Clinical hypnosis has been my professional focus for more than a quarter-century. Even though I am a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist and have held executive positions both as a nurse and as a hospital executive director there is no treatment tool I know of that is more powerful in helping people control their bodies, their feelings, and their lives than hypnosis. Hypnosis is a fascinating domain of clinical...

The Leg I Didn't Have Just Kept on Hurting - Jun 1, 2005
M. Ron Eslinger, RN, CRNA, APN, BCH, CI

"I don't know how this works, but it does." Those were the words of Bill twelve weeks after his first visit to Healthy Visions Wellness Center where hypnosis was used to teach Bill how to control his Phantom Limb Pain. Prior to this, Bill was taking pain medicine two to three times a week. Sometimes the pain was so unbearable that he went to the emergency room for intravenous pain medication.

New Year Resolutions - A Recipe for Success - Jan 5, 2005
M. Ron Eslinger, RN, CRNA, APN, BCH, CI

Every year millions of people make their New Year's Resolutions, but few if any follow through. Whether it is tobacco cessation, weight loss, study habits, or just getting organized. the intentions are worthy, but the will is weak. As the old saying goes "the road to Hell is paved with good intentions." So why are these good, and in most cases, healthy intentions so unsuccessful? It is simply because most people do not know how to properly make and to put into action a resolution that involves a mind-body connection.

Hypnosis Principles and Applications: An Adjunct to Anesthesia - Dec 1, 2003
M. Ron Eslinger, RN, CRNA, APN, BCH, CI

For all that we know in medicine there are so many things that we do not know. Hypnosis is nothing new, but it is still grossly misunderstood as an adjunct therapy to the majority of health care providers. However, providers educated in hypnosis and the power of suggestion realize its real value and nature in the healing arts. Most people go in and out of hypnosis several times a day. Day dreaming is so nearly like hypnosis, some authorities consider them one and the same.

Pain: The 5th Vital Sign - Dec 1, 2003
M. Ron Eslinger, CRNA, MA, BCH, CI

In 2000 the Joint Commission for Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) put into place a new standard for managing pain that opened the door to complementary therapies. This standard became know as "The 5th Vital Sign."

Ouch! Pain Costs Employers $80 Billion Annually - Jul 7, 2004
Merritt McKinney

A 34-year-old woman presents with constant disabling headaches of two years after hospitalization with Louisiana Encephalitis. No more headaches after hypnosis.
Young lady of 24 referred with a three-year history of Fibromyalgia. Six hypnosis sessions later, she was back to running five miles a day and pain free.

Music During Surgery May Ease Patients' Recovery - Dec 1, 2003
Merritt McKinney

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Hearing soothing music and encouraging words while under anesthesia may ease patients' recovery after surgery, results of a Swedish study suggest.

Women undergoing hysterectomies who listened to relaxing music and sounds of ocean waves while under general anesthesia experienced less pain, were less fatigued when released from the hospital, and were able to sit up sooner after their operation than patients who did not listen...

Pain Abstract (Multiple Journals)- Oct 22, 2003
Meurisse, M., T. Defechereux, et al. (1999)

"Hypnosis with conscious sedation instead of general anaesthesia? Applications in cervical endocrine surgery." Acta Chir Belg 99(4): 151-8.

Between April 1994 and June 1997, 197 thyroidectomies and 21 cervical explorations for hyperparathyroidism were performed under hypnosedation (HYP) and compared to the operative data ...

See? We Weren't Kidding. Imagery is real to a Neuron - Oct 12, 2003
Yoo SS, Freeman DK, McCarthy JJ 3rd, Jolesz FA.

Harvard Medical School Researchers from the Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, used MRI's to look at the neural goings-on in the brain when subjects practiced kinesthetic imagery (imagining how something feels in the body).

A Review of Over Fourteen Thousand Surgical Anesthesias - Oct 12, 2003
Yoo SS, Freeman DK, McCarthy JJ 3rd, Jolesz FA.

Since the discovery of ether in 1846 by William Morton, much has been written about anesthetics and their administration, and still ether and better etherization is more in favor today than ever before.

Find Your Happy Place, Pre-Op - Oct 12, 2003
Betsy Stephens