Clinical applications of hypnosis for brief and efficient pain management psychotherapy

This paper describes four specific clinical applications of hypnosis that can make psychotherapy for pain management briefer, more goal-oriented, and more efficient: (1) the assessment of hypnotizability; (2) the induction of hypnotic analgesia and development of individualized pain coping strategies; (3) direct suggestion, cognitive reframing, hypnotic metaphors, and pain relief imagery; and (4) brief psychodynamic reprocessing during the trance state of emotional factors in the patient's experience of chronic pain. Important theoretical and clinical issues regarding the relationship of hypnotizability to the induction of hypnotic analgesia are presented, and attempts to individualize pain treatment strategies on the basis of assessed differences in hypnotizability and patients' preferred coping strategies are described. Some ways are also presented of integrating direct hypnotic suggestion, cognitive reframing, hypnotic metaphors and imagery for alleviating the sensory and affective components of pain with an exploratory, insight-oriented, and brief psychodynamic reprocessing approach during trance for resolving unconscious sources of resistance to treatment and reducing the emotional overlay associated with chronic pain. Some basic assumptions underlying the use of this approach are discussed, and a brief step-by-step protocol is outlined.