Hypnotherapy for Pain Control:
A Safe and Non-Addictive Way to Relieve Chronic Pain
by Jeffery Ennis M.D.
At a time when Canada is struggling with a doctor-prescribed opioid crisis, this book offers a safe alternative for the millions of people who live with chronic pain: self-hypnosis, an ancient technique used today to soothe pain, both acute and long-lasting, with impressive results. This solution comes at a critical time: The typical prescription for pain — opioids — doesn’t work for everyone, and comes with significant and even deadly side effects. The same goes for other medications. Dr. Ennis, a psychiatrist and world-class expert on chronic pain, reviews the disappointing evidence on pain-relief medications to build his case that self-hypnosis is a credible alternative therapy that can significantly reduce pain. He tells the fascinating medical history of hypnosis and shows readers, step by step, how to hypnotize themselves to relieve pain. This book includes the author’s own compelling story of his struggle with severe chronic pain and his victory over it to live a life full of joy and fulfillment.
book specs
5” x 8”
224 pgs.
price
$24.95 (paperback)
ISBNs
978-1-988025-11-7 (paperback)
release date
oct. 12, 2017
media contact
Praise
in Chronic Pain on Amazon.ca,
Media Roundup
AM 770 – Calgary
Audio – Safe Alternative for Chronic Pain
An 18 minute interview with Dr. Jeffrey Ennis.
Newstalk 1290 CJBK – The Morning Show with Ken and Lisa
Audio – Hypnotherapy for Pain Control: A Safe and Non-Addictive Way to Relieve Chronic Pain
An 8-minute interview with Dr. Jeffrey Ennis.
Rock House Style – At Home with Cheryll & Sam
Audio – Interview with Dr. Jeffrey Ennis
Dr. Jeffrey Ennis’s interview appears on the Nov. 4th episode.
Street Level Pundit
Hypnotherapy Helps Relieve Chronic Pain, Dr. Jeffrey Ennis says
Book Review
Kirkus Reviews
A debut book offers an unconventional approach to long-term pain management and relief.
Ennis, a psychiatrist with a 25-year career in treating chronic pain, opens his revelatory book with a stark declaration: “I am in pain every day, all day.” As the author points out, he’s able to explore the subject of long-term chronic pain from both sides of the equation: as a medical professional who continually deals with the issue and as a victim of the phenomenon itself. Therefore, he has a deep perspective on the often maddening, day-to-day reality of chronic pain sufferers, who are often forced to wonder: Must they simply resign themselves to being “burned at the stake” of their pain, or can they find a way to surmount it? In clear, accessible prose, Ennis proposes a strategy: a multistep process of self-hypnosis that he describes after grounding the narrative by telling his own story of living with chronic pain. He presents readers with comprehensive, readable histories of the study of pain and the development of the most popular weapon to address it: opioids. In his analysis of these potent drugs, Ennis remains unflinching. He rigorously examines the supposed efficacy of most opioids in alleviating chronic pain and finds them overprescribed and under-effective—and extremely risky, considering the serious nature of their side effects. Self-hypnosis, he contends repeatedly, has no side effects.
The book’s central idea—that highly stressed and sometimes desperate sufferers of chronic pain must reject their impulses to reach fro chemical solutions—is so revolutionary as to seem almost counterintuitive in the current age of both unprecedented opioid prescription and unparalleled abuse of those drugs. Ennis very effectively buttresses his advocacy for a more internal, mental method by threading the whole subject through his vast personal history as both doctor and patient. As a result, the ultimate case he makes is powerfully convincing. In forceful, unambiguous prose, the author clarifies exactly what hypnosis is and isn’t and then enumerates the steps of using it as a means of pain relief in either professionally administered sessions or ones that are conducted independently. It’s difficult to argue with Ennis’ assessment of the comparative superiority of his approach to the rote prescription of opioids. But even objections that might be raised are sidelined by the indisputable fact that the core of the technique presented here—controlling breathing, cultivating inner calm, conceptualizing the pain—should help sufferers regardless of their success or failure with self-hypnosis. The book’s underlying tone is one of hope, which is something sufferers often find in short supply when coping with their health problems. Ennis’s own story underscores the need for such hope.
A challenging and ultimately optimistic game plan for dealing with chronic pain; important reading for sufferers.