Hypnotherapy for Surgery and Healing

This article comes from Lisa Smith of Virginia USA

In 1996, my friend Mary was diagnosed with breast cancer and told she would need surgery and radiation treatments. She confessed to me that she was nervous about the procedure and having to go under anesthesia. Knowing that I was a hypnotherapist and had worked with others to produce dramatically positive outcomes from their surgeries, Mary asked me to do some hypnotherapy with her before the surgery and the radiation treatments.
“On the day of the surgery,” Mary recalls, “I went into the operating room feeling very calm and peaceful. I did not need any pre-op medication to relax me. In our second session, Lisa and I discussed my outcome goals for my radiation treatments and visualizations for getting the most benefit and least negative side effects from the radiation. I am happy to say the surgery and treatments were very successful.”
For Mary, as well as the other clients I have worked with prior to surgical or dental procedures, the surgery went smoothly with less anesthesia, minimal bleeding, and fewer complications; post-surgical pain was minimal and required little to no pain medication; healing was noticeably more rapid; and additional treatments such as physical therapy or radiation/chemotherapy took less time and fewer visits. These all led to reduced costs.
This is just one of the many applications and benefits of modern hypnotherapy. Emerging from its misunderstood beginnings as “mesmerism,” through its popular use and later denouncement by Freud (because of his lack of skill with it), hypnosis is at last being acknowledged by the medical community for the powerful healing modality that it is. This recognition by medical and psychiatric practitioners has been rather slow considering that both the British and American Medical Associations have endorsed its use since the late 1950s.
Though hypnosis techniques have been used for thousands of years, the term “hypnosis” was coined in the nineteenth century by Dr. James Braid from the Greek word “hypnos,” meaning “sleep,” because the person in a hypnotic trance was so relaxed they appeared to be asleep. However, recently studies of brain wave comparisons between the sleep state (delta) and the hypnotic state (theta) show this assumption to be incorrect. Hypnosis actually occurs at that same brain wave levels as meditation. The difference between the two is that in meditation, one is opening his or her mind up to receive Divine or inner guidance, while in hypnosis, one is opening the mind to receive guided suggestions for positive change or control of bodily functions.
Thanks to the expanding science of mind-body medicine, the tremendous potential of hypnosis is being recognized. Most people have heard the statement that we only use 10% of our brain’s capacity. By utilizing hypnosis, we are tapping into that other 90% of our potential to improve our health and well-being.
Known most popularly for its success in helping people manage stress, stop smoking, or lose weight, hypnotherapy is now being used as an alternative to or complement of the psychological as well as medical and dental fields, in such areas as counseling, behavioral medicine, neurology, obstetrics, emergency medicine, burn therapy, oncology, pediatrics, dentistry, and surgery. Doctors and dentists are increasingly referring their patients to trained hypnotherapists, and many of the country’s leading hospitals have recently hired on-staff hypnotherapists or begun a referral program with area hypnotherapists.
Dr. Andrew Weil (author of Spontaneous Healing, Eight Weeks to Optimum Health, and other books on mind-body medicine) often recommends hypnotherapy in his practice at the University of Arizona’s Integrative Medicine Clinic and included an article on its benefits in the June 1999 edition of his newsletter, “Self Healing.”
Impressively, Dr. Weil states, “In general, I believe that no condition is out of bounds for trying hypnotherapy on.”
Although hypnotherapy is not a miracle cure for everything, the areas in which it has been a tremendous help to hundreds of thousands of people are virtually endless. I have been privileged to use my training as a hypnotherapist to assist many people to change their lives and health for the better.
Perhaps the most rewarding areas in which I have worked with people are: pain management, surgery, dental work, phobias, childbirth (free of fear and discomfort), and cancer (improving immune functioning, lessening side effects of radiation/chemotherapy, improving hopefulness and self-esteem). In many cases, you don’t even need to come to my office for me to work with you. Are you dealing with an issue requiring surgery, dental work, or in need of increased healing potential? If so, give me a call for a free consultation (via phone or in person).
Lisa Smith is a Certified Master Hypnotherapist, Wellness Coach, and NeuroLinguistic Programming Practitioner in the Virginia Beach area. She is a sought-after speaker, workshop presenter, and group coaching facilitator for creating health and self-fulfillment.
Her private practice, Life by Design Coaching and Hypnotherapy, offers coaching, hypnosis, NLP, and other options for health and self-improvement. In her 11 years as a hypnotherapist, she has conducted over 8,000 hypnosis sessions with children and adults for weight loss, addictions; stress and anxiety; phobias; childbirth; surgery preparation, cancer, pain management, and other mind-body healing. Sessions can be conducted in person or by phone. Visit her website at hypnocoachlisa.com for contact and other information.
Tags: chemo, pain, mind-body medicine, hypnosis, surgery, mind-body, cancer, hypnotherapy, visualization, healing