Hypnotherapy - Take five

Awesome appointment tonight! Brief background for first time readers: I have chronic pain from fibromyalgia and have started going for hypnotherapy treatments for pain management.

Tonight was sooooooooo relaxing, cool, and funny

Went under in my favorite way, which is laying on a grassy bank by a river with the sun and the trees and birds. A boat comes floating down the river that I climb into and float down the river on the water

My hip has been horrendous so that's where he concentrated. Once I had sufficiently relaxed so that I was melting into the chair, he began a visualization of me becoming so small that I could go inside my brain. In my brain there was a control room and inside were all switches to control various things. There was a knob to control pain that went from 0-10. I imagined turning up to 10 and the pain increased and then down to zero. It never decreased as much as I would like, but I'm at the beginning and I did notice a difference.

The next visualization made me laugh out loud. I concentrated on the pain in my hip and then he told me to visualize it as a shape or object and with a color. I immediately thought of a devil with a pitchfork and bright red! It was funny. Then I had to picture it getting bigger and bigger and the pain got worse. Then picture it getting smaller and the color fading until it was like a black and white picture. I pictured it turning into a tiny white angel.

The last visualization was that I was walking on a forest path and I had a back pack that was getting heavier and heavier. It was full of all the negative thoughts that I need to discard - and ideas, behaviours, or irational thoughts that I needed to be rid of. The path came out to a beautiful pasture that had a hot air balloon in it. I had to go to the balloon where I found a box that was locked - when I unlocked it there was nothing in it and I was to start unloading my backpack into the box.

Once I unloaded it I could either untie the ropes or pick up an axe nearby and cut the ropes to watch the balloon and all my issues float away. It was way cool!!

When he brought me out it took awhile to become grounded because I was so relaxed and at ease. The first thing I said was "can we do that again"? He laughed and asked which part and I said "all of it"!!

I'm only at the beginning of this but so far I have been able to use some of these skills to control road rage and help me walk into the woods this past weekend. Of course I had the worse pain ever yesterday after that walk, but it was worth it and the pain will subside a bit again.

If you have never experienced hypnotherapy and have the opportunity too I would highly recommend it - my mind has not been so clear and free in many years!

-Tranquility (and certainly tranquil tonight)

WOW......

Only 4 people have read this post in two day's.

That is amazingly sad.

Rick

Well... I be one of them.... can't wait to be at my favorite place in my mind..

on the beach in the morning with the waves rolling in, a slight breeze, the seagulls in the background...
going try the hypnosis... with T, sometime next week...

soon I will be making my pain fade away..

ahhhhhhhhhhh...

and now i'm the fifth......

Great freewill - let me know how it goes - I'm sure you'll love it!!

Tranquility

I don't think it's sad about the number of views... things tend to balance out anyway. It just depends upon what is going on IRL for members, and what forums and threads they read first or only. Some choose not to read in this forum at all, as they have no physical issues. This is a fairly new forum too, and it's way down on the list, so it's easy to miss.

Glad to hear what I expected tranquility... hypnosis is kewl I agree. I utilized it again last week for some severe pain ... pain that others had to have anesthetic for and I had nothing... they think I'm wonder woman or something now ..Nope just me and my marble.

Keep up the good work!

Okay Sky - so now my curiosity is piqued - what is the marble?

sky had mentioned this to me earlier as a possibility for helping me with my chronic pain. was glad to see your post. i am really excited about it. let us know how it goes.

recluse1

recluse - if you have the opportunity to go I would recommend. I figure you have nothing to lose, even if it doesn't work for you it's a very relaxing experience. I'm really enjoying it!

Tranquility

lol the "marble" is an object of focus I use My therapist and I utilize a marble to hold, roll in my hand, etc while he gives me good energy and thoughts, posthypnotic suggestions for calm, so that when I need to be calm and focus (such as for numbing pain) I only need to hold the marble and breathe and begin to calm. Actually, I am at the point where I only need to remember the marble, and I begin to calm and "numb" the pain.

Totally cool! I just picked up a rock out of a stream in New Hampshire, so I have noticed I have used that as well.

Tranquility

SKY,

I like the marble idea. It might not work with everyone, but with some it would work wonders, especially kids.

You can use anything as a trigger, as long as you use the same thing every time you use your self-hypnosis.

Wonderful Job,

Rick

Posted in psychotherapy but wanted to add here as well.....

Hi all -

Update on this week's hynotherapy session. He tought me a few "quick induction" methods that I can do myself that will help me relax real quick. The one that worked the best was to do a deep belly inhalation with my eyes open and then exhale with them closed. I do that until I feel like I can't open my eyes anymore.

Then we worked on a method for pain management. He brought me under using the boat method I like. I felt like I went under much deeper than ever today - I've been practicing meditation so I think this helped. Then he had me stretch a muscle in my neck until it hurt. I then concentrated on that muscle, pretending it was not part of my body (this works the best for me) while I was in my tranquil spot in New Hampshire.

Before he even said it I felt it. He told me that when I felt a change in how the muscle felt to nod my head. I had already felt the change. So he brought me back out of it and asked what it felt like. I was stretching my neck to one side until it was uncomfortable and then as I practiced the skills it slowly became less tense and then all of a sudden my neck just stretched even more and the muscle was relaxed. Pretty cool!

He said I'm doing very well. He said it usually takes a few weeks for people to get the breathing down right and I already had that. Also, he said it usually takes a few weeks to feel the difference in the muscle and I felt that. So that's cool. We are going to keep working on it. He said that eventually I should be able to do this when I'm not in a meditative state. So, if I'm exercising and in pain I should be able to control the pain with my thinking.

I'm hopeful!

Tranquility

(((hugs)))

Be careful with those "should" statements... they can come back to bite you.

I find breathing, for myself, good to do this way: count of 4 in through nose (either nostril) hold count of 3, out through mouth count of 4, hold count of 3. (That's a slow count too )

I hope your pain is fully manageable this way. Don't be discouraged if not.

TC

I have wondered about trying this but I tend to be skittish of NOT being in control of my mind... NOT being totally aware... so much so that I literally have gone my entire life with a phobia of sleeping too soundly

I, too have fibromyalgia...and myofacial pain syndrome ...I avoid pain meds...I much prefer alternative methods...

Thank you for sharing something positive...I think I'll check into it in my area and do a little research...

Sunybear

Thanks Sky - he was very realistic in the beginning and didn't offer me any promises, so I am prepared (sort of) if it doesn't work.

Sunybear - When you go to a reputable hypnotherapist they will tell you (and it's true) that you are always in control of yourself while under hypnosis. I remember everything and at anytime that I want to stop I can.

Tranquility