Hynotherapy for Anxiety, OCD and Panic
Anxiety, is the most common form of mental health concern in Australia. It’s also the most common form of mental health concern in the Western World.
Every person has experienced anxiety to some degree:
Nervousness before a job interview,
A presentation,
Waiting for test results,
Meeting someone we want to impress,
Or the concern we may have, when we’re not sure what will happen next.
These are just a few examples.
All of these experiences, cause our bodies to prepare us for what we think might be a threat. And if the concern feels strong enough, then we experience anxiety. It’s our bodies way of keeping us alert, on guard, prepared, by giving us the energy we need to react. Then, once we’ve addressed the issue, the anxiety switches off, or at least, it’s supposed to.
Often though, anxiety can be related to concerns about what might happen if we do something. How others will see us, what the consequences may be for something we are planning to do, or something we have done.
Briana West, in her book ‘101 Essays that will change the way you think,’ talks about anxiety as being a sense of shame, “…. the idea that who you are, or what you are doing, is not right. Therefore, eliciting a rush of energy (anxiety) to help you fix or change it.”
Anxiety lives in the future. It’s a focus on what might happen, even if we are thinking about something we did in our past, we are still concerned about how that will affect us in the future, what it will mean.
Anxiety manifests in so many different ways:
Reactive anxiety: A response to a fear we have, that only occurs because of a situation we are faced with and then dissipates when that situation is resolved. Social anxiety or the fear of public speaking, fit into this category.
Generalised anxiety: A sense of worry/fear about most areas of life, making it hard for a person to switch off or relax, even when there is no evidence of anything to be concerned about.
Phobias: A fear in relation to a specific something that we experience anytime we meet or even think about that thing. People can experience phobias in relation to anything. There may not be any obvious logical threat in relation to that thing, but people have somewhere had an experience, that has caused them to believe that whatever it is, is a threat, and to respond to it as if it is.
OCD: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: An experience of feeling the need to repeat checks/actions, over and over, again. With a fear of what will happen if we do not check. People can also repeat thoughts over and over, finding themselves struggling to not think or focus on a particular area or situation, therefore experiencing concerns in relation to that situation or area, over and over again.
Panic Attacks: As the Mayo Clinic say: “A panic attack is a sudden episode of intense fear that triggers severe physical reactions when there is no real danger or apparent cause.” However, I would add that we can also react like this when we are in actual danger. Although in general it will be our thinking about that situation and what may happen that will lead to the panic.
So, as you can see, anxiety can appear in many different ways. But at its heart, is our body trying to protect us from a threat. That’s the common theme in all these experiences. Our body does what it can by either generating a flight and fight response, so that we can get away, or defend ourselves. Or, when those options don’t seem available, by shutting us down, or dissociating, so we don’t have to experience it.
So, How Can Hynotherapy Help?
Let me start by letting you know that with hypnotherapy you are always in control. All hypnotherapy does is help you communicate with the bit that’s in charge. The bit that’s making the decisions – your unconscious mind. Decisions about what a threat is, how to respond to the situation we are in, and what that means.
Famous myths about hypnosis include that you wont be able to hear me, that I can control you. None of that is true. No one can control you. This is simply an opportunity for us to have a discussion with the bit that’s in charge, your unconscious mind, so you can make the changes you want to make. You will be able to hear me, and you will be able to stop, at any time you choose.
95% of everything we do happens at an unconscious level, sometimes called the subconscious. All of it is designed to keep us safe, to respond to what we think is a danger, and to keep us healthy and alive. Which is a really useful skill to have. However, in a lot of cases the evidence we have for the danger, is not that clear. This is because only 5% of the decisions we make are made at a conscious level – the place where we are aware of the choices and reasons for that decision. The rest are made automatically – so we’re not aware.
From the womb until the age of 7, we download information about us and the world around us. We get that information from the people, places and experiences we’ve had, including books, TV, music, movies, and particularly from people we believed had authority.
We do that in order to create a blueprint for how to navigate the world, what life is and who we are. We then add to this over time. But the foundations of the beliefs we have about who we are, what we are, what’s safe, what’s not safe; how to interact with others and the world around us, and what’s important, were laid down in those early years. Over time we can add to those rules and beliefs certainly when we experience something new, especially trauma. However, we’re mostly unaware of the rules themselves, because, as I say they sit at an unconscious level.
What Can Hynotherapy Do?
It can help you:
Recognise those rules and beliefs
Help you change the rules and beliefs to reflect a more logical truth
Help you feel calmer
Help you learn to regulate and release fear.
Help you understand negative thought patterns
Help you take back control of the way you manage your thoughts.
Help you build feelings of safety, warmth, comfort, and inner personal strength.
Help you develop feelings of self love, peace and happiness.
Hypnotherapy is really good at helping people feel calm. And when we are in a calm space, our bodies ability to find balance and understand the issues we are facing, and then find solutions to those issues, increases. This is because when we are in an anxious state, it can be really hard to access that logical part of ourselves. That’s because our nervous system prioritises survival, and so reduces the access we have to the parts of us it thinks aren’t necessary, like logic. So, helping us find a space where we can feel calm is always a useful first step, and as I said, hypnotherapy is really good at that.
So, using Hypnotherapy,
I can help you feel calmer, and communicate with the part of you that makes decisions.
I can then use strategic psychotherapy, and other methods, to work with that part of you, to help you find the balance you need, and help you take back control.
With Trauma and phobias, I can also help you by using the Rewind Technique. See link Below for more information:
Information on the Rewind Technique can be found at the bottom of our Services page.
