If you're living with chronic pain, you've likely already tried medication, physio, injections, maybe even surgery. Some of it may have helped, but the pain keeps returning, or never fully goes away.

There may be more that can be done, and it starts with understanding where pain actually comes from.

I'm Teresa Hayfield, a clinical hypnotherapist in Bardon, Brisbane, with over 30 years in health care as a dentist. I work alongside your existing medical care, and before we begin, I'll ask for a short letter from your treating GP or specialist so we're working from the same picture.

The science behind it

Modern pain science has changed how we understand chronic pain. Pain isn’t a simple signal travelling from body to brain. It’s an experience your brain constructs, weighing everything it knows: signals from the body, but also stress, past experience, beliefs about your body, sleep and emotional state.

A trip to the dentist shows this well. Many people arrive already braced for pain, primed by expectation alone. If the dentist says “this might sting a bit” just as the injection goes in, that small warning can make it feel more painful, not because anything changed in the tissue, but because the brain, primed by expectation, turns up the volume on the signal it receives.

The amygdala, the brain’s threat-detection centre, plays a large role in how threatening pain feels. The more on alert it is, the more intense and persistent pain can become. Once pain turns chronic, the nervous system can become sensitised, a bit like a thermostat stuck with the dial turned too high. The pain is real, but its intensity may no longer reflect the level of danger in your tissues.

Because the brain and nervous system help create the experience of pain, they may also be able to learn a different response. That is where hypnosis may help.

A 2022 meta-analysis of nine clinical trials, involving 530 adults with chronic musculoskeletal or neuropathic pain, found that hypnosis produced a moderate reduction in both pain intensity and how much pain interfered with daily life. The authors suggest it may be a useful complementary approach. In their analysis, programs of eight or more sessions showed a clearer effect than shorter programs, although they note the evidence base is small and more research is needed on the best number of sessions. Results vary from person to person, and that is something we can explore together in your first session.

Langlois, P., Perrochon, A., David, R., et al. (2022). “Hypnosis to manage musculoskeletal and neuropathic chronic pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis.” Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 135, 104591.

How hypnotherapy helps

Hypnosis is thought to work by calming the stress response and guiding the brain into a focused, receptive state, soothing the fight, flight, or freeze centre. It's gentle, collaborative, and entirely within your control: hypnosis is simply a natural state of relaxed, focused attention, similar to being absorbed in a good book or a daydream. You stay awake and in control throughout.

In the state of hypnosis, you may be able to:

• Calm an over-sensitised nervous system and quieten the body's alarm response

• Change how you perceive and process pain signals, using techniques such as imagery and focussed attention.

• Interrupt the pain-tension-stress cycle, where anxiety about pain makes the pain itself worse

• Rebuild confidence and a sense of safety in your body

• Support better sleep, which is closely tied to pain levels and recovery

• Learn self-hypnosis techniques to use between and after sessions, so you're not dependent on me

This isn't about ignoring pain or pretending it isn't there. It's about retraining how your brain and body respond to it, so it may loosen its grip on your daily life.

A dentist’s perspective

Over 30 years as a dentist, I’ve seen how much a person’s expectations, sense of safety and attention shape their experience of pain. A tense, braced patient often feels more than a calm, supported one, and that mind-body link is what first drew me to hypnotherapy.

Today I use those same skills to work with people living with persistent pain, alongside, never instead of, their medical and dental care.

Conditions I work with

Hypnotherapy may help with many forms of persistent pain, including:

• Back, neck and joint pain

• Fibromyalgia and widespread pain

• Arthritis-related pain

• Headaches and migraines

• Nerve (neuropathic) pain

• Abdominal pain and discomfort associated with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), where stress and anxiety can make symptoms worse

• Pain that persists after surgery or injury

• Anxiety about medical or dental procedures

If you don't see your condition listed here, get in touch — I'm happy to talk through whether hypnotherapy could help and I always ask for a letter from your GP or specialist first.

Working alongside your medical care

Hypnotherapy works alongside your medical care, not instead of it. I require a letter from your treating GP or specialist before we start, and I always recommend persistent pain be assessed by your GP or specialist first.

What to expect

Every session is tailored to you. We'll begin with a relaxed conversation about your pain story — what it feels like, when it flares, how it started, and how it's affecting your life. I'll explain how hypnosis works, answer any questions, then guide you into a comfortable, focused state and work at a pace that suits you.

Many people find hypnosis deeply relaxing. You’ll also learn self-hypnosis skills to practise between and after sessions. Many people attend several sessions, and results vary from person to person.

Pricing

• In Person — 1 Session – $170

• Online — 1 Session – $170

• Bundle — 3 Sessions – $435 (save $75)

• Discovery Call — Free

Take the first step

Pain doesn't have to run your life. If chronic pain is limiting what you can do, hypnotherapy offers a gentle, evidence-informed way to help your nervous system find a calmer setting.

Not sure if hypnotherapy is right for you? Book a free, no-pressure discovery call to ask questions, share what you're dealing with, and see if it feels like the right fit.

This page draws on principles from pain neuroscience education and pain reprocessing approaches — fields represented in widely used patient resources such as Explain Pain and Painful Yarns by Professor Lorimer Moseley (noigroup.com), and The Way Out by Alan Gordon. If you'd like to explore the science further between sessions, these are excellent starting points.

Hypnotherapy is a complementary therapy and is not a substitute for medical diagnosis or treatment. Always consult your GP about new or changing pain.