Pain & Body
Hypnosis for headaches and migraine
Loosen the head, settle the system.
This session directs attention to the jaw, neck and shoulders to soften the tightness that gathers there.
It spends most of the time on a sense of cool and quiet spreading through the head, giving the system a chance to settle down. You are guided to let go of the holding.
The band across the forehead is what tells you the day has gone on too long. The jaw has been tight for hours without you noticing, and the back of the neck feels pulled and hard.
There is a sort of pressure that sits behind the eyes, making it difficult to look at anything for very long or think clearly.
What’s in it
A loosening of the tension around your head, jaw, neck and shoulders, and a cool, settled quiet through the whole system.
Why do it
Easing comes with practice, so a few minutes of softening here helps your body learn to come back to calm when pressure builds.
- Theme
- Pain & Body
- Delivery styles
- 3
- Lengths
- Quick ~26mStandard ~27mDeep ~29m
- Ends
- Calm and present
- Stages
- 4
- On this shelf
- 18 sessions
Perfect use-case: Headache & Migraine — hypnosis session
The pressure builds long before the pain arrives, while the jaw is still clenched and the neck still hard.
What you’ll hear in the Headache & Migraine session
The session starts by naming the tight band around the head, then directs attention to softening the forehead muscles without forcing them, letting the fibres unclench one by one under gentle focus.
You can feel that familiar pressure gathering around your head, a tight band of tension that just will not let go
This sensation is your body's way of signaling a need for profound release and a deep, settling quiet
You are ready now to allow your system to soften, to cool down, and to find that easy, open space where comfort resides
Your journey toward relief begins with this simple act of noticing, of giving yourself permission to let it all go, right here and now
Begin by directing your attention to the small muscles across your forehead, the ones that feel pulled taut like a drum
You do not need to force them to relax; instead, simply allow them to soften under the gentle focus of your awareness
Imagine each tiny fiber beginning to unclench, one by one, releasing its hold on the tension it has been carrying
- pulled taut like a drumgives a concrete physical shape to a sensation that usually feels vague
- You do not need to force them to relaxremoves the effort that makes tension worse — a key instruction, not a pleasantry
- unclench, one by oneslows the process to a pace the system can actually follow — pacing as technique
Timeline: Start to Finish
The middle section is built to direct attention to the head, neck and jaw. The time is spent rehearsing a sense of cool spaciousness in those places until it feels like the only thing happening.
3 of the 4 stages are named techniques with a published origin, credited under each.
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InductionStage 16 min
Progressive Muscle Relaxation
A classic head-to-toe relaxation. Tense and release, or simply soften, each muscle group in sequence.
After Edmund Jacobson PMR (1929); Dave Elman Hypnotherapy · what progressive muscle relaxation is
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DeepenerStage 23 min
Staircase Descent
Visualized stairs descending into a deeper level of trance. Each step takes you down.
After Ledochowski, Deep Trance Training Manual
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Suggestion ScriptStage 310 min
Headache & Migraine — Balanced
Softens the jaw, neck and shoulders, then spreads cool quiet through the head to let the system settle.
-
AwakeningStage 42 min
Calm Alert Awakening
Awake and present, but calm rather than energized. Good for evening or pre-meeting use.
After Yapko, Trancework
Why this works — and what the research actually says
Group-level, not session-level: no study has tested this exact session, and we will not pretend otherwise. Every source below was opened and read on 2026-08-25 before it was quoted.
Why do it as hypnosis?
You cannot simply tell a muscle to let go, which is why trying to force your head to feel better does not work.
What you can do is give the system a very specific series of instructions on loosening and spacing out, and then let it follow them.
The time is spent directing attention to the neck and jaw, asking them to find a way to open that they do not find on their own.
Pain: strong for the sharp kind, weak for the long kind
A 2025 review split pain in two, and got a different answer for each.
For acute pain — a procedure, an operation, an injury — hypnosis made a real, measurable difference, and those patients also needed fewer opioids.
For long-running chronic pain, the same review found no significant effect at all.
- Acute pain: a medium, significant effect across 6 trials and 888 people
- Those patients also used significantly fewer opioids
- Chronic pain: 6 trials, 595 people, no significant effect
Worth knowing: The authors name their own weaknesses. The small number of articles available limited the analysis, and two different pain scales were pooled.
A wide variety of hypnosis methods were used, and the lack of double blinding may affect trial quality. They also note high heterogeneity and small sample sizes in most studies.
The exact wording and figures
For acute pain, 6 randomised controlled trials and 888 participants showed a medium, statistically significant effect (Hedges' g = 0.54, 95% CI 0.19 to 0.90, p = 0.0024).
Opioid consumption was also 1.5 SD lower in the hypnosis group (95% CI 0.12 to 2.88, p = 0.03).
For chronic pain, across 6 trials and 595 participants, the effect was not statistically significant (Hedges' g = 0.07, 95% CI -0.14 to 0.27, p = 0.518).
A systematic review and meta-analysis published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine.
Yerzhan A, Ayazbekova A, Lavage DR, Chelly JE (2025). The Use of Medical Hypnosis to Prevent and Treat Acute and Chronic Pain. Journal of Clinical Medicine.
open access (CC BY 4.0)
Three ways to say it
Same loosening, written three ways: pick the voice you would actually let in when the band across your forehead starts to pull.
Balanced
Loosen the head, neck and jaw, let cool spacious quiet settle the whole system. The default.
Loosen the jaw and neck, then let cool quiet spread through the head until the system settles.
Future self
Picture the version of you who moves through the days with a light, easy head and a settled system.
Picture the you who gets to the end of the day and realises the forehead never tightened.
New identity
Step into being someone whose head and body already know how to soften and settle.
Step into being someone whose head and body skip the clenching entirely and go straight to soft.
Questions people ask about Headache & Migraine
Will this work if I don't believe in hypnosis?
You don't need to believe in hypnosis for this to work. It's more about following the instructions to relax and let go of tension.
What if I fall asleep during the session?
If you drift off, that's fine. The session is designed for relaxed listening. You can replay it when you're more awake.
How is this different from just taking a nap?
This session guides your focus to specific areas of tension, like the jaw and neck, helping them loosen in a way a nap doesn't.
Is this safe to use alongside painkillers?
This session is non-invasive and focuses on relaxation. However, always consult your doctor if you're unsure about combining treatments.
Where it sits
Discomfort, tension and the parts of the body that will not let go.
Before you press play
Hypnosis is not for everyone. If you have epilepsy, a psychotic illness, or you are under psychiatric care, talk to your clinician before using this — here or anywhere.
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