Posts

guided imagery cancer

Is Guided Imagery for Cancer Right for You?

In previous posts we explored the promise of hypnotherapy for treating and healing cancer. But what if you are unable to attend regular hypnosis sessions because you don’t feel well enough to do so, or because you an experienced hypnotherapist or for any other reason?

guided imagery cancer If this is the case for you, the next best thing you can do, as an alternative to face-to-face treatment, is to listen to an audio program such as my Guided Imagery for Cancer CD. There is an assortment of audio programs available online from many different practitioners, but as you’ll find out, not all products are equally effective.

Before you choose which one is right for you, listen to a sample of it. Do you like the voice, tempo and even accent of this practitioner? Hmmm…

For me it was important to produce a highly professional product with recording studio quality. It was also important for me it will be easy to follow the guided meditation. I infused the audio with powerful suggestions, imagery and metaphors to calm your Mind, sooth your body and help you heal from within.

The beauty of an audio program is that you can listen to it as often as you like so it’s very cost effective. Whether you listen to it while waiting for your doctor appointments, whale watching or before you go so sleep you will surly benefit.
It combines imagery, sensory awareness and auto-suggestions to engage your imagination and Mind. These techniques share some qualities and blend very well together. It is this combination that helps you to become immersed, and therefore fully involved, in a healing experience. It what helps you to shift your focus and attention from whatever emotions you are going through – be that fear, stress, hopelessness or rage to calmness and hopefulness.

The CD can also be used during any procedures you are having for cancer, such as chemotherapy. Listening to the CD during a procedure can help you to shift your attention from the clinical external environment to an inner positive and desirable one. The metaphors, mental images and suggestions used in this CD help your mind to create a better experience within yourself, which is important because we know that the mental images we hold within our minds have an effect on our bodies – for better or for worse.

A prime example of this is worry; when we worry about things that haven’t happened; we play out different scenarios in our mind. These scenarios affect us even though they are just imagined; the more we worry the worse we feel. If we want to empower ourselves and create the optimum conditions for healing within our bodies, it is important for us to have a tool that we can use to help ourselves – a tool that can help us to create better, more positive state of Mind.

hypnosis for chemotherapy, cancer cdMy CD, The Healing Power of Your Mind: Guided Imagery for Cancer does this and also helps you to drift off into a sound a peaceful sleep that will leave you feeling refreshed when you wake in the morning. Healthy sleep patterns are crucial when it comes to healing the mind and body but can be difficult to achieve when we are feeling worried, stressed or afraid because of illness.

If you are interested in the concept of Immersive Healing but are unable to attend sessions with me, you may find my Guided Imagery CD helpful during your own healing journey.

hypnosis cancer recovery

Is Hypnosis for Cancer Effective?

As a clinical hypnotherapist, I am often asked how hypnosis can help cancer? and how someone can actually be sure that hypnosis can be effective for cancer? The answer is straight forward, we see and experience the results!
The type of hypnosis I use as a component of Immersive Healing is called Regression-to-Cause hypnosis.
hypnosis for cancer
I use this hypnotic protocol because it produces results in real time. By this I mean that when using this type of hypnosis, the client gets to feel the change as it occurs. They get to experience their journey and transformation in an authentic way which leads to real change. First the change is in the level of Mind i.e. their perceptions and belief systems. Then the change is translated into their body.

Regressing in time, they get to feel that they are right there, back in the moment that their mind has taken them to. This is the moment when their perception and knowledge of self changed from positive and helpful to negative and harmful. In the reality of their Subconscious Mind this moment could be a recent one or a one from the distant past – something that occurred just yesterday or something that happened decades ago.

It is important to remember that Time is a man-made concept. We created ‘time’ as it were. Inside your skull and within your brain there is no concept of time; there is no ticking clock.

Here is a helpful analogy which I use in my book The New Cancer Paradigm. Imagine your Subconscious Mind as a sort of library, a library in which there are books that were written recently and books that were written many years ago lined up on a shelf. You can gain access to each one of these books regardless of their publishing date, just by reaching your hand. Regression-to-Cause works in a similar way but instead of a physical hand it uses thoughts and suggestions.

Think of it this way, your mind has stored all the memories, thoughts, emotions and experiences that you have ever had – regression to cause hypnosis allows you to re-access these memories.
cancer alternative healing
When you regress to a particular time in your life or event through, it will feel as real as it was when you actually were there. Your feelings and sensations will become as alive and vivid as they were when you experienced them the first time around. It is this level of supreme authenticity that is so vital. It increases your belief in the therapeutic process and in fact in the possibility of healing.
The pivotal understanding in mind body medicine is that you have to actually believe enough in the possibility of healing in order to tell yourself so with conviction and in order for healing to occur.

After a hypnotherapy session, my clients report that they feel the changes that have occurred deep within their Mind already taking effect. They think and feel differently about certain things. Certain things that held power now seem less significant or altogether insignificant.

It’s vital to point out that hypnotherapy isn’t a panacea for all of life’s trials and tribulations. After a session, you will still experience life’s ups and downs – as we all do – but you will find that the way in which you respond to challenging circumstances, events or environments will be different. You will feel differently and respond differently – in a more positive and productive way.
It is important to remember that while the Subconscious Mind works instantly; it can take time for the physical body to catch up. This is entirely normal and the body will eventually catch up with the healing that is taking place in the Mind.

Hypnosis enables you to feel and experience positive effects within the mind in the first place, this eventually translates to the body’s environment and this is how you will ultimately know that Immersive Healing, and therefore hypnosis, is working for you.

cancer radiation recovery

How Hypnosis for Cancer Benefit Radiation Patients?

In addition to being beneficial for people that are undergoing or about to undergo surgery and chemotherapy, hypnosis is helpful for people that require radiation therapy.cancer alternative treatment

Radiation treatment differs from chemotherapy and surgery. Chemotherapy gets into the body’s blood stream and affects the entire body; radiation is a localized form of treatment effecting a particular organ or group of cells. Surgery is an invasive procedure which requires time to recuperate and heal, radiation is non invasive and therefore require less time to recuperate.

Radiation treatment as I describe in my book The New Cancer Paradigm, while highly effective in treating cancer cells, brings with it a number of unpleasant physiological and emotional side effects that can affect the person being treated on various levels. Physiological side effects of radiation treatment include pain, nausea, hair loss and skin problems to name just a few, which can be difficult enough to cope with on their own.

Combined with these physiological side effects are the emotional side effects that this type of treatment brings on, these can include feelings of sadness, anxiety and anger – all in all a general change to a person’s mood. Just when a person has to face the emotional impact of a cancer diagnosis, they also have to face an onslaught of many other unpleasant physical feelings and emotions.

Symptoms and side effects of radiation treatment vary and are unique for each individual; they depend on the dose of radiation given, the area being treated or the severity of the condition. Sometimes these side effects are so unpleasant and overwhelming for the patient they may feel liking giving up their fight – to the point where they may not show up for treatment.

Failing to follow though the recommended regiment decreases a person’s chances for recovery from cancer. It is vital that a person does not give up, that they feel well and strong enough, physically, mentally and emotionally, to see their treatment through.

Hypnosis can help cancer patients undergoing radiation in many different ways. It will help a person to strengthen their will-to-live thus empowering him or her to maintain a positive or fighting state of mind. By conditioning their Mind, it will help their body cope and recover and it will lessen the unpleasant side effects caused by radiation treatment; it helps them to address the psychological distress caused by the treatment and helps to lessen the impact and, therefore, the severity of these side effects. For these reasons, hypnosis is a beneficial form of treatment that can be incorporated into a total program of healing for cancer.

cancer resiliency

Increase Your Resiliance to Fight Cancer with Hypnosis for Cancer

If you read any of my previous blog posts you already know my view on illness – we cannot truly heal the body without also healing the Mind. Even more so, by healing the Mind we increase the effectiveness of medical treatment.
cancer alternative treatmentIn saying that we must also heal the Mind I am not saying there are no organic factors in illness such as toxic environment, carcinogenic agents etc, of course there are. Still not everyone exposed to them end up with cancer. Something else is factoring our vulnerability to attacks on our health both from within as much as without and that is our Mind.

This is no breaking news, after all the scientific community acknowledges the Mind play a role in illness and health. The scientific study of Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) validated these finds back in the 70’s. In the simplest of terms, PNI relates to the study of how the mind interacts with the body’s nervous system and how this, in turn, affects the function of the immune system.

The debate as it seems is no longer whether the Mind plays a role in illness but rather whether it plays a big enough role that it can promote the healing of illness.

Much of the focus of PNI has been on the subject of stress, but the term ‘stress’ can be misleading – ‘stress’ is such a huge area and means so much more than feeling overwhelmed because we have too much to do. Stress in the context of PNI refer to a range of states of mind that many people experience, such as fear, guilt, anger and shame. These states of mind, when experienced consciously or subconsciously, for an ongoing period of time may be harmful to our health if we do not address them properly.

In terms of the body’s immune system, PNI has found that these negative states of mind can be toxic – they can weigh heavily on the immune system and disrupt the optimum function of this powerful, inbuilt healing mechanism. This is what Immersive Healing which utilizes hypnosis as its therapeutic vehicle is designed to remedy.

The hypnotic protocol of Regression to Cause hypnosis is the heart of Immersive Healing. It allows us to identify the root cause of these harmful states of mind; what’s more, it allows us to address and to heal these states of mind. In doing so, we are able to revive the immune system. Reviving and strengthening the body’s defenses we increase its ability to heal itself, which can help you to improve your ability to fight cancer.

The healing of the Mind as facilitated by Immersive Healing will improve your odds for recovery. It will fortify your immune system, lessen the impact of treatment side effects and improve your quality of your life. Furthermore, it will help you cultivates hope and strengthens your will to live. These elements are vital when it comes to your ability to recover.

cancer recovery hypnosis

Too Much of Online Cancer Research May Hurt Your Recovery

The internet has given us the freedom to access information that was previously more difficult to find. This is, in many cases, a good thing, for example it’s now easier than ever to research different medical facilities, doctors, services or any valuable topic without the need to travel all the way to the book store or library.

Healing CancerHowever, free access to the jungle of information out there isn’t always a good thing – especially in relation to our health and, specifically, when it comes to finding information about cancer, statistics, procedures etc.

The main problem with internet research is that there is just SO much information, so many different opinions, ideas and theories to take on board. It is easy for a person, who already may not be feeling well to become overwhelmed by the sheer amount of available information. And, perhaps more importantly, it can be difficult to validate the information you read on the internet; the internet is not regulated so just about anybody can write just about anything they want to and when it comes to our health, this can be extremely stressful, draining and taxing.

If you have ever tried to research a subject thoroughly using the internet, you will be only too aware of how this ‘information overload’ can become overwhelming. And when we feel overwhelmed by information, we may end up giving up on it all, as it all seems too complicated, confusing and contrasting to absorb. This can lead to feelings of frustration, anger, helplessness and hopelessness – emotions that are counterproductive when trying to heal as they can have a detrimental effect on the body’s immune system.

Furthermore, reading extensively on the subject of cancer can bread more fear, and fear is debilitating. In the grip of fear, we may become paralyzed by it and unable to take action.

It is also important to bear in mind that much of what you read online is anecdotal. If you associate too closely with someone else’s experience you may prevent your ‘own’ experience from unfolding. We are all unique, and you cannot compare your physical and emotional health with the health of another person – your experiences are not their experiences.

Perhaps the most convincing and compelling reason is, we become what we think about. The more you read about illness the more you think about it. The more you think about it the more you associate with it. The more you associate with it the more you identify with it. The more you identify with it the more it take roots in your experience. First in Mind, then in Body.

The above statement is only my opinion and you may feel differently. Even so, be cautious, limit the amount of internet research you do and limit the amount of thoughts you give the matter. Remedy your mind with thoughts of health… formulate a concept of yourself healthy and project it onto the screen of your mind’s eye as often as you can. This will work along the same path as before i.e. you will first formulate health in your Mind, then in your Body.

complementary alternative medicine cancer

How to Integrate Hypnosis for Cancer into Your Medical Cancer Treatment

Hypnosis for cancer offers patients many benefits, benefits that include more than just symptom relief from treatment. This is why more and more people choose to integrate hypnosis into their treatment plan. Holistic cancer treatment

There is more to cancer treatment than what the doctor can see, touch or remove. While your medical team support and help your body heal; it is just as important to help you and your Mind heal. Cancer is a battle fought on many fronts, the physical dimension is the most familiar one but illness has a mental dimension and even a spiritual one. If you are with cancer or know someone with cancer you know that stress, anxiety, fear and helplessness are common.

This is where hypnosis comes into the picture, it provide relief on the mental, emotional and spiritual front. Hypnosis as utilized in Immersive Healing can be practiced in conjunction with your medical treatment. It will lessen anticipatory anxiety, fear of outcome and even condition your mind to better utilize the medicine you receive.

By conditioning the mind and establishing a healthy attitude toward medical treatment you increase your odds for recovery. Furthermore, you reduce the severity of treatment side effects and in doing so you enhance your quality of life.

Find a hypnotherapist in your local community, one who has experience with cancer. Schedule a session with him or her a day or two before your scheduled medical treatment. This is the best way to Integrate Immersive Healing and, in particular, hypnosis into your established medical cancer treatment.

If you can’t find a local hypnotherapist or simply do not feel the connection with him or her find someone online. Although this will not be my first choice, some work can be done online via Skype for example. You can always contact me for more information, I am happy to help in any way.

Working with hypnosis, you will prepare your mind and also your body (remember the body follows the mind when it comes to healing) for that treatment; this allows your mind and body to accept the healing that the particular treatment has to offer, which, in turn, can make that treatment more effective.

In summary hypnosis can help you attain the best possible frame of mind with which you can meet the many challenges of treatment with ease; it can help you feel more grounded, more centered and much less worried about any treatment you may need. All in all you will feel more ready for that treatment, mentally and physically. If you feel ready for your treatment and can approach it with a calm state of mind, the chances are that the treatment will be able to work its particular type of healing more effectively.

pros and cons alternative cancer

Top Pros & Cons for Alternative Cancer Treatments

More and more cancer patients supplement their medical treatment with Complimentary Alternative Cancer treatments. This is a growing trend and if you act responsibly a very blessed one.
alternative cancer treatment

The purpose of this blog post is to shed light on Immersive Healing. The more insight into the working of IH and the more aware you are of the benefit it offers the more likely you are to integrate it into your medical treatment plan.

Immersive Healing Pros

1. Immersive healing (IH) is a safe, effective and non-invasive therapeutic intervention designed to identify and heal the subconscious mental patterns that influenced and produced the conditions within the body that facilitated the growth of cancer. This is the vital, first step towards healing.
2. Immersive healing is holistic, meaning that it is drugless, non-invasive and painless. There is no need for recovery time, no painful side effects to the treatment, no worries about becoming dependent on medication and no need to stay in hospital or take large amounts of time out from your regular schedule.

3. Immersive healing is empowering because you, yourself, become an active rather than passive, part of the healing process. It gives you back a sense of control over the treatment you may need and over the cancer itself. It helps you to feel that you are involved.

4. Immersive healing allows you to address negative emotional states of mind that may have been with you, either consciously or subconsciously, for a long period of time – maybe throughout most of your life. It can help to remove the burden caused by these harmful emotions which aggravate your internal mental and physical environment. In doing so IH helps preventing the reoccurrence of illness.

Immersive Healing Cons

1. Hypnosis, which is the therapeutic vehicle of Immersive Healing, has negative connotations for many people. This is because hypnosis is a much-misunderstood form of treatment. The kind of hypnosis seen on television or stage shows has nothing to do with the kind of hypnosis utilized in Immersive Healing. These misconceptions about hypnosis may prevent some people from seeking the type of help that Immersive Healing offers and enjoy its benefits.

2. Quite simply, although hopefully this is something that is set to change, not many people know about Immersive Healing as an effective, therapeutic form of healing for cancer. We know that there is more to cancer than what the doctors can see, touch, remove or burn. Therefore, it stands to reason that cancer is something we need to treat from every possible angle.

can mood cause cancer

Can Our Mood Affect Our Cancer

Mood and CancerOne of the first things I do when I meet a potential client is assess their point of view and their outlook on life. I listen to the way in which they speak, I am looking for indications that can tell me something about that person’s attitude, mainly if they still have hope or whether their will to live has diminished.

Finding these things out, I believe, is very important. This is because the way in which we view the world – our outlook on life – affects not only our health but also our ability to heal. If we have a generally negative attitude towards life, we may be more susceptible to becoming ill in the first place and our ability to bounce back from illness, to heal, recover and thrive, may also be impaired.

When we talk about a person’s outlook on life we really are looking at the concept of the glass half full or the glass half empty – the whole doughnut or just the hole. There are numerous studies that validate the theory that our emotions can play a part in our health. When we talk about illness versus health, we may also be talking about pessimism versus optimism – and how these two emotions can affect, for better or for worse, the course of cancer.

According to studies, the bottom line is that optimists do seem to live both longer and better lives when compared to pessimists. Optimists also cope much better with any medical treatment they may need, with the side effects of the treatment and overall they heal faster.

What we learn from these studies is that in order to enhance our immune system and become more resilient we need to develop a positive mental attitude.

But what exactly is a positive mental attitude? Is it simply a matter of thinking more positively more often? Or is there more to it? You may be wondering how easy it really is to ‘switch on’ a positive mental attitude if you have recently been diagnosed with cancer…the answer is it can be done but it’s not as easy as many guru’s are making it seem.

The truth is that the whole concept of ‘positive mental attitude’ is much more complex than forcing yourself to think more positively and it is important to understand that it’s a concept that can backfire. Of course, it is impractical for most people to suddenly force themselves to think positively, never mind sustain that feeling, especially when they are facing a life-threatening health condition. After all, what is more precious than our health?

We need to consider the concept of positive thinking more carefully. Our outlook and attitudes are functions of what is known as the conditioning process – this is the lifelong learning process where we learn about ourselves, the world around us and how we function in that world.

Much of what we think has been gathered via this conditioning process, so if you have a negative outlook and you feel that you want to blame yourself for not being ‘more positive’, please stop the blame right now. It is entirely unrealistic to expect that you can change thought patterns that you may have held for years overnight, or that you can erase your past at the click of your fingers. Of course, it cannot be that simple.

You can, however, change your perspective and your perception of the past, but this is something that takes time and that you will need support and help with. Hypnotherapy is, I believe, the perfect modality for helping us to do this. With the right professional help, you can change your mental conditioning. You can learn how to develop a more positive outlook on life that will be both productive in terms of influencing your health for the better as well as being sustainable. This is because in hypnotherapy we work in the realm of the subconscious mind, rather that the conscious part of the mind that in general psychotherapy engages.

Remember, you do not have to be a saint to overcome illness, but you do have to be prepared to take action and become proactive in your own healing.

Please share with us what worked for you or what is working for you?

hypnosis for cancer nausea

Hypnosis for Cancer and Chronic Illness

Hypnosis has long been an ally in the healing of cancer, but not all forms of hypnosis are equally effective. In a nutshell, there are two types of hypnosis protocols practitioners utilize; Direct Suggestion and Regression Therapy.

hypnosis for cancer

a beautiful mind by Laura , Netherlands

The kind of hypnosis that most people are familiar with is known as Direct Suggestion hypnosis – this is very often used to help people overcome fears and phobias, change certain unproductive behaviors or to give up bad habits such as smoking for example.

Immersive Healing as prescribed in my book The New Cancer Paradigm utilizes a specific hypnotic protocol called Regression-to-Cause. This is an advanced and more demanding protocol. To successfully employ Regression to Cause for illness such as cancer, the facilitator must have extensive experience and insight into the working of the emotional subconscious mind. He or she must be able to facilitate the release of emotions buried long ago and work for the most part intuitively. This perhaps is the reason why very few practitioners in the US offer this service.

Direct Suggestion is mostly effective in the arena of harmful habitual thinking and changing the behavior that follows; Regression-to-Cause is effective in the arena of chronic thinking and distorted perceptions and changing their harmful effect in the body i.e. illness.

Direct Suggestion require little or no active participation from the client, he or she are guided into trance state where their mind and attention are focused. While in this state of mind, the therapist direct positive suggestions and statements to their subconscious mind in order to sow the seeds that will encourage new ways of thinking and feeling and that will lead to the desired outcome for that client.

Regression to Cause requires a great deal of participation from the client. It recalls life events for the purpose of reliving and re-perceiving them. It is like looking at a snapshot from your life as if it was a postcard and then be able to step into the scenery as if back-then is right-now. This level of immersion creates authenticity. Authenticity creates change in real time. Any change made in the Mind will produce a corresponding change within the Body.

The main difference between the two types of hypnosis is that regression to cause hypnosis gives us deeper access to the subconscious mind. It allows us to identify, resolve and heal any harmful mental patterns that may have affected the body’s immune system and can, therefore, help us to revive the body’s immune response. This is particularly helpful for cancer because a strong, healthy immune system means a stronger, healthier defense system.

Because it addresses deep-rooted emotions and identifies their causes, regression to cause hypnosis is what we can describe as the ‘heavy guns’ of hypnosis. Regression to cause hypnosis differs from direct suggestion hypnosis in that it allows us to really get to the bottom of the harmful mental patterns, or as Dr. Deepak Chopra call them The Non Physical Aspects of Illness that produced the illness. Not only does this mean that a person may increase their chances of healing, but also that they may prevent cancer from reoccurring.

guided imagery for cancer patients book

Guided Imagery for Cancer help Overcome the Fear of Cancer Diagnosis

guided imagery for cancer

You are not alone.

A cancer diagnosis gives the word “Illness” a whole new meaning. We’ve all have been ill at one point or another in our lives, the flue or chicken pokes etc… it was part of growing up.

This is what illness meant to us and we knew we are going to survive because our parents and care takers constantly reassured us that “these too shall pass’. They broadcasted that message with confident and certainty and we believed them. But all this has changed with a cancer diagnosis. Now you can hardly hear anyone say anything with confidence or certainty. Now the voices of loved ones are filled with fear.

In the case of cancer, more than any other illness fear is the underlying soundtrack. Our conversations, our outlook and even our body posture are needlessly affected by it. I say needlessly because fear is simply an outcome, a result, it is an emotional response to our perception of cancer. If you take the time to look closely at that perception you will find it is outdated or fueled by snippets of stories from long ago.

We become fearful for the following two reasons:

1. We perceive a situation to be painful, dangerous or difficult.

2. We don’t believe we have the resources to cope.

The first item is all about perception and the second all about belief.
The good news is:

a. We can change our perception by reevaluating the source of information.

b. We can change our belief about our ability to cope by reevaluating our inner resources.

Such reevaluation on a regular basis will inevitably lead to change and the dissolution of fear.

Changing what we perceive as the truth or what we believe about ourselves is neither easy of comfortable. Yet, it is our way of making a stand and support our body in its effort to heal. Our perceptions are based on our beliefs and  beliefs are just thoughts we’ve repeated over and over again until they became our truth.

If we used this model to form our beliefs in the past we can do it again, this time the right way. Sure it takes work but it is our health that we support. The fastest way to form new beliefs is repetition. Choose a thought that represent your ideal scenario or condition and repeat it to yourself over and over again for a few weeks. My preferred method is to listen to audio tracks such as the one you can find in my Guided Imagery for Cancer CD but there are other recordings available.

Ultimately, this recording and others aim to focus your attention away from fearful thoughts so you can break free from them. In the Guided Imagery for Cancer CD, the soundtrack is enhanced by empowering messages that will help you summon the courage to cope with fear while changing your beliefs.

The remedy for fear is courage and we must summon the courage to break free from cultural, social or personal beliefs about illness and self. The online dictionary defines Courage as. The quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear.

There is more to courage than that.  It is not only facing the danger and pain without fear, but despite it.  And in the context of illness, courage will help us recognize that illness much like fear is an outcome and a result. Illness has both a purpose and a meaning, that through illness we are provided with an opportunity to grow and become more than we currently are.

Courage is prerequisite for healing. Stories of courage bring light, inspire and uplift our spirit. Please share yours…