ABSTRACT
Many young patients, aware of the hypnosis program on the oncology units, asked for assistance with problems that lay outside the planned research. The therapy of patients who were trying to cope with other types of pain produced a broader understanding of the spectrum of pain in cancer and of how hypnotherapy could help. Hypnosis was induced by progressive deep relaxation followed by suggestions which related to his own interests that he had previously described: images of freedom of movement and comfort such as birds gliding, truck engines oiled and running smoothly, or the surf rolling onto a beach. Highly hypnotizable, she relaxed immediately during an induction which stressed relaxation, then thoroughly enjoyed the suggested experience of floating on a cloud during the injection. The relief of insomnia was frequently an incidental benefit that occurred automatically in the successful hypnotherapy of pain and anxiety in the bone marrow procedures.
