Hypnosis and headaches

As a student I took a mini-course in hypnosis.  One of the psychology lecturers offered it as a no-credit extra for those interested or considering using hypnotherapy in their dissertations.  I signed up simply because I was curious, besides, it just seemed a cool thing to learn.

The opening paragraph in the lecturer's typed course notes - rediscovered in my attempts to preempt house-move chaos - asserts that "any reasonably intelligent person can be hypnotised provided they are willing....equally, any reasonably intelligent person can induce hypnosis in many people". Which is a little worrying, as I turned out to be rubbish at it. 

It gets worse; further down the page we learn "much of hypnosis depends on empathy, much more depends on mutual trust, and a great deal depends upon careful observation" I pride myself on my empathetic sensitivity, and would be moderately miffed to think it was a lack of these abilities causing my failure.  Fortunately, solace is to be found: "Over and above all these, your success ultimately rests on your authority and confidence". This was undoubtedly where I fell down, I was up for playful experimentation but I never really believed I had the power or persuasiveness to convince someone else to do anything more than pretend to be hypnotised.

Despite my lack of success as a hypnotist, the course proved useful. If nothing else, It gave me a method for treating headaches which I continue to use to this day.  The idea is to get yourself into a deeply relaxed but conscious state - through self hypnosis, though I'm sure any other good relaxation technique would suffice - and then concentrate on visualising the headache, really trying to see it as a physical entity. So, you might try to pinpoint the position of the pain inside your head (which is harder than it sounds as they tend to start moving around as soon as you do this), and to ascertain the exact shape colour and texture of the headache, and so on.

I'm not sure whether there's any theory behind why this should work to soothe an aching head, but in my experience it works.  Though perhaps not as reliably as a couple of decent painkillers.  I've always liked to imagine that it's the impossibility of the task that takes away the headache's power; as aches don't really have a shape or a colour, trying to 'see' such things, just highlights the fact that there's nothing really there.

I was planning to make a link between this and why I've found blogging a struggle recently, but now I've got here the link doesn't really work.  Never mind.

Comments

[Mark McGuinness]

I wouldn't worry too much, Helen. It's a common myth that hypnosis is all down to the 'power' (or otherwise) of the hypnotist, when in fact the most important consideration is the other person - you could be the most wonderful hypnotist in the world, but if your client isn't keen or ready to enter a trance, then the chances are she won't - unless she's one of the minority who are very susceptible to direct suggestion.

Yes the headache cure is a good one. Another way to deal with a headache is to ask yourself what your body is trying to tell you by sending you a headache. E.g. if you're rushing around trying to do too much at work, then the headache might be your body's cue to slow down and chill out a bit. More on this approach from my friend John: http://reversethinking.typepad.com/

[Helen]

Hi Mark
That makes sense - I wasn't very good at being hypnotised either, and I think the context and setting was a problem. I was a self-conscious 19-year old, the course was run in a classroom and the lecturer was one of the most senior and eminent within the psych department. Non of which were conducive to relaxed confidence.

Thanks for the link to John's site - I'm fascinated by the interaction between the physical and the mental, so it's really interesting!

[Charles Frith]

I did giggle a bit at you not being able to induce hypnosis :)

[David]

Great post about hypnosis...

Its been suggested that you are either good hypnotist ot you're not;

It's just one of those things.. But you can always work on self hypnosis

Unfortunately hypnosis as a science is neither repeatable or reproducable.. ie read the same script, get different results, compare to prescribe the same pill and get the same results.

Its believed that Freud wasn't very good at hypnosis and instead developed psychoanalysis... which of course is way more lucrative.. (but that could be a cynical comment...)

Hypnosis and self hypnosis and recordings can change the way we think.. change your mind change your life :)