Quality of Life in High-Impact Chronic Pain: The Role of Hypnosis with John W. Hall, PhD, ABPP, & Christina L. Vair, PhD- 2025 ADVANCED WORKSHOP

Quality of Life in High-Impact Chronic Pain: The Role of Hypnosis

Saturday & Sunday, June 28-29, 2025

10:00 AM- 5:00 PM (EST)

12 Hours of Instruction 

Workshop Description 

If you work with folks with chronic pain, you know that for some it moves beyond being an annoyance and starts to take over their lives.  Over time, this group do less and less, see fewer and fewer people, enjoy fewer and fewer things, worry and rage more and more, and their life shrinks down to just their pain and its effects.  The CDC has recently labeled this pattern as High-Impact Chronic Pain.  Providers from both the physical and the mental side often feel helpless and overwhelmed when confronted with these patients.  Fortunately, Dr. Hall and Dr. Vair have years of experience with this population and have learned ways that strategic education and intervention, centered around clinical hypnosis, can turn the tide for these patients so that their lives start to grow again as the pain shrinks.  

Join NESCH for a 2-day, 12-hour online workshop on using clinical hypnosis to improve quality of life in those most impacted by chronic pain.  Day 1 centers on how pain changes us internally, while Day 2 focuses on how it impacts on us externally, and both offer hypnotic and other tools for promoting positive change.  Here’s what we’ll cover (all times approximate):

Workshop Schedule

Saturday, June 28, 2025

10:00AM	How we got to this point in pain treatment, and a discussion of the challenges you face in helping your patients so that we can make sure we address them all
11:30	Break
11:45	How pain uses our natural responses to gradually take away our life, and what we can do about it, including both formal hypnosis and hypnotic language
1:15 PM	Lunch
1:45	Understanding pain’s path through the brain gives us weapons to use to start taking back our life – 8 potential targets for hypnotic interventions
3 :15	Break
3:30	Practice with a structured interview worksheet to find places we can weaken pain’s hold on our brains using clinical hypnosis
5:00	Adjourn

Sunday, June 29, 2025

10:00 AM	How pain leaves our brain and starts to ruin our quality of life, including a Hypnotic Experience of how changing pain scores often isn't enough to improve quality of life
11:30	Break
11:45	The Whole Health Model demonstration and Skills Practice, applying it to chronic pain
1:15PM	Lunch
1:45	Demonstration  with breakout and practice of how to use clinical hypnosis to improve quality of life regardless of where pain is showing up in your patient's life
3:15	Break
3:30	Breakout session to hone "elevator speeches" for professional colleagues and patients
5:00	Adjourn

Learning Goals

1. Identify three differences between acute and chronic pain
2. Define the relationship between pain and suffering
3. Describe 3 crucial points of information that patients need to learn to shift the conversation about chronic pain in a more helpful direction
4. Identify 8 brain regions that offer possibilities to use clinical hypnosis to change the experience of pain
5. Demonstrate the use of a structured interview to determine the relative importance of each brain region in the patient’s experience of their pain and guide hypnotic treatment
6. Define the foundational aspects of a While Health approach to care, including how to utilize this framework to engage individuals in active self-management of chronic pain
7. Identify relationships between established, evidence-informed approaches for the use of hypnosis and the Whole Health approach to care
8. Identify ways to enhance clinical practice through utilizing person-centered hypnotic approaches
9. Define eight aspects of personal well-being that can be addressed in chronic pain using hypnosis
10. State 2 brief “elevator speeches” to describe this approach to treating chronic pain, one for professional colleagues, and the second for professional colleagues

Presenter Bios

John Hall, PhD, ABPP, is a clinical health psychologist with the Charlotte Clinic of the Salisbury VA Health Care System’s Whole Health Chronic Pain Team.  He is one of the Whole Health National Education Champions for Mental Health and a VISN6 Whole Health Network Wide Education Faculty for the Office of Patient Centered Care & Cultural Transformation (OPCC&CT).  He is a fellow of the American Academy of Clinical Health Psychology, an approved consultant and Immediate Past President of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, and an SME for both the Clinical Hypnosis and Guided Imagery rollouts of OPCC&CT.  He served as Salisbury’s inaugural LGBTQ+ Veteran Care Coordinator, as well as both Salisbury and Fayetteville’s LGBT Special Emphasis Program Managers.  Outside of work, he is (without dysphoria) an Appalachian grandmother in gay bear body turning seeds into food, turning fiber into clothes, singing in church, and spending time with his husband and rescue dogs (Charlie & Riley).

Christina L. Vair, PhD, is the Whole Health Clinical Director for the Salisbury VA Health Care System and clinical champion co-lead with the VA’s national Integrative Health Coordinating Center. She received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis in Geropsychology from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. Her VA career began in 2011 at the VA Western New York in Buffalo, where she completed internship and a two-year postdoctoral residency before serving two and a half years as a clinical researcher. Dr. Vair's professional interests include behavioral medicine, complementary and integrative health approaches, employee wellness, implementation science, and health equity. Outside of work, she loves spending time with her two rescue pups (Gus and Gremlin), hiking, gardening, and rock climbing.

Pricing: 

NESCH & NCSCH Members: $199

Non-members: $245

Students: $99 (Students must send proof of student status i.e. a letter from their clinical, course schedule, etc.)

Continuing Education: 

This event is pending approval for 12.0 ASCH CE credits. 

This event is pending approval by the NASW-MA for 12.0 CE credits for social workers. 

The event is pending approval for 12.0 CE credits for licensed mental health counselor.

This event is pending approval for 12.0 CE credits for psychologists for this educational activity.

CE approvals will be posted as they are obtained.

CME credits for physicians are not available. 

**Note: Tuition does not cover $30 CE fee. 

Cancellation Policy: 

Registrations cancelled less than 30 days before the start of the training are subject to a $30 cancellation fee. Unpaid registrations will be cancelled if unpaid after two weeks unless you make an arrangement with the registrar at neschmsc@gmail.com.

For more information please see our Cancellation & Grievance Policy

For more information email neschmsc@gmail.com