had a headache when I got here and it's gone now. That headache they didn't mention because they didn't think it had any relevance, and they're so surprised. Well, you've relaxed because so many headaches are caused by tension. So the stress increases tension, tensions increases pain, and now we have a loop.

SPEAKER_02 10:24

A lot of time it's the thought that that creates the discomfort in the body, and is very literal as to where it shows up in the body. So this body is signaling giving a signal as to what the thought processes that needs to be reframed. So chicken or the egg, you know. Um, so a lot of times, since the body's literal in its in its translation, um, back pain, what are you carrying the burdens of that don't belong to you? Throat issues, what's truth, aren't you speaking? Eye issues, what are what don't you want to see?

unknown 11:07

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 11:08

Knee issues, where are you not pivoting in your life that you need to?

SPEAKER_03 11:13

You know, I started wearing glasses when I was nine. That's the year my dad moved out. My parents got divorced.

SPEAKER_02 11:21

Didn't want to see that, did you?

SPEAKER_03 11:23

I didn't want to see him leave with a suitcase and nobody would answer my question of when's he coming back?

SPEAKER_02 11:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:29

Next thing you know, I've got stomach trouble and I need glasses. Yeah. So, and over time, pain and emotion become linked. So, whether the emotions come before the pain or develop because of it, they're linked together and they don't serve a useful purpose. But they do reinforce the experience, and that's where hypnosis becomes so powerful. Because in that trance state, we're not trying to override the system, we're working with it. So then we can separate sensation from emotional charge, we can reduce the intensity of the experience, and we can shift the meaning associated with it. And I know I've had a number of surgeries where I've prepared ahead of time and I've done my programming to be comfortable afterward and taken virtually no pain meds because I honestly was comfortable, except the one when I had been diagnosed with cancer and had to have surgery for that. I was so in denial, I was waiting for that phone call for someone to say, oops, psych does want your lab results and cancel my surgery. So I did no prep, no preparation. That was the most painful procedure I had had in a long time. Because I I just denied that this was going to happen. So working with what is is helpful. And it can be as simple as making the pain tangible. Pain is amorphous, it's just this free-floating thing that's we want to get away from it. But what what is there? There's nothing tangible to get away from. But as soon as you say, what shape is it, what color is it? Um, is it hollow or solid, and make it tangible, where does it live in your body? Now you can manipulate it and you can move it out. And it's it's almost seems too simple, doesn't it? But it's highly effective. Because now we can interact with it. In fact, we could give it a voice. What do you put part? What purpose do you serve? Oh, I don't really have a purpose, but you thought me into existence, so here I am because I'll tell you what I've learned about pain. After I've had surgery in particular, that pain is a reminder to let my body rest so that it can heal. Now, if I'm doing what I'm asked to do and resting, do I need the signal every day? No. So I made an agreement after one of my surgery. Well, I didn't have surgery that time. I broke my femur, but I have surgery, but it was painful. So the uh agreement I made with my subconscious, you can go ahead and give me some of that discomfort as a reminder to elevate my leg and stop trying to do too much. And as soon as I do that, as soon as I follow instructions, then you'll back off. And that was the agreement, and that's what happened. It's exactly what happened. The minute I felt discomfort, I would say, you're right, you're right, I'm pushing it. I'd lie down and elevate my leg, and then it would be comfortable again. We're full of wisdom, aren't we?

SPEAKER_02 15:02

We really are your entire body is wisdom. It is, it's a matter of connecting it, connecting to it. It knows what it needs to heal. It doesn't without our help.

SPEAKER_03 15:17

Yeah. It needs, in fact, after after one of my major hip surgeries, my body knew that I didn't need carbs or sugar. I couldn't eat it. I couldn't stand the smell of anything with sugar in it.

SPEAKER_02 15:30

Oh god.

SPEAKER_03 15:31

Couldn't that's tragic. Well, it wasn't to me because it made me nauseous. That's tragic.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

I would love it if my body didn't want those things. Oh, taste buds are ridiculous.

SPEAKER_03 15:42

Well, it was interesting because my one of my I had several boyfriends at the time, one of them brought a box of seeds candy and you know, wants me to have a piece. I'm like, you know, just maybe later. Tell my mother, you and you and dad eat that stuff. I don't want it. I don't want it. I love cease candy, couldn't go near it. She put it in the freezer until I got, you know, months down the road, I could I could tolerate it again. But my body had so much wisdom, it knew what I needed to eat were green salads and vegetables and protein. Yeah. Because my I had bone grafts and I had bones moved around, and those bones needed to come back together.

SPEAKER_02 16:22

And sugar is inflammation, it produces inflammation, stresses all your organs, is just gonna not be productive for healing.

SPEAKER_03 16:30

Not at all. So we have so much wisdom. I we really need to pay more attention. I've always eaten intuitively, and I'm grateful that my body said, Oh yeah, you want to eat some sugar? You want to throw up next? How about that? Does that sound good to you? It does not, it does not sound all good at all. I'll tell you what, I just won't eat sugar for months on end. Yeah. So we're working with expectation, we're working with language, emotional association, and subconscious patterning. And when those shift, even long-standing discomfort can change, maybe gradually, maybe quickly, because the mind and body are always communicating. So I guess the bottom line then is what message are you giving your body when you're having discomfort? What needs to happen next?

SPEAKER_00 17:24

I had a client a couple years ago. She's was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at age seven. So she's been, you know, she's a little gnarled up looking, and you know, she's just, but she's a happy person. She's got a sunny disposition and has always just had a really good attitude about things. But, you know, she's got a medicine chest full of medicine for those things. And um, I think she was probably in session three or four uh working on this pain, and she she's been to the rheumatologist again, and they're actually going to run a study and include her in it because she has been able to reduce her medications down so well from just hypnosis and mindfulness that he's very curious. So she has forewarned me that I might be getting a phone call uh to participate in that. Yeah, I would love that. And that's one of our bigger institutions here in Rockford. So yeah, I'm really happy for her because she just she is a happy, positive person. So I feel like she already had the disposition that it was going to work really well for, and she really wanted it to work. She was really sick and tired of this, and she wanted to gain some flexibility back and you know, experience a different way of living. So hypnosis was really valuable to her, and she still utilizes the tools she learned. So really happy for her.

SPEAKER_03 18:54

Our minds control our bodies. We need to listen and give it some different information.

SPEAKER_02 19:01

One of my very first um pain management chronic pain clients, it very early on in my my practice. I had known him before and he heard what I was doing. He says, I'd like to come and see you. So thought, okay, and he was an ex-vet and was dealing with chronic pain. He had had a stroke and had some just serious hits to his body that he was living with extreme discomfort. And I'll never forget, um, because he said to me, I want to get well enough so that I can leave here. And you know, you're not supposed to react when people tell you that kind of thing, right? And I'm thinking, okay, is this really the right place for him? I'm I'm relatively new at this. But at the same time, I had confidence that I was really um my intention was to help him get to a much, much better place. And knew that I could because of my training. So one of the many techniques that I that I worked with him was the control room. And that worked so well for him because it gave him a tool that he could utilize on his own. You know, create his say his sanctuary, create this room where he could control his pain with the dial, and figure where he is with his level of discomfort, and then slowly ratchet that that down to a zero or one. And this worked incredibly well for him. And so he, you know, by the time we finished our work, I never will forget that he says that wow, I came here with the intention of just getting well enough that I could see myself a good exit plan, and now I'm just sitting here in awe of all the possibilities for the second half of my life.

unknown 21:05

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 21:06

How great.

SPEAKER_02 21:07

And that will never leave me, will never leave me. And so glad that I didn't tuck and run, be intimidated early on, so early on, but something like that. And you know, he's he he's forever changed, and that's that's what this work can do.

SPEAKER_03 21:28

It is, because that that pain wears you down. It's exhausting. It is. Yeah. Well, it used to be, I know I'm comfortable these days, but it did for not a lot of years. Well, thank you for joining me in talking about chronic pain and how we can better serve ourselves with our language with some hypnosis. And until next time.

unknown 22:00

Time.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

We will see. Thanks, Catherine.

SPEAKER_03 22:02

Goodbye. Thank you.