The Denise Billen-Mejia Commentaries

Episode Overview: Pain, the Brain, and What Hypnosis Can Actually Do

If you or someone you love lives with chronic pain, this episode is for you.

In this instalment of H2 — Talking Health and Hypnosis, Dr. Denise Billen-Mejia draws on two decades as an emergency medicine physician to talk honestly about one of medicine’s most difficult challenges: the pain that doesn’t go away. The broken bone heals. The surgery is done. But the pain remains — and the appointments, the prescriptions, and the sympathetic shrugs keep coming without bringing real relief.

Denise explains what modern neuroscience has revealed about why this happens. Pain is not simply a signal travelling from a damaged body part to your brain. It is something the brain actively constructs — and in chronic pain, that construction system has got stuck, sounding the alarm long after the emergency has passed. Her analogy is disarmingly simple: it’s like a smoke detector still going off three weeks after you burned the toast. The kitchen is fine. The alarm just hasn’t had the memo.

Crucially, she explains why this is actually good news. If the brain plays a central role in how pain is experienced, then the brain also becomes our greatest tool for changing that experience. And that is precisely where clinical hypnosis comes in.

Far removed from stage performances and swinging watches, clinical hypnosis works directly with the brain’s ability to process and reinterpret sensation. In a hypnosis session, the conscious critical mind quietens, making the subconscious more receptive to new ways of experiencing the body. Pain can be turned down. The anxiety that wraps itself around chronic pain can be gently loosened. And patients can be taught self-hypnosis — a practical, portable tool they can use independently at any time.

Denise shares the story of a client who had lived with debilitating migraines for ten years. The outcome? Real, measurable, life-changing improvement — and a husband who noticed she was smiling again.

This episode is the first in a series on pain and hypnosis. Next month, Denise goes deeper into what actually happens in a session, what the research shows, and answers the questions she hears most often. She is also planning a live online talk at the end of June — watch out for details soon.

About the Host

Dr. Denise Billen-Mejia is a former emergency medicine physician turned clinical hypnotist, dedicated to helping people find relief that conventional medicine alone hasn’t been able to provide.

To explore further, find articles and resources, or get in touch with Denise directl email office@aahypnosis.com or visit her website: healandberadiant.com