Hi

I recently joined this forum and I wondered if anyone out there has been using NLP for Pain Management? Any tips or hints would be appreciated.

My interest in hypnosis and NLP was sparked after seeing an excellent hypnotherapist for pain managment.

Has anyone used anchors for pain management? Would strong painkillers, such as, morphine affect the technique?

Taking control of the pain and positive thinking is excellent at helping to close the pain gates, along with techniques such as, self hypnosis, pacing, etc. - an attitude shift has also helped

Thanks
Tina

I used to do "pain management" until someone pointed out to me the quite (in hindsight) obvious notion that I was focussing on the one thing I didn't want: pain. So now I use various submodality shifts in my representations of comfort to increase that instead. Works a treat.

I also did some trance work with a very good hypnotist around the idea that since the conscious mind can only focus on a very few things at a time out of all the information it receives, pain might as well not be one of them unless there's a reason for attention to be drawn to that part of the body. That alone made a tremendous difference in my comfort level.

When working with a client I never refer to Pain but I use the term level of dis-comfort and assist them to learn to reduce their level of dis-comfort.

In trance I teach clients to fill their arm (either one) with the balm of self healing and the potential of the human mind/body to spontaniously heal. Then if they are able to I get them to rub the balm all over the area that had dis-comfort. Seems to work quite well....

hi
This subject is of great interest to me.

Jason

When working with a client I never refer to Pain but I use the term level of dis-comfort and assist them to learn to reduce their level of dis-comfort

.Out of interest what level of pain ie on a scale of 1-5 6-7 -8-9-10 are we talking about
as pain comes in many forms ie acute,Chronic
as no ones pain is the same.If i came to you and you said your pain is dis-comfort i wouldn't take you seriously,as to me its real pain.
Cheers Karen

ask believe wrote:

hi
This subject is of great interest to me.

Jason
.Out of interest what level of pain ie on a scale of 1-5 6-7 -8-9-10 are we talking about
as pain comes in many forms ie acute,Chronic
as no ones pain is the same.If i came to you and you said your pain is dis-comfort i wouldn't take you seriously,as to me its real pain.
Cheers Karen

Karen,

You do not have to take me seriously and I hope that most of my clients don't either as humor is an integral part of the change work I do.... The fact that you are grading your pain I interpret as you spending a lot of time thinking about it and nurturing it and looking at your profile I can understand this, your real pain is exactly what you believe it to be and I hope that you find an answer that is right for you.

As a reply to this forum I have simplified what I do.... There is a lot of softening around the reframing of pain to dis-comfort and I have used it for anything from Osteo Arthritis in the Spine to Menstrual Pains.

All I am interested in is that I can elicit the result the client is looking for.

Jason
I absolutely agree about humour as it is one of the most important aspects of pain management.I Certainly do not nurture pain either. I am still on a search to finding the correct way which will work a 100% for me.As i have used many techniques which are great but don't seem to be long lasting.
cheers Karen

ask believe wrote:

Jason
I absolutely agree about humour as it is one of the most important aspects of pain management.I Certainly do not nurture pain either. I am still on a search to finding the correct way which will work a 100% for me.As i have used many techniques which are great but don't seem to be long lasting.
cheers Karen

Karen, I researched your condition and all I can say is....OUCH!

I wonder if you are willing to expand for me and answer a few questions? How did you know the specific techniques were going to stop working? What would need to be true for you to believe that one or more techniques would work perminently?

Hi Jason

Brief outline.had operation for prolapsed disc,operation went well I felt great. During the healing process scar tissue knitted onto a central nerve
so every time i move inflames nerve then causes pain.

With the techniques that i ve used, I have always gone into them with a view yes this is going to work long term .Now seem to work in the moment feel light and relaxed,but as soon as i move my body guess what,yes you guessed it.For me to know that a technique to work perminently would, for when i moved i didnt experience pain at all.(and not to need medication to dull it down slightly)
then that would be bliss.

Cheers Karen

Wow loads of info/opinions - thanks.

Karen: What techniques have you tried?

For me, I am looking into Cronic pain and I have a lot of tools in my toolbox to help e.g. painkillers, tens machine, heat packs, self hypnosis, state management, relaxation, distraction, pacing, etc. etc. Any others are always welcome

One of the things that had a big impact on managing my pain is knowing that I have control, before that, the pain controlled me. Also there can be a grieving process when pain is a result of an injury/accident - I needed to get away from the pity party, blame, etc. move to acceptance & where do I go from here.

Reframing is useful e.g. focus on what I can do rather than what I can no longer do. As well as, knowing I have options, i.e. if I do x I will feel y and that is okay if I choose that option and have strategies in place to deal with it.

Pain is very complex and personal to the individual and there are some good techniques out there. They may not totally remove the pain but will help people manage it and be happier



Tina

ask believe wrote:

Hi Jason

Brief outline.had operation for prolapsed disc,operation went well I felt great. During the healing process scar tissue knitted onto a central nerve
so every time i move inflames nerve then causes pain.

With the techniques that i ve used, I have always gone into them with a view yes this is going to work long term .Now seem to work in the moment feel light and relaxed,but as soon as i move my body guess what,yes you guessed it.For me to know that a technique to work perminently would, for when i moved i didnt experience pain at all.(and not to need medication to dull it down slightly)
then that would be bliss.

Cheers Karen

Karen, I don't know exactly how I arrived at an NLP site, but I saw your comment and thought I might make an unsolicited suggestion. I have found that the Dynatron STXRX is very helpful, esp. with nerve type chronic pain. It is an electrical device that targets the sympathetic nervous. If you can find a practitioner who uses one, you can try it daily for 10 days to see if it works. If it does, it is worth purchasing one even tho it is expensive, but priceless if it works. I would also look for a practitioner that uses Butler's nerve mobilization techniques, CST that deeply relaxes and mobilizes the nervous system, and PRRT a reflex relaxation technique. This addresses your nerve mobility as well as your response to pain. I would make sure that my practitioner taught me to visualize the involved tissue and to mobilize not only the nervous system, but the fascial system. And learn what other restricitons in the body are causing dysfunction in your spine. As far as NLP, does the timeline help? Hope this can be of some help to you. Patty

Hi Tina
Wow this was like reading about me.

Wow loads of info/opinions - thanks.

Karen: What techniques have you tried?

For me, I am looking into Cronic pain and I have a lot of tools in my toolbox to help e.g. painkillers, tens machine, heat packs, self hypnosis, state management, relaxation, distraction, pacing, etc. etc. Any others are always welcome

One of the things that had a big impact on managing my pain is knowing that I have control, before that, the pain controlled me. Also there can be a grieving process when pain is a result of an injury/accident - I needed to get away from the pity party, blame, etc. move to acceptance & where do I go from here.

Reframing is useful e.g. focus on what I can do rather than what I can no longer do. As well as, knowing I have options, i.e. if I do x I will feel y and that is okay if I choose that option and have strategies in place to deal with it.

Pain is very complex and personal to the individual and there are some good techniques out there. They may not totally remove the pain but will help people manage it and be happier

Tina I have tried all of the above,When i used dissociation I got really good at this apart from made me disassociate from the real world a bit,like when friends and family talked to me took a while to reply,but this technique useful. Another i found here on this site using a ball of light then imagine healing every part of your body as the light moves through your body,something like that.Works well and very relaxing.
I have been looking into ppt which i think maybe my next step as seems to make sense to me. Thanks Chris www.patternsofphysicaltransformation.com

thanks patty
I will look into this also.

Karen, I don't know exactly how I arrived at an NLP site, but I saw your comment and thought I might make an unsolicited suggestion. I have found that the Dynatron STXRX is very helpful, esp. with nerve type chronic pain. It is an electrical device that targets the sympathetic nervous. If you can find a practitioner who uses one, you can try it daily for 10 days to see if it works. If it does, it is worth purchasing one even tho it is expensive, but priceless if it works. I would also look for a practitioner that uses Butler's nerve mobilization techniques, CST that deeply relaxes and mobilizes the nervous system, and PRRT a reflex relaxation technique. This addresses your nerve mobility as well as your response to pain. I would make sure that my practitioner taught me to visualize the involved tissue and to mobilize not only the nervous system, but the fascial system. And learn what other restricitons in the body are causing dysfunction in your spine. As far as NLP, does the timeline help? Hope this can be of some help to you. Patty

Thats the brilliance about nlp connections we can share good ideas.Also reading about clinical hypnosis.

Cheers Karen

Karen

Good luck, I hope you find something that works for you. Let me know how you get on.

As well as, managing my own pain, I do voluntary work with disabled people, so anything I can pass on to help them is appreciated.

Tina

At the request of Karen I have posted my painless pain process

New process called the painless pain process, (V2) Copyright 2008/2009

By Jay Budzynski

This is a the very basic step by step outline.

Step 1: find 3 real life examples where you was abundantly healthy,
One from when you was very young, One from just after puberty, & one sometime with in 2 years of any illness.

Step 2: imagine a time in the future where you are absolutely happy and abundantly healthy symptom free-

Step 3: in your left hand create/imagine a representation of Number 1

Step 4: in your right hand create/imagine a representation of Number 2

Step 5: Join the two representations together so you get a whole new one

Step 6: Look at this new representation, and while you are looking at it, "SMILE" into the new representation and allow it to glow, and build in energy the "Smile is its on switch" Now imagine it, as a ball of healing energy, and allow it to hover above your head, and smile, and give it a charge- then scan your body, first of all for slight discomforts, place the ball into the location of the discomfort allow the ball to just fill the location and "smile" into the energy ball hold it for a little while, then move to a new location, once you have done that a few times with slight discomforts, change locations and then move it to where you need it most.

A debrief: whats happening in this process is you are mapping in to your body-mind a representation of times when you was healthy and happy and a time when you will be healthy, and your combining them with in a framework and levels of patterning into a whole- then the smile which is key, releases into the body its own natural opiates- pleasure giving pain killing chemicals.

Do the process for a 1-2 minutes at a time, as often as care to, through the day, each time you do it, it will become stronger and stronger over time.


Note
Please do not over look this process, based on its simplicity- its because of its simplicity, that it holds so much power. The process works with both psychical and emotional based pain.

Karen

I have been having some problems replying to your private message - I receive yours okay.

Can you let me have your email address and I will reply outside of the forum - if that is okay with you

Tina