Hypnosis for Multiple Sclerosis – An Alternative Therapy for MS

Before we begin to look at how hypnosis and neurolinguistic programming (NLP) work with multiple sclerosis (MS), let’s look at some interesting facts and statistics you might not have been aware of.

What is MS? Statistics and Facts

• The cause of MS is unknown.
• MS is thought to be an autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system. The current understanding is that T-cells cross the blood-brain barrier and attack the central nervous system. Both the myelin sheaths and underlying axons are damaged. It is not understood what triggers the breakthrough or the attack.
• It has been determined that it is not genetic (1-5% higher chance) but environmental. Many hypotheses exist about what might be contributing to the disease (EBV virus, Lyme bacteria, toxins, food sensitivities, vitamin D deficiency, stress, trauma, and adverse childhood experiences).
• One million people in the US have MS. Percentages are higher in Europe and Canada.
• Conventional medicine has been unable to find a cure, and current treatments only hope to reduce the number of exacerbations and slow down progression.

SYMPTOMS

No two people diagnosed with MS have the same symptoms.  They vary from double vision, speech and swallowing issues, muscle weakness, muscle spasms, slowed or inconsistent muscle response, heaviness, dropped foot, nerve pain, numbing and paralysis, fatigue (mild to drop dead MS sleeps), brain fog, chest compression (MS hugs), depression, bowel issues, and urinary issues (including urgency and frequency).

Some people experience progressive forms of MS, where symptoms progressively get worse with time though the majority (80%) experience relapsing & remitting forms where they have small or large exacerbations followed by complete or partial recovery.

It is not life-threatening but it does affect quality of life.

INTERESTING FACTS

• It is a chronic disease of young adults (20 – 40 years old).
• MS might be more than one disease.
• 80% diagnosed with MS are women and 20% are men. At the beginning of the 1900’s, the ratio was about one-to-one.
• MS is more common in first world countries (Canada is number one!!!) and especially in northern regions. It affects Caucasians more than minority groups. Interestingly, if you move to a first-world country when you are a child, you are just as likely to get MS as someone born in the country.
• Progression varies greatly! Myelin scaring is not directly correlated to the number of symptoms.
• 60% of those diagnosed do not need assistance walking and half of those never progress at all (yet the majority of those diagnosed perceive MS as a progressive disease that will only get worse).
• There are more than 20 different symptoms!
• MS symptoms can decrease, even disappear, in pregnancy

The 3 Areas to Address with Hypnotherapy (and NLP) for Multiple Sclerosis

“The symptoms are not the problem. They are pointing to the problem.”

Triggering Factors

People diagnosed with MS seemed to consistently experience a prolonged period of acute stressor prior to the onset of MS, what we will classify as “Triggering Factors.” Many find themselves in an environment, at home or work, where they are feeling stuck, “I want to get out of this, don’t know how so I keep pushing forward.”  Along with this prolonged period of feeling unable to escape and needing to continue to push forward no matter how hard things have become, there appears an unexpected and intense interpersonal stressor prior to the first symptoms of MS. For some people, symptoms occurred right after these two stressors, for others, they occurred up to 12 months after the issues were resolved. “Right when I was getting my life back together, I noticed my foot dragging.”

People diagnosed more than 20 years prior do not always recall stressful events prior to onset in conversation. Instead, they focus on “I want my life back.” However, a deep exploration of that period through regression therapy most often reveals the stressful environment (an economic downturn, a more stressful position at work, etc) and/or the unexpected interpersonal event.

In hypnosis for MS, we need to start with: Identifying these two SENSITIZING EVENT(S) (SE1 & SE2) prior to MS onset.

Psychology has a model for this stress combination – the Diathesis Stress Model of Disease – an ongoing stressful period (SE1) and a last straw event (SE2). This combination is thought to cause an increased allostatic load in the body creating the necessity for a biological change to the system = physical disease symptoms.

Note: Symptoms might have a delayed-onset making it easy for your client to not connect situations to their symptoms.

What techniques do you already know to explore these sensitizing events?

Predisposing Factors

Apart from exploring the triggering factors prior to the first symptoms to decrease their influence and to create resources for similar situations, it’s important to find the origins of the limiting beliefs, coping mechanisms, and emotional responses to the sensitizing events – THE INITIAL SENSITIZING EVENTS (ISE).

Goal: Create changes to those core beliefs, behaviors, and emotions and bring resources to their childhood and those involved. Bring those resources to the two incidents that happened before onset.

What techniques would you use to change the core beliefs, behaviors, and emotions at their origin? How do you anchor resources to their childhood and back to onset?

Reinforcing Factors 

A diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, with its poor prognosis and the fluctuation/worsening of symptoms, introduces a new SENSITIZING EVENT (SE3) and continual day-to-day triggers. These stressors are managed with the same set of original beliefs and behaviors.

Additionally, disease prognosis has challenged your client’s definition of self, sense of value in the world, and vision of the future.

Goal:

• Ameliorate the trauma of the diagnosis SE3.
• Cancel the negative beliefs regarding MS, symptoms and their body and anchor resources to their current day-to-day response to MS.
• Eliminate the automatic response of the body to experiences, things, and emotions that are similar to the SE1 & SE2.
• Create a new compelling healthy future self

What hypnosis and NLP techniques would you use for the diagnosis trauma?

What techniques would you apply for the belief of progression and fear of ending up in a wheelchair?

What would you use to reduce the automatic physical triggers/conditioned response? 

What process do you use to create a healthy, compelling future self?

Summary of Hypnosis for MS

You can support your client with hypnosis for MS by doing so much more than symptom management. In summary, you can:

(1) Explore the triggering events prior to the onset of their multiple sclerosis

(2) regress them to the initial sensitizing events and build new resources

(3) Bring these resources to the triggering event

(4) And to how they respond to their MS/symptoms now

(5) Eliminate the current physical trigger/conditioned response to similar experiences

(6) Ameliorate the belief of a dire prognosis

(7) create a compelling future (or these last two points can become obstacles to any significant improvement).