More than first aid...hypnosis being used in French fire service

I recently had a conversation with a man who had worked in the police for many years. 
He had often been first to witness the aftermath of traumatic accidents or finding people seriously injured. Throughout his career he retained an ability to remain calm, stopping the more disturbing things he'd seen from affecting him. I asked him about how he thought he had been able to deal with that and he told me he always thought of the family of the individual and focused on looking after their needs. He said this had allowed him to deal with the more challenging experiences whilst he had been in service. 

I've worked with other people who haven't been quite so unaffected either as a professional or after being involved in a serious accident. I would always suggest not 'burying' a problem if it's affecting you now. Seek help to deal with any emotional or physical problems if time has not yet been successful at healing those emotional 'wounds'. 

For those who are involved in dealing with traumatic experiences, I was interested to read about a technique being pioneered in eastern France during the last half of 2013.  120 of the local fire brigade crew have been trained in 'basic hypnosis techniques' to ease pain and anxiety of trauma victims alongside traditional first aid whilst they assist them or extricate people involved in accidents.  

As firefighters arrive at the scene of an accident perhaps cutting a victim free from wreckage, those staff who have been trained in hypnosis establish a more personal link with the person. They work to divert attention away from the trauma itself and instead onto the person's wellbeing.  The fire station manager, David Ernenwein, is convinced that the method is useful. He says, "We have all noticed that when we hold someone's hand, things go better, even if we did not label it as 'hypnosis'. The first thing that we can do to help people is to calm them down, and this technique has given us the tools to be able to do that, to help people suffer less".  The firemen were also taught techniques to control their own stress response. 

The 'trial' continued to the end of 2013, with the fire brigade keeping a record of the heart rate, pain levels or emotions of victims they help. These results will be compared with stats of victims treated by firemen who have not used hypnosis with them. so I will be interested to know if the training has been rolled out beyond that one area. 

As another side to this, many people who are given positive suggestions in hospital tend to need a shorter stay. If you are feeling nervous about an operation or staying in hospital, hypnotherapy could help you to feel calmer about it. By calming your mental state before you go in, you can reduce the physical stress on your body and can increase your capacity for healing whilst there and when comfortably back at home.

If you would like to know more about how hypnotherapy might help you, contact me at info@angiegiles.co.uk or call 07773 610816