By learning to remain calm he experienced less intense anxiety at the onset of pain symptoms. Another hypnotic way to work with pain is to concentrate intensely on it until it shifts, as a patient with irritable bowel syndrome did. By focusing on his pain he formed the image of a sphere, some of which fell away as he focused on it more intensely. As this happened, he noticed that his pain decreased significantly. Another medical application of hypnosis is to manage anxiety and pain during labor and delivery.
Women can learn to separate themselves from the pain, numbing the abdomen to ease the discomfort.
They might use visual imagery to follow their labor, making the process less frightening. To benefit from hypnosis treatment, the patient does not need to be in a full trance. The goal, rather, is a heightened level of inward focus or imagination. Very few are completely resistant to it. In some instances practice leads to stronger results.