Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Doctors, do you know about hypnosis?

I have given up the idea of sleeping...at least for tonight. Maybe it is true that as one gets older, one needs less sleep?

And so, while waiting for the kettle to wake up, I shall continue my diatribe about doctors.

Paul had some good advice yesterday about handling referrals.

After attending last year's NGH conference, it seemed to be stressed, particularly by the doctors, that we should let them know if we are working with one of their patients and give them a follow up. I totally respect this, as this is how they work with their medical peers. However, this leads to a few problems. Many of my clients say they mention to their doctors that they want to try hypnosis. Several have reported that the doctors often look at hypnosis as a crack-pot remedy (still?). Now to me this just speaks of an uneducated, over-worked-with seeing-the-pharmaceuticals or surgical instrument sales people. Sorry. Transparent enough, for you? Now for those of you doctors who do recommend concepts like hypnosis, good for you. You have my complete respect (and positive thoughts).

Now I do understand that doctors provide their own form of healing, which is why we go to them traditionally. Hypnosis may not even be on their radar, and that is fine as well (I cannot speak about all the minutia involving prescriptions). All that I am saying is that if your patient, my potential client, feels this might be a positive step in their wellness, do not just disregard it along with the snake oils. Rather than doing them a disservice and making them feel small for the suggestion, try looking into it as an option for your patient.

Well, shoot. My tea is ready and I am spent.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I made a comment in the recent past (hell I make a lot of 'em all the time, duh) about how it seems as if every single time I turn on the TV I see what I call "YANDD" - Yet Another New Damned Drug. I mean this is totally ridiculous in my opinion. I'm not disparaging the medical community at large, so don't take that as such.

But to see a new drug nearly every day on TV, or in the print media (magazines, etc), it's getting out of hand. Medicine can't fix everything, and their simply can't be a drug for every situation either.

Got restless legs? Wham, here's a yet another new damned drug for you - and failing to mention eating bananas will help resolve it and it's totally natural, but nooo.. people would rather have a Doctor say "Here, take this pill." I've got restless legs, I always have since birth. Think I'm gonna take some pill for it? Nope.

And I've met lots of Doctors of all fields in my time and unless they have specific training and firsthand experience with hypnosis directly in their background, you get almost the same reaction as we discussed and commented on in one of your earlier postings, Ellie: that blank stare for just a brief moment then the open ended statement in hushed tones: "A hypnotist, huh."

Kinda sad in this day and age that hypnosis still has such a negative stigma attached to it, even in the professional community at large. Bleh. Ignorance isn't bliss, it's just stupid, period.

Have fun, always...
Paul

The Transparent Hypnotist said...

Exactly!!!

You know, I had one doctor who had a pill for everything (I am hearing "White Rabbit" in the background. LOL) and boy did she get upset when I told her I wouldn't take a new one and wanted to try alternative methods. Wow.I got reamed out on that one. SO,I have a new doctor,who so far is more open to non-drug treatments,but I suppose she is rare. It may have also helped that I went into the first appointment as was straight with her, that I was not so keen on pills unless totally needed.

Anonymous said...

The only time I'll take meds of any kind is for toothache pain, and recently I ended up having 3 of 'em in a row (next to each other) extracted in the same session sooooo...

Actually, after the procedure it never hurt once, even over the days after it happened, and I barely touched the Rx they provided. Hmmm... hadn't thought about that till just now. Interesting.

But yeah, it does follow the old maxim of "It's more profitable to treat a disease than to cure it" mentality. The problem is most people don't need curing - they just need a change of mind.

Have fun, always...
Paul