Can Anyone Be Hypnotized, And When Is It Used To Relieve Pain?
Among the many cognitive treatments that are used for chronic pain is hypnosis, and many patients ask whether hypnosis can be used to treat pain effectively. Is everybody hypnotizable? And if so, what effects might be anticipated? Well we know that hypnosis is a state of deep relaxation and that people tend to vary in their ability to be hypnotized. Some people don’t seem to be hypnotizable at all and some people seem to have the capacity to learn how to enter a trance quite easily. Most physicians are not trained hypnotists and they don’t offer patients hypnotism as a routine intervention. In contrast, most physicians who are pain specialists at least, would offer patients training in relaxation or distraction since everybody can do those interventions.
