ANXIETY RELIEF AND HYPNOTHERAPY
As someone who has suffered from anxiety in the past, and who has helped many people with anxiety, I know that being anxious can feel as though heavy stones in your pockets are weighing you down wherever you go. Trapped in a tower of anxiety swirling with catastrophic thoughts, ‘what if’ scenarios and distorted imaginings is undoubtedly a prison sentence.
So how to escape from this tower, how to cast away the stones in your pockets and walk freely in the sunshine?
Anxiety takes many forms and is unique to our individual self; this I have seen in my years of clinical practice as a hypnotherapist. We can attach anxiety or associate anxiety with anything, physical or metaphysical, rational or irrational, possible or impossible.
Medicating the symptoms of anxiety can certainly help, but do we really want a lifetime’s worth of tablets in our blood, our organs, our brain? Would it not be better to work on the cause of the anxiety in order to let it go? Would it not be better to prepare our mind and body in anticipation of future anxiety triggers? Would it not be better to work on the concept that a relaxed mind is a powerful mind?
Is anxiety relief and hypnotherapy a strong marriage?
As a therapist specialising in hypnotherapy I have researched its effectiveness in anxiety relief over many years. Let's take a look at some research into types of anxiety treatment with hypnosis, the state of mindful relaxation. Studies show that hypnosis can be very effective in the treatment of state anxiety “associated with cancer, surgery, burns and a variety of medical/dental procedures” (Hammond, 2010). In a study with one thousand IBS patients, Miller et al (2015) reported that gut-focused hypnotherapy improves the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome. Stanton (1993) describes a two session hypnotherapeutic procedure that reduces musicians’ performance anxiety in treating stage fright. Hypnotic intervention has been shown to positively impact our immune systems during times of stress such as college examinations: Kiecolt-Glaser et al (2001) found that hypnosis reduced stress generated by exams and this was related to higher T-lymphocyte (essential parts of the immune system) levels compared to the control group.
The positive impact of hypnotherapy and the relaxed state of hypnosis upon anxiety relief is undoubtable. Yet for some reason we are never taught to use our senses to create a calm relaxed state within our mind and body, to visualise and feel and imagine situations going well rather than terribly wrong, to deal with intrusive and catastrophic thoughts. This should be a fundamental learning at school, as important as algebra and the alphabet.
How wonderful to think that the heavy stone in ones pocket can shatter the glass window in the anxiety tower and let the air and sunlight in.
References
Hammond, D. C. (2010). Hypnosis in the treatment of anxiety- and stress-related disorders. Expert Review Newsletter, 10(2), 263-273.
Kiecolt-Glaser et al (2001). Hypnosis as a Modulator of Cellular Immune Dysregulation During Acute Stress. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 2001, Vol. 69, No. 4, 674-682.
Miller V., Carruthers H. R., Morris J., Hasan S. S., Archbold S. & Whorwell P. J. Hypnotherapy for irritable bowel syndrome: an audit of one thousand adult patients (Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics, 2015)
Stanton, H. E. (1993). Research Note: Alleviation of Performance Anxiety through Hypnotherapy. Psychology of Music, 21(1), 78–82.
Mark Spalek
Clinical Hypnotherapist, Therapeutic Coach, NLP Practitioner
GHR (reg), Dip. Hyp, Dip. NLP, GQHP, MSc, BSc, PGCE