Health Anxiety: Navigating the Obsessive Grip of Wellness Worry
Health anxiety can be a distressing and debilitating experience, winding its way, everyday, into thoughts and feelings. For some it can even become obsessive…
Hypnotherapy is a fascinating field that has intrigued people through the ages (it’s the oldest form of talking therapy, started in 1770!), and unknown to some, there are different ‘schools’ of hypnotherapy training and therefore very different approaches that can be experienced by the client.
Although each approach can alter from school to school, and even from therapist to therapist, most hypnotherapists will be offering the same overarching goal to their clients…
Change.
Change is generally a key fundamental across all therapies (rarely do people come to stay the same after all), but most people looking to take hypnotherapy sessions specifically are looking to alter a pattern of behaviour or to change a way of thinking.
Sometimes, for those without an immediate concern to attend to, a need to move on from a stuck place may well be what someone is looking for, and often, the search for a more balanced life can be front and centre of someone’s needs as they search for a greater meaning of their future.
As we all know, modern life can be quite a challenging prospect.
The seemingly constant demands of work, a home life, significant relationships, children etc. can be plenty enough to drive the stress levels sky high. Then add in future career thoughts, ill parents, break ups, and rising costs of food and fuel too and in no time you can quickly see how that fight/flight mechanism built within all of us starts to get a little, well, ‘over-active’ shall we say.
It’s often at these times when stress is particularly high, and when our own stress management and self care routines begin to slip, we start to put our own health, both emotional and physical, on the back bench.
Symptoms of low health start to creep in, and with less and less time to address these personal issues, we understandably begin to reach for those vices such as food, or sometimes alcohol, to give us that happy little short-term high, or that much-needed break from thinking about our problems, to get us through the day.
But as much as the sense of immediate relief these vices often give, long term the cracks begin to show, and problems just do not want to go away.
At these times, seeking out some professional assistance can be a solid way to steady the ship, and hypnotherapy sessions can often help someone begin to re-align directions and aims towards more positive and progressive outcomes.
Hypnosis For Reducing Unwanted Symptoms
Hypnotherapy is a combination of a therapeutic approach alongside the use of hypnosis, to bring about positive changes to someone’s emotional and physical day-to-day. The therapeutic approach can be any ‘type’ of therapy such as CBT or Solution Focused Therapy, and hypnosis is then used in conjunction with these therapeutic sessions to accelerate the changes someone is working through with their chosen professional.
The aim?
Well, often someone’s first aim is to reduce the negative feelings associated with a stressful life, such as the want to feel less anxiety, to move forward from a depressed state, or being able to reduce feelings of anger in order to live an improved life.
Other needs that clients may want to see improvements in can be
to name just a few.
These are some of the diverse approaches within the field of hypnotherapy, each tailored to address different issues and preferences of clients
Anxiety is a common concern that affects many individuals, impacting their quality of life.
Hypnotherapy has shown great promise in helping individuals achieve a state of relaxation and reduce the flight-or-fight response associated with anxiety. and through guided hypnosis sessions, a skilled hypnotherapist can help individuals access their inner resources, and to help someone engage in their natural ability to promote a sense of internal calm.
Through the therapy taken with hypnosis, someone can learn more about their existing skills and strengths and can learn to grow and build on these already established foundations to improve their coping mechanisms.
Hypnotherapy also helps with concerns such as health anxiety and social anxiety. It can free you from the clutches of obsessional thinking and catastrophising, allowing you to think less about fears of your health or other’s health, beyond necessary levels of attention, and it can help calm your worries in regards to being outside in open spaces, communicating comfortably with others, and allowing you to enjoy once-loved social interactions with friends, colleagues and within your significant relationships.
Solution Focused Hypnotherapy’s strength lies in its ability to stimulate neuroplasticity – the brain’s capacity to reorganise itself and form new connections.
By tapping into the mind’s ability to laser-like focus on preferred outcomes, and engaging the brain’s natural way to change and adapt, hypnotherapy can facilitate natural behavioural adjustments.
Solution Focused Therapy helps a client towards a better understanding of what their existing strengths are, how realistically they would like life to be beyond therapy, and through discussion, gain a greater understanding of their existing abilities to create achievable, preferred outcomes.
It empowers individuals to develop healthier patterns of thought, speech and behaviour, and encourages people to move beyond their current state.
Hypnosis then accelerates the learning, allowing the mind to establish someone’s new ideas and directions in a more concentrated way.
The strength of Solution Focused Hypnotherapy lies in its light, yet concentrated way of formulating a clear, simple, and achievable plan through focused conversation, and making that wish and drive more concrete through the use of hypnosis.
Hypnotherapy offers a range of practical applications that can significantly impact everyday living.
Hypnotherapy sessions can teach individuals how to achieve deep relaxation and practice mindfulness, fostering a sense of calm, and can help someone learn how to reduce stress in their life.
Hypnotherapy can help individuals reframe their responses to stressors, enabling them to manage the fight-or-flight response more effectively.
Through targeted hypnotherapy techniques, individuals can gain a better understanding and control over their emotions, leading to improved balance and regulation of worry, fear and concern.
Hypnotherapy is a powerful tool that can positively influence someone’s life by harnessing the potential of hypnosis and promoting neuroplasticity (brain change).
By improving relaxation, reducing the flight/fight response, and by engaging skills to deal with stress, anxiety, depression and anger management, hypnotherapy offers valuable solutions for everyday challenges.
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