Why Your Brain Is the Key to Unlocking Chronic Pain

Over the past two weeks I've written about why the brain is central to chronic pain, and what a hypnosis session actually looks like from the inside. This week I want to address the question that I suspect has been sitting quietly in the back of some minds throughout:

But does it actually work?

It's the right question. And as someone who spent twenty years in medicine, I would not be writing this series if I didn't have a solid answer.

Let me walk you through what the research actually shows.

The most rigorous recent evidence comes from a 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis published in PAIN Reports — one of the leading peer-reviewed journals in pain medicine. The researchers pooled seventy randomised controlled trials involving over six thousand patients across a wide range of pain conditions. Their finding: hypnosis used alongside standard care produces meaningful, significant reductions in pain intensity.

Seventy trials. Six thousand patients. That is not a small study. That is not anecdote. That is the kind of evidence base that moves medicine.

"The science has grown stronger as technology has caught up. Modern neuroimaging lets us watch what hypnosis does to the brain in real time — and what it shows is remarkable."

Earlier research had already established the biological plausibility. fMRI studies show measurable reductions in activation of the brain's pain-processing regions during hypnosis. We can watch the brain respond differently. We can see the mechanism at work. This is not guesswork — it is observable neuroscience.

And the recognition from medical institutions reflects this. The American Medical Association recognised hypnosis as a legitimate therapeutic technique in 1958. The National Institutes of Health recommended it for chronic pain management in 1995. The Royal Society of Medicine has an entire section dedicated to hypnosis research and practice. This is not fringe medicine. It has not been fringe medicine for a very long time.

I want to be honest about what the evidence also says. The 2024 meta-analysis notes that the overall certainty of evidence is variable — partly because studies differ in design, in the type of hypnosis used, and in how outcomes are measured. This is common in complex interventional research and does not undermine the positive findings. What it means is that hypnosis is not a one-size-fits-all solution, and that good clinical practice — tailored to the individual, used alongside conventional care — matters.

Any hypnotist worth their salt will tell you that and mean it.

What the evidence consistently supports is this: for many people living with chronic pain, hypnosis offers meaningful additional relief that conventional treatment alone has not been able to provide. Used carefully, with a practitioner who takes your medical history seriously and works in partnership with your existing care team, it is safe, effective, and often surprisingly powerful.

I trained in 2019. I have now worked with clients across a wide range of conditions — chronic pain, anxiety, sleep, habits, fears. And what I see repeatedly is people who arrive exhausted and sceptical, having tried everything else, and leave with something they had stopped believing was possible: a sense that things can actually change.

The evidence supports that. The neuroscience explains it. And this Saturday, I would love to talk about it with you directly.