Phantom Limb Pain Relaxation Hypnosis Script

New approaches, based on a better understanding of the brain's role in pain, may be opening the way to new treatments.

Once a limb has been amputated, the amputee retains a continued awareness of it and may experience sensations from it. These phantom limb sensations can also appear in those born without a limb. This is interesting because it suggests that the map of our limbs may be hardwired into our brains, meaning that even in the absence of the limb, the brain may believe it is present and capable of experiencing sensation.

Phantom limb pain has been reported as feeling as if the missing limb is shorter, or distorted into an uncomfortable position.

The phantom pains may be heightened by anxiety, stress, or weather changes. It usually is not a consistent pain, but comes and goes.

Over the course of time, phantom limb pain often lessens in amputees. As they grow more used to not having the limb, their brain may respond to the pain sensations with reason and the fact that the limb is no longer there, before the pain sensation has a chance to process.

Pain may be experienced as a sting, tingle, prick, ache, or burn. Receptors on the skin trigger a complicated series of events that with an electrical impulse that moves from the external area such as the skin to the spinal cord. The spinal cord behaves like a relay center that can block the pain signal, increase it, or modify prior to relaying to the brain. The area of the spinal cord called the dorsal horn is important in the reception of pain signals.

The important thing for practitioners to understand is the intense control an individual has over their body.

Through hypnosis, your client will be able to visualize controlling their body's response to the pain.

This script allows practitioners to understand the pain better. Even in the absence of the limb, the pain message is perceived as real. Once this understanding has been accomplished, it will be easier to envisage gaining control over the depth of the pain. This control will allow you to visualize lessening the pain, and it will allow your client to react to the pain in a productive manner and reducing the intensity, instead of letting the pain sensation control them.

Because pain is typically a message that something is wrong in the location it is centered in, it is important that your clients pays attention to the pain. But when it is in the area of a phantom limb, there are few things that could be triggering it besides something in their mind. This means that controlling it has no negative side. This script will enable your client to visualize gaining complete control over their phantom limb pain so that they can imagine experiencing life pain-free.