As I filled the disinfectant bath for his disfigured foot, I could not help but think of how his terrible pain could have very possibly been avoided.

What would have helped this patient to avoid this catastrophic outcome? A powerful way to manage his emotions and therefore his behaviors. He needed a coach that could effectively convey to him the tools and motivation that would help him to make the changes necessary for his health and happiness.

How can a hypnotist responsibly help a person with diabetes? There are eight areas in which you, as a healer, can definitely help.

Following is a handout you can give to a client and/or doctor when asked how you can make a positive difference. Please note that this handout is crucial to the three-step healing process mentioned in the last article.

By definition, hypnotists are highly effective motivational coaches and stress management consultants. Below is a more detailed description of how a hypnotist can help a person with diabetes in the following ways:

*Take greater control of their situation instead of relying on others to "fix" them.

*Become more motivated to safely begin, and continue, exercising.

*Stimulate a patient’s curiosity in such a manner as to cause them to learn about and practice self-care.

*Improve your patient’s memory so they remember to: examine their feet on a regular basis as well as remembering other important things such as testing, time of last meal, what was eaten, amount of medications taken and other vital issues.

*Create a greater desire to follow good life-style practices. These include choosing the right food, maintaining a healthy weight, getting regular exercise, and avoiding smoking and other health pitfalls.

*Stimulate Your Patient’s Coping Skills by using medically proven ego enhancement techniques. I.E., helping your patient to see the diabetes as a daily challenge instead of a daily curse. Viewing their situation as a challenge will cause them to utilize their own strength and energy in a more productive manner.

*With enhanced ego strength comes better coping skills and as a result, your patient will truly understand that diabetes is a serious condition, but they will be optimistic about your treatment plan. They can be coached to becoming more committed to taking responsibility for their self-care, to following your regimen, and to learning as much as they can about their situation. In other words, their attitude is much more positive.

Additionally, stress reduction in one or more areas of a patients’ life will cause three important effects:

(1 )Reducing those 'fight or flight' responses that typically produce an insulin antagonistic hormonal response.

(2) Create greater energy reserves that will help to generate a more pro-active emotional environmnent.  This is caused by a reduction in emotional distress that typically saps a person's will to live.

(3) Reduced stress = reduced unhealthy responses that can exacerbate a diabetics situation.

If your patient is feeling physically fine, they may wonder whether they really have to stick to their regimen. Their diabetes diagnosis probably left them feeling confused and overwhelmed. They may be having trouble concentrating on learning all the things they have to do to follow your diabetes care plan. They may be thinking, "How will I ever be able to stick to the diet?" or "I can't give myself an injection!" or "I pass out when I see blood -- I can't do a blood test! "

And the big question they are probably wondering, "What will diabetes do to me?"

*Another problem area concerns anger. Most people diagnosed with diabetes experience anger. The challenge is that this anger is manifested in many ways. Hypnosis for ego strengthening can help reduce & ameliorate these counter-productive emotional dynamics.

The first months after diabetes has been discovered are often very difficult for your patient. Becoming self-reliant and self-sufficient, balancing diet, exercise, and medications is vital to good health and happiness. And, this all must be done while your patient attempts to continue on with his/her life. Fortunately for your patients, hypnosis is a powerful tool that can help the person with diabetes lead an active life that is as close to normal as possible.

Concerning Children:

There are those children who have difficulty completing daily diabetes self-management tasks such as taking insulin, monitoring, medications, eating, exercise and more. They need special help and understanding. They are probably experiencing diabetes-related anger, fear or anxiety that is interfering with their health regimen.

Again, hypnosis has a long and successful history of helping children in many ways.

Isn’t it a good idea to help them become stronger and more self-sufficient at a young age?

Finally, though the diabetic has the disease, the family is suffering as well. Care-giver exhaustion is a very real problem for many families. Successfully learning to unconsciously cope with intense stress in a healthy manner can be very effectively learned by using the medically documented powers of hypnosis.

It is utterly important that your clients sense in a deep way that you are very capable of helping them to improve their situation. This means that you feel comfortable with presenting with complete confidence to a physician what you can do to help their patient.

You can start right now with any of the eight above mentioned items by using standard scripts and techniques.

To help a child or adult diabetic with issues concerning injection fears, I strongly recommend getting in touch with Norm Leitman at: nleitman@comcast.net. He has created a very good program that will benefit any person with fears of injections.

In the future I will be sharing scripts I have created that are pertinent to specific steps that must first be followed according to a program I have designed. However, please understand that with the above outline you have everything you need to now begin effectively and realistically helping a person with diabetes.

Where is the marketing technique that you were promised in the last article? In the above handout. Create your own copy with your contact information and mail it to diabetes support groups, nurses and doctors offices. Also, use it as a template for seminars that you can give to diabetes support groups.

The next time we get together I’ll share with you the powerful three-step process that follows what you have discovered in this article.

As a final note, I would like to share a question and answer exchange that took place with an interested reader who got in touch with me by contacting the National Guild of Hypnotists.

My answer is please review the following quote:

"Studies have suggested that bovine serum albumin is the milk protein responsible for the onset of diabetes... Patients with insulin- dependent diabetes mellitus produce antibodies to cow milk proteins that participate in the development of islet dysfunction... Taken as a whole, our findings suggest that an active response in patients with IDDM (to the bovine protein) is a feature of the autoimmune response."

New England Journal of Medicine, July 30, 1992

For a lot more very interesting and very enlightening information about milk, please visit this very interesting website. This site quotes a wide array of credible sources. I strongly urge everyone to at least have a look.