Hypnosis for pain relief: what it actually does to chronic pain

Can hypnosis help with chronic pain? Of all the things hypnosis is used for, pain is where it is most convincingly effective and where the research is strongest. I'm Eugene Berezin, a Registered Hypnotherapist with the Washington State Department of Health, and pain management is one of my specialties. By the end of this you should be able to decide whether it is worth trying for you.

What kinds of pain

Almost any. In the 1840s a Scottish surgeon named James Esdaile performed operations in India on patients under hypnosis alone, in a state that still carries his name. Hypnosis is no longer used for surgery, but it is still one of the most effective non-drug approaches to pain. In my own practice that means chronic neck pain, headaches and migraine, pain after injury, fibromyalgia, painful medical procedures, and pain related to cancer and its treatment. I use self-hypnosis for my own stress headaches, because I would rather use my own mind than reach for ibuprofen. One anecdotal thing I notice, which I have not seen studied: people who come to me after an injury seem to heal faster, with milder inflammation. I offer that as an observation, not a claim.

Anaesthesia versus analgesia

Two words you will hear. Hypnotic anaesthesia is when part of the body goes numb, the Esdaile effect. Hypnotic analgesia works on the pain itself, turning it down rather than switching off sensation. In practice the end result is similar: less pain. I use both, and we find out together which one your nervous system takes to.

The best known technique is glove anaesthesia. You imagine a glove of snow, or cold, on one hand, let the numbness become real there, then move it to wherever the pain lives: the neck, the head, the back. There are also plain suggestions, which work better than people expect, and visualisation work where we give the pain a colour, a texture, a size, and then change them. We try things, we see what fits. Hypnosis is very adaptable this way.

One thing clients report that I did not expect when I started: pain sessions leave people feeling lighter and more resourced, not just less sore. That has been consistent.

It is not one session

Hypnosis is not a magical solution and I will not tell you one session fixes chronic pain forever. Like any treatment, your nervous system needs time to learn it. For moderate to severe pain, eight to twelve or fourteen weekly sessions is the honest range, with a recording after each one that you use between sessions. I am not going to insist you see me fourteen times. We watch how the pain responds, and when you are clearly better we decide together whether to stop, whether the recordings are enough, or whether you move to maintenance and see me as needed.

Pain is seasonal for a lot of people. If you know the cold flares you, book before it turns, get fresh recordings, and get ahead of it. If you rarely flare, a maintenance session every six months or once a year is fine. It is all personal.

What a session looks like

We start with a conversation, using motivational interviewing. Even people who badly want relief are not always fully ready for the change it brings, and ambivalence is normal; we talk it through until you are actually in the right place to do the work. Then the hypnosis itself: induction, the suggestions, and bringing you back. Then a debrief.

People ask whether they are hypnotisable. Hypnotisability does vary, but a lot of what looks like low hypnotisability is ambivalence, which is exactly what the first conversation is for. In the hypnosis I use standard approaches, and I work from parts work: Internal Family Systems, and ego state therapy, which fit hypnosis unusually well. Sometimes pain is one way a part of the mind communicates, especially when stress is flaring it. Sometimes there is no such connection. We check, and we don't force it.

Within 24 to 48 hours you get your personalised recording, written and recorded by me, private to you, to listen to as often as you want.

Medical care first, always

If you suspect you have chronic pain, see your doctor. I am not a medical professional and I practise inside my scope. I like to have a note from your physician and to be part of your care team, so I can learn what I need to know from them and tell them what I am seeing. Hypnosis for pain works alongside medication, and it works for people who want to use less of it or none of it, but your prescriber stays in charge of that. This is not a substitute for medical treatment or for therapy. It is a specialised service, built to work with the other people looking after you.

If you want to try it, request an appointment. I review every request, and if it is the right fit I send you the link to book your first session.

This is the written version of a Pain-Free Friday episode on YouTube, in Eugene's words, lightly edited for reading.