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.
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 Surrey Institute of Clinical Hypnotherapy website. He is also the Marketing director for The National Council for Hypnotherapy – The premiere governing body in the UK.
