Self Harm and Hypnotherapy
One of the saddest issues I work with is the issue of emotional repression which manifests itself in the form of self harm. Many people do not realise that people who self harm do so for the emotional release through the physical pain. Sufferers do not feel about to express their emotion in what would be considered a healthy manner, so they hurt themselves in order to release it through the pain. There can be many reasons for the inability to express emotion, but that is for another article.
Hypnotherapy is useful for many things, but one thing that it is particularly useful for is being able to practise things in the safety of the trance state. Very often this mental rehearsal is used to work through physical restrictions for sports or mental rehearsal to overcome mental blockages for success or to overcome anxiety or phobia. For self harmers, the hypnotic state is used as a method of rehearsing the expression and release of emotion. This allows the client to discover ways in which these can be expressed without harming themselves physically which often leads to psychological and emotional harm.
When handled sensitively, it is possible for a client to overcome a lifetime of self harm and becoming more emotionally intelligent and resilient.
