hypnotherapist to help TOS?
 

Apparently that hypnosis is the one treatment that makes changes in the brain that significantly reduces pain.

Also hypnotherapy has been shown to provide significant relief from Thoracic Outlet Syndrome symptoms.

Dr. Judith Cameron has been a certified clinical hypnotherapist since 1987 and she holds certifications in medical and dental hypnosis, Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, ( i send her an email to get more info and i am waiting for an answer)

Accord to my understanding and as what i can read, for the Thoracic outlet syndrome pain every action of our body is reported to our brain. Like an alarm sensor on a car, the muscle spindle cells report the tension of muscles to the brain. There are 25000 - 40000 spindle cells intertwined in your muscle fibers. If you lean back in a chair your upper body is resting on the chair while your head is dangling from the muscles of the front of your neck. The spindle cell reflex tells the brain that you want the muscles to hold this 9 pound weight in one position for 30 minutes.

For the brain 30 minutes is a lifetime. It doesn't like it when our body parts are tense for 10 seconds. The brain says at "You want me to contract the front of your neck constantly?" No problem! Done. So your brain trips the circuit for constant contraction of the anterior muscles of the neck. When you walk around, study, stand, sit or whatever, your anterior scalene muscles are pulling your neck bones down to your ribs causing constant "compression"

I believe hypnotherapy can reprogram the brain signal then doesn't send these signal anymore. I don't know if it can affect something else. I just want to know if someone have tried hypnotherapy in the past.

Very interesting...I will call my therapist today to see what she thinks.

Sweet, thank you and keep us on touch.

Alexis

She said that she does not personally do that but referred me to someone who does and now I'm waiting to hear back from them.
:Excited:

Ok sweet, waiting for more info!!

Alexis

I think it would be very beneficial if emotional, stress, anxiety or tension is a part of the picture.

But I don't think it would do much for actual compressions or impingements..that is where the phys therapy, chiropractic, bodywork, posture & self care come in to play and finding the ones that work for your version of TOS.

I don't think that would work. Especially because the scar tissue that wasn't there before the TOS is what causes the TOS for most people. Unless you can hypnotize the scar tissue away, lol.

Do you have a source for that? I briefly researched this before, but all I found was a study that used hypnosis for torticollis.

Some people have TOS from other causes including muscle spasms. Such people might benefit if the hypnosis reduced the severity of the spasms.

This is the answer I got:

Hypnosis is highly effective for dealing with chronic pain issues. It doesn't matter what the cause is (such asThoracic Outlet Syndrome) as it is how the mind is redirected to deal with discomfort that is the essential understanding. I teach clients many self-help tools and techniques to achieve a successful outcome along with personalized recordings.

I think I will try it.

Chroma, I do have a source but I'm gonna have to translated because it's in French. Nellyzen, that pretty much exactly what I've heard about the hypnosis. I am sure it can make a good difference but the problem is to find one who know to work with our brain which I won't think it's not a easy thing.

If a person could hypnotize me out of the pain, but the damaging compression was left in place, that would be a bad thing. I don't want to ignore the problem, which could lead to more damage long term. I want to fix it. Hence my emphasis on using hypnosis to reduce muscle tension and spasms which is a very common problem with TOS people.

General stress relief would be good too.

I talked to her over the phone today too so she def said the purpose is not to numb the pain so that you leave the medical issue untreated, in fact, she wanted to make sure you are getting medical treatment in addition to it.

I think it mostly teaches you how to cope with the pain better. I'm a big fan of therapists as I have suffered from depression and anxiety for years and had great success with cognitive therapy as well as EMDR therapy.

It can also be placebo but who cares as long as it works, right?;)

I would think they can suggest via hypnosis, posture awareness, and if you sleep in ways that are not best for TOS, they can suggest ways to sleep..
as well as the relaxation/de stress suggestions & pain help..

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=hypnosis+for+posture

I noticed that when I take a Vicodin and a Xanax my pain level goes down to about 2.

I'm gonna tell the dr about that, maybe he can put me on some sort of meds that are better for long term usage.

I got a message back from

I am certified to do hypnosis for TOS. There are never any guarantees with hypnosis because it depends on the mind set of the client and his/her belief system. I have treated two people with TOS with hypnotherapy, and for one it helped lots and the other it did not. Also, it takes more than one session of hypnosis to see lasting results, usually 2 - 4 session.

There really aren't any except antidepressants is my understanding.

I have taken them before for depression...if they help with the TOS pain I would be happy to give them a try.

Past members often mentioned anti depressant along with a pain med, they work together and very helpful for most of them.

I'm going to try hypnotherapy tomorrow with a counselor who is specialized in pain management, neuropathy. I will let you know how it went.

Pretty sweet, let us know!

Alexis

I went and I loved it. The pain has decreased and I was feeling light as a feather when I came out. This therapist also works with bio energy and I felt that, boy how I felt that.

I was so hot when he was doing it I thought I was gonna pass out. He said he has taken people off pain killers in a few sessions. I have nothing to lose and I am a big believer in energy and things like that. I am also seeing the TOS doc tomorrow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcFLkmhJt6g

That's him and he says a few interesting things here.

Thanks for reporting in. Glad to hear you got some relief!

Let us know how it goes as you continue.

Last night for the first time in 3 months I fell asleep with no pain killers. I woke up with minimal pain. I would say 3 or 4. This is a big improvement compared with 5-6 on a regular basis.

I also researched this a bit more last night, found some incredible videos about Chi energy and what these people can do. He also did EMDR for pain, I have had this done on me before by my regular therapist but that was for emotional problems.

Can't wait for the next session. He also told me that I absorb a lot of energy from other people, which I already knew. Bad energy from people makes me physically sick and he is now teaching me how to protect myself. He said a lot of my pain is stress related and just build up of bad energy which I totally believe as the onset of my symptoms started after an extremely busy and stressful period at work.

I'm off to see the TOS doc, hopefully starting some PT soon.:hug:

Thank you so much to share your history!! When i reed the email from Dr Stoxen i was pretty sure to understand the theory of how our brain want to protect our self even if it's not necessary and soon you gonna be able to confirm my theory!! I am looking for a good one and try it!! Thanks

Alexis

Yes, it was great. Too bad I went to see my dr today and he flared me up so badly with his testing. I want to cry from the pain.

Let us know next time you go there. Pain is probably normal after you doctor did some test, technically you are gonna be better in 2 or 3 days.

Alexis

I know Alexis is impatiently waiting for this update so here it is:

Second session went great as well but I did get scolded for some of my anger issues which are not helping my pain much. Andrew said that if I keep going to more tests and get flared up, we are going one step forward, two steps back which makes sense.

He also does bio energy healing and that can be felt on the physical level. I feel really good today, the pain is about 3 and I went in with a screaming 9. So the moral of the story is, if you have stored anger, you need to work on that too. :grouphug:

Thanks for the update. I wouldn't sweat the tests given that they don't get repeated indefinitely. It's just a phase you have to go through.

I agree on the stored up anger. It causes stress which causes tension which exacerbates TOS. I've been using Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) which I originally thought was B.S., but I gave the creator's book a read (Gary Craig; found on Amazon) and now I have a high opinion of it. Sounds like your guy is really helping you, so that's mostly a tip for the many people who don't live close enough to him.

Yes, that's one of the methods he uses as well. And yes, I am an angry person, not on a dangerous level but if I can get ****** off, I hold grudges and things like that.

He told me that I need to let go of my anger towards my first surgeon who operated on me for no reason and never took the time to listen and diagnose me properly. Yeah, I have been holding a grudge because I lost 2 months in pain and $ for absolutely no reason.

Speaking of bio healing, I had a cyst on my left hand as well which has disappeared after my session with Andrew. I kid you not.

Next app on the 3rd.

After 2 great days with minimal pain I am back to pain land because I got angry. The fact that getting angry gives me more pain, makes me even more angry. I don't know how to stop the cycle.

I have so much hate for TOS!