pain – Short-Term Therapy

Returning to Therapy

Published on February 17, 2021January 4, 2021 by AkiLeave a comment

I was fortunate enough to receive a massage this week. The masseuse started on my back, which was tight. Once it loosened, I noticed pain in my neck which was later rubbed out.

When clients come to therapy, they often know what needs to be done, where they want to start, where it is tight, so to speak. Once we massage that area and the original item is loosened, sometimes there is a noticing of a pain elsewhere. Removing one problem does not create any other, but allows us to see where it was tight, but not as necessary to fix as something else.

Often, clients will come back to therapy in some months or a year because that new tight spot becomes uncomfortable. Or, there has been some new issue that causes inflammation to be massaged out.

If there is pain, there is a cause. Physical pain is a signal from the body that something needs to be changed. Emotional pain is a signal from the mind that something needs to be changed.

Autumn Hahn is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist practicing at Clear Mind Group in Florida, Georgia, Nevada, and Virginia. Call 954-612-9553 for a consultation. Follow Autumn on Twitter & Facebook.

Mind-Body Healing

Published on January 27, 2021January 4, 2021 by AkiLeave a comment

I’ve had a bad back for years. I treat it with acupuncture and chiropractor visits and use an amazing heating pad. Sometimes, though, I throw my back out and it’s a few days where I’m benched until it’s better. That happened a few weeks ago (originally published in 2013). I was packing for a move and I wish I could say it was lifting a box, but it was getting up from the bed playing with the cat, just twisted wrong and that was it. No time to be sidelined, though, there was too much to do, and I had another training coming up. These trainings are 3-day long-day events in uncomfortable conference room chairs.

At the training, my back was killing me. I wasn’t whining about it on the outside, but I was going through Advil at an unhealthy rate and halfway through the day was needing half a muscle relaxer just to not whimper. On day 2, we did break-out practice groups to increase responsiveness. I believe that the mind controls the body in most everything and that the signals, if not going to the mind, are not going to be received, coded, or perceived, so the mind is the key to all this. Thus, I believe that the mind can make the change in all this, speeding healing, blocking pain, and increasing the time needed to receive and process the message of discomfort and what the body needs.

In my trance state, my partner effectively increased responsiveness in me. This meant, to me, that my body and mind were more than twice as responsive from before this trance state session. My body and mind were optimized, turned up, in line. I took my symbol and used it every time my back twinged. One deep breath, eyes closed, and thanked the messenger for the message that something was amiss and I needed to give extra care and healing to that part of my body. Second deep breath, eyes closed, dissipate the pain (I pictured it pixelated and expanding away). Note: none of this was part of what my partner did in the trance state, but since my body and mind were already optimized for responsiveness, they were responding to one another in an advanced way and I was building on that. This did not remove all pain; there was still an error in my body, a problem to be healed, but I could increase healing and decrease pain.

A couple of days later, my husband and I met up after my training was over and he was rubbing my back and said “I can see this is the muscle you pulled; it’s raised, but your whole back isn’t swollen anymore. Does it still hurt?” “Some,” I answered, “keep looking.” He did and I took a few breaths, visualizing my symbol and dissipating the pain. He said it looked a little flatter and how did I do that? This stuff, it’s good stuff!

I also got an emotional issue for me unstuck that weekend at the training and am looking forward to using that energy for being awesome in the moment and seeing how it frees me up for health and happiness.

Autumn Hahn is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist practicing at Clear Mind Group in Weston, Florida. Call 954-612-9553 for a consultation. Follow Autumn on Twitter & Facebook.

Living with chronic illness

Published on January 13, 2021January 21, 2021 by AkiLeave a comment

At the time of this writing, I was 11 weeks into a constant migraine and taking steps to figure out a cause and some solutions. That probably doesn’t count a chronic illness yet, but here’s what I’ve learned thus far:

Lower your bar. Do what you can and be where you’re at. It’s okay if all you can do today is nothing. Perhaps you can do a single task for work, or for your home, or for your health and hygiene. That’s okay. Count your wins. Perhaps today I can only lie under the blankets and wish the world away, but I also brushed my teeth. Count that as a win. It’s a little win. But if, today, you could also make a meal for yourself, that’s 2 wins. Some days hold larger or more numerous victories. Count it all.

Do it now, if you can. I’m a procrastinator and leave things for Future Me to do. But since I can’t do everything everyday, Current Me has to be more responsible.

Keep records and be scientific. I started tracking things in Excel (I’m that brand of nerd). I was tracking temperature, barometric pressure, pollen counts, stages of the moon, my temperature, my blood sugar, my blood pressure, my mood, my energy levels, my sleep patterns, pain levels, and what medications I was taking and how they made me feel. This allowed me to have a more productive conversation with my doctor. We could rule things in and out. This got me closer to knowing what was and was not helping, what may be a cause or correlation, and we could discuss it without me saying “I don’t know. I just hurt all the time,” which wasn’t helpful.

Seek help. Talk to your doctor and advocate for yourself. Say “it’s still not better” if that’s true. Take a referral to a specialist – this made a big difference to me. Join a support group online – there’s lots of free peer-run groups on Facebook and elsewhere – but remember that they are people like you and not professionals. Ask people you know if they’ve been through what you’re experiencing and what they suggest. If you’d like to learn to manage pain in the body, I can teach you that through self hypnosis. Please read this article on the process and call the number below to schedule an appointment.

Pain Blocking in 4 Hours

Published on July 20, 2018September 23, 2018 by AkiLeave a comment

I dislike the expression “it’s all in your head” because it presumes that what you are experiencing is less than real. Pain is not “unreal” or “in your head,” but instead the relay system travels through your brain, like a train station, and changes can be made at that station.

Living without pain is possible

Continue reading “Pain Blocking in 4 Hours” →

Emotional Pain and Returning to Therapy

Published on December 27, 2016April 9, 2018 by AkiLeave a comment

0mass I was fortunate enough to receive a massage this week. The masseuse started on my back, which was tight. Once it loosened, I noticed pain in my neck which was later rubbed out.