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

Dates: December 5th and 6th, 2026

Time: 10:00AM–5:00 PM (Eastern Time) Each Day

Format: Live Zoom 

CE Credit: 12 CE hours

Register Here – https://members.asch.net/events/event-details/?id=e098b21f-d664-f111-9b48-7c1e52a0ebef

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, these individuals may 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.  This pattern is common enough that the CDC has recently provided the label High-Impact Chronic Pain (HICP) to describe such conditions.  Clinicians from both the physical medicine and mental health sectors often feel helpless and overwhelmed when confronted with patients engaged in such patterns of behavior.  Fortunately, Drs. Hall and Vair have years of experience with such populations and have learned ways that strategic education and intervention, centered around an approach that integrates clinical hypnosis techniques, can turn the tide for these individuals so that their lives start to grow again as the overwhelm of pain shrinks.  

Join ASCH 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 us externally, offering both hypnotic and other tools for promoting positive change.  

At the end of this presentation, participating physicians and other clinicians will be able to:

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

Please note: To participate in ASCH’s advanced workshops, you must have completed a Level 1 Clinical Workshop

Presenters:

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 a fellow of the American Academy of Clinical Health Psychology and the American Psychological Association, an approved consultant and Past President of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, board lead for continuing education of the North Carolina Society of Clinical Hypnosis, tech-wrangler for the Hypnotic Idea Exchange, and an SME for both the Clinical Hypnosis and Guided Imagery rollouts of OPCC&CT.  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.

Registration Fees: Member $325; Nonmember: $430; Grad $260; Intern/resident $260

Registration Closing Date: November 25, 2026

Cancellations: Cancellations must be made in writing to info@asch.net. No cancellations will be taken by phone. Cancellations made by November 15th, 2026 will receive a full refund minus a $50 administrative fee. No refunds will be made for cancellations made after that date unless the seat can be filled by a waitlisted person.

Workshop CME & ASCH Continuing Education (CE) Credits

This program has been approved by the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis Standards of Training Committee to be used toward Membership and Certification requirements.

The American Society of Clinical Hypnosis-Education and Research Foundation (ASCH-ERF) is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians. The American Society of Clinical Hypnosis-Education and Research Foundation (ASCH-ERF) designates this live activity for a maximum of 12 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

This program is Approved by the National Association of Social Workers (886386995-7390) for 12 continuing education contact hours.

This course is approved by the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis and as such is an approved continuing education course per Florida’s AC-Rule 64B-4-6002 American Society of Clinical Hypnosis-ERF is designated as an Approved PACE Program Provider.

The American Society of Clinical Hypnosis Education & Research Foundation Nationally Approved PACE Program Provider for FAGD/MAGD credit. Approval does not imply acceptance by any regulatory authority or AGD endorsement. 10/1/2024 to 9/30/2027. Provider ID#217022

American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA) is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists and the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH). American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA) is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists.