Healing With Words
Interview with Ron Eslinger in Advance Nurse Journal
Vol. 3 •Issue 15 • Page 34
Nurses trained in hypnosis help patients deal with many different clinical issues
By Michelle Apuzzio
As a high school senior, Ron Eslinger, MA, CRNA, BCH, CI, recruited his 14-year-old sister for a science project. Eslinger tried to hypnotize his sister, suggesting that she would howl like a dog and be completely relaxed at a particular time that evening.
Sure enough, it worked.
“She let out this big ol’ howl and then collapsed on the floor,” said Eslinger. He then prayed the entire night that she’d wake, while his panicked mother threatened what she’d do to him otherwise.
His sister woke the next morning, and Eslinger lived to tell the story. Although he found an alternate science project, his interest in hypnosis resurfaced a decade later when the family shared the story with Eslinger’s wife. At about the same time in 1978, he saw an ad in a professional journal for a 3-day hypnosis course and began his career as a board-certified hypnotist.
Hypnosis was a beneficial addition to Eslinger’s work as a nurse anesthetist in the U.S. Navy. He helped service people to overcome phobias. “It’s really hard to stay in the military if you’re claustrophobic and can’t put on a gas mask,” he said.
He also addressed sleepwalking (he often was stationed on ships), excess body weight, stress and smoking. Later, Eslinger joined the Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth, VA, where he worked with the pain clinic and trained hypnotists in techniques for childbirth, AIDS and diabetes. He now owns Healthy Visions, a wellness center in Oak Ridge, TN.
No Chicken Clucking
Although hypnosis is an accepted alternative therapy, many clients need a dose of education.
“I do more teaching and dispelling of myths than I do actual hypnosis,” said Paul Gustafson, BSN, RN, CH, owner of HealthyHypnosis.com in Burlington, MA.
Gustafson found hypnosis while seeking a career where he could continue connecting with people after burnout from inpatient and hospice positions. Certified as a clinical hypnotherapist, he also focuses on medical conditions, including depression and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Hypnosis, he said, has been accepted by the AMA since the Eisenhower administration in 1958. Yet the challenge for both Gustafson and Eslinger is contending with people’s notions of stage hypnosis.
“You’re somebody they don’t know and they come in there thinking you’re going to control their mind or make them cluck like a chicken,” Eslinger said.
“I do talk about stage hypnosis with everybody who comes in here because that’s all most people know about hypnosis,” said Gustafson. “So I’ll explain to them how that works and then very clearly say, ‘That’s not what I do.’”
Going Deep
The second part of education is shedding light on what hypnosis is.
Gustafson explained it as the “simple process of helping to access the subconscious thought — the subconscious mind or long-term memory — where all of our habits, patterns, values and beliefs reside.” In other words, his clients create a “daydream on demand,” and he guides them through it with suggestions, directions, images and metaphors. Once inside, they can replace old thoughts with new ones that match their goals.
Sessions are typically 20-30 minutes and begin with achieving deep relaxation. For example, Gustafson might begin: “Imagine now that you have the ability to absolutely inhale pure relaxation, and then with each breath you begin to notice the warmth and the comfort as it radiates throughout you.”
Length of treatment varies according to the person and diagnosis. According to Gustafson, smokers have two in-office sessions on average while a client with IBS may require six to 12 visits. But he treated a 9-year-old with a sudden onset of IBS who had a complete resolution during the third session.
“Kids do so well with hypnosis. They’re in half a hypnotic trance most of the time,” he laughed. “They think of it as a wonderful, cool adventure, and we have a lot of fun.”
Continuing the Journey
Gustafson issues a take-home recording of the session so clients can continue the treatment at home, which is essential to the outcome.
“I think a lot of people believe hypnosis is a magical pill,” Gustafson said. “It’s important for people to understand that repetition rules, and if people repeat the same problem patterns for decades, it’s likely they’ll continue repeating them because we’re such creatures of habit.”
Gustafson directs clients to repeat the “solutions” on compact disc for 21-30 days, “putting their feet up at home, relaxing very deeply.”
Hypnosis may not be a magic pill, but in some cases it can undo long-term damage. Eslinger has a patient with phantom limb pain for 15 years following two leg amputations — first above the knee and then a hip de-articulation. Although the pain was intermittent, at times it was severe enough to warrant IV medication. In the 4 weeks he has had hypnosis treatment, the man has taken a pain-relieving pill only once because he was afraid the pain would return when Eslinger was traveling out of town.
“Fear and stress are about 85 percent of the underlying components of pain,” Eslinger explained. “[The patient] was so amazed that after 15 years he is now without pain.”
Convincing Others
As with any branch of medicine, though, “you need to be able to prove something before it can be thought of with any real consideration,” said Auralie Achilles, CNRN, CH. A certified hypnotist, Achilles performs research at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, NH, with surgical candidates in the seizure program.
In the surgery, clinicians place electrodes in the brain and await a seizure in an attempt to find its focus. The procedure is associated with pain, anxiety and nausea, and is performed only on those who are not responding to medication.
Achilles is involved with an ongoing research study, which randomizes surgical patients into either control or subject groups. This research is in its second full year and may take another year to complete. The number of patients who have surgery to remove the seizure focus is relatively small. This extends the time needed to get statistically significant numbers.
To date, the study has shown an improvement in patient’s perceptions of pain, nausea and anxiety among those who received pre-and post-surgical hypnosis compared to those who did not. Although the research pool is small — about 23 people to date — one striking outcome is the treatment group uses fewer narcotics to control pain.
Anecdotally, the path to success lies with the client more than the practitioner, it seems. People who are open to hypnosis, motivated to achieve their goals and willing to take the time to master the techniques will have the best outcomes.
An Extension of Nursing
Most hypnotists enjoy empowering others by teaching them to examine how their feelings and reactions affect their lives.
Eslinger also teaches nurses about the impact their words can have on patients. An example, he said, might be to tell a patient before putting them under general anesthesia, “You will wake up feeling better than you thought you would and feeling pleasantly hungry.” And when they wake, make a comment about how comfortable they should be, inviting them to tell you if they’re not: “You should be comfortable; if not let us know.” An incorrect question would be to ask them if they are in pain, which suggests they should be.
But what is it that makes nurses such good fits as hypnotists?
“Who spends more time with people than nurses? It may be as simple as that,” said Gustafson. “I’m not saying that all nurses are good hypnotists, but there are very few people who spend as much time at the bedside understanding, connecting and communicating with people in need.”
Michelle Apuzzio is a regular contributor to ADVANCE.