Clinical Hypnosis, Meditative Stages and Mantras in Palliative care: techniques for Effectively Relieving Pain and Suffering in chronic illnesses. Pre-conference workshop.

Clinical Hypnosis, Meditative Stages and Mantras, are recognized in medicine as effective complementary therapies for pain and symptom’s relief, in Palliative Care. Like the WHO’s guidelines for Palliative Care, they: “provide relief from pain and other distressing symptoms; affirm life and regards dying as a normal process; intend neither to hasten or postpone death; integrate the psychological and spiritual aspects of patient care; offer support system to help patients live as actively as possible until death; offer support system to help the family cope during the patients’ illness; use a team approach to address the needs of patients and their families; will enhance quality of life; they are applicable early in the course of illness, in conjunction with other therapies.” “Hypnosis typically involves an introduction to the procedure during which the subject is told that suggestions for imaginative experiences will be presented. The hypnotic induction is an extended initial suggestion for using one’s imagination, and may contain further elaborations of the introduction. A hypnotic procedure is used to encourage and evaluate responses to suggestions. When using hypnosis, one person (the subject) is guided by another (the hypnotist) to respond to suggestions for changes in subjective experience, alterations in perception, sensation, emotion, thought or behavior. Persons can also learn self-hypnosis, which is the act of administering hypnotic procedures on one’s own.” (APA American Psychological Association Division 30; ASCH American Society of Clinical Hypnosis)