The huge number of things that can help us during and after a cancer diagnosis can be overwhelming – not to mention the many medical and holistic treatments available to help make this healing journey more comfortable and less stressful. I often find this huge range of options is the reason why hypnotherapy is forgotten – and it’s so powerful and transformative, particularly for cancer patients.
You may already be familiar with my work as a holistic oncology specialist and integrative physiotherapist, and what you may not know is that I am also trained in hypnotherapy and NLP. I became fascinated with mindset work after I discovered how empowering and life-changing it can be for myself, and then began to see remarkable outcomes for my clients, too.
When we’re facing cancer, there can be understandably many different fears, anxieties and limiting beliefs at play which undoubtedly make the experience much harder to navigate both emotionally and physically. I find that hypnotherapy can be a really versatile and accessible way to gently and effectively deal with negative emotions and unhelpful beliefs which leave us stuck and struggling at a time when we really need to feel empowered.
Here I’ve shared a few of the more specific ways hypnotherapy can help during or after cancer treatment:
Feel calmer during treatment
Various emotional factors can affect us when we’re living alongside cancer, especially the uncertainty and apprehension we can feel surrounding the unknown (or perhaps previously experienced) fears when accessing treatment. When facing a diagnosis of cancer and the cancer treatment pathway, it’s normal to have a lot of thoughts and worries running through your mind. In particular the thought of medical intervention and the anxiety over what it entails and an unpredictable outcome or future prognosis can play on your mind or cause you to feel more worked up and worried prior to treatments.
Hypnotherapy is wonderful for this – used in a targeted way to help you feel calmer and more comfortable and confident before each appointment or prior to a course of treatment beginning. Because hypnotherapy helps to address underlying beliefs which may be triggering stress, anxiety and panic prior to treatment, it can bring lasting change and relief.
Support with phobias
Phobias not only cause us a lot of additional distress – they can also impact upon our cancer treatment and I particularly use hypnosis for clients who are needle phobic, or have claustrophobia and struggle to get into an MRI scan, or have radiotherapy to the head and neck area (which sometimes requires having to wear a special mask that is bolted down to the bed) as well as to encourage the body to be in the best possible state for healing - feeling calm with a regulated nervous system during cancer treatments.
Soothe stress
Hypnotherapy is widely recognised as a particularly effective treatment when dealing with situational stress, or stress with specific triggers. Many patients seek out hypnotherapy support or help them to cope with the emotional impact of living with cancer, and both the medical stress cancer brings and support to deal with the uncertainty and understandable anxiety of the situation. Hypnotherapy can help us to deal with your concerns in a targeted way, without having to discuss them at length (which can sometimes trigger more feelings of worry and helplessness). Studies have shown that hypnosis can be effective for many different aspects of the cancer journey, from pre-treatment nerves and stress (as above), work and financial worries and family concerns. It can also help us not to fixate on the outcomes and future events we can’t control.
Support healing
Mindset plays a huge role in our recovery – in fact, many people don’t yet fully appreciate or understand the important link between body and mind and our overall health. Emerging research shows that stress management techniques in particular, including hypnotherapy, can help us to feel better and even thrive at all stages of the cancer journey, including diagnosis, treatment and remission.
On a physical level when we are stressed, most of our essential bodily systems shut down or don’t work as efficiently as they could, including our immune system and digestive system. Studies have also shown that patients with lower stress levels tend to have better outcomes from treatment and improved quality of life. When we have an optimistic outlook and truly believe we can get better, we tend to not only have a better experience and a more positive result. This is easier said than done, which is why techniques such as hypnotherapy can be incredibly powerful and help you to heal on different levels through working with the unconscious mind. An increasing amount of research is revealing how transformational hypnotherapy (and other healing modalities) can be to soothe both emotional and physical distress – and it has even been shown to offer mild pain relief.
When facing a diagnosis of cancer and going through treatment, maintaining a positive mindset is absolutely easier said than done without specialist support. If you’d like to learn more about my dedicated empathic hypnotherapy practice, cancer coaching or NLP support, please click here to book a clarity call or get in touch for a no-obligation chat tailored to your needs: www.physiocareholistics.co.uk
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