International Handbook of Clinical Hypnosis - E-Lib FK UWKS

270 INTERNATIONAL HANDBOOK OF CLINICAL HYPNOSIS
THE SECRET ROOM OR INNER PLACE Elton & Burrows, 1978)
The subject is asked to: `Imagine that you're walking along a corridor in your mind.
You keep walking until you come to a door. It's a door you have never seen before.
Behind it lies your secret room. Your sanctuary, a place incompatible with pain.
You open the door and close it behind you leaving your pain and discomfort behind
you. In this place of peace and perfect tranquillity you see yourself not as you have
beenÐbut as you would like to be.'
MIGRAINE AND DOLPHINS
In his book Applied Hypnosis and Hyperempiria, Gibbons 1979) presents a
catalogue of useful imagery techniques. Gibbons believes that the use of imagery
can in fact enhance sensory experiences. Thus, patients are better able to utilize
suggestions aimed at helping them to achieve pain reliefÐor even a signi®cant
change in behaviour. Amongst these is a dolphin image where patients are asked to
imagine themselves as a dolphin swimming in the sea. Gibbons suggested that the
slowing of the heartbeat and decreasing blood pressure this imagery produces,
leads to an alleviation of the circulatory congestion in the head with a consequent
cessation of headache symptoms in some patients who suffer from migraine and
other stress-induced headaches.
CONCLUSION
Obviously, this is just a brief review of the area of pain management and hypnosis.
It is hoped that those practitioners who deal with this most dif®cult group of
patients will be able to gain some ideas on which to build their own practical
experiences.
REFERENCES
Bonica, J. J. 1993). Pain: The Neglected Pathogen, Lecture notes, Conference on Pain,
Stress and the Immune System, Padua and Venice, 28±30 August 1993.
Bowers, K. S. 1976). Hypnosis for the Seriously Curious, New York: W. W. Norton.
Elton, D. & Burrows, G. D. 1978). Speci®c use of imagery in treatment by hypnosis: `the
secret room'. Aust. J. Clin. Exp. Hypn., 6, 17±26.
Fields, H. L. Ed.) 1995). Taskforce on Professional Education. Washington, DC: Core
Curriculum For Professional Education in Pain, IASP Press.
Gibbons, D. 1979). Applied Hypnosis and Hyperempiria. New York: Plenum Press.
Goldstein, A. & Hilgard, E. R. 1975). Lack of in¯uence of the morphine antagonist
naloxone on hypnotic analgesia. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., 71, 2041±2043.
Gracely, R. H. 1995). Hypnosis and hierarchical pain control systems: Editorial comment.
Pain, 60,1±2.