This case involves a 30 year old female who was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia at the age of 24. Since then her quality of life has been in consistent decline. Because she was in constant pain she gradually reduced her range of motion to about 25% of what would be seen as normal, and that greatly limited they type of work she could do.
As with all cases that involve genuine pain management with hypnosis, I require a referral from a qualified doctor who can make a diagnosis. In this case the doctor who had initially diagnosed her with Fibromyalgia had retired and I needed a referral from a practicing doctor. As a result I suggested a local doctor who could make both the diagnosis and referral for hypnotherapy to treat the symptoms. Once that was done we started straight into therapy.
As with all Fibromyalgia cases I work as part of a team. The other two team members include a massage therapist who sees the client directly after hypnotherapy. What they do is dig out any trigger points and relax the constricted muscles that were symptomatic of Fibromyalgia.
The third member of the team is a Chiropractor. What the Chiropractor does is realign whatever was pulled out of position as a result of the constricted muscles. This is done immediately after massage therapy to get the best results. Between the pain, constricted muscles, and joints out of proper natural alignment, collectively the all feed the symptoms of Fibromyalgia.
Typically the therapy runs for 12 sessions over 21 weeks. At the start of the therapy pain is removed with hypnosis. This happens surprisingly fast once the actual hypnosis starts. Usually in a matter of 5 to 10 minutes all pain is gone. In many cases the person actually falls asleep because it is the first time they were pain free in years. The background pain if you would was constant and the body was in constant battle just to endure it causing prolonged fatigue.
In the case of this client after the initial 3 sessions that are focused on removing the pain and getting her body use to being pain free again, she experienced a typical result. By the time the third session arrived she was already experiencing an increase in her range of motion and was only slowed by muscle atrophy.
Sessions 4 through 12 are focused on insuring there is no relapse and correcting the subconscious error from expecting pain to expecting no pain. The only concern I have a this point is clients overdoing it. When starting off at 100% disability to active sports by mid therapy, there is a real concern of causing an injury in a body that is not fully recovered and lacks proper muscle mass and flexibility as a result of prolonged inactivity. In the case of this client she was extremely happy her life came back on line but followed my instructions carefully not to overdo things. Having sex was fine but lifting and sports were things that had to be eased into. She was once very active in aerobics and fitness and she really had to fight the urge to just jump back into that activity.
In her case and totally an option as it is not part of the therapy, she had a friend who worked as a physiotherapist who helped her ease back into the physical activity she loved so much. I could see her desire to get back into doing all the things she did before the onset of Fibromyalgia, so throttling her back became part of her therapy.
By the end of the therapy she had experienced near 100% recovery and I felt the little bit that was left would return in about a month as it was mostly related to growing her muscles back and getting back to full range of motion. Because she was still relatively young being just 30 her level of recovery is typical baring other injuries like broken bones. A older client of about 50 may experience between 80% and 95% recovery. It all depends on how much abuse their body has experienced. Over 60 years there is no real way to say how much recovery would occur as normal age related conditions like arthritic pain are more common at that age, but certainly some improvement can be expected.