How can therapy help a skin condition?
It’s normal to be curious or even sceptical about how therapy could help a skin condition, but once you learn about the link between our mental health and our skin, then it actually makes perfect sense! For me, going to therapy for my skin was a realisation more like “why have I not done this sooner?”
I’ve suffered with eczema on and off, through out my life, but it only got worse as I got older (despite the doctors always telling me the opposite). After a year on steroids, I had phototherapy and then a few years of what was most likely, topical steroid withdrawal (TSW), but I didn’t know that at the time. I still have mild red sleeves, flaky days and elephant skin now. The worst point was when I was still working during Covid lockdown and postponing our wedding. The best my skin has ever been, was after Covid and on our honeymoon! Funny that. My Auntie was the one who told me to get support. During a virtual yoga session she said, Jen, get a therapist and get a dietitian. So I did. I was desperate to try anything and everything.
It took a couple more years until I had hypnotherapy. A much more positive, gentle and forward focused than the therapy I’d had before, and I loved my sessions, and I loved my hypnotherapist. Now, obviously therapy cannot cure a skin condition or TSW, but it can help you cope with it. You cannot control everything that happens to you, but you can control how you react. Whether you cancel your plans and hide inside eating chocolate, or whether you are resilient enough to go out and have fun, despite the discomfort. That’s where therapy comes in.
I vividly remember my partner having a friend over in the garden during lockdown, and I was inside on the sofa. Red, flaky and uncomfortable barely covers it. I was terrified they would see me. My partner went outside but left a crack in the curtains of our French doors. I laid on the sofa, hyper-focused on the crack in the curtains. Unable to get up off the sofa to fix it, but so scared they would see me through the gap. At that time, my primitive brain, as I call it in therapy, was in control rather than my logical brain. Logically, his friend couldn’t see through the curtain into a dark room due to the sun and of course they wouldn’t judge me for being poorly on the sofa anyway.
What I do in hypnotherapy is get you into that logical brain, so you can respond rationally rather than emotionally. So, you can still live your life, despite the flares. You deserve to be confident and have strong self-worth, but when you have a skin condition sometimes you just need a bit of support to get there.
Our skin is the body’s largest organ and will often reflect what is happening inside your body/brain. Stress increases inflammation in our skin and slows down wound healing and elevates our cortisol levels – the stress hormone. This can change the proteins in your skin and reduce its elasticity and hydration. Without getting too into it, cortisol causes the fight or flight response to kick in, which impacts immune cells from the bloodstream and directly contributes to things like increased inflammation and itch!
Psychological stressors cause stressed skin. Environmental stressors and triggers also cause stressed skin… which causes psychological stress! And the cycle continues.
Hypnotherapy is the oldest form of psychotherapy. I practice Solution Focused Hypnotherapy, a combination of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Neuro-linguist Programming (NLP), and neuroscience. We increase serotonin, focusing on what you are enjoying in life and how to do more of that. We discuss the workings of the brain and do a little goal setting, before a deeply relaxing hypnosis trance.
So, whilst therapy can’t cure a skin condition, it can decrease the cortisol which in turn:
- Improves inflammation and itch
- Improves unhealthy habits (scratching & skin picking)
- Improves sleep and self-esteem
- Reduces stress and anxiety
Overall it strengthens your resilience and reduces the impact your skin has on your life.