Hypnosis & Biofeedback

Hypnosis

Hypnosis is excellent for alleviating pain. It may help reduce nausea related to chemotherapy. It can also help you relax, sleep, and explore buried emotional stresses.

Hypnosis is often described as a different state of mind, between waking and sleeping. You're not really asleep, but your mind is in a relaxed state that allows you to deal with physical or mental pain that you might not be able to deal with when you're awake.

Ask your doctor to help you find a licensed hypnotherapist.

Or you can try self-hypnosis. Self-hypnosis uses a simple form of focused concentration. A hypnotherapist can help you learn this technique. You might enter an imagined world—floating, perhaps, on a tropical ocean—for a self-altering experience. Or you focus your attention on one or two things, and put everything else in your mind aside. This distraction channels your thoughts away from your pain or distress.

Biofeedback

Biofeedback uses devices that measure such functions as heart rate, body temperature, and muscle tension. You can learn to regulate these functions (slow down your heart rate, for example), which helps you deal with chronic pain and stress.