How does hypnotherapy decrease anxiety?

Hypnotherapy is a process of reprogramming patterns in the mind to alter our behaviour, reactions and thoughts. To do this, we need to shut out the mental noise to allow the subconscious to be fully accessed. This is how hypnotherapy works: to shut out the mental noise through a state of deep relaxation, so that the subconscious can be accessed and patterns, therefore, changed. 

Hypnotherapy can be very successful in decreasing anxieties, but how does this work?

First, the physical body will be brought into a state of deep relaxation, giving the nervous system important moments to step out of fight, flight or freeze mode. This allows the nerves, fibres and cells of the body to find their own natural state and the muscles to dissipate tension from general movement from the day.

It is through this relaxation that the body can counteract the physical symptoms of anxiety, such as a racing heart, tense muscles, and fast and shallow breathing. Right from the start, the conscious and subconscious mind both start to create new patterns of how the body physiologically responds to our own thoughts and external life. The nervous system is given these calm moments to start to understand new automatic responses. 

Once the body is relaxed, and the flight, flight, freeze system is calm, the subconscious can be more easily accessed. Hypnotherapy is very passive. It provides you with time to go into your internal world, to learn more about yourself. It gives you time where you are not distracted by anyone else, to challenge the negative thought and behaviour patterns that are a result of anxiety. It may be that these have been around since childhood, or for the last few days. You could know the exact trauma or event that caused the anxiety, or you may not. Hypnotherapy gives an opportunity to explore this all in a safe space, it gives you time to explore and understand. 

This then helps you to be able to regulate the emotions, thoughts and feelings in a way that suits you. We are all individuals, we have different needs and have different ways of coping and dealing with anxieties. The relaxed state of hypnosis gives the gift of time to be able to try out what works best for you in terms of emotional regulation. There will be various techniques to explore this.

Visualisations are used of the past and future self, visualisations of guided imagery, positive suggestions and mantras that act as anchors to the subconscious mind. The visualisations of the past and future self, for example, could be that the therapist guides you to picture yourself in your mind as you are on that day, then go back and see yourself six months before, perhaps during a moment of high anxiety. There would then be a visualisation where you see yourself in six months time, but only see yourself acting out how, in an ideal world, you are living.

Seeing your most preferred reactions and behaviours, seeing yourself going about daily activities like this, is key. This imagery will go towards recreating patterns using imagery to the subconscious and will partner with the conscious mind in between sessions. These kinds of techniques bring the conscious mind, the subconscious mind, the nervous system and the physical body together to go forward into the changes you want to make. 

Hypnotherapy provides a safe space to introduce some of the anxiety-provoking thoughts or triggers and an opportunity for you to explore how that feels, where you can feel it, and what can be done to reduce, diffuse, and manage the emotional and physical sensations. This makes the mind more desensitised to the environments and triggers that could have previously caused a severe physical reaction. 

Stress management is part of hypnotherapy. Self-hypnosis techniques are taught to be able to reduce the impact of stressful situations on your physical body and emotional responses. Grounding techniques are also used for this; for example, breathing techniques such as ‘box breathing’ can be practised during hypnosis and also practised consciously. This, alongside the guided imagery and various grounding techniques, allows the logical part of the mind to be accessed before it is flooded with adrenaline.

There are many different techniques that can be used, and your therapist will work with you to find the best ones for you. There will be a clear plan put into place so that you feel supported throughout.