How Hypnotherapy Can Help With Anxiety Disorders

If you’re asking the question ‘does hypnotherapy work for anxiety’ then chances are you’ve been searching high and low for the best solution to your problem.

For the most part, anxiety, worry and distress begin and end in the mind. If you want to get on top of the problem there are a couple of approaches you can take. The first is to book an appointment with a counsellor, a psychologist or an accredited clinical hypnotherapist.

A second option is to do what most people do and go on medication. If you don’t want to go down this path and hypnosis sounds like something you may like to try, this article will explain the essential elements of an effective program for anxiety therapy in Melbourne.

 

ONE: The Symptom

Some common symptoms of anxiety include panic attacks, heart palpitations, confusion, indecision or changes in sleep patterns. Many hypnotherapists focus on simply getting rid of these symptoms and this approach may be effective for a short time; but for most people the affects will wear off.

Why? Because the problem isn’t just that you feel anxious, worried or distressed; it’s that the subconscious mind feels the need to perpetuate these unwanted symptoms as a direct result of either what is happening in your life right now, or what has happened to you in the past.

This doesn’t mean we have to find every single unpleasant event or experience in your life and explore them one by one. However, what it does mean is that we need to provide an avenue for the subconscious to find and resolve the beliefs and behaviour patterns that were formed as a result of these experiences.

 

TWO: The Cause

Essentials of self-hypnosis recordings for anxiety

A good hypnosis program, whether it’s one-on-one with a therapist or using self-hypnosis MP3s, will include an element that allows to subconscious mind to explore and eradicate the causes of your anxiety.

These causes may change from month to month, from year to year or they may have been with you for a long time. Either way most of the time they can be resolved without having to resort to medication, provided you have access to the right tools.

My client Lydia presented with all the classic symptoms of anxiety. She described herself as a ‘stress-head’ and an ‘over-analyzer’. Lydia was prone to catastrophizing and spent a great deal of her time in an imagined disastrous future.

Her reasoning behind this was ‘it’s better to be prepared by imagining all the possible worst-case scenarios than be taken by surprise’.

What You Notice Is What You Get

Unfortunately this approach was incredibly draining and was taking its toll on Lydia’s health and happiness. Another way needed to be found. During our personal sessions together we explored the specific beliefs that she had developed around always having to be on the lookout for the next disaster.

At home, she listened to my MP3 and that enabled her to work with the part of her subconscious that was holding onto the anxiety as a way to protect herself from hurt or harm.

Over a number of sessions Lydia learnt powerful tools and strategies that allowed her to transcend the old outdated thought patterns that crept into her mind and as a result, she became a much calmer and more centred person. This improved her health, her relationships and her life.

So hypnotherapy does work for anxiety provided you have access to the right tools that give you the opportunity to treat both the causes and the symptoms of your anxiety. If you would like assistance with your anxiety disorder contact me today.