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I believe in a complementary team approach to supporting patients/clients. This means that clients may be referred by their doctor, who writes them a prescription for hypnotherapy to complement diet, medications and other therapies prescribed. The client is encouraged to sign a release of information for their coordinating doctor so that I am aware of medications, diet and other regimen. If the client comes to me directly, I recommend a letter of agreement for the use of hypnotherapy from their doctor. It is essential that I be updated on any changes in medication, or dosages, and the doctor’s recommendations on the advisability of medication reduction so that I can monitor the client and support appropriate changes.
Hypnotherapy is neither a medical procedure, nor a practice of medicine. It is not intended to be a replacement for the diagnosis or medical treatment of any medical, psychiatric or psychological ailment. Persons with an ailment or physical complaint are encouraged to see their physician first and then make use of hypnotherapy as an adjunct to their medical treatment.
My goal is to support their doctor’s proposed regimen, minimize medication and maximize effectiveness of medication(s) through the following:
- Stress management and relaxation techniques
When we normally think of stress management we think of learning methods to minimize stress in response to our work, home or cultural context. In working with clients to help address physical challenges, we focus specifically on the dance between what is happening in our relationships & environment, and their bodies.
My work in this area addresses physical stresses on the body. It is often complemented with work with an occupational therapist, physical therapist and/or other complementary modalities. This involves hypnosis targeted on shifting and/or strengthening specific functioning of muscles, nerves, organs and autonomic processes. Physical relaxation techniques alone may help to reduce the frequency or dosage of medications, by relaxing the musculature and the body so that delivery and mechanism are enhanced.
This work builds on a base of the stress management techniques above. The goal is to provide the client with tools that help them to reduce pain perception. Techniques are chosen which best match the emotional make up and physical status of the client. These will differ based on whether we are working on chronic pain, periodic situational or contextual pain, or recovery pain.
- Accelerated Healing
Hypnotherapy is used to release fears and reinforce the healing process. It can also be used to reduce the negative side effects of some medical procedures (e.g. chemotherapy, emotional responses to needles, MRIs, etc.) and reinforce and accelerate the healing process through guided visualizations.
- Surgery Support
- Pre-surgery evaluation – Meeting with a client to determine emotional and behavioral aspects which impact a planned surgery, and the appropriate timing for the most successful surgical outcome considering these factors.
- Preparation for surgery – Meeting with clients to help them achieve the most positive state of mind and body for surgery; Preparing hypnosis CDs to reinforce this during the two weeks prior to surgery; Helping the client to decide how best to be relaxed during this surgery (this may include discussions with the surgeon, anesthesiologist and post-op nurse, as well as possible use of ear buds and music to mask noise and discussion in the surgical theater, or use of an intra-operative CD). The intent is to reduce the levels of anesthesia and have the client focused on positive post op outcome rather than the surgery itself.
- Surgery follow-up- A hypnosis CD is prepared in advance for the client to use for the first two weeks following surgery, reinforcing positive recovery and healing. Depending on the surgery and circumstances I may meet with the client at two-week intervals supporting their healing process and create a new CD for each two-week period. This is similar to the programs that I use with physical rehab clients, who are shifting to a “new normal”.
- Other specialties I have been trained in include: working with clients with IBS and IBD, osteo- and rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, and other auto-immune conditions
- Sigmund Freud on Hypnotherapy
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