Is Pain All In Your Head?

By Edythe (Dee) Dunn, MA, LPC

It is unfortunate when people do not your chronic pain as seriously as you do, because the pain is as real as any other sensory experience you have.

What is remarkable about pain is the brain's response and responsiveness to the signal that we experience as pain. The brain's whole purpose is to keep the body alive, and so the brain works not only to predict the pain, but also to identify all conditions, which might create or intensify the pain.

In certain conditions, the experience of pain begins in the skin as the nerves are stimulated. In other conditions, the experience of pain begins in various parts of the brain. The memory of the pain, the anticipation of the pain, the meaning of the pain, the expected consequences of the pain, the hopelessness of chronic pain all these create their own signals within the brain itself.

The use of hypnosis to control the experience of pain is not a new technology, but the application and outcomes are now being combined with a much more sophisticated understanding of neuropsychology and the mind-body connection. Taking the natural ability of the brain to focus and sort information it becomes possible to intentionally direct the brain to deal with incoming signals from the body in more beneficial ways. The use of hypnosis to “re-interpret” those signals can also enable the brain to generate a more productive return signal to the body.

The ability to achieve these beneficial results in a therapeutic environment can be expanded to a home or personal setting through use of individualized audio recordings or files. While there are many hypnosis recordings available for purchase through reputable companies, sessions made for an individual can be made much more effective by using information that is specific to that individual using the imagery, words, phrases and directions specifically meaningful to that person and their own life circumstances.