Is it possible to use NLP on the recovery of a sport injury ?

The average doctor approach who says: rest X weeks, take these anti inflamatory pills, pay me and come after X weeks to see how it goes.
Obviously doesn't understand that there are few things more painful for an athlete than stop doing what loves to do. And that without resting 100% the injury can go away in X+1 weeks and that could be a better option.
There is the other one who tells you to rest and go to physiotherapy and maybe with that the recovery process will be X-1 weeks, which might be the best solution but takes a lot of time and money.

How can NLP help in the recovery process ?

Well, it's interesting - the post starts with "Healing ... with NLP" and ends with "Helping the recovery process ... with NLP".

I think the second is a better way of looking at it.

Of course, there's no harm with using positive visualisations of healing, spinning feelings into the injured part, using hypnosis to relax and promote healing etc. They may very well assist.

But at the end of the day if resting the injured part is what's needed, I'd rest the injured part. I'm sure you're planning to do that, you're just looking to shorten the time, right?

Have you thought about trying something like "Patterns Of Physical Transformation"?

Going off on aside, ref: NLP and physical healing ...

I do think NLP and hypnosis are remarkable - and I do believe there's much we can do to aid healing with it. But, of course, you wouldn't walk on a broken leg "using NLP" to compensate for the damage you're doing to the traumatised part.

My take on NLP and physical healing is that it's a mind and a body we dealing with. Both are involved in healing. Just as the body might heal better with the mind involved, the mind might heal better with the body involved. But also, the body will heal better with the body involved too.

I think sometimes people think only 'mind' and not 'body'.

Just an aside.

Cheers

Hypnotherapy can be very effective for helping with healing, Trevor Silvester at the Quest Insitute makes his healing downloads free.

I recommend Your Healing Injury download.

Free Downloads — The Quest Institute

Cheers

Lenny

Steve_W wrote:

My take on NLP and physical healing is that it's a mind and a body we dealing with. Both are involved in healing. Just as the body might heal better with the mind involved, the mind might heal better with the body involved. But also, the body will heal better with the body involved too.

And of course for many people, nlp involves both and some, even, don't bother with a distinction.

Steve_W wrote:

I think sometimes people think only 'mind' and not 'body'.

They do don't they.

Hi Jan…out of interest (this is in my experience and echoed by my physio who is an expert in sports injuries – he’s so good I fly to Holland from the UK to see him!) rest is the worst thing to do with an injury. If you rest you will be building in greater problems.

My first suggestion is if an accurate diagnosis of injury has been made (if not get one!) is to go to an appropriate rehabilitation specialist, or a physiotherapist with the appropriate rehabilitation experience.

You need to know what you can and can’t do, how to appropriately rehabilitate the injury, and also the effects of the injury on the rest of your posture etc…have a look at the ‘comments’ section of this blog post I did:

http://garysmilerturner.blogspot.com/2010/07/what-is-pain.html

Dave is one of the Army rehab specialists, a training partner, and someone I work with when I do my SME work with the Army. Top lad. Here’s a post I made of one of his comments here which will be of interest to you:

http://garysmilerturner.blogspot.com/2010/05/my-good-friend-dave-garrett-leading.html

Steve has some good advice – and I use hypnosis to good effect too. Michael Carrol has commented on some work he carried out with his son to good effect too.

There’s a longstanding history of hypnosis in respect to healing which can be carried out, from the good ol’ ‘healing energy ball’ to encourage healing, control of blood flow, pain management, time distortion, through to the psychosomatic elements.

Hope you recover quick – as an athlete I know injuries are a nightmare – and I also know that you can usually recover sooo much quicker than what the doctors say!! Following a sea snake bite (!) a few years ago I nearly lost my lower right leg through the infection and lowered immune system. Three months later I beat the K-1 USA Champ Carter Williams at the Arnold Classic in Ohio, getting clearance from the doctors to fly just two weeks before, successfully passing the medical, and getting the comfortable points win…I put a lot of my speedy recovery down to my mind – plus I also had a great medical team to help with the physical elements too!

I believe it is better to not have an injury in the first place – so here’s another blog post I did which may help you;

http://garysmilerturner.blogspot.com/2010/05/injury-prevention-is-better-than-cure.html

Best regards and speedy recovery,

Smiler

Stephen, your title: helping the recovery process with NLP is much better. It is a much better way to look at the issue.
I’ll give a look to the Patterns of Physical Transformation.
Lenny thanks for the Links J
Smiler: your links are great.
I agree that go with a good rehabilitation specialist who understands the sport and the injuries is the best thing to do. Unfortunately it is not an easy thing to find. I’ve been with lots of doctors and physiotherapist and I trust only 1 of them, but he lives in the other side of the Atlantic Ocean so he is not an option right now.
I’m a long distance runner, I’ve been running for 9 years now, I competed during the first 5 years. I stopped competing but continued running. For the last 4 years I got no injury at all, but I wanted to start racing again. I looked for a coach, because I wanted to increase my level without getting injured. And well 3 weeks ago I started with plantar fasciitis in my right foot. I had to skip some workouts and try to overcompensate these days off by training harder and pushing myself a little more on the other days… That’s the reason I got injured, my calves were tight and tired. I can cross train, swim, stretch, cycling, but I can’t run maybe for now.
There are a lot of factor on an injury, like how to mentally deal with the recovery period. Many things like physical condition, speed, focus is lost during this period. I know that I won’t be at the level I was when I start running again, and that produces me the feeling of quitting competitions for a while or wanting to recover my old level as fast as possible which could lead to new injuries. I’m sure NLP can do a lot in this area. I can’t come up with anything now.
This injury is almost over there is not much to do about it. But because of the activities that I do usually I know that the chances of having another injury in the future are there. And if I’m not the one with the injury, I know that a close friend or a relative can have it, and I want to be able to help and do something about it.
cheers,
Jan

Jan_Schneider wrote:

And well 3 weeks ago I started with plantar fasciitis in my right foot. I had to skip some workouts and try to overcompensate these days off by training harder and pushing myself a little more on the other days… That’s the reason I got injured, my calves were tight and tired. I can cross train, swim, stretch, cycling, but I can’t run maybe for now.
There are a lot of factor on an injury, like how to mentally deal with the recovery period. Many things like physical condition, speed, focus is lost during this period. I know that I won’t be at the level I was when I start running again, and that produces me the feeling of quitting competitions for a while or wanting to recover my old level as fast as possible which could lead to new injuries. I’m sure NLP can do a lot in this area. I can’t come up with anything now.
This injury is almost over there is not much to do about it. But because of the activities that I do usually I know that the chances of having another injury in the future are there.

I think as well as finding a good coach it's a good idea to get used to 'listening' to your body. If you can't 'hear' what it's telling you then it's difficult to respect the injury and the associated healing process. Sure a good physio and a good coach can tell you loads, but you've got access to lots of information directly yourself. My own experience competing, albeit at a very amateur level but in numerous disciplines, is that if my body was not a hundred percent up for it then I could forget it. And post serious injury, having pushed myself and compounded problems to a fairly serious extent, I came up against massive resistance to training. The business of paying attention to how your body is responding to what you demand of it is just as much preventative as it is about healing.

Thanks Jan – I know what you mean – there’s very few people in rehab/physio/chiropractic that I would trust at all…the appropriate ones are hard to find! That’s why I fly from the UK to Holland for my physio…

With your running, have a look at your footwear. I suffered plantar fascitus in both feet, ITB issues, lower back issues, scapula issues when my mileage went up. Podiatrist, orthotics and motion control shoes…and no change to my injuries which kept occurring. I’m heavy over pronating right foot and medium on left, which flat feet and unusual musculature. I now run in Nike Free’s, which enable my feet to move how they are designed, propriocepting properly without issue. No injuries since. Worth a look – I believe that the trainer industry is self-invented…

There’s lots NLP can do to reframe the whole situation, especially in respect to the negative emotions around it…

Renee, 100% agree on listening to your body – I have to remind myself to do that regularly! Injuries ARE signals as you say and must be listened too. However, it is possible to compete successfully with injuries and succeed, and many do – though you do of course risk further injury and loss of performance. In this respect I have competed with a broken foot, broken ribs, broken nose muscle pulls and tears and still done alright. In fact my coach once commented that me going into an event with an injury was part of me performing well!

Have a look at my blog links above – there’s a whole section on injuries – prevention is better than cure.

Best regards,

Smiler

Hi back,

Just to give some updates...

I practice long distance running and one day after a track training I got a pain in my right heal. It hurt mostly the first few steps of the day and the first steps after long periods of not moving... My coach told me it was plantar fasciitis. I searched on the internet for the symptoms and yes it appear to be that. I stopped running for 4 weeks, I stopped feeling any pain and I decided to do a run test again...
Running test was mostly good, but after 20 minutes the pain started, it wasn't intense, but I felt something and stopped.
Many people told me to visit a doctor and after that test run I decided to go to one... I looked for a doctor who was a specialist in sports injuries. I found one and got an appointment.

During the appointment the doctor did not checked me, just asked me what my problem was, I told him and he sent me to the hospital for X-rays and ultra sound.
The ultra sound showed that I had a partial torn in the plantar fascia. So the doctor give me a prescription to go and visit a physiotherapist for 9 sessions. This Thursday I'll finish with the physiotherapy and I'll go back to the doctor.
Since the starting of the physiotherapy I really do not feel any recovery in fact it hurts me more, specially after the physiotherapy it hurts a lot.
Last Tuesday the bus I took got delayed and I had to catch a train, so after the bus dropped me on the train station I ran not more than 30 meters to catch the train. I almost couldn't stand the pain for the whole day.
A couple of minutes ago I stood up from my chair, and the pain in my heel is really intense.

I hope it is healing and I want to believe that it is healing and I want to believe that what the doctor and physiotherapist are doing is good. But my heel is telling me the opposite.

It is a big pain not being able to do my sport... but now thanks to the doctor intervention this injury is affecting other parts in my life.

Any recommendations on what to do are welcomed

I'm listening to the audios that Lenny shared.

Also I want to ask if it becomes more difficult to heal an injury when your girlfriend broke up with you? (not that this is necessary my case , but just in the hypothetical case it was, maybe when one wound is healed the other will heal faster too.)

Cheers,
Jan

Jan_Schneider wrote:

Since the starting of the physiotherapy I really do not feel any recovery in fact it hurts me more, specially after the physiotherapy it hurts a lot.
Last Tuesday the bus I took got delayed and I had to catch a train, so after the bus dropped me on the train station I ran not more than 30 meters to catch the train. I almost couldn't stand the pain for the whole day.
A couple of minutes ago I stood up from my chair, and the pain in my heel is really intense.

Hi Jan, if I were trying to heal a bad injury I'd probably accept that there were certain things I needed to respect - such as running on it was a no no. Being late for the odd train is just an inconvenience to bear whilst you allow your body time to do what it needs to do. This surely applies if you're using nlp or not.

Jan_Schneider wrote:

It is a big pain not being able to do my sport... but now thanks to the doctor intervention this injury is affecting other parts in my life.

I remember around the fourth time I'd taken time out of a squash league because of a consistent injury to my elbow (I've worked out that mine naturally hyper-extends leaving it prone to damage). I thought I'd check in with my body to find out if it was ok to start playing again. The answer was no it isn't. So, not wanting to hear no, I told myself that it wasn't a clear enough answer and if I was going to take even more time out I'd need a very very clear signal. Well, just 24 hours later I woke up and my right forearm had swollen to twice it's normal size. I went to see a doctor and was told after some prodding and deliberation that I had ..... a swollen arm.

I didn't take the anti-inflamatories that were prescribed and my arm was fine in 3 or 4 days, but the point is, nlp or not, your body still has to avoid certain stresses in order to heal. I haven't played squash for over a year now, which is a bummer but it's better than reducing functionality in my arm on a semi-permanent basis.

Jan_Schneider wrote:

Any recommendations on what to do are welcomed

I'd advise having a bit of patience and that this means taking all steps (scuse pun) necessary to give yourself the best chance to heal. Don't expect an overnight nlp wonder cure, from my own experience you can achieve a hell of a lot with nlp but it still takes time to heal a physical injury.