How hypnotherapy can help you cope with fading friendships

What’s the worst thing about a fading friendship? Is it the weird feelings of uncertainty? The loss of connection? Or is it the gradual disintegration of a bond that seemed so powerful once upon a time? A relationship that was once so important disappearing without a fight, without so much as a word of acknowledgement?

Friendships always seemed to happen much more easily when we were children, have you noticed that? Going through primary and secondary school, college and university or apprenticeships seem to be the unofficial ‘friend-making years’. Somehow after that, we tend to gain colleagues and ‘work friends’. This makes our friendships all the more precious and it makes fading friendships all the more devastating. 

There’s a heavy emotional impact when close friendships fall away and you can be affected in a number of ways. Feelings of loneliness, confusion and self-doubt are common responses. You might question if it was something that you did or said, or didn’t do. You might resent them for leaving you behind and breaking the bonds that lasted for such a long time. Sometimes, however, friendships just fade naturally as you and your friends embark on your personal life journeys which lead you all in separate directions. 

Hypnotherapy is a powerful tool which offers a way to process your emotions from a place of safety so that you can heal and regain your confidence. 

Unlike breakups, the loss of a friendship often isn’t as clear-cut. It isn’t defined by a final conversation or declaration, a definitive goodbye or the closing of a door (metaphorically and literally). It’s usually a gradual waning with awkward moments where you don’t know what to say or do. The dissolving of the friendship is in itself a process and you may find that feelings of rejection, confusion or abandonment come bubbling to the surface as the cracks begin to show.

The emotions you go through with the loss of a friendship are as blurry as the loss itself and hypnotherapy can help you to define your deep-seated feelings tied to the end of that relationship. Understanding how you’re feeling, your thought processes and your behaviours is a powerful step in regaining control and choosing how to respond to the situation. Hypnotherapy will help you to recognise and release the deep-seated emotions connected to the loss. 

The loss of a friendship, particularly one that has been important throughout major moments in your life, is easily internalised. You can get caught in negative thought patterns, which can spiral as you look for what went wrong, what drove them away, and how you grew apart.

Hypnotherapy can help you to adapt your mindset, exchanging negative thought patterns and replacing them with self-compassion, deeper understanding and acceptance whilst improving your self-worth. The shifting of your mindset will allow you to view the change in relationship to other perspectives so you can let go of self-blame.

Often the unclear, gradual decline of the relationship is the hardest part to understand. Without a clear ending, you feel as though you have been simply left in limbo. It’s true that some friendships fade without a conversation, close friends may go down to a yearly birthday message or nothing at all and that can leave a lot of questions unanswered. It robs you of closure. Hypnotherapy guides you through visualisation exercises which will create inner closure. This is about accepting what is and coming to terms with that as being your closure so that you can move forward.

Just as your friendship once gave you a sense of safety and inclusion, the loss leaves you feeling unsure of where you belong. Whether that’s within a wider group, a meeting place or even a WhatsApp group, the dynamics change in every aspect connected with that friendship and you can feel as though you’ve lost the road somehow.

Hypnotherapy reconnects you with your core values and your unique identity beyond the friendship. Remember that you are not defined by the friendship, you are whole within yourself. As you rediscover your values, you can rebuild your social confidence and deepen bonds existing elsewhere or establish new connections and social circles.

Hypnotherapy can help you remove subconscious blocks about making new friends. Instead of feeling as though you can only make friends up until a certain age or in specific situations, imagine not having those beliefs. Imagine meeting new people with shared interests and being open to new friendships. Using personalised tools and techniques, you can learn to deeply visualise attracting healthy friendships that align with your values. Hypnotherapy will help you to shift your mindset from ‘I‘m losing my friends’ and ‘I’m being left behind’ to a more abundant perspective such as ‘I’m open to new connections and opportunities to make new friends’.

Losing a friendship is painful and brings up a lot of difficult emotions but it doesn’t define you or your worth. 

Use hypnotherapy to help understand, heal, rebuild confidence and recognise opportunities for new and fulfilling friendships. Discover the power to form deep and meaningful connections – starting with yourself.