Dr. Diane's Blog: Brain Injury, Stroke, Parkinson's Disease and MS

We are born with the ability to read.  Yet, some people learn early without being taught, while others need instructions.   Still others have difficulties, called dyslexia.   Yet, with proper training even a person with dyslexia can eventually learn to read.

Hypnosis is your ability to associate and disassociate.  The concept of susceptibility really is similar to learning to read.  Some people are able to disassociate without any training, while the majority of people need some, to a lot, of training.  All hypnosis is self-hypnosis.  

In a waking state, your brain waves are in an alert state.  Your heart rate is in a waking state, as is your pulse and body temperature.  When you are asleep, your heart rate slows down, as does your pulse rate.  Your brain waves are also slower and your body temperature is lower.  

Hypnosis is a paradoxical state.  Your mind is very alert, while your body is in a sleep-like state.  I have been using hypnosis as part of my practice for the past 33 years and I am a Certified Consultant through the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, which means that I can train other professionals to become certified in the use of clinical hypnosis.

Over the past 33 years, I have published articles and have four of my hypnosis scripts in the “Handbook of Hypnotic Suggestions and Metaphors”.   In my practice I have used hypnosis to help people with terminal cancer, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, chronic pain, childbirth, vaginal warts, migraines, anxiety, movement disorders, fibromyalgia, tremors from Parkinson’s Disease, myoclonic disorders, stage fright, colitis, sexual abuse, PTSD and smoking. 

One of the most dramatic situations, which I wish that I had video recorded, was when a patient who had severe poison ivy, asked if I would help her.  I thought I would just help her produce some healing and some comfort.  Never in my mind did I think she would be back to normal in ONE hour.  Yet, similar to the old werewolf movies, when you see the person go from the werewolf back to normal, this type of drastic change happened in my office.  While making various suggestions, all the blisters and lesions dried up and dropped off and were replaced by healthy skin.  All the dead skin fell to the ground.   When my patient opened her eyes, she saw my expression of amazement.   I told her to look at her arms and face that had been covered with the poison ivy.   She saw her arms and then quickly went into the adjacent bathroom.  She, too, was in disbelief.  Yes, there were her arms and face, after 1 hour of a hypnosis session, totally back to normal.

Can hypnosis help everyone?  Yes.  However, not everyone is able to use it, such as a person with a brain injury, because to use it effectively, a person needs to be able to focus and concentrate.  Thus, that is why I have learned other methods, such as neurofeedback, energy psychology, Brain Spotting and Release Technique, that can achieve similar results for different symptoms.  Otherwise, for 33 years this is a try and true method for helping many people with health issues, chronic illness and chronic pain.