Use any good induction and deepener, preferably suited to the client’s personality type. Then:
… all right, now you’re lying there so relaxed, I want you just to think for a few moments about that pain… just let you mind observe it in a detached sort of way… so that it causes little discomfort… far less discomfort than you are actually used to, in fact… and I wonder if you can now put a color to that pain? Just tell me what color that pain would be, if it were to have a color…
Wait for client response. Prompt if necessary: Is it maybe a sort of red color? Pain is often a sort of red color… or maybe it’s a bright yellow… many of my clients have told me that it’s a bright yellow color… (The ‘many of my clients’ statement is subconsciously reassuring to your client)
… good, well done… so it’s a sort of . . . . . . . . . color…. I’ll bet you never thought of that pain as having a color before… now, here’s something similar for you to think about… I want you to imagine what sort of color would be there, if there wasn’t any pain… just let your mind think about that for a moment or two… what sort of color might be there is there was no pain, just comfort… just comfort where the pain used to be… what sort of color is that… where the pain used to be…?”
Wait for response. Prompt if necessary: Could it be a sort of green, perhaps? Or maybe more like a blue. A lot of people see their comfort color as a sort of blue color… but perhaps you have your own healing color….
…good… you’re really clever at putting colors to feelings, aren’t you? I bet you didn’t know you could do that before today… now, what sort of color would we get if we mixed your pain color with your comfort color? (assist if necessary) Right. So if we manage to get some of your pain dissolving into that healing color, we should get . . . . . . . right?
Wait for response.
Ok, I’ll tell you what we’re going to do…
Here, you have to use your own skills to decide what’s best. A lotion or gel that can be repeatedly applied, a ‘special’ bowl or bath where ‘healing fluid’ can pour from the taps, a tub of healing balm, a big tube of penetrating ointment… whatever will work best for the particular client. I frequently ask how they would prefer their ‘healing compound’ to be – this is very effective, since it is their own imagination we are having to work with. The example of a tub that I have used here is effective for many things.
So we have a huge tub of that healing gel… and don’t worry, because there’s plenty more if we need it… but just for the moment, I want you to imagine plunging you hand into that tub of gel and taking a really big handful of it… can you feel that in your hand? Is it warm or cool?… good… now, in your mind, just rub that gel gently into (affected area)… can you see it changing color? It’s changing to (whatever color has been decided), right?… now, you can feel the pain steadily diminishing… ok, that’s good… now, in your mind, just rinse that gel away with cool clear water… just rinsing away the pain that used to be in your body… doesn’t that feel good!… right, now let’s do all that again… just grab another handful of that gel and gently rub it into (affected area)… now, what’s happening this time? The color is changing far more slowly, right? That’s because there is far less pain there now to change the color… and next time, I bet, the color will hardly change at all…
Repeat the process as necessary. Eventually your client should report that there seems to be no pain left – or that any pain left is so diminished that it’s of no great consequence. Where there is resistance and the client insists that the pain is not diminishing at all, then you need to search out the hidden agenda/secondary gain that is definitely in operation.
Good, you did that beautifully, really well… isn’t the power of the subconscious amazing, once you learn how to communicate with it? Now, you will be able to do that whenever you need to… just relax yourself as much as you can (teaching self-hypnosis is almost an essential here) then do exactly the same thing that we’ve done today… and do you know, each time you do that, the benefit will last even longer!
All right, now it’s time to bring the session to an end, just knowing that tub of healing gel is always there for you, whenever you need it….
END SESSION.
It’s sometimes beneficial to give the ‘healing fluid/balm/gel’ some analgesic quality, or a special ingredient that changes the quality of the pain to one that is perfectly tolerable. Use whatever your client gives you to work with; if you use the product of their imagination as much of the time as you can, there will be greater benefit.
I sometimes even ask my client what sort of treatment they wished existed – in other words, to invent their own ‘miracle cure’. In this way, you will tap into their inner resources – often more effective for them than yours might be. If necessary, attempt to guide them toward external treatments, otherwise the color change principle is more difficult to employ.