Hypnotherapy for Stress, Anxiety, and Depression

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Is it time for Change?

Using hypnotherapy for for anxiety and stress relief helps a person first to relax enough to move into the “Alpha” brainwave state. Contrary to what people think, this is not sleep. It is a between state where the subconscious mind is more open to new information.
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In the hypnotic state or “Alpha” brainwave state, a person becomes very focused and attentive and not as analytical as they would be in their most conscious state which is the “Beta” brainwave state. The job of the hypnotherapist is to personalize the suggestions in hypnosis for the individual based on the anxiety/stress issues the person is having. People typically report that the relaxed feeling from their hypnosis session lasts for several days or even weeks and that they are feeling significantly less worry. When a very specific circumstance is being addressed as a significant source of anxiety for a person, not only does the person experience relief from that specific problem, but they find that they are more calm and patient in situations where they would have reacted poorly in the past.
If one was to evaluate the level of stress or anxiety that they currently feel prior to the hypnosis session using a one to ten scale, ten being the worst, the result of their session should very quickly be them feeling like they have come down on that scale. It is also important to evaluate the source of your anxiety. The therapist can help by looking at whether you have experienced trauma. If you are suffering from PTSD, the therapy used would be different than for general stress and anxiety. Find out if you might be suffering with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Hypnosis may also be combined with other types of therapy, such as cognitive behavioral therapy.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is a form of psychotherapy in which a person learns how to replace negative, unhealthy thoughts and behaviors with ones that are positive and healthy. The state in which hypnotherapy can place a person often helps achieve this conversion more easily, and thus the two techniques are often used to compliment each other.

Hypnotherapy and Anxiety

If you are an anxious person you may think it would be difficult to relax enough to enter the “Alpha” brainwave state required for hypnotic work to be effective.

However, both your subconscious mind (feeling and behaviors you are not aware of) and your conscious mind (the awareness of what you are doing) are always present and listening on some level. If a person consciously wants help for their anxiety, the subconscious mind will go along with it.

It’s a bit like a coffee cup being filled to the top and then continuing to be filled even though it’s overflowing. The extra coffee has to go somewhere so it spills out of the cup because the cup can’t hold anymore. When this happens, our body often shows signs of this overflow by getting sick or experiencing pain that can’t be explained.

Our excessive anxiety can overflow from our minds taking over a vulnerable part of the body causing a variety of issues such as migraines or back pain. Many times the painful conditions people have which doctors aren’t able to diagnose or find an origin for are caused by our minds not being able to contain any more perceived stress or anxiety.

In a sense the brain tries to relieve some of the burden by letting it overflow to the body. The pain or illness then becomes a distraction so that the person can avoid dealing with a difficult emotional issue. In many cases, a person becomes so ill that they have to take a significant break from their daily lives in order to heal or get better.

Oftentimes people are suffering from high levels of stress and anxiety which can include, insomnia, headaches, stomach pain with no medical diagnosis, fears or phobias, nail biting, PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder).

You may even be experiencing situational stress and just need realignment to get back to your normal carefree self. Hypnotherapy is a drug/medication free approach to physical and psychological well being.

Please keep in mind that everyone is different, results and length of therapy varies for each individual.