PAIN
by Christine Hargan, BSc (Hons) Psychology
 www.psychologicalsolutionsforme.com 
 
Nothing begins, and nothing ends, that is not paid with moan;
For we are born in others' pain and perish in our own.
-- Francis Thompson

How can a therapist help with pain? it’s locked in my body, not my mind. A logical thought perhaps. Although pain is felt in the body it can originate in the mind. I’m not suggesting that I think people suffering from pain are hypochondriacs, simply but much can be done to alleviate pain by using the power of the mind.

First things first – you need to explore.
• Do you know the cause of the pain?
• Has the cause been discussed with a physician?
• What was the opinion?
• Are you following their advice?
• What triggers the pain?
• Do some things exacerbate it?
• Are you taking prescribed medication?
• Does the medication work?
• Is the medication becoming less effective?

Have you looked at alternative ways of managing your pain?

There are many techniques that can help. Therefore, as you are an individual, the method that will suit you is also individual.

If you need to heal yourself, or have a pain that simply won’t go away, give this a try… it is a Neuro-Linguistic Programming technique with ideas originating from the works of Connie and Steve Andreas.
• How do you see the pain, or unhealed ailment – is your cup half full – or have half the contents, or more gone?.
o Do you hope the pain will get better? Or,
o Do you expect it to get better?
o When you think about recovering how do you see yourself? – are you in bed in pain, or using a walking stick, or taking drugs?, or are you simply acting as you did before the pain happened.
  • What about the way you view a past injury, one that has healed automatically, something that will heal no matter what you do maybe its a cut, a burn or a pulled muscle – it could be anything.
  • When you think about the healed injury are there differences in the way you see the pain, and the way it heals?
  • Are there differences between the two?
  • What are the differences?
  • These are your clues toward making the pain go away.
  • So identify what you want to heal.
  • How will you know when it has healed? What will be different about the cause of your pain, or discomfort.
  • Think about something similar to the discomfort that has already healed on its own
  • Think about the thing that has healed as if it were happening now notice what you would see, or feel to know it was healing – for example would there be inflammation that diminishes, would there be bleeding that stops, how do you imagine it?
  • What is different about the way you see the condition that is causing you pain? Notice where you see it - is it in front of you above, or below to the left, or right? Now think about where you see the remembered pain – are you looking in the same place? For example is one on your body, and the other ahead of, or behind you? Is one in colour and the other monotone?
  • Now make your unhealed experience like the healed one, you should be seeing the healed experience in the same way as the unhealed one. If you see the healed experience in front of you, that’s where the unhealed one should be, if you see it on your body, that’s where the other one should be.
  • Notice any differences…. And amend them…. Does your memory of the injury seem as vivid, or compelling as the one you currently have… if not amend them. You are reprogramming your illness or pain into a memory. If it is a memory it will fade automatically with time.
  • The next step is to check to see if there are any advantages to having the pain, or illness - you should ask yourself whether part of you objects to healing automatically. If the answer is no, then your body will now be healing automatically, if the answer is yes you need to be aware of signals. Getting better could for example lose you time, or attention with those you love, it may lose you financial benefits, such as disability allowance. It could simply mean that if you’re ill you can avoid doing things that you feel unable to refuse.
  • The final step is to ask yourself if there’s anything else you need to do to help your body heal itself? …. If there is, then act.

Finally, for many people this method is really successful but please do not stop taking medication until your doctor instructs you to do so.

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Christine Hargan, BSc (Hons) Psychology; Specialises in and treats the causes and effects of emotional disorders, confidence and addiction based issues with hypnotherapy, NLP and psychotherapy. For further information www.psychologicalsolutionsforme.com