How Successful is Hypnotherapy for Anxiety?
Does hypnotherapy for anxiety work? Yes, hypnotherapy can be an extremely effective method of helping people to overcome or reduce feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression.
Anxiety is incredibly common, with more people than ever suffering from their mental health. Anxiety can be distressing and unbearable to anyone, but it’s important to know that you’re not alone if you are struggling with an anxiety disorder.
In this article, we’ll discuss if hypnotherapy works for anxiety, how hypnotherapy for anxiety works, and how many hypnosis sessions are needed for severe anxiety disorders.
Does Hypnotherapy Work for Anxiety, Panic Attacks, and Depression?
Yes, hypnotherapy does work for some people to reduce anxiety disorders, panic attacks, and depression. When you’re in a trance state and your mind is open, a hypnotherapist is able to change your mindset into a positive frame of mind.
However, it’s important to note that hypnotherapy can only work if a person is dedicated and is open to change. A person cannot be hypnotised if they don’t want to be.
Anxiety disorders are serious mental conditions and can get worse if left untreated. Anxiety can affect people in different ways and can take control of their life, leaving them unable to go about their daily activities.
There are many symptoms of severe anxiety which are listed below.
Symptoms of Anxiety Disorders:
- Feeling nervous
- Struggling to breathe properly
- Feelings of helplessness
- Shaking
- Panicking
- Feelings of danger
- Increased heart rate
- Hyperventilation
- Sweating
Where Is My Anxiety Coming From?
There are many reasons why people get anxious, but experiences in childhood, as a teenager, or during adulthood are common triggers. Physical or emotional abuse when you’re very young is likely to have a big impact on people with anxiety problems.
This stress and trauma can often lead to mental health problems which may need expert help to help people overcome the abuse.
During your hypnotherapy sessions, your hypnotherapist will find the root of your anxiety, before putting together an individual hypnosis plan to overcome your disorder.
How Does Hypnotherapy Work For Anxiety?
Hypnotherapy is very effective in helping people to overcome anxiety. Hypnosis can help target negative thoughts and unhealthy habits, and turn them into a more positive frame of mind.
Our mind has a conscious state and a subconscious state. Research has shown that our unconscious mind makes 90% of decisions and that behaviours are generally established at a very young age.
As hypnotherapy works through the power of your own mind, when a person is in a trance-like state of mind, the subject can experience deep levels of relaxation helping reduce stress and anxiety.
For someone suffering from long-term anxiety, the relaxed state in itself can bring some level of comfort to the sufferer as it gives the person a break from a constant feeling of panic.
Being in a very highly focused and suggestible state allows the hypnotherapist to re-program your association with the irrational fears and thoughts that you have. While you’re in a trance-like state, similar to when you’re daydreaming, your mind can be guided toward positive changes.
Because of this, someone suffering from anxiety can recover without the need for medical drugs, in a completely natural way.
How Hypnotherapy for Anxiety Works
As with all hypnotherapy and coaching, there’s no one technique that works for everyone. Your hypnotherapist and life coach will talk to you first and find the root of the issue causing anxiety.
Following this, they will put together a tailored plan using a variety of advanced hypnotherapy techniques such as including cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) or exposure therapy. Read how hypnotherapy works here.
Changes can be seen almost instantaneously. Of course, any severe anxiety problems may require a series of sessions to affect long-term changes to your levels of anxiety.
Hypnotherapy for anxiety and stress can take place in a private clinic where sessions are completely confidential or through online hypnotherapy. Online hypnotherapy is as effective as face-to-face hypnosis. Read how online hypnotherapy works here.
How Long Does Hypnotherapy Take to Work for Anxiety?
Generally, a minimum of six to eight sessions are required for anxiety hypnotherapy. However, there some people may require more sessions, and some people will require fewer sessions.
Positive results and coping mechanisms can be seen from just one session. But for long-lasting results, your hypnotherapist will recommend that you have a treatment plan tailored to the severity of your anxiety and stress.
Tips for Dealing with Anxiety
Everyone experiences some feeling of anxiety now and again, and this is completely normal.
If you are struggling with anxiety, there are many tips that may help reduce some of the anxious symptoms.
Tips To Help With Anxiety:
- Keep active
- Go for long walks
- Talking to friends or family
- Avoid alcohol and other recreational drugs (e.g. cannabis)
- Prioritise sleep and aim for 7-9 hours
- Stop smoking
- Reduce coffee and energy drinks
- Eat a healthy diet
- Try meditation
- Try journalling once a day
- Use stress management
The list above is a general list of things that can help control your anxiety. Everyone is different, but prioritising sleep, keeping active, and eating a healthy diet can really help your symptoms.
Other relaxation techniques to help with anxiety may include massage, deep breathing, Tai Chi, yoga, music, a bath, and aromatherapy. Don’t forget the power of talking to loved ones, and ‘getting out of your own head’.
FAQs about Does Hypnotherapy Work for Anxiety
Some people may have success and see results from day one, however on average six to eight sessions are required for anxiety.
Learning how to cope with, and overcome, anxiety can be treated through hypnotherapy techniques such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). This technique will teach you coping mechanisms to help control your anxious thoughts, and resume your daily activities.
Hypnotherapy can really help someone to overcome anxiety, and hypnosis has a high success rate as a natural form of treatment, without the need for medication or drugs.
Hypnotherapy is a very effective treatment for changing a negative mindset, and overthinking, into a positive frame of mind.
Through your hypnotherapy journey, a range of hypnosis and coaching techniques will be used to change your unhealthy thoughts, and teach you skills to use in the long run.
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is generally the most effective form of hypnotherapy for anxiety disorders. CBT treatment works by teaching you specific skills, and coping mechanisms, to improve your anxiety symptoms.
Summary for Does Hypnotherapy for Anxiety Work?
So, does hypnotherapy work for anxiety? In summary hypnotherapy for anxiety is an extremely natural and effective form of treatment. If you are suffering from stress, severe anxiety, panic attacks, or depression, please seek a hypnotherapist for help.
Severe anxiety disorders are unlikely to get better without any treatment and can prevent many people from living the life they dream of. Anxiety symptoms can truly take a hold of someone trying to go about their day-to-day routine and life.
Expert hypnotherapist Stuart Downing has helped hundreds of patients overcome anxiety with hypnotherapy in the UK and internationally. Stuart has a private hypnotherapy clinic in London, and a hypnotherapy clinic in Birmingham, and also treats patients through online hypnotherapy sessions.
Get in touch today for a free 30-minute consultation to find out if Stuart could help you change your life for the better.
Related Hypnotherapy Articles:
- How Does Hypnotherapy Work Online on Zoom?
- Does Hypnotherapy Work for Weight Loss?
- Can Hypnosis Help Stop Procrastination?