Is Psoriasis an angry mans
game?
By: Paul Howard
For nearly 10 years I’ve been using
hypnotherapy to help clients with Psoriasis. I have noticed
three particular personality traits that seem common to most
clients I see. But more of that later…
When I first started working with clients who had Psoriasis, I
conducted a study into the effectiveness of hypnotherapy on the
condition. Initially I didn’t expect too much, however the
results were staggering.
Before I started I spoke at length with a psychiatrist and a
psychologist, neither of whom believed there was any mind body
connection to the condition, and therefore hypnotherapy would
have no effect on Psoriasis.
In fact I recently worked with a psychiatrist with Psoriasis
and even he didn’t believe that the mind could have any effect
on the condition, yet he came to me for help with his
Psoriasis.
Once started however, each client in the study had to commit to
seeing me for up to 12 weeks, and they had to have a PASI form
completed by their GP at the beginning, and 3 months after the
start of the study. (A PASI form is simply a method of
recording the severity of the clients’ Psoriasis. It measures
coverage, thickness and redness, which gave a benchmark before
the work began.)
A number of the GPs poured scorn on the study, stating quite
clearly that their patient was wasting their time. An
interesting thing for them to say, given they had no solution
and very little help to offer at the time. Some of them had to
eat their words.
The participants in the study were all treated free of charge
and none were paid, unless the GP charged to complete the PASI
form, and then only their costs were covered. There were other
conditions, such as for the past year they had not used any
drug treatments for their Psoriasis, (apart from moisturising
creams), prior to the start of the hypnotherapy study.
During the study it came to my attention that there were three
distinct personality traits that many of the participants
shared. The most significant being anger.
The anger was very common. I would say over 90% of the
participants had this deep routed and very noticeable anger.
However, the anger was surprisingly not always about the
Psoriasis. Sometimes the anger was directed towards themselves,
as if they had done something so wrong that the Psoriasis was a
kind of punishment.
However when client’s anger was directed at themselves, or more
specifically at their skin and its condition, they will say
things like “I hate my skin” with such vehemence and distaste,
which is not helpful to any therapeutic intervention, so
obviously needs to be dealt with. On these occasions I would
utilise of some kind of release or forgiveness intervention.
Often forgiving themselves and their skin is very difficult for
the client, so I would allow plenty of time for this part of
the therapy, as it is crucial to the overall well-being and
de-stressing of the client. The skin is the largest organ in
the body and as such it is not surprising that any underlying
anxiety should manifest itself through the skin. Until the
anger is completely released the client has no chance of
becoming calm in their mind.
The belief that they had done something wrong and hence
deserved their Psoriasis is of course a fictitious belief.
Generally most of them have had a perfectly normal life;
although there was nearly always some drama or trauma in their
childhood that helped to form a significant portion of the
hypnotherapy work that was done during the study.
It is my belief that eradicating, lessening or coming to terms
with this anger is an important part of the change needed to
affect the Psoriasis. Any intervention that does not take this
issue into account is doomed to fail.
I will cover the other two personality traits in future
articles. These are the “I’m not good enough” belief structure,
and the “Victim” belief.
Brief Hypnotherapy study results.
28% achieved a 95% reduction in their Psoriasis. A further 29%
obtained over 50% reduction. 43% saw little or no reduction at
all. However ALL participants in the hypnotherapy study
reported a completely different attitude to their
Psoriasis.
Author Resource:-> Paul Howard has been specialising
with Psoriasis for nearly ten years. He has trained many
hypnotherapists around the country to treat Psoriasis
effectively. He works at The Surrey Institute of Clinical
Hypnotherapy in Wallington, Surrey, UK. He can be contacted via
the website at www.sich.co.uk.
He is also the Marketing director for The National Council for
Hypnotherapy - The premiere governing body in the UK.
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