Curing stress with Hypnotherapy
< continued from page 1 – “Curing stress with hypnotherapy”
Curing Anxiety With Hypnosis
Anxiety can make a person stay in the same place; doing the same thing. This is known as the freeze and the anxiety causes a negative pattern that we incur.
Anxiety, as it has already been said, is a feeling of apprehension or fear. In 1920 John Broadhus Watson did a shameful experiment concerning a 11 month old little boy which caused unnecessary anxiety.
If we experience something like falling on a trolley escalator, like my mother did in a supermarket recently, then we become very anxious knowing we have to do it again the next time we go shopping. Now my mother is nervous of escalators and stairs when she goes anywhere. Negative thoughts caused the anxiety which caused the lack of confidence in going out.
From a person’s experience of falling it could be an Initial Sensitising event, for example if we fell as a child and were told we were clumsy. Falling as an adult could bring back these feelings which causes anxiety and in turn can cause a phobia.
Curing Phobias With Hypnosis
The reason why a phobia is related to stress is because it is a fear of something. There are many different things people can be frightened of.
Some are simple fears such as heights or enclosed spaces, but there are others that are more frightening, such as complex phobias. For example, this could be when someone is frightened of large boats and a possible fear of drowning, crashing, or being lost.
If someone has a social phobia, they suffer from blushing in public and the fear is also associated with losing self control.
Agoraphobia is the terrifying fear of open spaces. This applies to people who are very nervous about going outside the safe surroundings of their home. In some severe cases they do not go out at all.
A phobia maybe the product of experiences that have occurred over years which have built into excessive anxiety. It could also be a fear of fear, or could even have been passed on to you by another person.
There are times when a phobia happens due to a past trauma. It can either be subconscious or conscious. You can be aware of the trauma or have buried it deep so you have no conscious recollection. Not all phobias are seen in the same way to everyone. If a person has a phobia with spiders, another person may not understand what all the fuss is about.
All forms of phobia should be taken seriously as the person sees their phobia as very true and real, although a phobia may be used for attention. If someone has a phobia of flying, their family have to take things into consideration when going on a family holiday abroad. Some people may even enjoy having a strange phobia, if that’s what it is.
Treating Habitual Behaviour With Hypnosis
A habit that we don’t need can cause stress but not all habits are bad. Something that can be seen as a habit is just a routine that we do such as laying a table a certain way or the way a craftsman arranges his tools. We also drive in a habitual way. The brain relies on habits either to solve a problem quickly or to use the habit to bring pleasure. The pleasurable ones are often the hardest to stop. Some habits are damaging, such as smoking and comfort eating (if excessive).
Take smoking, some of us smoke as we feel it helps when we are stressed. We are told that smoking can be very damaging to our health, causing cancer, heart disease and strokes. Still having this knowledge doesn’t make me want to stop. I quite enjoy smoking having been fascinated by my parents smoking as a child. Rolling up a bus ticket so I could join in with the grown ups is what got me started.
Hypnotherapy Curing Stress, Anxiety, Habits & Phobias
All of the earlier discussed symptoms are treatable with hypnotherapy and hypnosis. Teaching the client how to relax and assist them to deal with any physical condition, and recognising the trigger to their problem.
There are cases where a client may not be treatable using hypnotherapy techniques. As discussed previously, a client showing signs of psychosis must not be treated and should be referred back to their doctor as it would be damaging to both the client and therapist. If a client has heart disease, diabetes, or other major health problems, they must get permission from their doctor first before any treatment is given.
Allen 2004 “Reframing is a technique that can be incorporated into the hypnosis approach, allowing the power of the clients own subconscious to change perception”. So the subconscious has to be retrained to understand that relaxation equals calm, positive and confident. If we feel relaxed and calm, then this is polar opposite to anxiety.
Treating Stress With Hypnotherapy
After finding out how the client would like to feel, the first step as we know would be to try to relax them. This would be done by using hypnotic state (hypnosis). Explanations of hypnosis is that it’s a natural state, a feeling of calm and relaxation. The modalities, whether they are kinaesthetic (feeling) visual (seeing) or auditory (sound) for example, would be given to the client. If you were not sure which modality suited the client, a compounded induction would be written.
Relaxation should be promoted in the induction (as it is the opposite of stress) by using permissive method which includes words such as “you could” or “you may like to”. There should be no negative words or direct commands. Or as another example, the authoritarian method which still contains imagery, but more directly logical and to the point, such as “close your eyes” and “you will always be in control”. Their subconscious will pick up on this and help relieve the stress quicker.
There should be no advice but remind them of how they want to feel once they are in the relaxed state such as “you are nice and relaxed and at ease with yourself, you feel totally calm and relaxed, your mind and body are totally relaxed”. This will be included in the suggestive therapy, before reorientation.
Treating Anxiety With Hypnotherapy
Anxiety can be treated with hypnotherapy but again relaxation would need to be promoted once the client has given the reason for the anxiety, if they can recognise it. Again, explaining hypnosis is a form of relaxation, once they are relaxed the subconscious mind is opened, allowing the changes needed to assist them to become more at ease.
The induction is the same as described above with therapy suggestions boosting confidence and self esteem such as saying “you are not anxious anymore, as you are confident and in control, if any future concerns come along, you will be confident enough to handle them, and not become anxious“. Positive thoughts would be encouraged as teaching the client negativity only gives the anxiety ammunition while bringing the client’s subconscious mind back in line with their conscious.
Treating Phobias and Habits With Hypnosis
It would be better to check during the first consultation and therapy that the client has no secondary gains. This could cause them to over come one thing but only to have another ready to step in its shoes.
To be approached first would be how and when it started so they can identify the source. You will see from the client’s reaction, how deep their fear is. This will then indicate to you how quick or slow it will be to help the client overcome the problem. All habits and phobias are to be taken seriously. What may seem silly is certainly not to the client so only laugh if they do. A one step at a time approach may be needed. Always allow them to stay in their comfy zone.
As above with the induction choice, a suggestive therapy would include, calmness, relaxation and confidence. Positive visualisation for example would be saying “you will start to see your nails, becoming more and more the way you want them to look, you will be proud of the way they look“. Direct suggestions would be “ you no longer need the habit of nail biting, it is of no important use to you”.
Whatever the clients reason for hypnotherapy or therapy, they must be prepared to acknowledge and realise the need to change the negative that is in their lives.
Allow the reprogramming of their subconscious mind using hypnosis and positive suggestions with regard to their specific fear.
Conclusion
Many people have false impressions and beliefs that once they adopt stress or a habit etc, there is no escape. Fortunately they are wrong. A Hypnotherapist can use hypnosis to cure anxiety, stress, habits & phobias.
With hypnosis, change in the subconscious mind can be brought about if the person seeks for that change and if they are encouraged to accept the differences they will feel once the necessary adjustments are made.
As I have found through my research, there is a blanket to the problems, whether large or small.
It seems to me, that it mainly stems as anxiety being the major course.
I also feel that an important point should be made. As in the counselling side of the therapy, the therapist should be as diplomatic as possible, when dealing with any form of client problems.
References used
Roger Allen 2004 Scripts and Strategies
Article submitted by
Amanda Smith
Hypnotherapy, Braintree Essex
Date published
11/11/08
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November 11th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Hi. I read a few of your other posts and wanted to know if you would be interested in exchanging blogroll links?
December 8th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
Great article about curing stress – very informative. As someone who has previously suffered from stress finding a cure or solution was hard. I wish I knew about your site when I was searching for help. Keep up the good work.
February 26th, 2010 at 5:52 pm
My partner is a trained Hypnotherapist and he has told me that stress is one of the main areas which responds very well to this treatment. Many bof his client present stress and anxiety and they find the sessions very helpful.
i myself am a stress advisor and will often refer people to other alternative therapies if they feel that they would like to explore those methods as a way of managing theri stress.
Good article