Health anxiety: The road to recovery with hypnosis - client story

Over several sessions, I worked with one of my clients, who consented I could loosely share their experiences dealing with their struggles with health anxiety. Our first meeting focused on indecision and lack of confidence, the areas of concern under which they booked the sessions. Finding the client's example of indecision and lack of confidence always seems to link to their health, which was an early indicator of the journey that followed.

The client's story

In the calm space of the therapy room, the client was encouraged to tell their story, which was undefined and more exploratory under the general theme of struggling to see the doctor. They were convinced something was wrong with them, convinced to keep searching for answers and explanations, but not convinced they should see a doctor. What complicated this delicate balancing act of perpetual self-diagnosis was that the observations were sometimes variable. On days they had committed to making a doctor's appointment, they seemed to be symptom-free, and the cycle repeated. Usually, symptoms seemed to peak at night, with the option of searching more on the internet or going to A&E.

The client told me they began to keep a 'Well-being health diary', which they eventually used to compile a list of symptoms for the doctor, whom they ultimately went to see when their level of health paranoia had particularly peaked.

The outcome of the clinical assessment and tests was the education on the impact of stress anxiety on the body, after concluding that all the clinical tests raised no flags of concern.

I could sense hesitation surrounding the whole experience despite what some might consider a clean bill of health. How someone books into therapy with one concern, which ends up being something else, is an occupational hazard, and this is often when the real work begins on change. We worked on our agreed stress management objectives for the rest of the session.

I asked the client if they could bring their observation diary to the next session. I saw a gap, to begin working on the hot topic of health at the next appointment, but it needed to be approached in stages. As the focus of our sessions was not yet on health, there was no resistance or query to my suggestion. 

At the next session, the log turned out to be a piece of paper folded several times and worn in a way that indicated it had travelled far and wide with the author. It contained dates against each note, written in different-coloured ink and even pencil.

We continued the session. Towards the midway point, I asked my clients to take out their phone, open the email app, and click on the sent folder. I then asked them to manually scroll back through their history of sent emails. When I said stop, I asked them the date of the email under their thumb. We did this several cycles without explanation. I asked my clients what was happening that week and what appeared to them to be a random point in the past.

They skipped past the promotional emails to find one email they had written to someone to rearrange a meeting they had earlier planned. Further discussion: They recalled the week they played tennis for the first time in 10 years.

I rephrased the observation log I had viewed 40 minutes earlier with a question about the sports activity and its effect on the client's body after a long period of inactivity. This approach was risky, as the client may have felt they were being tricked, questioned, or not believed, but at this stage in the therapeutic relationship, I knew my client well. I knew their analytical curiosity would kick in.

They asked for the log on the table to see what they recorded that week before answering the question; the question and the diary created an immediate emotional response.

Was my muscle strain inferred question readily accepted? No!

My client began to inquire how muscle strain presents itself, thinking I was qualified to provide a reasonable answer. ‘Is it something with a delay found in one location that seems to move?’ they continued. Implying a more complex presentation than the one written on the paper, I was not there to judge or point out the discrepancy from what I recalled had been written.

To close the client's story, this began a journey that touched on many facets of modern living, including loneliness and isolation in a city. My client lacked human contact with whom they could share their concerns or someone to add that balance to their thinking. We developed a set of tools and strategies and a plan to get my client to connect with like-minded analytics.

I could have sat there researching sports injuries for a few minutes to answer the client's logical question about muscle strain physiology. However, I chose to refer the client's concerns to a physiotherapist, which resonated well with my client and evoked a smile. I was starting to tap into my client's analytical mindset and the need for quality data, and this became the foundation for one of the first areas of suggestion provided to the client under hypnosis.

Using hypnosis to change automatic responses and behaviours

"Why do we draw negative and sometimes extreme conclusions when there could be a rational explanation? Why would someone avoid seeing the doctor, where a check and possible referral would help them gain closure or action on their health concerns?"

In the therapy chair, I use several tools to assist clients in readjusting their approach to life. When the consequences of inaction relate to health, the focus is always on getting them to make the right decision quickly and execute it.

These strategies are effective because they work towards changing our automatic reactions and behaviour in certain situations.

I use hypnosis to transform these automated processes by addressing cognitive, behavioural, and emotional ‘unhelpful’ responses and replacing them with more adaptive and rational alternatives.

When we avoid the doctor, it is often due to deep-seated fears reinforced by past experiences, anxious thought patterns, or even a general lack of confidence in making decisions. Through hypnosis, we can work towards programming a new set of health-adaptive responses, allowing for a calmer and more rational decision-making process regarding health.

Cognitive distortion and cognitive behavioural hypnotherapy

The client catastrophised the data they were collecting at one extreme while discounting and disregarding data that conflicted with their worldview at the other. We call this cognitive distortion, one of the areas in which cognitive behavioural hypnotherapy is good at working towards resolving.

Let's break this down: a distortion implies a misrepresentation of what something is. Imagine you wear glasses where the lenses distort your worldview. Let's say these glasses have a colour spectrum filter. When you shop for fruit, the apples do not look fresh, and the lemons look like they have been painted with a preservative. Your emotional response is to avoid these items. You take the glasses off, and you can reappraise the situation and make your purchase without fear. 

Cognitive distortion similarly skews our thinking, often at a level beyond our awareness. We may automatically interpret situations with a bias that distorts reality. This process is usually embedded in how ‘my’ truth is ‘the truth’ and will be defended even in the face of logic or evidence.

In my client's case, what seemed like a long series of unrelated notes to the outsider was a continuum of the same health issue in their reality. Logic dictated that some items on the list looked unrelated. When we introduced the idea of real-life activity into the equation, the continuum started to look questionable in parts.

Should my client have erased the sports injury? But then, how would they explain the gap in the data? We hold on to what matches our core beliefs. 

Through hypnosis, we can access the full spectrum of our thinking, from conscious awareness to what we might label our subconscious thought patterns, automatic thinking, rules, and core beliefs. We can employ our imagination to replace maladaptive behaviours with healthier choices.

Cognitive behavioural hypnotherapy (CBH) helps individuals identify the fundamental beliefs and emotional responses that lead to hesitation while supplying strategies for change. By integrating hypnotic techniques with cognitive restructuring, clients can shift from avoidance to more assertive health decisions with enhanced clarity and confidence. If anxiety or doubt is making you delay a doctor's visit, CBH offers a structured method to promote decisive action.