How can hypnotherapy support people with serious health issues?
Suffering with ill health?
Are you or is someone close to you suffering from ill health? Maybe it’s a serious diagnosis, a long-term condition that will always need managing or pain from an issue that feels overwhelming? Being unwell can be so debilitating and often affect us mentally as much as physically.
While therapy may not be able to treat the health issue itself, the wide-ranging hypnotherapy techniques I use can help people with their emotional, psychological, and physical well-being, in the following ways:-
Easing Anxiety, Depression and Stress
Coming to terms with a period of ill health can be incredibly challenging. The whole world may seem to have turned upside down. Hypnotherapy can help patients process their feelings of fear, anger, grief, denial, or helplessness and help them to gain a sense of control and inner strength.
Therapy can help with feelings of helplessness.
Phobia reduction therapy is also useful if people have phobic anxieties about scans, hospitals, or surgery, which are all very common.
Often in the case of cancer patients or following a stroke, the deepest depression can set in once the ‘worst’ is over and the mind has time to realise what has just happened. This can be both confusing and distressing, as most people expect to feel much better after being given the ‘all clear’. The bottom line is that no two people’s experiences are ever the same, and a very individual response to therapy is essential.
Anxiety and depression often accompany illness.
Pain Management
Hypnotherapy can be used to reduce the perception of pain by helping the brain ‘turn down the volume’ on pain signals. Deep relaxation techniques and powerful visualisations work to help the body on its own healing journey.
Improved Sleep
Hypnotherapy is an effective aid for improved sleep, which can often be disturbed by anxiety, pain, or the side effects of medication. The use of relaxation techniques and visualisations, can help sleep come more easily and gently aids the mind to switch off. With sleep being a key component in healing and well-being, this is an intregal part of any unwell person’s journey.
Need a helping hand?
Coping Skills
Often relying on friends and family for support can be tricky as there might be pressure to minimise your feelings to protect loved ones. Negotiating other people’s feelings and fears when you are ill, while developing personal ways of coping, are important skills that can be learnt through therapy. Hypnotherapy also incorporates mindfulness and breathwork elements so it can be a very useful way to help with acceptance, resilience and managing others.
Alison Scott commented, “For the most part, unwell people benefit most from therapy that helps them feel fully understood and reduce their emotional and physical suffering. It’s a privilege to help my clients regain a sense of self and agency during perhaps the most challenging time in their lives. A safe, non-judgmental space can often make all the difference.”
Alison Scott Hypnotherapy
Client Feedback
One of my clients suffered from a stroke last year. I had helped him two years ago with improving his overall health and well-being. This health trauma was a devastating blow for him and his young family. Recovery has been and continues to be a long, hard road. We have worked successfully together to alleviate his fear of MRI scans, and we have been processing some of the worst experiences of his ordeal so that he can now focus on the future.
I just recorded him with a ‘wordweave’ written just for him - a 10-minute suggestive hypnotherapy recording to keep him in the right mindset to cope with the challenges ahead. These ‘wordweaves’ are a powerful way to positively influence the unconscious mind to stay on track in difficult times. His response was heartwarming:
“Thank you so much for the wordweave. I already feel brighter and more positive! Without wanting to sound too dramatic, you may have literally just saved my life. This whole situation had really started to plummet me into some dark places, but hopefully, this is the start of something new now. Thank you so much from me and my family!”
A new mindset works during periods of ill health.
Alison Scott Hypnotherapy
Alison Scott, Cognitive Hypnotherapist, works remotely and face-to-face in Naphill, Buckinghamshire. To find out more, please visit: www.alisonscottcognitivehypnotherapy.co.uk or call 07989 535527 for a free 20-minute consultation call.
Website www.alisonscottcognitivehypnotherapy.co.uk
Email ali@alisonscotthypnotherapy.co.uk
Twitter Alison Scott @AlisonS39