While not given the attention that more conventional cancer therapies have received, alternative and complementary treatments are very important when undergoing conventional therapies for cancer. People diagnosed with hard to treat cancers will often use the alternative therapies in conjunction with mainstream surgery, chemo, or radiation treatments to form a more comprehensive, mind-body, regimen. Among the most effective alternative treatments utilized by those diagnosed with cancer is hypnosis, also known as hypnosis.

Hypnosis has been used for many years in clinical practice. Effective cancer treatments and therapies often depend on the person’s ability to not only overcome the cancer through treatments but also to maintain their health and mental energies throughout the painful side effects of cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiation.

Often, the symptoms and effects of the cancer on the person’s body are negligible compared to the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation treatments. This is where alternative and complimentary treatments such as hypnosis/hypnotherapy has been said to be most effective. Cancers, such as mesothelioma, which often can’t be removed by surgical interventions, are often treated with some combination of chemotherapy and radiation. While these powerful therapies can be effective in eliminating some of the tumor, they also affect the health of the surrounding tissues. Most people experience nausea and generalized pain that have been dramatically reduced through the utilization of hypnosis. Some specific hypnosis treatments utilized in controlling nausea and pain include altering the sensations of pain through the nervous system, controlling anxiety, and therapeutic imagery.

Hypnosis treatments may not be appropriate for everyone’s pain and individual symptoms but it’s certainly worth exploring as it can do no harm. The goal with alternative treatments, as with traditional treatments, is always to increase the effectiveness of therapies as a whole. If hypnosis can assist in any way in helping people recover or control side effects of chemotherapy or radiation, then it will compliment the treatment regimens overall efficacy and should certainly be utilized.

Article authored by Robert Galarowicz ND, Bergen County, New Jersey practicing hypnosis therapist. Serving Passaic, Essex, Union, Morris, NJ and Rockland County, NY.

References

Erickson MH: Hypnosis in painful terminal illness, in Haley J (ed): Advanced Techniques of Hypnosis and Therapy: Selected Papers of Milton Erickson, MD. New York, Crune & Stratton, 1967.

Sunnen, Gerard M.D. , Hypnotic Approaches in the Cancer Patient Ozonics International, LLC

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