Hypnotherapy And Dissociation

[Deleted member 35429]

Anyone have experience with hypnotherapy for trauma?
I dissociate in therapy pretty much always. It's been 9 months. It is largely getting better but still difficult

Recently I was very dissociated in session and was afraid I couldn't walk or hardly talk. My therapist worked on a breathing exercise with me that held me in a deep trance and then seemed to wake me up pretty suddenly. I was so sedated from dissociation that I felt hypnotized. Part of my trauma is related to being unable to breathe and since this therapy session I have been unable to breath in a relaxed fashion. I constantly feel breatheless.

I feel like I need a professional hypnotherapist to 'go back in there' and undo what my therapist inadvertently did. I want to feel that deep trance again. And I want to feel safer when it's happening. And I want a hypnotherapist to help me learn how to breathe normally again instead of shallow breathing and then gasping for air.

Anyone here been hypnotized before? Doesn't it seem like dissociation is like a trance anyways? I feel I would be very easy to hypnotize...maybe then I could remember more details of what's happened.

 

[Seasounds]

I worked 2 years with a hypnotherapist. The biggest gift of hypnotherapy, was that it helped me learn how to relax my muscles and my defense mechanisms. Softening, I began to relate to my feelings and I began to relate to my truths, bit by bit, at my rate.

Fortunately this was done in a hypnotherapy style much akin to a relaxation technique which went at the rate that I, the patient, could stay associated to my material. That is the key.

Perhaps, ask your therapist to work at the rate that you have the skills that enable you to stay associated. Otherwise, you are being retraumatized, too much. (Yes there is often/always pain when opening memories, but it is best to go gently; faster is not better.)

The key to know that with hypnotherapy and hypnosis is that it is always about the patient choosing to follow the therapist's/hypnotist's instructions. Meaning, you have the ability to choose to make changes away from the session. Guiding and asking of yourself, what you want to do.

Surely, there is a difference, that when guided by someone else you or I may relax more, but it is imperative and realistic to know that the power of self, is yours, always. Otherwise, hypnotherapy is dis-empowering; the antithesis of healing PTSD, which bids an internal locus of control.

The other thing I can add is that memories open up in their own time, usually related to how safe and distant you are from the abuse, and (of course) from those unplanned triggers-family gatherings.

I left hypnotherapy with greater ability to listen to my body, and relate to and to my emotions. These served me well, as memories continued to surface for years later. I went on to work with other styles of therapy that helped me learn how to safely express anger, and how to think more assertively, build my self-esteem, and learn (from building trust through relating with a therapist) the skills of creating friends and community; still a work in progress.

Best to you!