Over the course of treating hundreds of people suffering PSTD-type symptoms, myself and my colleagues at CatchPTSD.com have come to understand that anyone who uses hypnotherapy to tackle PTSD has to really want it to work – to be desperate for it to work.
I had begun to think that perhaps it was not hypnotherapy that was healing people, but just their sheer determination to get better, especially as I realised that those who did not feel their situation was desperate, often did not enjoy the same results. Maybe the hypnotherapy was a placebo and not doing anything at all, I thought. However, CatchPTSD.com therapists have come to realise, that is not what is going on at all.
PTSD and CPTSD is caused by emotional trauma. When we experience trauma, especially when we are young, we develop separate parts of us to cope with the hurt, upset and pain. When we encounter other traumas and stressful episodes, as we go through life, the parts get bigger, or more numerous, inside us.
Those parts work very hard to keep us safe. They might provoke a feeling of anxiety or fear in us so we avoid unknown, or unsafe, situations. They might create agoraphobia, claustrophobia, flight phobia, animal phobia – hyper vigilance – anything to stop us putting ourselves in positions of risk. Those same parts might create a physical pain somewhere in our body, or even seizures, to stop us going to work in a stressful environment, or engaging in a dangerous hobby. They may lead people to drink too much, or take substances, to avoid thinking about upsetting memories.
These protective mechanisms can begin to interfere in daily life, and may prompt someone to find a hypnotherapist to try to eradicate them. But the body is absolutely determined to keep those symptoms because they are serving a purpose. They are keeping the person safe. Not happy maybe, but safe. The parts of us like the status quo. So, the battle is set.
While the parts do want the person to understand what has gone before, and be sympathetic to the pain and fear, they are afraid what happens to their person if they find out the extent of the trauma they have suffered. That is the dichotomy of ego parts. The consequences of the symptoms continuing, have to be worse than the potential consequences of the person finding out exactly what happened. Our body can effectively repress memories, so we only have a hazy idea, or no idea at all, of something that hurt us. In short, the sufferer has to be absolutely desperate for change, feeling as if they can’t go on without it, so that the parts inside of them realise the protection mechanisms have gone too far – that they have to row back and release the person – otherwise he or she is at risk of losing everything.
If a person comes to a hypnotherapist saying, ‘Things are not that bad’, or ‘I quite like the way I am. People will just have to live with me’, or, ‘Yes, I drink too much but I wouldn’t say it is damaging my life,’ the parts inside of them are listening. Those parts will take those words as justification that nothing needs to change, that the status quo is fine. Their person does not sound desperate or in need.
While the person may still enjoy hypnosis sessions, and achieve some relaxation and relief, the parts will not release the vice-like grip on that person, and symptoms will continue. The hypnotherapist can try as much as they like to eliminate the symptoms, but it won’t work. It will be a battle between the hypnotherapist and the parts, which the parts will win. Every time.
Hypnotherapy is ‘hostage negotiation meets couples counseling.’ If you truly wish to eliminate PTSD-type symptoms, you have to be desperate for it to work, and determined to see it through until it does. You have to be ready to learn things about yourself which have caused those symptoms in you. You have to be an archaeological investigator – a detective – and the hypnotherapist will work with you to uncover all the information you need to understand. But the chief driver and the chief negotiator in the process will be you.
Your motivation and desire is what will make hypnotherapy eliminate your PTSD symptoms. There are no half measures to this therapy.
CATCH 