Most writers have experienced writer’s block at some pointDefining writer’s block: The writing process, like any other art, is a creative pursuit that can pose many difficulties along the journey of producing written
material. Some of these difficulties can be overcome with practice, but one of the most infuriating problems is known as writer’s block. If you are a writer, you will probably have gone through this state at least a few times, and it would have undoubtedly been an extremely frustrating phase for you.
Writer’s block can be described as the condition in which a writer is no longer able to engage in or produce new material. As a general condition, you may experience this creative shut-down in varying forms, but ultimately, you will end up staring at a blank screen or page after a very copious period of trying. When you have writer’s block, it’s as if your ‘creativity power’ has become paralyzed and the more you try to break through your block, the more helpless you become.
Writer’s block, however, is not usually a symptom of a lack of writing skills. You can be a very successful writer, a fountain of ideas even, but you can still be susceptible to it for a variety of lifestyle and psychological reasons. And with whatever is causing your creative block, it may even occur to you during this period of stagnation (which can last from hours to years by the way) that you should quit writing altogether. This can be accompanied by a period of extreme self criticism and insecurity exclaiming “what kind of writer am I if I can’t write?”
Managing writer’s block can be helped, and sometimes prevented by understanding what the condition is, appreciating what traits you bring to your writing projects and being aware of the situation and conditions in which you write.
Does writer’s block only affect writers?
Whilst the term “writer’s block” is primarily associated with writers who write novels, it can affect anyone who produces creative written content e.g. students working towards your degree or higher degrees, playwrights, poets, scholars, television producers, article writers in magazines or newspapers, blog writers etc.
A similar “creative block” is commonly experienced by professionals required to produce creative materials, content or products. This list can include artists, architects, sculptors, designers, composers, musicians, songwriters, inventors, teachers, researchers and choreographers. In a much broader sense, a ‘mind block’ can also affect business professionals involved in problem-solving and project management roles.
When you are stuck in your block, you may have gone deep into a project, are now committed to completing it, but you fear that the solution evades you in the time required. As the stress and pressure mounts, it further inhibits your creative abilities to complete the task.
What happens when you have writer’s block?
When you have writer’s block, creative ideas stay below the surface of your subconscious mind
Consider the mind as a vast lake. Below the surface of the water is your creative subconscious mind that gives you access to your creative zone. It is brimming with stimulating ideas, enriched past experiences and inspiring emotional content. When you are writing expressively, you can freely access the content below the surface and apply your creativity to the task in hand.
But when stress, anxietyand negative beliefs are overwhelming you, access to the content below the surface is obstructed. The surface of the vast lake freezes over. Your creative (subconscious) mind is blocked and you are left to operate from above the surface of the water (using your conscious mind).
Your conscious mind struggles to work by itself. The conscious mind can function, but its concepts are slow, rigid, structured and at times, dull. When your subconscious mind is at hand, your inspirational flow of ideas and emotional creativity can be accessed. The collaboration between the two parts of your mind forms a creative unity that is inspiring and abundant.
At a physiological level, excessive adrenaline and cortisol levels created by stress and negative emotional states cause your brain waves to function at a higher Beta level. At this level, your brain struggles to be creative. When you are in your relaxed creative zone however, the brain waves operate at the Alpha level. At this level, there is a reduction in stress hormones and an increased production of serotonin that can balance your mood and give you open access to your creativity.
What causes writer’s block?
Since the process of writing is usually a day-to-day requirement for the writer, you will discover that many of the causes of the writer’s block are related to your personal lifestyle and habits. If you are a diligent writer, for example, you may have been overly focused on the prospect of completing certain milestones in the time required. But, as a consequence, you have had to sacrifice your resting periods and indispensable full night’s sleep. As you settled on this poor sleeping habit, your brain began to decrease its efficiency and it no longer offered you the surge of creativity you always received in a less pressured lifestyle.
The process of engaging with your creative work is now the hardest phase because your body and brain are not rejuvenated with the needed rest. Coupled with this, there can be the issue of poor eating habits, over-reliance on addictive substances (like caffeine, alcohol and nicotine), a lack of exercise as you attempt to maximise time efficiency. The writer’s block will easily become the standard mindset if your body and brain are not getting the balance of creativity, rest, nourishment and tension-release from exercise. The mind becomes deeply affected by fatigue and “mental fogginess”.
If you are working from home and balancing family life, the slightest distraction from family commitments can justify extended periods of frustrated “clock-watching”. You become agonisingly aware that if you happen to find the key to open your creative door, then it will need to be shut again within a short period of time to meet the external family demands.
Multitasking will distract you from your creative work
A more subtle cause of writer’s block can be related to your organisational skills. The writer’s block is a condition in which your mind is paralysed, unable to manage a complex task with diplomacy and ease. Therefore, some of the causes that breed the writer’s block can be your unrealistic management of tasks. You can be having too many irons in the fire, trying to handle different and unrelated tasks at the same time, for instance, trying to write while using social media and then over-planning the future. In addition to this, you may have made the environment in which you write too distracting. Constant stimulus from the outside world answering trivial emails for example not only decreases your focus and productivity but also drives you toward procrastination. When faced with frustration, responding to the email waiting in your inbox can seem like a temporary honourable achievement. Meanwhile, the available writing slot is getting shorter!
The approach that you use in organising your work is also extremely critical to the rate of your productivity. A lack of realism when dividing your time and work tasks, writing your draft and finding the suitable ideas for your piece ultimately decides how much you will be able to complete. The general cause for this mismanagement is being a perfectionist in the handling of your projects.
Lastly, a common cause that produces a writer’s block is the awareness of pressure to meet creative demands in your day-to-day life. You are probably familiar with the feeling of frustration as soon as you face a blank screen. It can be accompanied by a fear of failure and associated financial worries. This constant anxiety takes you further away from the creative control that you seek. It impedes you from writing imaginatively and stifles your confidence. As your anxiety levels increase, it affects your level of concentration and ability to recall information. Without these valuable internal resources, you are almost guaranteed to have a writer’s block
How is the condition diagnosed?
A writer’s block does not need an expert to diagnose your condition since it is a subjectively recognised. Its presence is likely to be detected as you fail to produce any acceptable content after trying for hours or even days. You may not want to acknowledge to your peers that you have writer’s block as it could define your failing. Instead you persist with “trying” in the hope that some miracle will surface and rescue you from your helplessness. For how long you struggle in denial is your own subjective boundary to establish. Once admitted however, it may then release you from your chains and allow you to recover. You are free to admit that you have the condition and invite others to empathise with your plight.
Major Common Symptoms:
A writer’s block has distinct symptoms that can intervene at all stages of your writing work. Recognizing them will help you understand the severity of your writer’s block and what lifestyle areas you can focus on to release it.
One major symptom you are likely to experience during a writer’s block is a gripping feeling of brain fog. This state reduces your ability to concentrate or think creatively. It is a mental state where your vision is severely limited by the “fog” and as a consequence, you form very poor writing scenarios. When you are experiencing this brain fog, you will find it very hard to write coherently or follow the plot line that you initially decided.
Another common symptom of writer’s block is that of defenceless distraction. You have gone to endless trouble to prepare your ideal creative mood. You sit there poised with the keyboard on your desk and screen in front of you. But instead of progressing with your ideas, the slightest noise or physical imperfection leads you astray. Then your own thoughts send you on another diversion that achieves everything else but the writing task. Irrelevant ideas and activities fill your time until you leave your work-station infuriated and in need of a break; only to return refreshed and ready to start the whole bewildering process off again.
Another symptom that typifies writer’s block is the absence of inspiration. You have a reservoir of ideas and scenarios listed in your journal, but you seem to return back to your starting point with no substance in which your ideas can flow. As you rebound from one meaningless idea to another, your mind gradually becomes disinterested and fatigued. You long to recapture the good old days when resourceful and inventive ideas would spark your creative engine. Your growing apathy depresses you, knowing that there is a world of unceasing ideas that surrounds you. Somehow you just can’t connect with them.
Frustration will take you further way from your creativityFrustration and anger filter through all of these common writer’s block symptoms. These emotions have secured themselves to the whole process of your writing. You grow more helpless and irritated as you type each sentence. You review the meaningless content on completion, delete it and then churn out another sentence in the hope of a revelation.
Whether writing as a hobby, occupation, or ambition, the symptom of frustration will question your desire to pursue any of them further. As it takes over, it can penetrate into the deeper essence of your creativity. In the end, these and many other psychological symptoms can make the condition of writer’s block a torturous suffering for any creative soul.
Common treatments:
Given the serious symptoms that a writer’s block can create, being ready and motivated to subdue its grasp on your creativity should be paramount to ensure your longevity. But like most situations where there are multiple demands, the strategies that prevent a writer’s block (the worst case scenario) may only be heeded after it has struck. Only then does it serve as that “wake up call” that can ensure you apply a balanced approach to your writing and give attention to yourself.
The nature of the writer’s block is not beyond your conscious understanding. You probably know exactly what causes it and maintains it, and in light of these, you can arm yourself with the following techniques and treatments to manage it.
Initially, address the poor lifestyle issues that have become a reflection of your struggle. It may seem to be ignoring the primary issue (your need to produce written material), but your mind and body needs nourishment (healthy eating) and recuperative sleep in order to be creative again.
Then, take an objective look at your writing approach. Analyse your organisation plan that formulates your writing process. What are the measures that you go through in every writing project? Usually, by having a schedule, brainstorming and using outlines for writing drafts, you will guide yourself right back into the heart of productivity. In the same vein, eliminate distractions where possible and improve your work environment to cut out many sources of procrastination.
In order to drive your mind out of the mental inertia, you can provoke your mind by reading an interesting book. Reading can entirely influence your thinking and ideas. One of its benefits is its effectiveness in placing you back in an imaginative and creative mindset.
Additionally, you can flush out your physical tension with a refreshing brisk walk around your local area. Physical activity forces deeper breathing techniques that can clear your mind of clutter.
Once you are back home and ready to write, focus on one more effective treatment: humility. Perfectionism is a paralysing thinking habit. Be prepared to tolerate the first mediocre paragraphs, the recurring incoherent ideas in the draft and the holes in your plots. They are a necessary human component of any writing project. In other words, be more realistic about the imperfections in your work as they are; it is only when writing them that you can discover them and weed them out.
How can hypnotherapy treat writer’s block?
If you are struggling with your self help strategies and are no longer responsive to your peer support, decide on a timescale in which you will seek professional external help. Someone who is objective to your situation can identify solutions that are limited by your own perspective. Hypnotherapy offers a number of solutions at different levels.
Fortunately, writers, like just about all other creative professionals who use their imagination in their skill are highly responsive to hypnosis. You can experience rapid changes from the implementation of hypnotherapeutic techniques.
Hypnotherapy can reduce your stress and anxiety symptoms
Stress and anxiety symptom reduction is an integral part of your hypnosis treatment. You will feel more relaxed about your condition and the way that it is affecting you. Detaching these symptoms will help you feel less affected by it. You can then objectively focus into your block with potential solutions.
Hypnotherapy will help you deal with your lifestyle issues
The negative lifestyle habits that have accumulated due to your writer’s block like eating habits, poor sleeping patterns and lack of exercise will be examined with suggestions to address them. Some of these habits (like smoking and habitual drinking) and major lifestyle changes (like bereavements and relationship changes) can be treated specifically where they seem to be having a direct negative impact on your creativity.
Hypnotherapy will analyse your work situation and working methods
Some work situations and working methods are counter-productive to your creativity; they serve to distract you rather than stimulate you. You may be helplessly and habitually clinging to them believing that they benefit you when, in reality, they stifle your creative potential. Some work situations need a deeper acceptance and humility that can be accessed and boosted in a therapeutic treatment. This can ensure that you continue to be inspired by your talents without being envious of others.
Hypnotherapy will identify your emotional blocks and negative traits
If you don’t already know which negative emotions and traits are exacerbating your writer’s block, your hypnotherapy treatment will be instrumental in identifying them. If you already know what they are, hypnotherapy can help create strategies to reduce their intensity.
Hypnotherapy can help you access your creative zoneHypnotherapy will re-establish your creative zone
As your negative psychological structures are flagged and then demolished, the aim is to reposition the good structures and create new ones that will redefine your creative zone for writing. This rebuilding process will lift your stress, depression and anxiety. It will also boost your self esteem, placing you back within your core self definitions as a writer.
Hypnotherapy will help you practise self hypnosis
Your continued practise of self hypnosis will keep your creative writing zone active and ensure your longevity. It will also help you to be mindful of internal and external changes that affect your creative zone. It is continuously evolving throughout your career, even with positive experiences and it needs to be resilient to withstand these changes. Learning and practising self hypnosis is an essential part of your hypnotherapy treatment.
Writer’s block conclusion
The writer’s block is a “roadblock” that every writer has to face in any process of writing. When its effects are troubling you, you can be reminded that most writers have already wrestled with them and come through them successfully. In other words, this condition is not a quality of poor writing skills. Instead, it is a symptom of many of the ill-made conditions under which you formulate your creative work. In knowing the causes which produce this condition, you can begin to be more conscious of your bad habits and poor lifestyle choices that surround this creative pursuit. As you improve your lifestyle and habits with reference to the treatments already shared, your mind will once again climb to its maximised creative performance.
For further information on how to overcome your writer’s block, contact Richard J D’Souza Hypnotherapy Cardiff.
Affirmations have the ability to transform your internal stateWhat are affirmations? Words have extreme power. When you communicate, your words can not only influence others, but can also transform your internal state on a deep and profound level.
Affirmations are powerful, positive statements that aim to direct your conscious and subconscious mind, challenging previously held unhealthy and negative thinking patterns. When they are spoken with conviction, they can alter your thoughts, emotions, beliefs and behaviour. When used intentionally to create change, they can help project you into your achievements.
What are the benefits of using affirmations?
Affirmations have helped thousands of people make important changes in their lives. They work because they have the ability to program your mind into accessing and believing the repeated statements and concepts. There’s more on why and how they work (or don’t work) later.
There are several benefits of using positive affirmations, which include their ability to:
Motivate you to act. And when you action your goals, it further boosts your desire to continue your actions.
Concentrate on your goals. Goal achievement is helped by persistently keeping your mind focused in the “goal zone”.
Change your negative thought patterns into positive ones.
Influence your subconscious mind to access new beliefs.
Help you feel positive about yourself and boost your self confidence.
How do you create affirmations?
The most common practise of creating affirmations consists of using these five stages.
Stage one: List your negative features
Make a list of what you consider to be the negative features or qualities about
You as a person, or
How you cope with life, or
The situation you are in (home life, work life, relationships).
Your list could be made from your own conclusions or from external criticism (past or present). You may have held onto some of these past comments especially if they were made from authority figures when you were young. At this stage of the process, you don’t have to judge the accuracy of what people have said to you; just formulate a list.
As you make the list, note any general traits such as “I tend to dwell on or be sensitive to what people have said about me” (relating to possible low self esteem and social anxiety issues).
Then, as you identify any common themes, focus your attention on any part of the body that feels tense. For example, it could be a feeling of tension in your diaphragm or in your shoulders. This connection between your negative feature and location in your body is discussed below in stage four.
Stage two: Rephrase your negative features as a positive affirmation
This stage involves identifying and expressing the (positive) opposite, or antonym of your negative feature. You can use a thesaurus to assist you in this stage of the process. Using the example above, a tendency to hold on to criticism could be rephrased as the following affirmation: “I am feeling empowered and more confident as I release external criticism”.
When identifying the new positive words, note the words that resonate with you as suitable and believable replacements to the negative feature. Some words will be moderately positive and some extremely positive. Ranking them can help decide if you are ready for a small or profound change of beliefs.
There is more information on how to write effective affirmations (also known as suggestions in self hypnosis) in the following article, in the section entitled “Creating suggestions”.
Stage three: Repeat your affirmation regularlyWriting your affirmations can help you internalise them
Speak your affirmation (silently or verbally) for five minutes, at least three times a day. You can say your affirmation whilst doing something repetitive like putting on make-up or shaving. This has the visual benefit of seeing your facial expression and adding emphasis in front of a mirror.
You could also repeat your affirmation whilst in a relaxed state as a “suggestion” when you practise self hypnosis. Even writing or typing your affirmation can help engage your mind and body (as kinaesthetic learning) into your affirmation.
Make the process of repeating affirmations a regular habit to integrate the desirable state that you seek.
Stage four: Anchor the affirmation into your body
Place your hand onto the area that caused your discomfort when you made your negative features list. As you say your positive affirmation, breathe with your hand on the area of discomfort, as if your combined exhalation and hand placement is soothing or releasing the physical tension in that part of your body.
Stage five: Receive your affirmation from an external source
If you feel uncomfortable about asking someone else to repeat the affirmation to you, make a recording of your own voice saying the affirmation. Then play the audio recording back to yourself. There is nothing wrong in being your own coach at times!
Examples of affirmations
Affirmations are positive statements that many people use to boost their confidence or feel in control of a situation. They may be used for achievements, general happiness, health, motivation in work, or even improving relationships. Here are some example suggestions to help get you started:
In order to feel more confident about achieving success in your life, you can phrase your affirmation as follows: “Achieving success is a simple process, and I am committed and empowered to be successful in my life.”
Affirmations like, “I am passionate about my job and committed to fulfilling my ambitions” can be used for inspiration towards your job.
To motivate yourself to adopt a new habit or stay away from a negative one, you can use affirmations like: “I am focused on achieving my ideal weight of X kg by following a healthier lifestyle.” Or “Each day I am finding it easier to quit smokingas I find new healthier habits to replace my old unhealthy ones.”
Affirmations to improve relationships with partners can be phrased as follows: “I love who I am, and I am openly attracting positive relationships into my life.” Or to improve your relationship with your children, you could use: “I am guiding my children to be the best version of themselves.”
Affirmations: common question and answers
Repetition is an essential part of affirmation integrationAre affirmations best said every day?
You do not have to follow a hard and fast rule about frequency and timing of self-affirmations. However, psychotherapist Dr. Ronald Alexander of Open Mind Training Institute believes that repeating affirmations 3 to 5 times daily can significantly help reinforce positive beliefs.
Can they help someone with anxiety or depression?
Whilst affirmations are not designed as cures for anxiety and depression, they do help to engrave feelings of calm and hope as part of a total self care programme.
Can sleep be improved with affirmations?
Practising self hypnosis with affirmations can be a good way of improving sleep quality. Incorporate breathing and relaxation techniques to help your insomnia.
Are affirmations just another name for positive Mantras?
Affirmations are “belief phrases” that instil feelings of positivity and happiness, while helping to change thoughts and attitudes. Mantras are spiritual or religious sounds or phrases that apparently have no verbal meaning. Mantras act as vehicles to help you access heightened states of awareness.
Why don’t affirmations work for some people?
Some people often state that affirmations do not work for them. There are two fundamental reasons for this. Firstly, positive affirmations are coming into deep conflict with your own internal negative feelings.
A study by the University of Waterloo addressed this issue by stating that whilst positive affirmations may benefit people with high self-esteem, they may actually be harmful and backfire in “negative” individuals who probably need them the most. This group included those with severe low self esteem, anxiety, self doubt or depression.
In the study, when the negative individuals used affirmations, they felt that the positive statements were in deep conflict with their prior negative belief system. In the short term, the affirmations actually made them feel worse about themselves. Ironically, these negative individuals felt better when they were allowed to “speak” badly about themselves, because the statements were compatible with their already-negative belief system.
In order to gain the benefits of affirmations without harming your mental health, it is suggested that you start by going neutral instead of starting with “very positive” affirmations. By introducing reality-based neutral statements, your brain will not trigger bad feelings or reject the status quo. Adopting neutral statements like “I am learning to accept myself as I am” or “Today I am feeling OK about myself” will give you a fighting chance to generate real change and appreciate the benefits of affirmations in progressive stages.
The second reason that affirmations don’t work for you is because your affirmation practise and structure is wrong.The alpha state can help you internalise your affirmations
Making use of positive affirmations at times when you are not feeling good about yourself or about something will again make your brain come into conflict with what it feels and what you’re saying in your affirmation. The solution is to repeat affirmations in your Alpha State (a state of mind that is more open to accepting suggestions). By accessing your Alpha State, it will help you to embrace a belief with greater power and efficiency. The best ways to attain an Alpha State are by using breathing techniques, meditation and self hypnosis prior to repeating your affirmations. You can also use recorded or self-recorded audios containing your affirmations to enhance their internalisation.
Finally, it is important to make sure that you format your affirmations correctly. For example, aim to focus on what you want to achieve rather than what you are trying to move away from (or don’t want). There is more helpful information on writing effective affirmations (also known as suggestions in self hypnosis) in the section of this article entitled “Creating suggestions”.
Affirmations: Conclusion
Affirmations are powerful self-help tools to influence changes in your moods, feelings, thoughts and habits. They require practise to be effective. If you are struggling to make affirmations work for you however, consider consulting with a professional hypnotherapist who can help you to create and structure your affirmations. They can also use hypnosis to help internalise your affirmations as believable suggestions. You can then continue your self-help programme independently, developing your affirmations/suggestions to transform different aspects of your life.
For further information on how to benefit by using affirmations, contact Richard J D’Souza Hypnotherapy Cardiff.
Practise self hypnosis: Are you ready to help yourself?
Practise self hypnosis to start your journey of self healing
Modern living generally prescribes that if you have a health issue then you should visit a doctor. Similarly, if you are going through a period of stress or anxiety, then you need to see a therapist. These professionals will suggest the best medication and therapeutic solution to your problems.
There is a general misconception however that in order to get well and tackle your problems properly, you have to receive help from someone else, someone who is professionally qualified to deal with your issues. Seeking assistance from a professional gives you the feeling that you getting something that is more beneficial than if you took some remedial steps yourself.
In certain circumstances seeking professional help is a sensible solution, but for most of the population, it is simply unnecessary to spend huge amounts on therapy sessions or on prescribed medication. In many cases you can heal your own symptoms without receiving help from anyone else. All you need is determination, and a bit of self discipline (yes, you already have that!) The rest will follow naturally as you experience the benefits from your input.
This article will offer you some of the ways that you can become your own therapist. All you have to do is to learn to practise self-hypnosis.
What is self hypnosis?
Self hypnosis can be defined as a self-initiated process to deliberately induce a state of concentrated, heightened suggestibility. The process can initially involve changes in your breathing and postural tension to enable a deeper feeling of relaxation. You can then employ suggestions (affirmations), your imagination and visualisation techniques to access a future desirable state (your goal). You may also practise self hypnosis to alter the meaning of past experiences.
Practise self hypnosis: Common misconceptions
Practise self hypnosis to take charge of your subconscious mind
Some of the common misconceptions about your ability to practise self hypnosis usually relate to the general misconceptions about externally guided hypnosis (i.e. when the hypnotic induction is being externally guided by another person such as a hypnotist or hypnotherapist).
These misconceptions of hypnosis tend to be portrayed in the media and convince the audience that:
You will not wake up from a hypnotic trance: Everyone “wakes up” from a hypnotic trance. Self hypnosis is a natural, relaxed state; if you do fall asleep, you will wake up when you are ready.
You will lose control of your mind and reality: The “power” of hypnosis is in the subject not the person doing the hypnosis. In the case of self hypnosis you are guiding your own thoughts. You are controlling the whole experience.
You will weaken your mind and become more suggestible to adverts after hypnosis: There is no evidence that hypnosis makes you more susceptible to general advertising. With self hypnosis, you decide which suggestions that you want to follow.
In the practise of self hypnosis, you are inducing your own hypnotic state and can decide when to exit your hypnosis. During your hypnosis you will be aware of and in control of your actions. You are choosing your suggestions and thus choose the direction of your goal.
Practise self hypnosis: What can it treat?
Self hypnosis can be used to change your thinking patterns, emotions and behaviour in a variety of issues. You can practise self hypnosis to deal with everyday problems such as the inability to relax, releasing stress, poor concentration, prioritising, general problem-solving, confidence rehearsal to master skills, and reducing emotions like anger.
You can also practise self hypnosis to achieve medium to long-term goals. These can include dealing with low self esteem, anxiety, depression, breaking bad habits, addictions such as managing craving when stopping smoking, chronic pain, performance anxiety, sports performance, sleep problems and changing negative eating patterns.
Approaching self hypnosis
A common ambition when you first practise self hypnosis is to try and fix deeper long term problems in one session. The bigger problems take dedication and persistence to resolve and a thorough understanding of your core values. Self hypnosis is not a wand waving exercise! Instead, aim to be realistic about your goal. Practise in small steps, achieving small goals rather than miracle cures. First focus your practises on altering day to day issues where you can observe a measurable change. This could be rehearsing some points that you want to present at a meeting, visualising confidence in an upcoming awkward social interaction or problem-solving a hectic schedule to ensure it runs smoothly the following day.
By setting small goals in the early stages, you can learn to appreciate your heightened state of awareness that accompanies self hypnosis. This will involve just developing breathing techniques and lowering levels of physical tension. When you can achieve this state, you can then use it for rehearsing something that might be causing you a low level of anxiety or stress e.g. planning what to take on an important trip. It’s incredible what the subconscious mind will present to you in self hypnosis when you have taken a step back from a taxing situation ahead. You can then add these ideas gained from your self hypnosis into your active note list.
Creating suggestions
Carefully structure your suggestions to direct your unconscious mind
The next stage involves using hypnotic suggestions to direct your mind towards your goal. Suggestions can be similar to affirmations, but when used is a hypnotic state, the affirmation can bypass the conscious mind without interference. The affirmation then becomes a suggestion that can be more readily accepted by the unconscious mind.
Previously, if you have tried consciously repeating affirmations and found little benefit from the process, the hypnotic state can be what gives the affirmation the “power” to transform it into a “believable” belief.
You can use hypnotic suggestions for a whole variety of short-term and long-term goals. You may want to conquer public speaking, build confidence in certain situations like driving or sports performance, build your self esteem, or break a habit like smoking, nail biting or overeating.
When creating suggestions, there are certain “mind” rules that your unconscious mind will accept. These are commonly taught in hypnosis and hypnotherapy courses. These “mind” rules will help focus you towards your goal (rather than away from it). When you create suggestions incorrectly, your unconscious mind will simply reject them.
Here are some suggestions for your suggestions (!)
The subconscious mind processes positive thoughts; negative statements will direct your mind further towards the negative state. Try not thinking of an orange! Exactly! Don’t tell your mind what you don’t want; instead tell it what you do want. Saying that "I am not stressed. I was never anxious. I will never feel tense again" will be interpreted as “...stressed...tense...anxious”. Instead, make the suggestion positive e.g. “I am relaxing and feel peaceful. My body is calm and still. I feel empowered and strong".
Start the suggestion with “I am...” to give it power and affirm what follows on from it. Statements stating with “I want...” will affirm the “wanting” without always having what follows it.
Phrase your suggestion in the present tense rather than in the future tense. Instead of saying, “I will be more confident”, say, “I am feeling more confident each day”. In response to a future tense structured suggestion, the subconscious mind will reply with “When will it happen? Tomorrow? Next month?”
Include at least one action word or verb (ending with “ing” e.g. “I am striving...”) in your suggestion to affirm that you are the one taking action towards this positive change. After you take action, it will inspire you to continue your journey and adapt your suggestions.
Include at least one feeling word or dynamic emotion e.g. calm, secure, liberated, inspired etc. E.g. “I am achieving calmness as I practise self hypnosis”. Select the most relevant emotion that resonates with you. Emotions add energy into your affirmation and can act as a catalyst to change beliefs.
Create realistic suggestions that complement your existing beliefs. If for example you currently believe that you are at the negative end of the continuum of beauty, then your unconscious mind is likely to reject suggestions that attempt to place you immediately on the positive end of the beauty continuum e.g. “I am the best looking person in the world!” When you start to practise self hypnosis, pitch the suggestions a few steps ahead of you so that you can warm to them. Suggestions can be modified as your belief grows.
Focus on one goal at a time. Decide your priority and persist with it. Adjust the content of your suggestion as you make progress with your goal. If your goal seems to be hitting a block, use a problem-solving self hypnosis session to understand what may be causing it. Do this by visualising taking a step out of your problem/goal situation and calmly observing the issue objectively from a short distance. Look into the problem noticing a variety of possible solutions. It’s amazing what can be solved in your self hypnotic state.
Ready to practise self hypnosis
Now let’s consider the specific technique of how to practice self hypnosis. You are ready when you have identified a realistic hypnotic suggestion. Here is the self hypnosis procedure:
Find a relaxing and comfortable location
Find a place without noise or any other disturbance, especially during your initial sessions. Once you get into your practice routine, you can perform it anywhere. Allow extra time e.g. 15-30 minutes so that your mind is not thinking about what you have to do next. Be seated in a relaxed posture, preferably with a head support like when sitting in a recliner chair. Lying down may influence you to fall asleep. This is not the main purpose of your self hypnosis, even though you might benefit from a power nap!
Change your style of breathingRelaxed breathing is central to your self hypnosis practise
The breathing technique involves movement of the abdomen when you inhale. This encourages the release of tension in your diaphragm. Follow this link for more information on how to breathe to relax.
Eye focus or eye closure
The choice is yours whether you keep your eyes open or closed. With eyes open, you can focus on a specific spot, either on the wall in front of you or on a distant object. Staring at an object can cause your eyes to become naturally heavy so that they will close with little effort, but closing your eyes is not essential.
I personally prefer to have the eyes closed to be more observant of how your imagination can interact with your own thoughts. Without any visual distraction, it can also help you appreciate the subtle changes in physical tension throughout your body too (stage 4). Close your eyes at any time that it feels natural to you.
Relax your body
The release of muscle tension can be combined with each exhale as if breathing out any internal tension that you can feel. When inhaling, breathe in a pleasant feeling of heaviness. Progressively move through the muscles in your body, first starting with the release of tension in your shoulders, gradually moving down to your fingers. Then continue this release from the top of your head, moving down through your body to your toes. If you prefer working up the body from toes upwards, then use that technique. Not that the neck and jaw are common areas that can accumulate tension.
Progressive muscles relaxation (PMR) is an alternative way to release muscle tension. It involves gently tensing groups of muscles (with or without movement) in a specific area before actively relaxing these tense muscles. Move through the whole body using this “tense and release” method to appreciate where you feel tension from top to toe.
By tensing the muscles first when using PMR, it helps you to become more aware of your muscular system, particularly with tension felt in postural muscles. But if you exercise regularly by toning muscles in your body at a gym or anywhere else however, you will probably have this kinaesthetic awareness already. When you can relate to your body in this way then use the simple tension-release method (without first tensing the muscles first) as described above.
Keep the focus on your suggestions
When you decide to practice self hypnosis, it is the use of suggestions to direct your mind to a specific goal that distinguishes self hypnosis from meditation and mindfulness.
Suggestions can be repeated out loud or silently. Repeating them coldly will have little effect on your goal attainment. So, as you repeat them, vary the emphasis that you give to certain words, engaging your emotions and imagination into each repetition. Alter the speed at which you repeat your suggestions, sometimes dwelling on a certain word to extract a different meaning. Visualise being inside the affirmation, acting out the positivity contained in the suggestion as if it is happening right now!
It can also be useful anchoring the affirmation in the part of your body that felt discomfort when you first began working on the negative situation that you want to change. The diaphragm is a common area of tension with almost any negative emotion. Lightly place your hand at the top of your abdomen (or anywhere else) to comfort the area. As you inhale, “breathe into this area”. Relax the area with each repetition of your suggestion. Release the tension with the next exhale. This process can help move you away from just going through the motions of repeating a “simple cold statement” into a deeper emotional and physical experience where you positively embody the goal that you seek.
Exit point
When you feel satisfied with the self hypnosis session, you can gently exit your hypnotic state. Gradually count up from one to ten, feeling progressively more alert and activated with each number until you reach ten. You can open your eyes if they were closed, or move your eyes away from the point that you were focusing on. Your self hypnosis session is now complete.
Practise self hypnosis: common questions
Is self hypnosis a skill?
Yes, I consider self hypnosis to be a skill that you develop and make permanent. As with most skills, you need to practise them to master them. Some people have better visualisation abilities than others and may be more reflective in their learning style. Having these traits can mean that self hypnosis can seem like a “natural” activity for you.
But for others who don’t have these traits, it doesn’t mean that you can’t benefit from self hypnosis; it may just take a little bit longer for you to benefit. Your belief and persistence will certainly help you achieve your goals when you are ready to practise self hypnosis.
How often and for how long should you practise self hypnosis?
You could start to practise self hypnosis once per day, maybe after work to create a mental partition between your work stress and relaxation at home. Initially, focus on the breathing and physical relaxation stages of self hypnosis for about 5 minutes.
As you progress with this stage, integrate suggestions that help you to lower levels of work-related tension. “I am learning to access a deeper state of calmness using breathing techniques to separate my work and my home life” could be your starting suggestion.
“Mini” sessions of self hypnosis can be done almost anywhere
As a guide, the duration of your self hypnosis practise session (with suggestions) should be about 10-20 minutes, with the suggestion stage forming about half of the self hypnosis time.
Make good use of quieter periods in your day, like during work breaks or lunchtime to practise your breathing and help keep some of these techniques accessible for your use later in your day. The part of your day when you don’t have time for these techniques is probably the time that you need it most!
Remember that the quality of your practise is more important than the time that you spend in your practise. Mastering the breathing technique stage is fundamental to your progress and your ability to then integrate your suggestions. With effective breathing, your competence will increase, meaning that less time will be needed in your practise session to be benefit.
Is recording suggestions more effective than repeating them to yourself?
When you are guiding your own (self) hypnosis, a part of your mind still needs to be conscious to direct the experience. This can reduce your ability to readily accept the suggestions during the early stages. It takes a lot of practise to master your self hypnosis with minimal conscious interference.
An alternative method of self hypnosis is to write a script of the various stages above, and then make an audio recording of your script. You can then listen and follow your own voice without “consciously” having to direct it. This has the benefit of first being “the driver” by writing your own suggestions, and then switching seats to become the passenger without having to concentrate on “steering” your mind through your self hypnosis session.
How effective is self hypnosis compared to hypnotherapy?
Self hypnosis is a skill that you develop to help you achieve your goals. As already stated, it is not a quick fix for your problems; it takes time and commitment to master it and benefit from it.
There are various processes that are involved in the success of a hypnotherapy course of treatment. This can include your expectation of hypnotherapy, the skills and training of the hypnotherapist, your goals, your commitment to the treatment process, the interaction of all of these factors etc. Hypnotherapy can achieve rapid results, but for the majority of clients, it is not a quick fix; effective change can take time.
You would certainly expect a course of hypnotherapy to have more impact than a similar time spent in a course of self hypnosis. This is because you are hiring a professional to guide you to achieve your goal. By hiring a professional, you are also making a statement about your commitment to a process that you may not give when it just involves you and your own free time. The hypnotherapist is also objective in the process to establish any of your self-limiting beliefs and how these beliefs might sabotage your ability to achieve your goal. This is an important point within goal achievement because you function through the “lens” of your own beliefs. You can potentially limit how far you go in your journey because you may not fully know yourself or know what you don’t know!
If you are someone who is keen to take charge of your wellbeing by learning self hypnosis and you are struggling to get the process moving by yourself however, you may want to consider a short course of hypnotherapy to kick-start your self hypnosis practise. You can then use this insightful experience to continue your own journey of self learning. In my view, the better hypnotherapists aim to promote this approach in your treatment. Don’t be afraid to ask your hypnotherapist to teach you how to practise self hypnosis.
Practise self hypnosis: Conclusion
In order to practice self-hypnosis successfully, persistence and conviction are key requisites. Without these, your practise may not create a deep enough change in your unconscious mind. Use, develop and experiment with the processes and techniques described above to help immerse you into a calmer lifestyle and one in which you can access your own positive change.
For further information on how to practise self hypnosis, contact Richard J D’Souza Hypnotherapy Cardiff.
Solution focused hypnotherapy is a type of hypnotherapy that has a distinct approach to the treatment of psychological issues. It combines the use of hypnosis with some modern psychotherapeutic principles to create change.
Solution focused hypnotherapy focuses on solutions rather than unpacking past problems
The core tenet of solution focused hypnotherapy is the focus on finding solutions rather than unpacking the problematic issues contained in the presenting condition. So, in practice, it assesses your present condition and sets future desirable goals instead of looking back into your past traumas and problems.
This strategy makes solution focused hypnotherapy a dynamic approach compared to other types of hypnotherapy. Moreover, it’s very well-structured, systematic, and practical. Through its application you can eventually tap into your own inner potential to achieve therapeutic solutions.
The Origin of Solution Focused Hypnotherapy
The origin of solution focused hypnotherapy can hardly be pinned to a single phase of time, location or therapist. If you study the history of solution focused hypnotherapy, you will determine that it was born in the USA. But, the body of techniques, strategies, and principles had to be developed gradually and consolidated thanks to several remarkable figures and specialists through many decades.
Firstly, it was Milton Erickson, the great psychiatrist and hypnotherapist, who taught and implemented solution-focused strategies and techniques in therapy, in both formal and informal settings. So, with his large contribution in hypnotherapy, he established a base for solution focused hypnotherapy to advance.
Then, the team of Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg put forward their theoretical work to create Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT). Their developed theories and techniques were largely influential as they experimented throughout the years with a diversity of clients. They formed the foundation of a solution focused approach to therapy. It continued to evolve with further experiments and contributions from theorists and neuroscientists until it was completely established as the modern solution focused hypnotherapy approach.
Differences between Solution Focused Hypnotherapy and Other Types of Hypnotherapy
Solution focused hypnotherapy’s strategy is to focus ahead
Solution focused hypnotherapy differs from other types of hypnotherapy in many ways. If you are familiar with these other types, you will observe their focus on the complexities of the client’s psyche, and more importantly, how they trace back undesirable symptoms to their causes. Solution focused hypnotherapy, however, considers the causes and past as distracting and instead guides the client to focus on an achievable goal in the future.
Another key distinction is the way this therapy approaches the client in the treatment session. Because it is goal-oriented, it has a very specific structure and a set of techniques through which it fosters the pathway to the client’s solutions. For example, as a solution focused hypnotherapist, you can use planned hypnotic strategies at the beginning of every session to get the client to the next mutually agreed goal. Other types of hypnotherapy, on the other hand, are less specific. They rely on the immediate responses that will develop during the consultation whilst the treatment seeks to analyze or go back to the roots of an issue.
Additionally, these other types of hypnotherapy are generally considered less effective and require lots of therapy to bring about efficient treatment.
What Conditions can Solution Focused Hypnotherapy treat?
Solution focused hypnotherapy can treat a great variety of physical and emotional conditions within a client’s unique profile with care and efficiency.
For example, many clients report that it is effective with anxiety, stress, panic attacks, phobias, chronic pain, irritable bowel syndrome, low self-confidence and low self-esteem. It can thus help you eradicate the psychological problems that hinder you from a well-functioning personal, social and professional life.
In most cases of a holistic treatment plan, solution focused hypnotherapy can be used in conjunction with medication prescribed by your GP.
The initial consultation stage of a Solution Focused Hypnotherapy Treatment
All hypnotherapists conduct a detailed and thorough initial consultation stage to ensure that the treatment takes the right path. During these initial stages, you can expect your solution focused hypnotherapist to ask you to sign a consent form which will detail the conditions and terms of therapy. These terms are usually detailed in their advertising literature.
Then your hypnotherapist will start a discussion about the issues that you want help with. This will include your goals, the healthy emotions and behaviours you wish to maintain, and the history and relevant facts about your life that are affecting your condition. These stages create your unique profile.
The Miracle Question helps you explore your ideal future
What then follows is a forward projection of your goal. This helps to establish the boundaries of your goal and whether it can be realistically achieved. This process is called asking the “Miracle Question”. It may be phrased as follows: “if a miracle was to happen and you became the ideal version of yourself having achieved your goal, how would you start to notice this as you go about life? Will there be some specific behaviour that would demonstrate this change?” The “Miracle Question” is one of the techniques developed by solution focused brief therapy. Once asked, it can be referred to again in subsequent sessions. It will help both the hypnotherapist and client refine the goals that you would like to achieve, but also elaborate on the stages, the beliefs, and habits that can generally help your life. This discussion can be quite deep, but is an extremely important part of your treatment. It often involves using techniques from other therapeutic disciplines like cognitive behavioural therapy and neuro-linguistic programming.
Unlike some other types of hypnotherapy, solution focused hypnotherapy then adopts a specific approach by detailing facts about how the brain works, the predictable causes of your issues, and how and why emotions manifest in the way they do. Once you have gained this insight, the hypnotherapist will estimate the number of sessions expected for you to achieve your goal, whether it’s a phobia, anxiety or a whole set of connected issues. They will explain the commitment needed during your treatment and what you can expect at stages through your treatment course.
Hypnosis may then be used to introduce you to the experience (if you have never formally had a hypnotic induction). Hypnotic suggestions will be used to direct you towards your goal.
A Typical Solution Focused Hypnotherapy Consultation
After your initial consultation and each time you attend your follow up session, the hypnotherapist will start off by asking you about any developments from your previous session. In particular, any emotional changes, and whether there is any physical progress towards your goal. Your opinions about yourself and how they are developing are important discussion questions too because they throw light on your current mindset and self-concept.
After you relate your experiences to them, the hypnotherapist will aim to elucidate your emotions and physical changes in relation to the functioning of the brain and its psychology. These explanations will help you have an objective view of yourself.
The discussion then moves to the stage where the hypnotherapist engages with you to reflect on your goals, and most importantly, the steps you should take to continue their attainment. There will be a lot of collaboration and cooperation between you and the hypnotherapist as they ask ‘’solution focused” questions.
Lastly, the hypnotherapist will use hypnosis techniques to guide you into a relaxed state and use suggestions to direct you towards your goal achievement. More discussion will be made following the hypnotic induction so that you can summarise some of the key points made during in the session.
Some hypnotherapists provide you with a generalised hypnosis audio to reinforce the suggestions towards your goal.
The Shortcomings of Solution Focused Hypnotherapy
Like all types of hypnotherapy, solution focused hypnotherapy will have advantages but also, inevitably, some shortcomings. This is because any approach that gives more emphasis to certain aspects of treatment will inadvertently neglect other important factors in the overall treatment process.
Helping a client achieve their goal is a fundamental part of any treatment process. But does the client’s goal take into account all aspects of their condition? How well does a client know themselves? Most clients come into hypnotherapy with symptom-related goals. What they bring into the treatment often dismisses core issues. For example, stopping smoking can be beneficial for many reasons, but smoking is generally used to cope with core issues such as stress, anxiety and depression. When you just remove the symptom, what happens to the client’s ability to cope? Do they replace the symptom with another more destructive negative symptom? By over-focusing on symptoms, solution focused hypnotherapy may not deal with these broader issues that are creating the symptom. And by placing the client’s goal at the centre of the process, the solution focused hypnotherapist may be compromising some of their own expertise (if they have been trained to deal with core issues).
Solution focused hypnotherapy leaves the past behind
Related to what lies under a symptom is the “cause” or “why” an unwanted behaviour has been created in the first place or continues to persist in the client. Delving into past issues is deemed unnecessary by solution focused hypnotherapists, yet it may offer more insight into persistent negative behaviour. So the smoker who wants to stop smoking, but keeps lapsing soon after they attempt to quit usually has an unconscious reason for their lapse. Just focusing on stopping will cause the underlying issue to resurface and force another lapse in smoking cessation. Regression and Hypnoanalysis can be used to take the client back to the triggering motive and release the emotion contained in that experience. For example, when the client was younger, they started smoking as a defiant reaction to an abusive parent’s control. By now attempting to stop smoking in their adulthood, the anger from the past abuse draws them back to smoking again. Releasing the anger from their parent’s control removes the emotional cause to smoke. When both the cause and symptom are treated, it can be more effective at helping the client stop smoking.
Regression is often criticised for dwelling on past events and extending the treatment time of a problem. Yet when used skilfully, it can be very effective at creating change in a relatively short period of time, treating issues at the causal end of the continuum. Solution focused hypnotherapy may not be able to make these underlying connections to unconscious issues just by focusing ahead.
Solution focused hypnotherapy: summary
Solution focused hypnotherapy remains a popular and effective approach to treating psychological problems. In many cases it is the baseline strategy to goal attainment. When a client’s goal is blocked by unconscious issues, other approaches can be used to ensure that the client’s treatment is successful.
For further information on Solution Focused Hypnotherapy, contact Richard J D’Souza Hypnotherapy Cardiff.
What are the differences between Self Hypnosis, Meditation and Mindfulness?
Self hypnosis, meditation and mindfulness are growing in popularity. It’s not surprising when these self-help disciplines can be used to reduce stress and anxiety, and even help you achieve your goals. When you have mastered one or all of them, you can be in charge of easing the symptoms of some serious underlying health issues.
Self hypnosis, Meditation & Mindfulness: which one is right for you?
When teaching self hypnosis to my hypnotherapy clients, I have often been asked if there is a difference between self hypnosis, meditation and mindfulness. Purists may not agree, but I believe that each discipline can take similar paths but they do have some distinct differences too.
If you want to take “de-stressing” matters into your own hands, which one should you develop? Let’s compare and contrast each discipline so that you can decide which one to take on your self-help journey.
Let's discuss hypnosis first
It is a fairly common misconception that “hypnosis” is something that can only occur with the help of some external or professional guidance using a hypnotic induction. It may be hard to believe, but you cannot be hypnotised unless you want to be hypnotised, even though it might look like mind control in those hypnosis films. You ultimately choose which suggestions to accept or reject; the “power” exists within you and not the person hypnotising you. Externally guided hypnosis happens then, because you allow someone else to guide your “self hypnosis”. And during a state of hypnosis you are more receptive to a hypnotherapist’s suggestions that you have agreed are part of your treatment goals.
Hypnosis, in its broadest definition (no, not the one used by authoritarian styles), is a state of altered awareness and you are constantly drifting in and out of hypnosis throughout your day. It happens nearly always by accident, when a person is doing some routine and repetitive task, such as doing the dishes or walking the dog. One moment you’ll be at the park with your dog, and next you’ll be at front of your house door without having any conscious recollection of how you got there. Your mind decided to take a stroll down memory lane while your legs carried you home.
This is an example of hypnosis when your mind is “zoning out”; it goes into subspace and retreats into some peaceful place within itself. This state of awareness is similar to daydreaming. Everyone has done this as some time in their lives. Can you remember doing this in school?
Depending on your priorities, your subconscious mind may want to put aside a calming daydream and solve a problem or anxiety, something that is open-ended and needs to be closed for you to then feel relaxed again. You might do this on the commuting to work, preparing and prioritising your working day ahead of you.
The process of altered awareness can also happen when you “zone in” and concentrate on something so intensely that you shut out external distractions. An example is when reading a good book; you block out those house noises that you may otherwise hear and disturb you (the ones that irritate you when you are struggling to get to sleep). You can also “zone in” when you attend a live performance of your favourite artist and are so taken by the show that you lose track of time and forget about your worries. In this situation your subconscious mind is prioritising the external situation over other “internal” issues, allowing you to be fully absorbed in the show.
What is self hypnosis?
Self hypnosis is an intentional, self induced state of heightened suggestibility.
The situations above describe how hypnotic and self hypnotic states can happen incidentally. In a formal context, self hypnosis can be defined as using a process, usually involving relaxation techniques, to intentionally induce yourself into a state of concentrated, heightened suggestibility. Affirmations, your imagination and visualisation may then be used to access a present or future desirable state. It may also be used to reframe the meaning and the emotions of a past event.
How do you perform Self Hypnosis?
First identify some affirmations that are the positive form of your negative state that you wish to change. For example, if you are anxious about giving a presentation, your affirmation could be “I am feeling more relaxed and confident with my presentation as I rehearse my content”.
Find a comfortable location away from irritating noises (it takes a well-practised self-hypnotist to work with these!) Find a supportive posture such as sitting down in a comfortable chair or lying down on a bed in a slightly inclined position (so you don’t fall asleep too easily).
Relax by using breathing techniques and then focus on parts of your body feeling heavy in sequence e.g. from head to toe. You can keep your eyes open or closed. Focus on a few words that assists your mind to drift down into a pleasant state of heaviness e.g. with each out breath let your inner voice say “relax deeper”.
State and repeat your affirmations (internally/silently or externally out loud). Visualise the positive situation and the positive feelings more intensely with each repeat of the suggestion for a period of time e.g. ten minutes.
Exit your hypnotic state by counting upwards, feeling more alert with each count until you feel alert. Gradually open your eyes if you closed them. Your session of self hypnosis is complete.
Meditation
In the simplest terms, meditation can be explained as a participative activity in which you silence your thoughts, tune in to your inner self and find peace and tranquillity. Meditation itself is a wholesome activity in which you induce a mode of consciousness; it is not meant to lead to anything else.
How is meditation done?
There are certain steps that you can follow in order to meditate successfully. In its most basic form, these steps include:
Finding a nice, quiet place in which to settle down in and feel comfortable.
Then, you close your eyes and begin a basic breathing exercise that involves slow, full and deep diaphragmatic breathing.
After this, you focus on nothing but the sound and pattern of your own steady breathing. Cleanse your thoughts and empty your mind of any other thought. You can continue for as long as you like staying focused on your breath.
When you have achieved this for a period of time, you can open your eyes. Stand and stretch your limbs and then carry on your day as planned.
How is self hypnosis different from meditation?
By following these stages in self hypnosis and meditation, it can be easy to mistake one for the other since the first few steps in each discipline are very similar. You will notice that in order to be able to focus into your affirmation more intensely the first three stages of meditation can be used. Both self hypnosis and meditation also involve an end process or awakening.
Self hypnosis and meditation are clearly not the same disciplines however. There is no phase of ‘directed positive change’ in meditation, unless you consider the shift from an active state to a passive quietened state sufficiently directed. Meditation is an activity with no ulterior purpose other than to find inner peace and tranquillity. Some styles of meditation achieve this by visualisation, contemplation, chanting a mantra or focusing on something external or on an energy point (chakra) during the third stage. Some styles of meditation also incorporate movement such as walking meditation or during the practice of martial arts.
The main purpose of meditation is to find inner peace.
Self hypnosis is different in this regard. During self hypnosis there is a goal in mind; an end purpose of transformation. Hypnosis and self hypnosis is nearly always induced in order to make some sort of change so that the person being hypnotised can achieve something*. The goal can be relaxation, but most self hypnosis usually goes beyond this. For example, one might want to use self hypnosis to break a bad habit, quit smoking, dig up an old half forgotten memory to reframe it, boost self confidence, control pain, lift depression, overcome insomnia, reduce anxiety, and so on.
*I say ”nearly always” because on rare occasions, I have had some clients who just wanted to experience what “directed hypnosis” felt like. I asked them if they wanted to change any aspect of their lives and they said no. The hypnosis session ended up being a relaxation session (sometimes called “relaxatherapy”). Instinctively, I integrated suggestions of confidence and ego boosting into their consultation. At the end of the session they were relaxed and appreciative of the experience. They were able to tell the world that they had been “hypnotised” today! So was this relaxation session a “directed meditation” or “guided visualisation” sometimes used in Yoga? I think that this type of session was common to all of these processes.
What is mindfulness?
Mindfulness can be described as a state of non-judgemental, heightened awareness in which you consciously and deliberately pay attention to something in the present. What you pay close attention to can be internal processes like your current thoughts, emotions or sensations in your body. You can also pay close attention to external processes that are occurring in your surrounding environment.
Through the practice of mindfulness and focusing on the present experience, you can access an enhanced state of calmness, concentration and clarity. Mindfulness helps to temporarily create distance from the default functioning of the mind that can be overwhelming. The mind is constantly connecting with the past in order to anticipate the future, but it may not always connect with it in a way that benefits you. It can easily exaggerate the emotional learning of past events, predicting catastrophes that rarely happen. Mindfulness sidelines these distractions, capturing the essence of just being, feeling, thinking, sensing and existing in the present.
As a perceptual style of processing then, mindfulness can be therapeutic. The (physical) past is put to rest from a perspective that it cannot be changed, so why ruminate over it? Whilst anxiety about the future can be threatening and remains uncertain, so why try to control it? The only time to exist is “in the now”. Mindfulness enables you to take heed from this philosophy and channel your attention, your energy and your desires on to what is happening to you “right there and then”.
How is mindfulness done?
Mindfulness can be practised in many situations and during various activities. You can be mindful when walking, gardening, painting, eating, travelling on a bus, whilst sitting in the park observing nature around you etc. You can also practise mindfulness during more passive activities. Here’s one mindfulness activity, focusing on breathing:
Choose a peaceful place in your house away from any distractions. Get comfortable in a chair with your body supported and your eyes closed.
Imagine your breath being visible. As you inhale with your abdomen, follow the flow of your breath as it gets inhaled through your nose, past your windpipe and down into your lungs. Notice the changing sensations in your abdomen, diaphragm and ribcage.
As you pause before exhaling, observe the air resting at the bottom of your lungs, circulating for a few moments. Then as you exhale follow the air being breathed up through your chest and out through your nose. Notice the air circulating just outside of your face as you pause, before inhaling the air again.
Repeat this process with several breaths.
Then allow your mind to roam, observing your thoughts at a distance. Accept these thoughts as they fade in and then fade out, being replaced with the flow of your breath once again.
Your mindfulness session is complete. You can open your eyes to return to your day.
How does mindfulness compare to self hypnosis?
Whilst relaxation may be experienced at some point during or after having practised mindfulness, it is far from being a technique in which you “relax” the mind. Instead, during mindfulness, you are aiming to arouse your senses, being more aware of those subtle processes that mostly tend to happen in the background. In other words, you are “zoning in” to whatever is happening in this moment, such as your tuning in to emotions or feelings. This might involve examining the tension within a part of your body right now and having felt it, you can now readily release it. This is a different approach to pushing something aside, even suppressing it, for it to come knocking at your door at a later time.
Certain sports with closed skills like archery have mindfulness built in
So how does mindfulness compare to self hypnosis? In many ways, they complement each other and by developing one technique, you may find that it helps the other one.
They both help you to “zone in”: Mindfulness’s perceptual style of focusing your attention is very similar to the “zoning in” state of altered awareness used in self hypnosis (mentioned above in the description of hypnosis). Zoning in would benefit you in areas if your life such as increasing your concentration levels at work and helping your listening abilities during conversations.
They both improve your mind-body connection: Thoughts and emotions create physical changes in your body and you may not always appreciate at the time of which thought is causing which sensation. Generally speaking, positive thoughts can create relaxed sensations, whilst negative thoughts can create sensations of tension. By zoning into these negative thoughts and emotions, mindfulness can be used as a diagnostic tool to establish which unconscious thought is triggering this physical tension. The tension in your shoulders might relate to you being anxious about giving a presentation next week and is the source of keeping you tense, irritable and awake at night. Having established this, you now have a goal for the self hypnosis. Using self hypnosis you can then create affirmations to help you visualise confidence in your presentation, reducing your anxiety-related tension in your shoulders and helping you to sleep better at night.
How does mindfulness compare to meditation?
When you consider the mindfulness breathing practice above, parts of it could be used as a lead into meditation (and self hypnosis). In this specific context, it has many similarities. Some people advocate that “breathing mindfulness” is a type of meditation activity.
This is perhaps one of the main general differences. Mindfulness is a state of mind or quality of awareness that can be applied anywhere. However, meditation is an activity or action; something that you do whilst sitting, focusing, chanting or walking etc.
Now consider a mindfulness practice when you drink a cup of tea. How you are holding the cup, the weight of the cup, the movement of your arm and hand as you bring the cup closer to your lips, the look of the tea, the steam rising from the tea, the initial smell of the tea as you bring it closer, the increased salivation, the slight inhalation of breath to sip some tea, the feeling of the tea (liquid) in your mouth, sensing the temperature in your mouth, the taste of the tea, where you taste it, the changing smell, the feelings as you swallow the tea, the changing taste and aroma in your mouth after you have swallowed it.
There are lots of sensory experiences to be aware of in this mindfulness activity of tea drinking!
Mindfulness tea drinking would not be considered a formal meditation for the purists however. But some informal styles of meditation state that you can meditate during absolutely anything – if you insist that you are meditating when knitting for example; then you are meditating!
Self hypnosis, Meditation and Mindfulness
In this attempt to explore differences between self hypnosis, meditation and mindfulness, it can be recognised that each discipline has features that overlap with another discipline. The practice of one discipline is likely to benefit the practice of another, if only from the awareness and practise of breathing techniques and postural changes.
Breathing techniques are common to self hypnosis, meditation and mindfulness
The individual experience or benefit derived from each discipline however can be varied. Your definition of each discipline will ultimately determine how you approach and participate in each activity. Societies (whether Eastern or Western, secular or religious) have different cultural and philosophical values that can emphasise how to approach each discipline and the potential gains to be achieved from it.
In hypnotherapy as a treatment, the hypnotherapist can integrate many approaches that can still be classified as hypnotherapy. For example, some hypnotherapists will actively promote that they teach self hypnosis. Or the way that suggestions are formed may teach aspects of meditation or mindfulness whilst in a hypnotic state. There can be many benefits of incorporating a broad treatment approach as this evidence suggests when treating stress and anxiety.
From the discussion, I would summarise the following benefits:
Self Hypnosis: helps you to achieve a change or personal goal through the internalisation of suggestions.
Meditation: helps you to still your mind to bring you inner peace.
Mindfulness: helps you to heighten your senses and makes you more aware of everything inside of you and around you.
For more information on self hypnosis, meditation, and mindfulness techniques contact Richard J D’Souza Hypnotherapy Cardiff.
It can be immensely useful being aware of the various types of hypnotherapy, whether you are aspiring to be a hypnotherapist or a potential client wanting treatment. Hypnotherapy is a domain that offers a huge toolbox of treatment techniques. Various approaches can be applied for different clients with different conditions. Each style of hypnotherapy can have its respective benefits when a client presents a specific need.
Which route will your treatment take?
Understanding the types of hypnotherapy can improve your therapeutic skills as a hypnotherapist. As a client it can help you appreciate what to expect in your hypnotherapy session and be treated in a way that matches your expectations. I have used all hypnotherapeutic approaches in my experience, and am flexible enough to adapt my approach when the situation demands it. My training included all of these various types of hypnotherapy styles even though my qualification has the classification of “Clinical Hypnotherapy”.
Types of Hypnotherapy: Solution Focused Hypnotherapy
As the name suggests, this type of hypnotherapy focuses on achieving solutions to your issues rather than deconstructing past problems. From a solution-focused perspective, delving into the past is considered ineffective.
Solution focused hypnotherapy can generate impressive and tangible results. It is used by a great number of hypnotherapists and can be implemented with just about every client. The approach is employed as soon as you are asked the question “what is your goal?” If you have a ‘fear of public speaking’, then your treatment is aimed at ‘confidence in public speaking’. Your ‘public speaking’ situation is analysed and the treatment is staged in measurable progressive steps, assessing where you are now and how your public speaking confidence can increase.
This is one of the types of hypnotherapy that has a focused interaction where the hypnotherapist helps you tap into your inner resources and capacities. It assumes a level of motivation and commitment on your part, as you are provided with homework tasks that move you towards the achievement of your goal. You will mutually set fixed interim goals and hypnosis will essentially be used to guide you to your destination. Eventually, you will become familiar with your inner strength and solution-seeking abilities to access your psychological wellbeing.
Does it have any shortcomings? Some of the mutually agreed goals in solution focused approaches can overly focus on symptoms. Symptoms can be coping mechanisms of deeper unconscious problems that are ignored until the treatment comes to standstill. The deeper unconscious issues are also known as the causes or “why” you behave as you do. For example, you want help to reduce your weight, but your weight gain is an unconscious defensive reaction to childhood abuse (i.e. you stay overweight to be less attractive to potential abusers; a form of Secondary Gain.) In your solution-focused treatment, you are asked “what is your goal?” and respond to the question appropriately “to lose weight”, because your reason for gaining weight is unconscious. Your treatment can then plateau unless the solution focused hypnotherapist is also trained to uncover past causes using other hypnotherapy techniques. Without this training, the weight loss solution would be temporary. When causes are uncovered, the solution can take a more successful treatment pathway, treating the cause and the symptom together.
Types of Hypnotherapy: Ericksonian Hypnotherapy
This style of hypnotherapy is named after one of the most prominent figures of psychiatry and hypnosis, namely Milton Erickson. He believed hypnosis to be a natural state that we involuntarily encounter several times a day. Erickson’s informal approach to treatment matched his beliefs about hypnosis. He was renowned for using indirect suggestions and storytelling in which his patients may not have known that the treatment had formally started.
Milton Erickson’s approach is admired amongst top hypnotherapists
Unlike most direct (and authoritative) types of hypnotherapy, the Ericksonian style attempts to access the client’s behavioural, cognitive, or even analytical levels in a way that speaks to the subconscious rather than the conscious. As an approach, it uses symbolism, metaphors, stories, and implicit suggestions that help the client not only collaborate, but also adopt the healing message or command within the suggestions. Many hypnotherapists call themselves Ericksonian, but they may be very far from using the true approach that Milton Erickson devised.
It may be helpful for all types of hypnotherapy to make room for this kind of creativity. The Ericksonian approach requires the hypnotherapist’s inner judge and subtle creative capacities to be employed. They need to be very sensitive to client’s distinct problems and profiles to ensure that the indirect suggestion or story yields the desired effect. For these reasons, clients with excellent visualisation skills and reflective abilities should be encouraged to seek hypnotherapists who employ Ericksonian tools.
Changes within the client can be quite deep and profound when these techniques are used effectively. It can be used to treat (but is not limited to) addiction, OCD, pain management and habit control.
Types of Hypnotherapy: Analytical Hypnotherapy
Analytical Hypnotherapy borrows primarily from the school of psychotherapy. It is also known as hypno-analysis and curative hypnotherapy. It can be used to treat a number of conditions including phobias, negative emotions, depression, psychosomatic symptoms etc.
Being analytical in its approach, this method of hypnotherapy investigates the client’s hidden causes that are creating issues. Fundamentally, it analyses your behaviour, reactions, and beliefs by using probing questions. It asks ‘’why’’ and seeks to identify the root impulses behind the said problem. When the true causes are brought to the surface, you will be guided to think and respond differently to them. As a result, positive and altered behaviours will be the new positive change to your health. Whilst the hypnotherapist works together with you to get to the core of an issue, the object of the session will be to obtain insight and understand the real dynamics that are controlling your life. You will be more self-aware of your psyche and the nature of your behaviour, and therefore will be able to take control and change negative behaviour.
In the treatment of a phobia for example, analytical hypnotherapy aims to discover and treat how your panic response attached itself to the phobic stimulus e.g. a spider. It also validates how the “wrong” childhood association has been carried into adulthood. The adult mind knows that this connection is irrational and unhelpful but is consciously unable to access where these feelings originate. Using Hypnoanalysis, the adult mind can go back and reinterpret the event, releasing the fearful emotion created as a child.
Types of Hypnotherapy: Behavioural Hypnotherapy
Behavioural hypnotherapy is probably the most direct and immediate types of hypnotherapy in its working methods. There are no disguised suggestions or analysis of issues. Instead, behavioural hypnotherapy focuses solely on the behaviours, (present or future ones) that the client demonstrates. In the first session, the hypnotherapist takes note of all the negative behaviours that the client has accumulated. Judged simply as learned behaviours, both the client and hypnotherapist proceed to agree on the appropriate changes and positive behaviours that are desired. Hypnosis is used to integrate these changes until they are firmly established. You are advised to keep practicing self hypnosis even after treatment is over, so that you have personal control over the new behaviours.
Behavioural hypnotherapy is useful for behaviours such as negative habits (nail biting, habitual drinking and smoking). It can also be used to modify the finer details of behaviours such as specific eating habits that are contributing to weight gain.
Types of Hypnotherapy: Cognitive Hypnotherapy
All types of hypnotherapy have a specific focus, but what is “spoken” in the mind is the main focus of this style of hypnotherapy. Whether you are battling with phobias, anxieties, or lack of concentration, cognitive hypnotherapy will help you get rid of the thinking patterns, beliefs, or feelings that you are dominating you. Cognition here is believed to be at the heart of your negative behaviours and psychological harm. In other words, the cognitive hypnotherapist will work with you to replace unhelpful thoughts and bad beliefs about the world so that the subconscious is in tune with a ‘’healthy’’ thinking conscious.
Once identified, common cognitive distortions such as over-generalisation and catastrophic thinking are realigned using hypnosis. The assumptions of this style of hypnotherapy derive from the theories of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. And the common process that unites these theories is the change of bad ‘’actionable’’ thoughts in consideration for your goals, values, and needs.
Types of Hypnotherapy: Past Life Regression
If you believe in past lives, then this style of hypnotherapy can help you
This is one of the types of hypnotherapy to have an unconventional view of the client’s problematic behaviours and issues. By using hypnotherapeutic techniques, it addresses a client’s problem with the belief that it is affected by a ‘’previous life’’. So, the causes and logic that are thought to drive any kind of issue are believed to come from “past life” experiences. Clearly, this belief is always implemented with respect to the client’s own beliefs. So, it may be found that some hypnotherapists interpret the past life belief literally, whilst others use it metaphorically. When an issue is at hand, the client and hypnotherapist observe the emotions and behaviours then travel together to a regressed interpretation of it in the past life. The issues will be understood in the context of past memories so that they are given real meaning. The issues are treated using other types of hypnotherapy.
In the end, this type of hypnotherapy can work well with some clients by providing them with insight and understanding into their issues. And this can help the client take back control or cut the ties from harmful past lives’ memories. An example of its application includes the treatment of phantom pain in which the client was convinced was a trauma in a previous life. When the client was regressed to a past life, it is found that they sustained an injury to that limb that was left untreated. The therapy involves “treating” the past life injury so that the current life pain can be released.
Types of Hypnotherapy: Hypno-Psychotherapy
This is a merged type of hypnotherapy where both the contents of hypnotherapy and psychotherapy work together to solve problems. Psychotherapy is, in essence, an analytic approach that tries to trace back psychological problems to a cause. It has views on emotions and psychological impulses that can be given rise either from a traumatic event, childhood attitudes, or some bad parental conditioning. So, with the addition of hypnotherapy, hypnosis and relaxation techniques are used to further the process of psychotherapy in the sessions.
For example, a cause can be attributed to your very first trauma with airplanes which became the root cause for your flying phobia. You may not be aware of it or simply forgot it, but the hypnotherapist will work with you to uncover these causes and tensions that are behind any complication or disorder. Most types of hypnotherapy try to work within the client’s psychological perspective, but this type leans more toward allowing understanding to take place in the client’s way of thinking.
Types of Hypnotherapy: Clinical Hypnotherapy
Clinical hypnotherapy is normally the implementation of hypnotherapy techniques in a clinical environment such as a hospital of GP practice. It gives the impression of being a more “effective” treatment than other types of hypnotherapy, but may include very a similar application of techniques.
Not all clinical hypnotherapists are really “clinical” ones unless they are medically qualified. “Clinical hypnotherapy” became popular as a hypnotherapy qualification during the late eighties and nineties to distinguish it from stage hypnosis, when the boundaries of hypnosis as a “therapy” and artistic stage show were blurred. Thus the term “clinical” emphasised that the hypnosis was therapeutic.
Clinical hypnotherapy can be concerned with treating medical conditions such as stress-related skin issues, chronic pain, IBS, psycho-sexual disorders and psycho-somatic conditions, but is not limited to treating only these conditions. So, while many types of hypnotherapy exist, this type of hypnotherapy can focus on treating those conditions in which traditional medicine approaches has been unable to treat.
Types of Hypnotherapy: Regression Hypnotherapy
The basic premise for this style of hypnotherapy is dissipating a problem issue by regressing back to its initial formation. In the example of treating a phobia, regression is executed by taking the client’s mind to past incidents related to the phobia. The hypnotherapist uses a combination of hypnotic techniques to access negative (or positive) memories related to the client’s goal. By safely re-experiencing the event, the client will understand the self-limiting beliefs and emotions surrounding the event that triggered the phobia. They can then start to reinterpret these beliefs and emotions using the adult mind.
Not all use of regression is helpful or reliable when accessing certain traumatic events, especially if the hypnotherapist has a biased view of the client’s history. For regression hypnotherapy to deal with your past events, it is important to seek a hypnotherapist who is well-versed in using regression hypnotherapy techniques.
Types of hypnotherapy: Other Therapies & Techniques
Hypnotherapy possesses many techniques to help you achieve your goal
Hypnotherapy is a vast domain. It is definitely not limited to the various types of hypnotherapy already mentioned here. Generally, the types of hypnotherapy already discussed are more dominant in hypnotherapy sessions given their suitability to client’s problems and needs. But, it is common for hypnotherapists to use other types of therapy, with or without certification.
One such type of therapy is Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). NLP is a system of communication skills for psycho-therapeutic ends. NLP certified therapists may also take courses in hypnotherapy because they both use mind reprogramming techniques. Their combined knowledge allows them to use these skills that may take longer to treat using traditional counselling methods.
But, it doesn’t end here. Certain hypnotherapists also pursue counselling qualifications and offer both hypnotherapy and counselling. The counselling techniques can be effective in creating rapport and directing the use of suggestions when using hypnosis. Unless the client has specified their treatment style, does it really matter how they get there as long as they ultimately still achieve their goal?
Other therapies such as Time-Line Therapy draw from NLP and are concerned with the treatment of negative emotions and anxiety disorders. It assumes that the unconscious mind is a linear timeline of events. Relaxation techniques including hypnosis are used to help the client to release painful emotions connected to traumatic events. It can be very effective in reducing negative emotions such as depression and post traumatic stress disorder.
Some hypnotherapy techniques have classifications that aim to distinguish themselves from other types of hypnotherapy. Integration hypnotherapy (also known as Parts Therapy) for example, considers your personality to be composed of various parts. These parts have been formed from good and bad past experiences and now serve specific functions of the inner mind. These parts want what is best for you but can be in conflict when you desire or have to cope with change.
Parts therapy aims to resolve these inner conflicts and desires by allowing the parts of your personality to communicate more freely. Parts therapy can be usefully applied when a client says that “part of me wants to do this, but the other part of me wants to do that!” It can deal with many conditions where anxiety is the restraining emotion and the desire for confidence is the inspiring emotion. It can be used to treat unwanted habits like smoking and weight issues where momentary urges inhibit the achievement of long terms goals.
Integration hypnotherapy approaches can be varied, drawing from other modes of therapy including Ego State Therapy and Gestalt Therapy. How you use these modes of therapy will depend on the situation, the client and experience of the hypnotherapist.
Hypnotherapy has no shortage of new techniques that claim to be more effective than older ones. Some techniques complement a new scientific trend. One such example is Gastric Band Hypnotherapy, which followed the development of gastric band surgery for obesity. With Gastric Band Hypnotherapy it claims that you can lose weight by visualising that you have had the same (Gastric Band) surgical procedure, but without any medical risks involving surgery!
There is a vast domain of specifictechniques used in hypnosis and hypnotherapy. Hypnotherapy schools teach different ways to hypnotise clients e.g. using “a handshake” method, not just by using voice induction. Then there is an abundance of visualisation techniques that can be used to induce a depth of relaxation or “trance” and rapidly treat certain conditions. Commonly taught visualisations include ‘’The Arrow’’, ‘’The Swan’’, and ‘’The Kinetic Shift’’.
Types of Hypnotherapy: Summary
This article has listed the various types of hypnotherapy. With experience and skill, the hypnotherapist can adapt the specific treatment approach or technique to the individual situation with some excellent outcomes. Hypnotherapy is only limited by the imagination of the hypnotherapist and their skilled ability to apply creative visualisations when it is deemed to be helpful in the session.
For further information on the various types of hypnotherapy and how hypnotherapy can help you, contact Richard J D’Souza Hypnotherapy Cardiff.
What are the causes of a phobia? If you’re unusually terrified of small insects or the idea of using a lift or elevator by yourself, then you’re not alone. Phobias are considered to be a very common psychological condition in both men and women. It is estimated that nearly 10 million people in the UK have a phobia of some kind.
A phobia is defined as an extreme or an irrational fear of a situation, object, location or animal. It typically emerges during childhood and persists into adulthood. Experts offer several explanations for the causes of a phobia, and this includes evolutionary theories and behaviourist theories.
Are the causes of a phobia nature or nurture?
A phobia may also range from mild to severe and can be termed simple and complex, but it’s good to know that whatever terms are used, they are treatable. Some phobic sufferers are highly responsive to hypnotherapy and can respond to treatment very quickly, whilst others require a cognitive behavioural approach to alleviate their phobia. Sometimes the combined approach can be the solution to alleviate your panic attack commonly associated with all phobias.
Genetic Causes of a Phobia
Research by the Emory University School of Medicine, in Atlanta has suggested that the causes of a phobia can be hereditary. The study involved mice that were given a mild electric shock after being exposed to the smell of cherry blossoms, making them associate pain to the smell. The offspring of the mice several generations later were also exposed to the same smell. Surprisingly, the new generation of mice also reacted in fear of the smell of the cherry blossoms, even though no amount of electric shock was applied to them. Since the biological and genetic makeup of mice and humans are similar to each other, the research suggests that phobic memories may also be passed down through the genes of your human ancestors.
Genetic causes substantiate the part that “nature” (as opposed to “nurture”) plays in acquiring say, an emetophobia through the inherited experiences of your family line. This is without the influence of any choices that you might make throughout your life to prevent having the emetophobia in the first place and what you might have learnt from your parents.
When you are old enough to understand your emetophobia and appreciate how it affects you, the avoidance and panic reactions are already dominating your lifestyle. But this does not mean that you can’t choose to have treatment for your emetophobia and change its imprint on your biology. Furthermore, with successful treatment of your own emetophobia, you are less likely to pass it on to your future offspring.
The theory posed from the genetic research suggests that what you pass on to your children can be negative (in the case of passing on the emetophobia). By the same argument, what you pass on could also be positive, in terms of transferring to your children a calmer reaction to sickness (vomit) when the emetophobia has been treated and removed.
Environmental causes of a phobia
Genetics alone though is probably not enough for a phobia to develop in every individual; environmental factors play a significant role too in the causes of a phobia. Directly experiencing a traumatic event creates such a strong future association between the event and an intense feeling of fear. Let’s say that you’ve been attacked by an animal like a dog. Even if the event only happened once, it could influence you to have a strong aversion to animals especially dogs (cynophobia) thereafter, no matter how cute an animal might look to others. And the same progression of events can happen if you have been struck by lightning or frightened (traumatised) by the sound of thunder (astraphobia).
Childhood traumas are one of the major causes of a phobia
Environmental causes of a phobia have a significant impact through life into adulthood particularly when the traumatic events have been experienced as a child. A fearful event in childhood can leave a deeper and immediate imprint in the highly sensitive and developing young brain than a similar traumatic experience caused in adulthood.
Furthermore, some of the childhood initial sensitising events (ISE) can be easily forgotten by adulthood, causing the growing individual to be confused about the nature of their phobia. For example, a child who has been involved in a car accident in the back seat of a two-door car may subsequently assert the desire to be a passenger in the front of the car. With an obliging parent, the child’s claustrophobia remains hidden and may not become apparent until as a teenager, they are “forced” to ride in the back seat of a teenage friend’s two-door car. The situation creates a panic attack for the teenager.
So can phobias be caused in adulthood? It is very unusual for phobias to be caused in middle adulthood. As explained above, it is more likely that the initial sensitising event (ISE) in childhood has been forgotten. Or the “simple phobia” has progressed and developed into a “complex phobia” involving other fears, social anxiety and panic disorder. This situation can emerge in the following example:
As a child you have a “simple” spider phobia (arachnophobia).
Whilst standing on a step ladder, you see a spider and your reaction causes you to fall off the step ladder causing a height phobia (acrophobia).
The fear of heights progresses into claustrophobia when, as a teenager, you experience intense fear when riding on a rollercoaster (in which you feel trapped and also involves heights).
Since you were unable to vacate the ride once it started, it causes a panic attack and extreme embarrassment in front of your teenage peers (social phobia).
Then, in adulthood, a series of stressful events raises your general anxiety. Since many of the physical symptoms of stress and anxiety are the same, you feel like you could have a panic attack at any moment and in any location. You are locked in anticipation in fear of having a panic attack and this is enough to trigger your panic attack (panic disorder).
In order to avoid the social humiliation of having random panic attacks in public places, you stay home to try and cope with your condition. You feel safer being housebound (agoraphobia).
By the time the agoraphobia is dominating your adult life, you have forgotten the early traumatic situations and the avoidance patterns that have contributed to your current desperate “complex” situation.
Indirectly learned causes of a phobia
There are cases when the causes of a phobia are learned from trusted authority figures closely related to the phobic person. For instance, if children see one or both of their parents having an unusual fearful reaction to snakes (ophidiophobia or ophiophobia), they are also likely to imitate the fearful reaction to snakes to keep themselves safe from harm. This trust in “knowing what is safe or harmful” can extend to other people considered as authority figures by a child. It can include respected relatives in the wider family, older siblings, teachers or close friends during teenage hood.
Indirectly learned causes of a phobia can also extend to observation from indirect learning situations. Seeing a live trauma in the television news, reading a convincing story or article, or even watching a recorded documentary can stimulate or reinforce a developing phobia. Even seeing a dramatic film containing convincing fearful reactions to say, an emetophobia can arouse suspicion about the depicted danger of vomit, fear of contamination from another person or the fear of choking on one’s own vomit.
Stress and Phobias
You are vulnerable to creating phobias during periods of intense stress
Is long-term stress among the many causes of a phobia? During prolonged periods of stress, it is common to experience anxiety and depression. This generally diminishes your ability to deal with excessive situational demands. It can increase your fear and anxiety of those stressful situations recurring again in the future to near-phobic capacity. Take for example when a mother has a traumatic pregnancy, a traumatic child birth and post-natal health issues for both the developing baby and herself. Depending on the events surrounding these traumas, she could be very fearful of another future birth trauma. Or she may also have lost trust in the medical profession and feel high anxiety when she needs to trust the medical profession again in the future.
In the example above, the constant state of heightened alertness surrounding the stressful birth trauma could be the “cause” of the phobia. Or, depending on the previous trauma history, the stressful events can serve to reinforce previous fearful beliefscreated from an earlier health trauma, making the hidden health phobia “conscious” to the mother. Whether as the ISE or reinforcing event, a tokophobia (fear of pregnancy or childbirth) and/or iatrophobia (fear of doctors and the medical profession) is established due to the numerous stressful situations and events.
Psychodynamic Explanations for the causes of a phobia
There are several causes of a phobia, but psychodynamic theorists offer their own explanations for the “cause” of them. They argue that reactions to phobias are the mind’s defence mechanism against repressed feelings of anxiety that have been experienced in childhood. These repressed feelings are considered too painful to consciously deal with and acknowledge later in life, so these feelings are then displaced onto associated situations or objects. The situation or object becomes the phobic stimulus to avoid, thus protecting the individual from having to deal with these painful repressed emotions again.
Or put another way, the situation or object associated with the phobia is not the source of the anxiety; the cause is related more to the product of unresolved conflicts within the various parts of the person’s mind. According to psychodynamic theorists, when the mind’s “conflicts” are centrally treated, the repressed emotions can be safely released, thereby disconnecting the phobia and the associated anxiety.
Causes of a phobia: The impact on your neurology
The combination of these various causes of a phobia (including genetic traits, childhood interactions with your family and your personal direct and indirect life experiences) can ultimately determine how your brain develops and functions when you perceive a threat and cope with your phobia-inducing object or situation.
The part of the brain responsible for controlling fear is called the amygdala. For a phobia sufferer, the right amygdala is considered to be highly sensitised and reactive to phobia-inducing stimuli causing the intense distress (or panic attack) commonly associated with phobic reactions. Where there is long-term trauma, this part of the brain may be generally over-reactive.
Also notable amongst phobia sufferer's neurology is a higher expectation (anticipatory anxiety) that you will encounter your object or situation of distress. This is termed “expectancy bias” by researchers and is associated with lowered activity of the lateral prefrontal cortex and visual cortex parts of the brain. This under-activity results in an absence of cognitive control to distinguish between “imagined” and “real” threats related to your phobia. Thus with an arachnophobia, you will have a panic attack when you see some black fluff because you are certain that it is a real spider. You are also convinced that, having seen a spider in one location e.g. under the sofa, that it will keep reappearing in that same location, despite that spider being previously removed.
Causes of a phobia in therapy
Ultimately, the goal of a phobia treatment (using self-help or with a therapist) is to be relaxed in your phobic situation/location or relaxed with your phobic object/animal. There are many different ways to achieve this goal. This article has aimed to explore the many causes of a phobia, rather than trying to find ways to treat it. But does knowledge of the causes of a phobia have any practical application in resolving a phobia in therapy? It can be partially helpful, and this would depend on the individual enquiry.
Can identifying the causes of a phobia help you cope with them?
For example, if you are locked into your obsession about knowing why you have a fear of germs (mysophobia), then your obsession can block your access to a treatment solution. Learning that it’s a family trait and not your fault can ease your obsession particularly when you also learn that many of your forgotten childhood experiences involved fearful reactions to germs. With this knowledge, a mysophobic can accept it and “learn to live with it”, even if it does mean being fanatical or compulsive about cleanliness.
Another enquiry might relate to the irrationality and confusion of your complex phobia situation. How can a simple phobia such as a fear of holes (trypophobia) lead to your agoraphobia? Understanding and rationalising how your fears and their reactions have transformed your “simple phobia” into an isolating agoraphobic situation (complex phobia) can be helpful. You can now be realistic about a proposed treatment plan and the time it usually takes to undo complex phobias, rather than hoping for a quick-fix and abandoning therapy prematurely
Some therapy clients have uncontrolled panic attacks (panic disorder), are irresponsive to anxiety control techniques (relaxed breathing) and have forgotten what situation or object is triggering their panic response. By using a psycho-therapeutic approach with hypnosis, it can help you identify the “cause” of your unconscious phobia. Regression hypnotherapy can then be used to create emotional understanding and release the fear contained in those childhood experiences. This is an example of how applying a solution to a client’s past “cause” can benefit a client where a solution-focused approach is struggling to make progress. You could say that it’s still “solution-focused”, but you are regressing back to ISE’s to treat it.
Causes of a phobia: conclusion
Research would indicate that the many causes of a phobia relate to both nature and nurture. Where one cause is evident in a particular phobic person, does this mean that they are more responsive to a certain type of therapy? Perhaps this is another matter for further research.
For further information on the causes of your phobia and how hypnotherapy can treat it, contact Richard J D’Souza Hypnotherapy Cardiff.
Finding the services of the best hypnotherapist can be difficult if you have never experienced hypnotherapy before. And even if you have experienced it before and the outcome was negative, then there could be several explanations for this. Definitions of hypnosis and its use as a therapy are open to interpretation. And it goes without saying that every practising hypnotherapist is different to one another! What filters into yourtreatment will be a mix of the hypnotherapist’s life experiences, their hypnotherapy training, problem-solving ability, treatment experience, personal qualities etc. These are just some of the dynamics that live on the hypnotherapist’s side. Then consider what you bring into the treatment – your treatment issue and the specific background that individualises your problem. And not to mention the collaboration of all of these processes! Phew! When you take these various factors into account, it’s no wonder that it can be challenging weeding out the best hypnotherapist from a bad one.
When you want to find the best hypnotherapist, it can pay to do a bit of research.
Finding the best hypnotherapist is not rocket science, but it shouldn’t be done hastily either. Failing to vet your hypnotherapist could mean that you end up wasting your time and money. If you want your condition to be successfully treated using hypnotherapy, but have no idea how to choose the best hypnotherapist then read on...
The best hypnotherapist has hypnotherapy credentials
First ensure that your hypnotherapist is a member of a recognised hypnotherapy association. With a registered hypnotherapist, if you are unhappy with any part of your therapy, you can contact the association who will investigate your complaint.
Some of the bigger associations include the General Hypnotherapy Register and Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council. The CNHC register is approved as an accredited register by the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care. This professional body is accountable to Parliament for maintaining standards of patient safety and service quality. Patients who ask medical staff to recommend a hypnotherapist have been advised by the Professional Standards Authority to recommend those hypnotherapists registered with the CNHC – how’s that for a seal of approval?
As a registered member of an association, your hypnotherapist will hold a recognised hypnotherapy qualification, professional indemnity insurance and will follow a strict code of ethics which will include maintaining Continued Professional Development. With the latter, it means that your hypnotherapist is actively developing their knowledge of hypnotherapy in practice and is probably passionate about their subject.
The best hypnotherapist has experience
An experienced hypnotherapist is more likely to have developed their knowledge, skills and expertise with “real” clients. In this experience, strategies are employed and techniques are refined with efficiency and effectiveness. With knowledge and practise comes confidence to appreciate what to do – and what not to do when treating different clients with different conditions. With experience, you can acknowledge how to manage the subtleties in each individual case.
How much experience is enough to develop confidence? In my opinion, a hypnotherapist who has worked five to ten years is developing their craft. That’s not to say that a novice cannot help a client, but they may still be in the experimental phase of their career where they “try this and see what happens...” The novice hypnotherapist feels less confident about adapting their treatment if your mind is not fully accepting their suggestions.
The quality of the experience is far more important than just the quantity of treatments given by your hypnotherapist however. The quality can be defined by dealing with a variety of medical conditions and having an understanding of their background causes. But the quality of that experience can also be affected by the hypnotherapist’s life experiences outside of hypnotherapy. Are you more convinced of a hypnotherapist’s treatment of your fear of public speaking if they have extensive experience of public speaking themselves? Do they have a medical or health-related background experience that helps them to understand what’s behind your presenting issue and not just understanding the presenting symptom?
Some hypnotherapists advertise that they specialise in treating certain conditions, having attended CPD workshops, extensively researched the condition or had personal experiences with the condition. This may “qualify” them to treat your condition more than a “general” hypnotherapist, but in practice it may only be evident that they are more qualified when you begin your course of therapy. This is because a symptom may be connected to other core issues e.g. a client’s weight gain (symptom) may be related to their low self esteem (core issue). A specialist in weight loss may have very little experience of treating low self esteem, whereas a general hypnotherapist with a wider knowledge base may be able to treat both issues effectively during the course of your treatment.
On the subject of experience, another important feature is that...
The best hypnotherapist has broken away from generalised scripts
The best hypnotherapist will personalise your hypnotherapy script.
As a member of the public, are you aware that one of the novice hypnotherapist’s basic tools is a pre-written generalised script? Yes, an “expert” hypnotherapist has used their experience to write a script called (for example) “panic attacks” and you can access these on YouTube and various phone apps to help you deal with your panic attacks. They may have been supplied on the hypnotherapy training course and can be found easily in hypnotherapy textbooks. The script features a mix of generalised and specific suggestions for treating “panic attacks”. Some of the generalised content will be ignored by you and some of the pertinent suggestions that connect with your issues will focus your mind into your issue and be more readily accepted. The novice hypnotherapist is likely to hypnotise you and then read the script verbatim as part of your treatment.
There’s nothing wrong with this approach; it’s still considered “hypnotherapy”. But the experienced hypnotherapist is likely to have developed a repertoire of “panic attack” suggestions and is confident enough to apply what has been discussed in the consultation into your individualised treatment “script”. This gives your treatment relevance and usually more positive change than an approach that is generalised with the hope of making a connection with you.
Please note that there is a multitude of dynamics in hypnotherapy that can influence a successful outcome in your treatment that includes using relevant personalised suggestions.
Another issue that can affect a successful outcome is...
The best hypnotherapist has a broad skill set
Using relevant personalised suggestions to help you achieve your goal is the building blocks of a hypnotherapy treatment. But when your unconscious mind partially accepts or resists these suggestions, does your hypnotherapist have other hypnotic techniques to assist you or do they continue with a generalised “relaxatherapy” session hoping that it does the trick? The best hypnotherapist can creatively employ a variety of techniques including regression, hypno-analysis, and the use of stories and metaphors to release blocks. They can work with your mind when progress is slowing down.
With experience, the effective use of these techniques can be adapted into your treatment quickly and confidently. The combination of a broad skill set and experience ensures your hypnotherapist can choose options to adapt your treatment program when issues develop in the moment. The unskilled novice is more likely to adopt a “one treatment fits all” approach.
Another issue that can influence a successful outcome is when...
The best hypnotherapist values the importance of building rapport
When you have a strong rapport with your hypnotherapist, you are more likely to accept their suggestions in the hypnotic induction and throughout your therapy. Building rapport is a two-way exchange of many dynamics that helps you feel that you “connect” with your hypnotherapist. When you have rapport with them, you trust them, you believe that they can help you, and you believe that they have the skills to treat your presenting condition.
Rapport is built during many stages of the treatment. It can happen in the enquiry stage when seeing an informative article about your condition, or when speaking on the phone or during an initial consultation. During these situations, there are many opportunities to offer you insights that they understand your problem and can help you. It continues throughout the treatment and is displayed by good listening skills, the hypnotherapist’s voice (an important tool in hypnotherapy), and even their non-verbal gestures. What your hypnotherapist says resonates strongly with you and develops a deep conviction that they are passionate about their subject, they understand your problem and they will assist you to achieve your goal.
Rapport is often helped by succinctly explaining what happens in your treatment and how you will benefit. It involves answering your questions and concerns about any aspect of the treatment in an open, honest and reassuring way. When there is rapport, it ensures that you feel confident and secure during all stages of your treatment.
Without rapport, the treatment process collapses. This can happen for a number of reasons including a mismatch of expectations. If given the opportunity, the best hypnotherapist will attempt to close that gap, but will readily accept that when there is a weak rapport, it’s better to refer the client on to another source of help.
Strongly connected to rapport is...
The best hypnotherapist has empathy
Showing an understanding of your presenting condition and the emotions that you bring into your treatment is just a small part of having empathy. An experienced hypnotherapist will demonstrate this understanding by asking appropriate questions but will also be prepared to listen to your individual responses, reassuring you of any concerns. The hypnotherapist’s listening skills may be part of their nature, part of their training or has been developed by dealing with real hypnotherapy clients. In whatever way that it has been acquired, you will very quickly feel this connection deepen when they have empathy (which is far more than just a feeling of sympathy). Your treatment will be explained in a way that helps you to understand what is going to happen and how you can benefit. When there is empathy, you feel ready to discuss your issues and trust that there will be no judgement from your hypnotherapist.
The best hypnotherapist is able to apply the right balance of hypnosis and therapy
The best hypnotherapist applies the right balance of hypnosis and therapy.
An understanding of “hypnotherapy” requires an understanding of both “hypnosis” and “therapy” to be able to achieve an effective hypnotic treatment. Some hypnotherapists make better “hypnotists” and others make better “therapists”. The balance of these two concepts can influence the hypnotherapist’s approach to your treatment. This balance can usually be found in their advertising literature but becomes obvious very quickly in the hypnotherapy treatment stages. “Hypnotists” emphasise the power of hypnosis over you to create change, whereas “therapists” emphasise the power within you to help you change.
Whether the style of approach comes from the hypnotherapist’s personality e.g. extrovert/introvert, their training, or their experience in practice, the ability to adapt the approach to the individual is important. It will influence the building of rapport (see above) particularly when it meets your expectation about hypnotherapy. Where they “sit” on the continuum of hypnosis and therapy, and where you feel comfortable with their position will influence a successful therapeutic outcome.
The best hypnotherapist is not (exclusively) a stage hypnotist offering hypnotherapy
A stage hypnotist’s art is entertainment and some of it can be very entertaining. But does a stage hypnotist’s skill transfer into therapy? A stage hypnotist who dabbles in hypnotherapy may not have undergone any “therapy” training or supervision. That’s not to say that they can’t help people lose weight and quit smoking, for example, by using suggestions targeting those respective conditions. It’s when those conditions are connected to deeper emotional issues like depression or low self esteem where the symptomatic “quick-fix” has limited affect and can expose an underlying emotional issue that needs continued support. As mentioned in the previous point regarding the “balance of hypnosis and therapy”, if you really want an exclusive stage hypnotist to “use their hypnotic powers” to treat you, then you can make an informed choice when their hypnotic modality is openly advertised.
Most respectable hypnotists and hypnotherapists will advertise their profession, the conditions they treat, their location and their professional association membership. The latter can be verified by spending a bit of time researching the stated hypnotherapy association online.
Some hypnotherapy associations will not permit membership for those who perform stage hypnosis, whilst others are open to membership provided that the hypnotist/hypnotherapist has a relevant hypnotherapy qualification.
The best hypnotherapist does not make exaggerated claims about hypnotherapy
Wouldn’t life be easy if...when you have an emotional or behavioural problem, you consult with a hypnotherapist, they “put you under” and the problem is fixed! This is the view often portrayed in the popular media with anecdotes of miraculous changes that happened in one session.
Hypnotherapy is generally considered a short-term therapy (in relation to other talking therapies) and can often produce rapid results when a number of therapeutic conditions are in place. The problem comes when a hypnotherapist advertises a “quick-fix” guarantee without any prior knowledge of your presenting problem and historical background.
When you are desperate, it can seem tempting to sign them up for a quick fix, but therapeutic change usually takes a few sessions of hypnotherapy, and here’s why: Advertising that a condition like smoking cessation will “be treated in one session” for example assumes that the hypnotic approach has been scientifically tested and controls were in place when it was researched. But very few hypnotherapy treatment strategies have been tested in this way. It is difficult to reliably test hypnotherapy because it involves so many variables (as mentioned in the introduction). Thus you are unlikely to create a guarantee that everyone will get the same outcome regardless of what the client brings to the treatment process.
As an additional point, when you are desperate to have a condition treated, it’s easy to misread an advert that states: your condition “can be...” treated in so many sessions. You are likely to interpret it as it “will be…” treated in the stated number of sessions, only to be disappointed when your treatment takes longer than you originally thought.
Choosing the best hypnotherapist – other considerations
Cheaper might seem better, but are you getting the best treatment?
This section is less about what makes the best hypnotherapist and more about the other issues that might limit your choice when making an appointment with the best hypnotherapist.
Treatment costs – Prior to booking, ensure that you are fully aware of the cost, the length of each session, and methods of payment. Cheaper fees may seem attractive at first but could end up being money down the drain with a hypnotherapist who lacks the experience to deal with your presenting condition. Likewise, you don’t want to book with a hypnotherapist who charges extortionate fees without there being a good justification. In my opinion, a fee that is say, five times the average fee would almost need to offer a guarantee to justify the cost.
Paying upfront for a course of hypnotherapy – Be wary of paying upfront for a course of hypnotherapy sessions to save money before you have even met the hypnotherapist. It’s wise to try one or two sessions first and then review how your treatment is progressing without a huge initial financial commitment. Since each course of hypnotherapy can vary between one client and another, paying upfront for a course can be called into question. What are the terms if you achieve your goal early or wish to terminate your treatment early? Is there an option of a pro rata refund (which would seem fair)?
Type of practice – Consider if you would prefer to have your treatment in an established practice or the hypnotherapist’s home. Clients usually feel more secure in a practice and often feel that the whole treatment process is more professional. The location of the practice is something that is usually identified early in your research. Google tends to favour proximity when you search online. It’s obviously convenient having a practice close to you, but some treatments are worth the journey when it gets results.
Cancellation policy – Ensure that you understand the terms of any cancellation policy. A hypnotherapist who rents from a professional practice is more likely to have stricter cancellation terms. This is not surprising when the hypnotherapist will have paid a rental fee to accommodate your session and will lose that fee if you do not attend.
Availability – Check that the hypnotherapist can be available at the times and days to suit you. Their general availability to maintain continuity between each session is also important. Hypnotherapists who practise part time or who have various other non-clinical commitments may not be able to maintain a treatment schedule to help you.
Your past hypnotherapy experiences – When you have had a bad experience of anything, it’s easy to over-generalise the experience and extend that feeling of failure to all. With a previous negative outcome with hypnotherapy some might say “I had hypnotherapy once and it didn’t work, so I’ve done hypnotherapy now!” There are good and bad hypnotherapists, just as there are good and bad medical practitioners. The results that you get will only be as good as the individual hypnotherapist treating you. Some clients are also ready to admit that with a previous attempt to change a habit like smoking for example, they were not ready or motivated to quit smoking when they tried to stop smoking with hypnotherapy maybe ten years earlier.
The value of personal recommendation – A personal recommendation from someone you know can build trust and belief into your own treatment process with the recommended hypnotherapist. Even with a personal recommendation however, it’s still advisable to go into the treatment with an open mind and respect that everyone’s background and presenting condition is different.
Keeping an open mind is particularly significant when the person recommending you made rapid progress in their treatment. This might influence you to expect the same rapid outcome for yourself. If you don’t get the same results, it’s not uncommon to think that you have personally failed the treatment in some way. This is not the case however; no two situations are identical in hypnotherapy.
And finally...Trusting your gut feeling usually works – Trusting your gut feeling is often considered a good basis from which to make a decision. When choosing the best hypnotherapists too, it’s a good format to use. Take note of some of the points in this article and do a reasonable amount of research to find the best hypnotherapist for you.
For further information on how hypnotherapy can help you, contact Richard J D’Souza Hypnotherapy Cardiff.
A question that I am often asked is whether there is funding available for your hypnotherapy treatment through the NHS. Even though some hypnotherapists are registered NHS providers, currently hypnotherapy is not usually available through the NHS.
If you were to ask your general practitioner to recommend a hypnotherapist, they may suggest using a hypnotherapist approved by the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care, a body accountable to Parliament to regulate standards of professional practice. Hypnotherapists who are registered with the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council are recognised by the Professional Standards Authority as meeting the UK standards of patient safety and service quality. So you will get a recommendation from your general practitioner but funding your hypnotherapy treatment will still need to be paid by you.
If you are seeking general therapy in Cardiff (but not hypnotherapy) from your general practitioner, they are likely to place you on a waiting list. You may be seen by the Primary Mental Health Support Service, administrated by the Cardiff and Vale Action for Mental Health. If you are under 18 years of age, you will be placed on a waiting list and be referred to the CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service). In some cases you may be able to refer yourself to the above – chat to your GP for further advice.
Funding for your hypnotherapy treatment using Private Health Cash Plans
You can get funding for your hypnotherapy treatment using Private Health Cash Plans
There are a growing number of health insurance companies offering private health cash plans that will reimburse part or all of the costs of hypnotherapy treatments not funded by the NHS, or by private health insurance policies. These private health cash plans can be funded by your employer or purchased individually by you for yourself and members of your family. Each company offering private health cash plans will have varying levels of coverage for which they will reimburse your costs over an annual period.
The following Private Health Cash Plan providers recognise hypnotherapists registered with the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council, of which I am a registered member (please click the link in the website footer).
(Disclaimer – the following listed health cash plan provider companies are correct at the time of writing this article, summarised from the CNHC, last updated July 2019. These companies may change their policies without notice to the public or to the CNHC. Please contact the individual company to verify that the condition in which you are claiming reimbursement is accepted prior to starting your hypnotherapy treatment. No refunds for your hypnotherapy treatment will be given where there are any disputes about reimbursement between you and your health cash plan provider company).
Medicash – provide health cash plans for individuals and businesses, covering 50% of your treatment costs up to a set limit per year, depending on the health cash plan.
The Health Insurance Group – a broker that will find the best health cash plan for you or your business.
Pure Benefits – provide corporate health cash plans through Medicash (https://www.purebenefits.co.uk/product/health-cash-plan/ - Password needed to enter site).
Westfield Health – provide reimbursement for a limited number of corporate health cash plans.
Health Shield – provide reimbursement on specified corporate paid plans.
Elect – working with Health Shield, Elect provide reimbursement for hypnotherapy on their health cash plans.
Paycare – provide reimbursement for hypnotherapy on all of their health cash plans, up to an annual limit of £150 depending on the level of coverage.
Other health cash plan companies – there are other companies that list hypnotherapy as a treatment available for reimbursement on their health cash plans e.g. SMP Healthcare. Other companies may not list hypnotherapy as a therapy available for reimbursement, but may consider it on a case by case basis when an application is made. To be eligible for reimbursement for hypnotherapy, your condition must usually be at an acute stage and referred by your GP or company medical representative.
Funding for your hypnotherapy treatment: what conditions can be treated?
Check with your private health cash plan company if they will accept hypnotherapy to treat your condition
As mentioned above, a referral from your GP or company medical representative will usually ensure that your hypnotherapy treatment is considered medically necessary and eligible for reimbursement. A diagnosis would usually indicate that you are suffering from stress, anxiety or depression in some way and it is affecting your personal quality of life and/or ability to work.
Some of the conditions that I have previously treated include anxiety, stress, depression, insomnia, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety following an accident, panic attacks, smoking cessation, anger management, relationship issues and substance abuse (addictions). But other conditions may be accepted depending on the strong case that you make for your treatment with your GP and health cash plan company.
Your GP’s approval will be easier if they know that your hypnotherapist is a member of the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council.
Funding for your hypnotherapy treatment: procedure
Make your application and receive your formal notification that part or all of your hypnotherapy treatment can be reimbursed through your health cash plan. Then contact me using the Contact Form stating that part or all of your treatment is eligible for reimbursement.
A formal receipt including any of your reference numbers can be given at the end of each consultation or at the end of your hypnotherapy course of treatment. Please specify if you would like a paper copy or email copy of your receipt.
You would send each receipt to your health cash plan company and they would reimburse the cost up to a certain amount within an annual period. Processing time of each receipt can vary between each health cash plan company.
For more information about funding for your hypnotherapy treatment using private health cash plans contact Richard J D’Souza Hypnotherapy Cardiff.
Anticipatory anxiety is a symptom of other anxiety disordersAnticipatory Anxiety is a symptom that creates and maintains the various forms of anxiety disorder including phobias, panic disorder and generalised anxiety. It is characterised by a heightened state of alertness and obsessive worry before a stressful event is about to happen. You can waste hours or even days going through every possibility of the upcoming event, running “what if...”- scenarios without being able to focus on a helpful solution.
Whether it is a job interview, a social meeting, or a public speech, anticipatory anxiety will take over your mind for the remaining period of time that you have left before the event starts. In its essence, anticipatory anxiety happens because of your nature to try to predict how things will happen and your attempt to remain safe from harm. We are individuals who make use of anticipation to function well in everyday life, but someone with this form of anxiety expects a lot of these situations to be real disasters or catastrophes. This state is also reinforced when past experiences in life have left you with a deep sense of disappointment or shame that has sunk into your unconscious mind. Now, the unconscious alerts you with this stressful anticipation to avoid similar episodes and their associated recurring anxious feelings again in the future.
How does anticipatory anxiety affect you?
Anticipatory anxiety influences you to obsess about the catastrophic scenarios that are likely to happen. Avoidance tactics are considered to prevent your future distress. You might even lose focus on the tasks you are required to prepare and end up being haunted by what can humiliate you and guarantee your failure. You are generally fooled into believing that these anxious situations will happen, when in reality they rarely do happen.
Anticipatory anxiety can create constant “butterflies”
The physical symptoms of anxiety can be triggered at an early stage of knowledge of the event. You are likely to have varying degrees of stomach “butterflies”, sweaty palms, and a racing heart (palpitations). The body can get very distressed because of these symptoms, and as a result, anticipatory anxiety becomes a huge physical discomfort to your well-being. These symptoms, moreover, become a serious form of anticipatory anxiety when you begin to focus on them in ordinary and daily events, and for long sustained periods of time.
It is normal for people to have reasonable levels of worry about important future events, but the alertness should resolve itself as the event passes. With the prolonged form of anticipatory anxiety, the symptoms persist much after the event. And the more debilitating this anxiety gets, the more you will experience psychological problems too. For example, you may develop insomnia, depression and constant panic attacks. Eventually, if anticipatory anxiety has been experienced for periods of more than a month, it becomes a chronic state of anticipatory anxiety.
What causes anticipatory anxiety?
Many of the causes that contribute to developing anticipatory anxiety are related to past experiences. At some point in your life, you were faced with experiences that aroused extreme fear or a suffocating shame within you. Such experiences, if they get reinforced, tend to set deep roots in your psyches and render you avoidant and phobic to those stressful events in the future.
In addition, some people may develop panic attacks that build up because of extreme stress. With the knock on effect of this situation and repeated negative reactions, the sufferer becomes not only afraid of the events, but also of your own anxiety symptoms or the panic attacks. As a consequence, you become locked into this fear of symptom-reaction or “panic about panic”. It can render some sufferers helpless influencing a state of agoraphobia in its progression.
General anxiety is not excluded from this either. If anxiety troubles you at every turn in your life, anticipatory anxiety becomes a symptom of it when too many stressful incidents keep giving you anxiety symptoms. Furthermore, anticipatory anxiety may not be just conscious but may descend into an unconscious form when it creeps into your dreams. Thus, it is very advisable for any person suffering from it to learn about some of the coping techniques that reduce this anxiety and eventually break you out of the cycle of anticipatory anxiety.
Coping with Anticipatory Anxiety
Primarily, anticipatory anxiety can be seen as a state of mind where different ideas are affecting your psyche. It is a line of emotional thinking that zooms in on all the disastrous and negative outcomes that can harm your self-esteem and well-being. Let’s briefly explore some common coping techniques. They all need further development and practise to be helpful in dealing with your anticipatory anxiety.
A powerful way to bring the anxiety into a halt is to interrupt the emotional anxious thinking with positive thinking. It won’t be apparent to you how much effect a positive thought can help you until you can employ and master the use of them. The state of mind suddenly shifts to a stronger and more relieving way of thinking. In other words, the anticipation can be translated into a positive reality as this immediately stops the physical stress and breaks the habit of anxious “over-thinking”.
Another technique that can reduce this anxiety is the act of changing your focus of attention. When your attention has been set on something completely different, the anticipatory anxiety stops taking over your mind and has fewer effects on you. Moreover, a change of focus of attention can give you the strength to not succumb to excessive worry. This is because your selected attention decides what mindset you can have.
Mindfulness can help you cope with anticipatory anxiety
The use of your attention, though, need not be limited to motivating thoughts. You can reduce the anticipatory anxiety even by focusing on the nature of your anxiety or your breath, without analysing it or judging it, just becoming mindful of it. This is the basis of mindfulness.
Lastly, you can ask questions that alter your mode of thinking to balance out the negative anticipation. For instance, you may ask about the possible good things that can happen in the short-term and long-term if those bad scenarios might happen. Or by accepting that it’s going to be bad anyway, you can ask yourself how you may recover from the situation and build coping resources in the process. In so doing, you can motivate your state of mind to drop the anxiety and entertain the confident ideas and expectation that you deserve to have.
More self help techniques can be found here: ways to deal with anticipatory anxiety.
How can hypnotherapy help you deal with anticipatory anxiety?
Hypnotherapy can break your obsessive thinking patterns
As you become more anxious, your view of reality will favour that which confirms your anxious reality; in your anticipation, you become convinced that these catastrophes will ensue. In the relaxed state of hypnosis, you can detach this reality and be helped to view the positive alternatives.
Hypnotherapy can help you to visualise the anticipated event as a successful event
Positive visualisation changes the neural pathways in your brain. When you can picture the dreaded event e.g. a public speaking presentation, as one in which you are coping with, the journey leading up to the event can feel less traumatising. With less anticipation, you can then be left to cope with the event itself, accessing the resources needed to deal with the demands in that moment. Hypnotherapy is an excellent way to assist your visualisation abilities enabling you to maximise the potential of your imagination.
Hypnotherapy can help you reframe your past experiences
When you have anticipatory anxiety, the emotions from past traumatic events continue to alert you to similar situations to prepare for another upset, sometimes exaggerating the nature of the future event. But when the emotions from those past traumas are reframed and released, they can become experiences to learn from. Using regression techniques, hypnotherapy can be used to revisit an “open” negative past experience, safely reprocess its meaning and close the event so that you can view future situations as challenges.
Hypnotherapy can be used to restructure your avoidance strategies
Avoidance is one of the main symptoms of anticipatory anxiety. Whilst the “avoidance voice” is there to protect you from harm in the short term, it creates a bigger obstacle to overcome in the long term. Hypnotherapy can use analytical methods to access the decisive “parts” in your mind and employ their resilience to confront the situations that you would previously seek to avoid.
Hypnotherapy can be used to alleviate your physical anticipatory anxiety symptomsHypnotherapy can alleviate your anticipatory physical symptoms
Your physical anxiety symptoms like heart palpitations and tense breathing patterns can convince you that your fear is “real”. Hypnotherapy can used to alleviate your physical symptoms and view them as separate from your current distress, helping you to feel relaxed and ready to confront the situation when needed.
Summary
In summary, anticipatory anxiety is one of the psychological disorders that can burden your life. Most of the time, it becomes nurtured because of the stressful life that you have led in your past or through some developed phobias e.g. social phobia.
Your past experiences may overwhelm you now because you previously lacked the tools to handle emotional situations back then. That’s why it’s important to appreciate what anticipatory anxiety is, how the various symptoms can affect you and be ready to confront those situations that cause you excessive worry. Then, you can learn relevant coping techniques and apply them when anticipatory anxiety is dominating your life.
Furthermore, it is important to seek professional help if you are struggling with anticipatory anxiety in your daily life. Coping techniques can place you back into a measure of stability. Therapy such as hypnotherapy can strengthen and help you develop new coping strategies in a relatively short treatment course.
For further information on how hypnotherapy can help you deal with anticipatory anxiety, contact Richard J D’Souza Hypnotherapy Cardiff.
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