Synopsis
Some would argue that a quick-fix hypnosis technique does not apply to someone who is experiencing profound grief. True, grief should not be simply washed away. But hypnosis can have a useful application in the same way that Psychic Mediums help reduce people’s grief; by contacting their deceased loved ones and getting a second chance to find closure. The Psychic is the tool to bridge the gap between our reality and the Other Side. Hypnosis can do the same thing using our unconscious mind.
Article
The hypnosis technique described in this article works well with a demographic of people whose belief system includes the survival of a Soul after death. People who visit a Psychic Medium generally fall into this category. In addition, people who do not believe in the survival of a Soul after death still benefit from this technique because an imagined communication with the deceased has similar results. This technique works equally well with grief experienced from the loss of a pet.
The goal of grief reduction is to provide a level of comfort to a person so that he/she can get back to living his/her own life at a reasonably functional level as soon as possible after a loss. There are many ways to do this. The most common is to simply grieve. If the depth of grief is manageable, feeling it and moving through it will eventually allow a person to return to a functional level. Sharing the grief with friends and family, or sometimes a counselor is a good outside way to move through that grief. It never fully disappears, but decreases to a tolerable level. For some that may not be enough relief or it may not happen fast enough.
Often times a grieving person wants to gain closure or a sense of completion with their loss. There may be a feeling of leaving things unfinished or unsettled. Maybe there was a physical or emotional separation from the deceased at the time of their death. Often time’s feelings of guilt accompany grief, which can also be addressed when searching for closure.
In hypnosis, a grieving person can first feel some relief through the relaxation and calming techniques used. From there, either using the power of imagination or by taking an actual mental journey, the grieving person can interact with the deceased. The veil between our conscious mind and the Other Side can be lessened using a deep state of hypnosis. The unconscious mind is our link to that Other Side. In effect, we all can use the same faculties that a psychic uses while we are in a deep, altered state of consciousness.
Once in that state, a person may contact their loved one to say all the unsaid things they want to say. They may receive comforting words in return. Up to this point, the client can experience the same sense of release and relief as they might by visiting a psychic. I have personally witnessed the power that this sense of completion can bring to people when I facilitated end-of-life care training for the Twilight Brigade. A portion of that training deals with grief and loss. But through hypnosis, the relief can be applied at an even deeper level.
While in hypnosis the client can visualize their grief as a three-dimensional thing. This is also similar to NLP techniques. For example, they might see their grief as a backpack filled with heavy coins. Every time they grieve they empty a bit of those coins out of their backpack and feel a little lighter. In hypnosis, they can make a choice as to “how full” they want their backpack to remain before returning to the conscious state. They can decide to take back only the amount of grief their conscious minds can handle.
The hypnotherapist can also facilitate a way for the unconscious mind to make up for any emptiness that might be felt when releasing a lot of grief all at once. People may not realize it, but grief held for a long period of time can become like an old friend. Even though the grief is painful, there could be an emptiness left behind if someone tried to release it too quickly. In hypnosis, this possible empty feeling can be addressed.
Hypnosis is a powerful tool when used by a trained hypnotherapist. By using the power of our own mind, many things are possible.