Dealing With Headaches During Hypnosis

(This blog was originally posted on October 4, 2016)

Photo by Rick Hustead

Occasionally, clients develop headaches while they are in hypnosis. The headache, which can last for two or three hours, is usually an abreaction to the subject being addressed during the hypnotherapy session. This is especially true if the individual doesn’t want to let go of the feeling or behavior.

According to Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder John Kappas, Ph.D., headaches are a subconscious device (body syndrome) to protect our emotions. The majority of headaches experienced during hypnotherapy are tension headaches. However, if the headache is caused by another factor, such as a food allergy, the hypnotherapist should check out whether there is an issue the person cannot or will not face (crying syndrome). For example, migraine headaches—which start out as a bilateral tension headache and migrate to one hemisphere—start out as a bilateral tension headache and then migrate to one hemisphere. Symptoms include excruciating pain, sensitivity to light, nausea and vomiting.

Before working with a client who is suffering from a headache or other kinds of pain, the hypnotherapist must get a medical referral* to ensure that the person doesn’t have an underlying medical problem that requires treatment. Once the physician verifies that there is no etiological cause for this discomfort, the hypnotherapist can help the client relieve the headache by moving it to another part of the body. At this point, the hypnotherapist can use hypnotic suggestions to dissipate the pain from this area. 

“Train the body to accept [the pain] elsewhere,” Dr. Kappas said. It is also important to increase your tolerance of stress and learn to relax, he added.

*California law allows me to provide hypnotherapy as a complementary or alternative treatment to help you manage/control pain as a way to achieve vocational and avocational self-improvement goals (Business and Professions Code 2908). However, I must receive a referral from a licensed medical doctor or mental-health professional in order to work with you on this issue. I would also need a medical referral if your pain gets worse or your condition changes during the therapy, or if your wakes you from sleep.

Special Offer! Hypnosis to Quit Smoking

·      Intensive Hypnosis to quit smoking: $275 (This session lasts 2 hours. You must be smoking 5 or fewer cigarettes per day to participate in this program.)

·      Hypnosis to Stop Smoking: $800 for six-week series. (This is a $100 savings!) The $200 fee for the first session will be included in this rate only when the package is purchased up front.

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. In July 2019 she was voted the Best Hypnotherapist in Santa Clarita, California. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2020

More Thoughts of the Day

Venice, 2011

Photo by Sara Fogan

Every now and then I like (and need) to take a few moments and remind myself about what is really important to me, in my life. If you follow me on my Calminsense Hypnotherapy Facebook page you may have seen some of these quotes before on this page, or will in the future. Many of these Quotes of the Day are beautiful examples and illustrations of the work I do as a hypnotherapist, so I will probably draw on them in future essays.

• “When the past calls, don't answer. It has nothing new to say.” – Lolly Daskal

• “In seeking the truth, you have to get both sides of the story.” – Walter Cronkite

• “If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it.” – Steve Jobs

• “You don’t drown by falling in the water. You drown by staying there.” – Unknown

• “Sometimes not getting what you want is a great stroke of luck.” – Dalai Lama

• "The most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with the heart." – Helen Keller

• “Be more excited about what is going to come into your life than sad about what went out.” – Bruce van Horn

• "Tough times never last, but tough people do." – Robert H. Schuller

• “Anything you really want, you can attain, if you really go after it.” – Wayne Dyer

• “Understand that you own nothing. Everything that surrounds you is temporary, only the love in your heart will last forever.” – Leon Brown

• “The world is what you believe it to be. It changes as you change.” – Byron Katie

Special Offer! Hypnosis to Quit Smoking

·      Intensive Hypnosis to quit smoking: $275 (This session lasts 2 hours. You must be smoking 5 or fewer cigarettes per day to participate in this program.)

·      Hypnosis to Stop Smoking: $800 for six-week series. (This is a $100 savings!) The $200 fee for the first session will be included in this rate only when the package is purchased up front.

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. In July 2019 she was voted the Best Hypnotherapist in Santa Clarita, California. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2020