Sheren Gaulbert - Persuading Change: Pointers from Conversational Cognitive Hypnotherapy

About: A predictive processing framework posits that existing beliefs/priors play a part in the protection response which can serve to inhibit or facilitate the experience of pain.
If that is the case, how do we go about changing those beliefs patients may hold, that contribute to their pain persisting?
With clinicians, especially from non-psychological practices, often not having the advantage of time to explore deeply within a session, Sheren will:
• indicate specific language to listen for that can indicate an underlying unhelpful belief
• share questions which can reveal priors
• highlight one question which may indicate the advantage of involving a psychologically or trauma-informed therapist to be part of the care team • reveal simple language patterns that can be conversationally used to persuade change
• introduce a simple practical technique which can be tailored to each individual based on what their language reveals
Citations:
De, R., Vega, L., Capraro, V., Kanning, M. K., Carfora, V., & Catellani, P. (2021). Article 644050 Citation: Carfora V and Catellani P (2021) The Effect of Persuasive Messages in Promoting Home-Based Physical Activity During COVID-19 Pandemic. Front. Psychol, 12, 644050. doi.org/10.338...
Desmarteaux, C., Streff, A., Chen, J.-I., Houzé, B., Piché, M., & Rainville, P. (2021). Brain Responses to Hypnotic Verbal Suggestions Predict Pain Modulation. Frontiers in Pain Research, 0, 115. doi.org/10.338...
Pandey S, Gupta R. Book Review: The Influential Mind: What the Brain Reveals About Our Power to Change Others. Front Psychol. 2019 May 22;10:1210. doi:
10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01210. PMCID: PMC6538763
Nour, M. M., Dahoun, T., Schwartenbeck, P., Adams, R. A., FitzGerald, T. H. B., Coello, C., Wall, M. B., Dolan, R. J., & Howes, O. D. (2018). Dopaminergic basis for signaling belief updates, but not surprise, and the link to paranoia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 115(43), E10167-E10176.
doi.org/10.107...
Mark W. Susmann, Mengran Xu, Jason K. Clark, Laura E. Wallace, Kevin L. Blankenship, Aviva Z. Philipp-Muller, Andrew Luttrell, Duane T. Wegener & Richard E. Petty (2021): Persuasion amidst a pandemic: Insights from the Elaboration Likelihood Model, European Review of Social Psychology, DOI: 10.1080/10463283.2021.1964744
Schmid, P., Betsch, C. Effective strategies for rebutting science denialism in public discussions. Nat Hum Behav 3, 931-939 (2019). doi.org/10.103...
Anglin, S. M. (2019). Do beliefs yield to evidence? Examining belief perseverance vs. change in response to congruent empirical findings. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 82, 176-199. doi.org/10.101...
Jensen, M.P., (2019). Using Hypnotic Reflective Listening To Identify Effective Suggestions For Behavior Change. In: M. Jensen, Ed., Handbook Of Hypnotic Techniques, Vol. 1, 1st Ed. Washington: Denny Creek Press, p.Chapter 10.
Sheren Gaulbert qualified as a Cognitive Hypnotherapist (QCH) in 2011 and focuses her practice on working with people living with persisting pain. A proponent of interdisciplinary, collaborative treatment teams to deliver better care, she uses her 30 years’ experience as a speaker, mentor, coach, and educator, to run experiential courses for multidisciplinary clinicians and therapists, with an interest in pain, ready to learn from different modalities.
Sheren has a specialist interest in female and male pelvic pain and as a Trustee of the Vulval Pain Society (VPS) organises and hosts webinars, livestreams, and in-person conference, bringing together multidisciplinary pain clinicians, researchers, and patients to foster meaningful, productive discussions.
She is the founder of the Break Through Pain Programme: a tailored, collaborative and action-orientated approach that utilises the QCH framework to help each unique individual experiencing persistent pain, start living a better quality of life, more comfortably doing more of the things that give them joy.
Her current ponderings lay with how beliefs and perceptions can be shifted with modalities such as QCH or CBT for some people, but not for others. What makes the difference and whether this can be measured.
Sheren is a member of IASP, Pain Education SIG, and Abdominal & Pelvic Pain SIG
Vulval Pain Society webinars on KZbin can be found here: bit.ly/KZbinVPS
Sheren’s website: the-ultimate-y...