How Can Trauma Informed Hypnotherapy Help With PTSD?

U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs states that about 12 million adults in the U.S. have PTSD in any given year and about 6% of the population will experience PTSD at some point in their lives.

The numbers say it all; PTSD is a significant issue that affects millions of people every year. The truth is one of those people could be you or someone around you. 

Recently, trauma-informed approaches have been found to be helpful in treating patients with PTSD. Trauma informed therapy is not a specific form of therapy but rather, it is an approach that can be tailored to different therapeutic methods.

Trauma informed hypnotherapy is a powerful approach. When used in conjunction with therapy, it can provide wonderful results to address trauma subconsciously. The process of trauma informed hypnotherapy can be long, hurtful, or revealing at times but in the end, it can also deliver long-term relief.

What does Trauma-Informed mean?

Trauma informed care is a relatively new term that entered health care. In a nutshell, it means that clinicians account for patients’ past and present situations while helping them heal. In a way, trauma informed care means tailoring the therapy to the patient and acknowledging the effects of trauma on the person.

One powerful definition of Trauma-informed is from an article from Psychology Today: “becoming aware of trauma's many personal and societal consequences, anticipating how trauma survivors may respond to our words and actions, and doing our part to create a world that does not cause further harm.”

What is PTSD?

PTSD, (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) is a mental health disorder that can develop after a traumatic or life threatening event. It is a fairly new diagnosis as it was recognized following the Vietnam war.

Veterans are not the only ones who are affected by PTSD. Adverse childhood events, witnessing trauma, learning about traumatic events that occurred, or repeated exposure to details of the events can lead to PTSD as well.  

Oftentimes, we don’t even allow ourselves to accept the fact that we may be struggling with PTSD unless we had an extremely traumatic event. However, things like neglect, losing a loved one, or even witnessing trauma can affect us just as much.

Trauma informed hypnotherapy can help with healthy integration of emotions subconsciously.

What is Trauma Informed Hypnotherapy?

Just like other therapy methods, hypnotherapy can be trauma informed as well. Hypnosis is already a very powerful state to integrate negative events subconsciously. With the support of the trauma informed approach, hypnotherapy can be even more helpful!

Trauma informed hypnotherapy can feel like:

·      Safe; creating emotional and physical safety

·      Empowering

·      Honest and transparent

·      Considering individual’s unique perspectives

·      Prioritizing client’s safety by working with licensed mental health professionals

How can Trauma Informed Hypnotherapy help with PTSD?

Internal Sense of Safety

One of the best practices of hypnosis that can help with PTSD is the inner sense of safety. People who were exposed to trauma often get stuck in survival mode and it’s difficult for them to feel safe in their body and external environment.

A hypnotic state creates a positive internal focus. When this is coupled with a sense of peace and calmness, the mind is slowly trained to shift from survival mode to rest and digest mode.

Rebuilding Memories

During hypnosis the mind is calm and the body is relaxed. In the state of hypnosis, the mind and body remain in a positive state even if the person has flashbacks of triggering thoughts or images.

This is why hypnotherapy can be really powerful to reconstruct and process traumatic memories. During hypnosis, we can work on associating neutral feelings to the thoughts, memories, people, or images that used to trigger in the past.

Empowerment

Trauma usually leaves individuals feeling helpless and threatened. This leads to a state where the focus is on surviving and self-doubt. Therefore, to fully recover from trauma, it’s very crucial to help individuals build a sense of self-assurance and confidence.

Hypnosis is a powerful state to get in touch with our inner resources. Subconsciously, we all have virtues and internal mechanisms that can help us recover. With hypnotherapy, we recreate a strong bond with our inner resources and we can leave feeling empowered.

Release of Negative Patterns

As a result of trauma, to survive, we end up adopting some patterns and beliefs that assist to survive at the moment. These are necessary for us to keep living even tough the trauma. However, these adoptive strategies can be very toxic during recovery.

Substance abuse, negative habits, or toxic relationships are just a few examples of adopting behaviors. The truth is, they don’t belong to the journey of recovery and healing.

Hypnotherapy is very powerful to change habits and reprogram the subconscious mind. With the help of hypnosis, we can replace toxic patterns and beliefs with healthier and positive ones.

Wrapping Up

Trauma informed hypnotherapy can be a powerful approach leading to long-term healing. It is important to work with a professional who is experienced and trained in the area of PTSD as well as trauma informed approach.