Has anyone tried hypnotherapy?

[Fencinggirl]

If so i would like to hear about your experience. I'm Particularly interested in hearing from anyone who has actually seen a hypnotherapist rather than buying a CD/ downloading audio. Thanks.

[Weeg23]

I did for when i was pregnant with my little one but it was called hypnobirthing for that. It was honestly amazing it was a bit costly but it really helped me and my partner. Especially with stress and anxiety with everyday things not just labour which also helped to calm my stomach and my ibs. There was also ones for going to sleep with and i kid you not me and my partner didnt even last 5 minutes before we were asleep listening to it. I will still never understand how that works but there you go.

[Maureen1958 in reply to Weeg23]

I fall asleep like that listening to Amazon Audible!

[Stuart24]

It didn't work for me. Just sitting quietly with your eyes shut for a long time makes you relaxed, but other than that it was a costly illusion.

[Fencinggirl in reply to Stuart24]

Hi Stuart. Thanks for you reply. Did you tell the practitioner it wasn't working? If so, did they change their technique at all?

[BlackIsleGirl]

I've had it from 2 different practisioners and had different experience and results.

1st time I was generally just curious and wanted to deal with a spider phobia, it wasn't effective, I'm still frightened of spiders. I did find it relaxing but that's all.

Second time was to deal with longterm pain and it was really effective. I can now live with pain using the techniques I was taught.

I think it's a matter of finding the right person and using it to deal with the right things. I don't think it's very effective for things like phobias but I think it's good for other things like pain control. But you need to find someone you can work with.

[Barney100]

Hi, I had several sessions and at first it worked quite well but it was very expensive. Also very repetitive and after a while the effects wore off. The other big problem is you cant take it away and you have to always go back for more. They always say you need more sessions so you can either continue and pay a lot and hope for the best or stop it and put it down to experience. I did the latter. I bought some CDs and even listen to relaxing music online and this helps a little with ultimately similar effects to hypnotherapy for me.

[Proclaimer]

Hi, I have had IBS issues off and on for 30 years (I'm 60 now) when I go through the odd prolonged periods of IBS I think hypnotherapy and mindfulness do help. Practitioners are expensive but a good introduction. After that I recommend the best bluetooth sleep headphones you can afford. Perhaps AcousticSheep SleepPhones about £70 and then YouTube for all types of relaxation, sleep inducement etc. I find if you sleep well it helps with most things. Hope this helps.

[Leemccluskey]

I had gut directed hypnotherapy on the NHS. It is the only hypnotherapy available on the NHS and it is done at the Manchester wythenshawe nhs University hospital. Professor Peter Whorewell who is quite possibly the worlds leading doctor on irritable bowel syndrome is running the bowel treatment Centre and sees over 3000 patients a year. He holds consultations at Withington hospital and then if he thinks you are suitable he will arrange for one of his clinical hypnotherapists to give you 12 one hour hypnotherapy sessions at wythenshawe hospital.

Some patients even have hypnotherapy done by Skype because they are so bad they cant travel or need to be close to a toilet at all times so cannot travel by car or bus etc for more than five or ten minutes.

Hypnotherapy doesn't work for everyone but thats not to say it doesnt work. It dies work but its the person receiving it that makes it not work. First of all you actually have to want to believe that it might work. If you go in thinking hypnotherapy is not going to cure me or they are going to put me in a trance or its witchcraft etc then it won't work.

I was once told by another private hypnotherapist years ago that you actually have to be relatively smart as in street wise educated etc for it to work.

Hypnotherapy is not putting you in a trance. At anytime you can stand up and walk out the room. All hypnotherapy does is teach you to calm your own mind by teaching you that at that moment you are dealing with this hynotherapy so you have to think about that or one solitary thing at that time. In otherwords to stop your mind racing thinking I've got to go food shopping today I've got a dentist appointment tomorrow I need to get my mum a birthday present im worried about my friend whose in hospital ive got to cut the grass before Thursday because the green waste is being collected.

Any problems or things you need to do are going around in your conscious mind and while that's happening you cannot get into your subconscious mind where everything you know is stored including the operating system of your body.

Think of it like a computer. When you switch it on and use it you are using an operating system like Windows. You are also pulling from the memory where your stored files are. When your system is corrupted or becomes too busy with too many processes going on it doesnt function properly and slows down. Then you need to reboot it or even defragment the hard drive and therefore switching off lots of uneeded processes and putting everything back into its place.

With hypnotherapy once you calm down the conscious mind by telling it right now no one can reach you, the telephones not going to ring, you do not have to do anything except sit there and concentrate on this moment. You will be given something to imagine like a big white cloud drifting down and picking you up and how comfortable that feels. You will be asked to feel the relaxation going through your toes feet ankles legs hips back neck arms hands head etc and told the think how relaxed you feel. You will also be told you are the master of your own mind. No one can make you do anything you don't want to do.

While concentrating on the hypnotherapists voice you are at that point not thinking of anything else like the many things I mentioned earlier. You are only thinking of the hynotherapists voice and what he or she is saying about how relaxed you feel or how you just let go of any tension in your muscles legs arms etc.

Once that has happened the hypnotherapist will guide you to access your sub conscious mind and then you can teach your subconscious mind to perform the way you want it to or defragment it and put everything in the right order.

Think about it when your stressed you cant function properly and end up making mistakes or forgetting things.

In gut directed hypnotherapy its directing the hypnotherapy to your gut and not to your brain.

Ever heard the saying i have a gut feeling or I was sick to my stomach or I've got a nervous stomach today.

I wonder if you have ever wet yourself with fear as a child or even an adult or have you had the runs from feeling stressed anxious or upset?

Some say we have two brains one in the head and one in the stomach and they can both work together with each other or play against each other.

I gut directed hypnotherapy you calm down the conscious mind in your head and then talk to the sub conscious mind via your gut.

Once you are relaxed and focused on your relaxation and nothing else then you may be asked to count down from ten to one and then place a hand on your tummy. You will then be asked to think how the hand is putting pressure on your tummy or how the skin of your hand feels against the skin of your tummy. You will be asked to think how that hand gives your tummy security by being protected by the hand like when someone gives you a loving hug. Then you might be asked to feel that the palm of your hand is warmer pressed against your tummy than the back of your hand and imagine that warmth is sinking into your tummy calming your tummy and calming your gut.

This way you are using your brain and your gut by asking your brain to sense the warmth in your tummy and asking your brain to believe the warmth is soothing and relaxing your gut.

This gut directed hypnotherapy was discovered believe it or not by the actions of dogs.

I think it was a Swedish? scientist who discovered how a gut reacts to mental stimulus as it were.

He had three dogs and he had trained them from young puppies to obedient to go the toilet outside and to be sociable etc as we all do. He also had trained them to only eat their food when he rings a little bell. He would ring the bell to tell them to come for their food and they would each sit in front of three bowls and wait for the bell to ring again to say it was OK for them to eat. He noticed that everyday they would drool over their food until the bell rang saying they could eat it. One day he rang the bell and they came running and sat in front of their bowls but he had been a bit distracted that day and hadn't put the food in the bowls before ringing the bell calling them.

He noticed that all three dogs were drooling but there was no food to drool over. He realised that the dogs didn't know they were drooling and that infact it was their gut and sub conscious that was telling their bodies to drool. A dog produces drool in the gut to help digest food a bit like we have acid in our stomach and produce enzymes to process food and vitamins and medication etc. In the case of the dogs there was no food so the action of the bell calling them to food was telling their gut its food time so it needs to produce drool.

Your gut goes from your mouth to your anus!

The scientist tried it several times and each time he rang that bell the dogs would come running and would drool.

Therefore hypnotherapy on tge gut is like training the gut to respond to certain commands or feelings by linking the brain with the gut.

Those dogs knew the bell meant food and food is good. The gut knew that it needed to produce drool for the food so when the bell went off the brain and the gut went into action.

So by putting your hand on your tummy making it feel secure and making it feel the warmth and suggesting this was relaxing your gut you were training your gut and your mind that your gut feeling this way is better than it being in spasm or in other words functioning properly like your dog behaves when he is trained.

I had 16 one hour sessions after asking for a few extra ones to help with anxiety as at least 60% of people with IBS will suffer anxiety and over half will suffer from fibromyalgia. It is said though that fibromyalgia and anxiety occurs more often in women but that this is probably not actually true as men will often not admit to anxiety or fibro pain as it may make them appear weak.

They say there is no cure for IBS or fibromyalgia and everyone experiences some anxiety as normal and its good for you but hi anxiety can cause lots of problems and may even be the cause as well as a symptom of ibs and fibromyalgia.

I seemed to be cured of IBS after about 5 months of the end of my hypnotherapy treatments but then they give you recordings to do the hypnotherapy on yourself at home.

Is was IBS free for about a year and then I had an unexplained heart attack ( dont drink smoke etc and not overweight) I was stented and of course had to take medication that was hard on the stomach so had to take acid reducing meds like ppis omeprazole lansoprazole ranitidine famotidine gaviscon etc. I tried them all as some gave me horrible side effects.

Playing with the bio of my stomach reducing acid and taking medications like aspirin or clopidigrel (anticoagulant) that irritates the lining of your stomach i believe caused my IBS to come back again and now I have terrible Fibromyalgia. Until I can sort out medication that is not so harsh on my gut i dint think hypnotherapy would be beneficial.

If you drink alcohol particularly beer or red wine and/or you eat spicy foods or foods abd drinks that cause gas like coca cola lemonade sprouts eggs etc then you're going to have continual IBS problems until you take a break from those things allow your gut to get back into the right balance with hypnotherapy as an extra tool and then you can go back to slowly reintroducing the things you love making careful non of them trigger your problem all over again.

You can have private hypnotherapy for IBS but it can cost £100-£130 a session or you can get a package. Please make sure the hypnotherapistchas some kind of guarantee that if you are no better after so many treatments then they will give you free treatments. They should also be using pure hypnotherapy.

I know one hypnotherapist by me that offers treatments to stop smoking. Its a two and a half hour single session for £250 but its guaranteed to stop you smoking in one session or you can have as many more sessions free until you do.

Finally if I am not mistaken Professor Peter Whorewll at Withington hospital manchester takes referrals from all over the country on the NHS.

He has also written a book which is well worth a read as often reassurance about IBS and its many symptoms can be helpful in reducing symptoms and anxious thoughts. Google Professor Peter Whorewell book for details.

Sorry if this post is long winded and maybe a bit confusing or waffling on but I hope you will get some good out of it. This fibromyalgia is causing me so many problems.

Remember IBS is not life threatening in itself and it does not damage your body. Although sometimes you may feel like you must have cancer or some other serious illness if you have had lots of tests scans and blood work and they are pretty much normal then it is ibs youre suffering from and as soon as you try to accept its not damaging you then the sooner your anxiety and pain will subside

Hope you all feel much better soon.

Keep your chin up and dont lose hope as it will help you to recovery

[Meeowla]

Hi just like to thank you for the great advice, I had some home c.d’s that helped a little but I wasn’t consistent enough and private treatments are expensive. But you have provided me with much insight to how our bodies react to let’s face it a life changing problems !

I wish you health and happiness

[MatthewU]

I've had it for headaches, anxiety and stress. It worked really well for me, the guy provided me with a custom CD just for me, I fall asleep within 5 minutes and have never reached the end! Acupuncture can also produce similar powerful effects and have found that it was effective in the past.

[SB1000]

I am currently trying Nerva - its a new hypnotherapy app from the same people who developed FODMAPS. Week one went really went, having a bad day today (mid week 2) but they say it takes 4 weeks to really take effect. Its a 15 - 20 minute session daily. They state its 70% effective. Fingers crossed! The app is also not that expensive and apparently has a money back guarantee (not sure of the terms of this though).

[301246 in reply to SB1000]

I am trying this too and am on week 2 but not expecting any immediate benefits. Sometimes listen to it twice a day. Am hopeful but as you say if it doesn't work, your money is returned. Good luck hope it works for both of us and anyone else on here who is trying it.

[SB1000 in reply to 301246]

Yes my results mixed so far but still hold out hope of some kind of cure! Am listening twice a day sometimes as well.

[Fencinggirl in reply to SB1000]

Thanks for replying. How much does it cost?

[SB1000 in reply to Fencinggirl]

I think about £80 but they were offering it with 30% off so I got it for £55. I am not sure if that's because I entered all my details but then didn't sign up straight away, might have been an incentive.

[Fencinggirl in reply to SB1000]

Ok thanks. I'll look into that one.