Hypnosis for Surgery Preparation

Thursday, May 16
Post 9:00 am (EST) to 6:00 pm (EST)
1 Day Course

There is a plethora of clinical anecdotal and empirical evidence that patients under general anesthesia hear and interpret voices and sounds in the operating room. Because the unconscious is solely concerned with survival, and the OR is a place where life or death can result, the anesthetized patient’s unconscious is hyper vigilant to anything that could be interpreted as a sign of imminent death. As a result, negative comments are interpreted pessimistically. Many cases of unexplained persistent pain following surgery can be traced back to negative comments the patient’s unconscious heard in the OR. Therefore, it is important to prepare the surgery patient consciously and unconsciously to ignore unnecessary utterances and conversations in the OR.

Proper psychological preparation for surgery with hypnosis can facilitate positive outcomes post-surgically and prevent surgery induced PTSD. This full-day course will introduce a step-by-step hypnotically assisted protocol for preparing patients for surgery that will reduce the patient’s anxiety, promote positive expectations of success and a healthy recovery, and inoculate the patient against untoward comments uttered in the OR.

Your course instructor, Dr. Bruce Eimer learned this protocol personally from Dr. David Cheek and Dr. Dabney Ewin, both of whom were surgeons and medical hypnosis pioneers, and Bruce has used this protocol for over 27 years with great success with pre-surgical patients. Attendees will also learn the single most important prognostic indicator for an unfavorable surgical outcome and how this can be communicated effectively to the patient and the surgeon. After completion of this course, you will be able to:

_ Explain why surgery outcomes are improved when pre-surgical patients are psychologically prepared.

_ Explain the role of hypnosis in the psychological preparation of a patient for surgery.

_ List the steps in psychologically preparing a patient for surgery.

_ Explain the single most important prognostic indicator for an unfavorable surgery outcome and how this can be communicated effectively to the patient and surgeon.