Thank you Michael, lovely to hear from you and I very much appreciate your response here.

With my very best wishes to you, Adam.

Palliative medicine was the reason for my interest in hypnosis in medicine in the late 70s. Outside pain management and symptom control, IBS was the next problem to be tackled with high levels of success. Applications in dermatology came later. We show our feelings and distress through our skin. The skin can be highly volatile and once the various cascading reactions of inflammatory cells are activated the drug regimes can be very potent. Adding hypnosis to a treatment schedule can have significant beneficial effects.

In the mid 90s I had a chance to hear and chat to the surgeon Dabney Ewin, who after Active service in the Korean War brought Hypnosis into the management of acute burn victims. Results showed reduced infection rates, time in hospital, need for potent analgesia, as well as less expected scaring and quicker rehabilitation.

It was with admiration that I read your blog, having thought of setting up a series of hypnosis programmes online in the mid 90s, I decided that bespoke tailoring to the individual is the only way. Generic “off the peg” Hypnosis may work but will not be as effective as recruiting as much of the individuals personal resources as possible in a bespoke individual tailored programme. There are many issues at stake here, from the complex details of the past medical, psychosocial history, and life’s experiences, and expectation. Hypnosis is a wonderful tool that must be used with respect, and responsibly. Every practitioner will learn how much they don’t know as they learn more and more. I wish you all the best with your project.

Amy, remember this is something that should not be used as a sole alternative to any other treatments, and certainly should not result in shunning of conventional medical care and advice.
However, I’d recommend a suitably qualified and experienced hypnotherapist who can put a treatment plan in place for you – though make sure they adhere to evidence-based principles to utilise the research that I have discussed here in this entry. Any issues, send me a PM and I can assist.

Good luck with it, I hope you find a solution, A.