HYPNOSIS HELPS CAR CRASH VICTIM TO SURVIVE

Elsabe Barlow
Hermans Times

A serious car accident in June 2001 left trained cordon bleu chef Jason Sandler with such severe spinal and hip injuries that he spent three months in a coma in the intensive care unit and another month in a general ward.
But if there is one thing Sandler does not believe in, it is giving up and he did not hesitate to tackle the long walk to recovery - even though it meant 18 months of pure mental and physical hell.

Through all the turmoil that Sandler experienced since that black day in 2001, he kept himself going with hypnosis techniques that he had learned while dabbling in hypnosis as a hobby.

The last thing he could remember was getting into his car. The next thing he knew, he woke up in the ICU of Vincent Pallotti hospital in Pinelands three months later, with no recollection of anything that had happened in between.

He received the news that he had broken two vertebrae, C2 and C3, in his neck. This so-called "hangman's facture" is the same injury that left Superman-star Christopher Reeves a quadriplegic. Sandler was lucky, however. The splinters from the fracture only bruised his spinal cord. If they had moved a millimetre further, it would have caused permanent damage to his spinal cord. But that was not where the trauma ended.

Power of the mind

Besides the spinal injury, some of Sandler's other serious injuries included a crushed left hip, leaving too little bone intact to rebuild it. A surgical steel hook had to be placed in his hip to replace the bone. "I was told afterward that I should not have survived." But he did because he wanted to and because he understood the power the mind has in overcoming barriers.

At the time of the accident, Sandler was engaged to be married soon, but the day he was suppose to marry Lisa, a computer expert, he was still in hospital. "'That became my goal - to be able to walk my bride down the aisle, even though it meant postponing the wedding."

While recovering in hospital, he used the time for selftherapy through hypnosis to reach beyond his excruciating pain to heal. When he was released from hospital after four months, Sandler had stopped taking pain medication as he had taught himself to control his pain with his mind. After 18 months of intensive therapy and rehabilitation, he received the green light from his doctor to return to work, but on one condition - light duty only.

This, in reality, meant the end of his 18-year career in the hospitality industry, as he was now walking on a stick and considered to be a safety hazard in an industrial kitchen. Besides having to come to terms with his permanent injuries, Sandler also had to face up to new career challenges as he could not continue his profession as a chef.

He had to find something that wasn't physically demanding but would offer enough of a challenge. He considered all his hobbies and his choice fell on hypnosis. His initial decision was to specialise in stage hypnosis as a form of entertainment.

Therapeutic wonders

But his personal experiences over the months after his accident had opened up the therapeutic wonders of hypnosis as a healing method, as he could relate to it.

He is now a qualified clinical hypnotherapist as well as a certified hypno-technician. He is currently studying towards a diploma in counselling at the South African College of Applied Psychology (SACAP). This enables him to combine hypnotherapy and counselling skills to help people get to the root of their problems and to deal with them.

Although he still loves cooking, his new career is one of the best things that could have happened to him - besides eventually marrying the woman who stood by his side all the way through the darkest hours in his life.

Today he runs a successful practice in Somerset West, and has now also spread his wings to Hermanus, where he will run weekly sessions every Wednesday.

Hypnosis is the same as meditation in that a person goes into a very deep state of relaxation, opening the subconscious state of mind for inner peace and tranquillity. But with hypnosis, you are in a state where you are guided by the therapist to deal with specific issues. In this state of relaxation, the conscious mind and subconscious mind start to communicate with each other.

The main difference between stage hypnosis and hypnotherapy is that a hypnotist on stage will tell his subjects that they will not remember anything afterwards. But a therapist will tell the person he is counselling the exact opposite, as this is where the healing lies.

For more information on hypnotherapy, contact Sandler on 072 239 2760 or (021) 852-8080.

Back to Media Articles about Jason Sandler