I Tried Hypnosis for My Low-Back Pain (feat. Dr. David Spiegel)

so I have some low back pin we we were chatting about this before we started recording is there a particular approach that you might recommend one or in this case I start with in a case like this sure yeah we can try it if you want yeah dumb game your game absolutely game all right how would you rate your pain right now on a 0o to 10 scale I'd say it's a two out of 10 it's it's more of a a bothersome yeah and is there a physical remedy that helps you with it a worm

bad there are foam rolling say the like performers and glutes and so on does help using soaz releas tends to help just laying on my stomach honestly with my hands under my pelvis M to take all the activity out of the spinal Erectors helps MH okay those are a few things like laying down on my stomach and breathing into the back to relax the spinal Erectors I would say as one thing that seems to help well that seems like a vivid image and tempure things don't make much difference they temperature if I do say a

cold a cold bath and then a hot bath just contrast therapy like that that seems to help okay that feeling of cold tissue vasod dilating when I get into the hot bath that type of like prickly sensation of being sort of perused with blood that that's something I associate I would say with feeling better feeling better so part of what you're doing is reinterpreting the signals you're getting in a different way so let's try it if you want see sure so get as comfortable as you can on one please do one thing look up all

the way up high as you can two do two things slowly close your eyes and take a deep breath and three do three things let the breath out let your eyes relax but keep them closed and let your body float imagine you're floating somewhere safe and comfortable like a bath a lake a hot tub or floating in space and then take your right hand and stroke the back of your left hand starting with the tip of your left middle finger or you can put it on the table that might be better now stroke the back

of your left middle finger down along the back of your left hand past your wrist to your elbow and as you do that that's good develop a sense of tingling and numbness and lightness and let your left hand float up in the air like a balloon feel the tingling that's good and let it float up you bend your elbow and you can rest your arm lightly on the table and please describe what physical Sensations you're aware of now in your left hand and arm feel my heartbeat in my palm mhm okay little bit of I

can feel the hair on the back of my arm touching the sleeve that I rolled up good and I'm going to give you this instruction if you pull your hand back down to the table with your right hand and then let go it will float right back up to the upright position just see what happens that's good so you're putting it down now let go I see you smiling what's happening well there's h i mean it feels like it's floating number one I'm Al kind of second guessing myself cuz I wonder if I'm doing this

to conform to the exercise if that makes sense but it feels like it's floating okay yeah and as you do that let your left hand remain upright later when I ask you to touch your left elbow with your right hand and then let go your usual sensation and control will return okay right now I want you to notice Sensations in your back what does your back feel like right now the part it's usually painful yeah it feels relaxed right now good more relaxed yeah good good how would you rate the discomfort level right now on

that 0 to 10 scale five one out of 10 one out of 10 5 to one okay good so already notice how you've been able to change sensation not just in a neutral part of your body your left hand and arm but in a part that has been problematic and I want you to imagine now that you're lying on your belly maybe with a roll under you and feel the pleasant tingling numbness in your lower back as if it were cooler or warmer or you were changing it from warmer to cooler feel a pleasant tingling

numbness and let it filter the hurt out of the pain each breath deeper and easier now I again with your eyes closed and remaining in the state of concentration please describe how your body is feeling right now how my body is feeling yeah it does feel cooler good feels a little dissociated uhhuh makes sense like can you describe that a little more hm what did I describe to the dissociation feel like it's very similar to two two t Tequilas or there you go or low dose of of ketamine which I don't recommend but I mean

as a dissociative anesthetic I've always struggled to put words to the dissociative experience there's a lightness and there's a conscious awareness of the body without being as identified with the body exactly so you can observe it but it feels different M and would it be fair to say that it's not as annoying as it usually is it's not as annoying good so notice how you're able to filter a lot of the discomfort and displeasure out of the usual pain situation by detaching from it MH by experiencing it differently it's not uh kind of a sentence

you have to endure it's a sensation your body is giving you that you can interpret in different ways now for people who might wonder if this is compartmentalizing in a way that is long-term harmful I'm not saying that's what it is but is this just taking a different Vantage Point how would you encourage them to think about this yes I would say it's reinterpreting the sensations and signals that you're getting from that part of your body and you're uncoupling them from the usual sense of annoyance and limitation that tends to actually make it worse oh

100% makes it worse yeah and instead you're saying okay it's there I don't like it but it's not bad and that capacity to reframe to reprocess the signal is a powerful way of better managing pain MH you're filtering the hurt out of the pain now please take your right hand and touch your left elbow and then let go and see what happens to your left hand an arm yeah just more movement is more forthcoming uhhuh good it's that's surprising is it yeah I was noticing how like my fingers got kind of got frozen in this

position I thought that was interesting not not making too much out of it but I was like H all right you can let it float back down now and how's your left hand and arm feeling now normal normal good normal so you were able to change sensation in both directions and how's your lower back feeling now feels really good actually yeah so terrific that's I'm very glad that's great so thank you for that you're welcome where do you get my [Applause] [Laughter] bill