Body Syndromes: The Responsibility Syndrome

(This blog was originally posted on December 14, 2015)

Photo courtesy of Microsoft

     Have you ever been plagued by severe pain or discomfort in your back or shoulders while you are working on tight deadline to complete a project at work, or dealing with some family or relationship issues? Do you notice this discomfort is most prominent when you are under intense emotional stress, but it almost instantly—miraculously—goes away when the issue is also resolved? If so, your symptoms may be part of the Responsibility Syndrome.

    This syndrome affects the shoulders and upper back and upper spine. Physiological symptoms and diseases that are characterized by these syndromes include: muscle tightness or muscle spasm in the back, upper spinal subluxation and spinal scoliosis. Like other body syndromes, the symptoms that affect this syndrome are physical manifestations of your perception that you are bearing a lot of responsibility for what is going on in your environment. It is common for people who suffer these symptoms to express the belief that they are “carrying the world on their shoulders.”
     As I explained in a previous blog titled Body Syndromes, whenever a person represses or does not express an emotion the displaced energy from that experience is converted into a physical “symptom” of that emotional trauma. The phenomenon is called a body syndrome. Since there are no nerve endings in the brain, the sensory perceptions (e.g., smell, taste, sight, hearing, touch) that begin there send electric impulses that carry this information through the body. These impulses ultimately begin to manifest physical discomfort in areas of the body that are specifically associated with a certain repressed emotion. Once we are aware of which emotion is being manifested, we can treat the syndrome, Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder John Kappas, Ph.D., stated.
    It is out of my scope of expertise as a certified hypnotherapist to recognize/identify specific symptoms that have a psychological or physiological basis. Consequently, I refer clients to an appropriate licensed professional to make this diagnosis. Once this other expert has ruled out a medical etiology of your symptom and provided an appropriate treatment, I can continue to work with you in hypnotherapy with a follow-up referral from that licensed professional. In addition to providing complementary therapeutic benefits and help to alleviate and/or control your discomfort, I can also use hypnosis and therapeutic guided-imagery techniques to help you achieve vocational and avocational self-improvement goals.
     My first step to treating someone who is manifesting a Responsibility Syndrome is to explore what emotional “burden” the client is subconsciously carrying or bearing. Next, I would use systematic desensitization to help the client neutralize the intensity of the stimulus that triggers the physical symptom. With a physician’s referral, I would also incorporate guided therapeutic imagery to teach the person effective pain-management techniques that will help him or her deal with the physical discomfort and continue or return to normal activities. The Emotional Freedom Technique is also useful to increase the person’s perception of being able to control and prevail over those emotional triggers. Therapeutic guided-imagery techniques would also be useful tools with which to explore different options for the client to quickly and effectively resolve interpersonal and/or practical conflicts the client believes are preventing his or her ability to enjoy life. In so doing, these therapeutic approaches can help the person release and let go of overwhelming perceptions of responsibility to focus on and achieve vocational and avocational self-improvement goals.

                

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

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