Why anxiety can return after therapy

When I first started working with hypnotherapy clients with anxiety and related disorders, I realised two things immediately. Firstly, their condition went much deeper than could be fixed in a single session, and secondly, even knowing that, I wanted them to leave my office with something that could help them immediately, as I was very aware of their suffering.

So, my approach to helping people with anxiety became a two-pronged approach. I use psychoeducation and mindfulness tools to help them, in the short term, cope with and manage their anxiety on a day-to-day basis, so that they leave my office after that first session with a sense of hope and belief that there is light at the end of the tunnel. It gives them the sense that they can do something themselves immediately to improve their condition.

A series of hypnotherapy sessions are then used to look at and reframe the historical patterns and beliefs as to why the anxiety emerged in the first place, each session building on the previous one, a journey that naturally gives them increased levels of awareness and inner-standing.

“He who completes a quest does not merely find something, he becomes something.”

- Lev Grossman, The Magician King

It’s human nature to want immediate results, especially when you’ve suffered from something for such a long time, and this is what the psychoeducation and mindfulness tools provide: they give the client a feeling that they have an immediate solution, whilst we go on the longer ‘quest’ to uncover the what, the why and the how of their problems.

The therapeutic journey you go on with a client increases their self-awareness, which acts much like a bright spotlight, making the ‘unconscious conscious’ as Carl Jung said, and often this self-awareness is enough to release the grip of the behaviour, habit or pattern that has held them prisoner for years, but sometimes it is not enough alone and the anxiety returns.

When self-awareness is not enough

As hypnotherapy is still seen by society as a more alternative approach to mental health, it's often one of the last approaches people try, sometimes after other forms of support haven't given them the outcome they were hoping for.

For example, I worked with a client who suffered from anxiety and panic relating to tunnels and bridges, which had been instilled after a traumatic experience on a zipline. He had done all sorts of talking therapy, such as CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy), which had helped for a short while, but his symptoms kept returning soon after therapy finished. Wanting to explore a different approach, he decided to try hypnotherapy.

After six sessions, he could drive across bridges, take flights, and face potential triggers with calm acceptance. Regular exposure played an important role in his progress, while hypnotherapy helped reframe the subconscious beliefs linked to the original triggering experience, strengthening his self-confidence and new self-image.

What I’ve heard with many clients is that they understand the therapist’s explanations of their issues and how to resolve them whilst in the therapy room, and they leave the session feeling like a shift has taken place, but then a day or so passes, and they feel themselves slipping back into old patterns and behaviours, which then begins to instil the belief in them that they are broken and their problem can’t be fixed.

If you don't believe change is possible, then it will not be. This is why installing the belief that change is possible from the start is key, using psychoeducation, rapport building and mindfulness tools to build that foundational awareness.

If a client has been suffering from their condition for many years, the seeds of which were sown in childhood, then there will be a good deal of story that needs to be untangled. An approach that combines logical understanding with an exploration of these historical issues can be a really transformative one.

It's good to talk, but...

I am obviously a huge fan of talking therapy as a counsellor, and as talking therapy forms 50-60% of a session with a hypnotherapy client, talking brings information to the surface, providing insight and clarity.

Talking alone is a powerful tool for someone to offload personal information that they have been carrying for a long time and that they may not have spoken about; it releases thought-formed energy and encourages it to start moving through them again. This is essential at the start of the therapeutic process, especially for a therapist whilst you formulate the client’s case, building an overview of their problems, who they are, and how they see the world.

But talking alone can sometimes feed a story, a story of identification that keeps the client circling the same way of thinking. Some clients report feeling that they are going around in circles and are no closer to finding a solution, and it takes a good therapist to help them find a way through it.

This is where hypnotherapy, as a complementary form of therapy, can play an important role, working alongside the mental stories that are blocking the client's progress and offering a new approach at the level of the subconscious control room.

The power of hypnotherapy

The subconscious mind is the control room. It is in charge of all the autonomic thoughts, beliefs, patterns and behaviours that sit in the background like little software programs that you are not consciously aware of but that shape how you perceive people, places and things, the language you use and the way you communicate with the world around you.

Sometimes these little programs were installed a long time ago, often through challenging experiences as a child when your view of the world was forming or through traumatic experiences as an adult, and so your future becomes shaped by the experiences of the past.

These programs have become ‘part of the furniture,’ so interwoven into your story they become difficult to release, and they prevent you from gaining full access to the control room (subconscious mind) where the final decisions are made.

Hypnosis allows you to bypass these little programs, accessing the subconscious directly, speaking with it, reasoning with it and providing it with a new, more beneficial way of thinking and acting.

The control room can then let go of or update these autonomic programs that have been holding you back with new, more beneficial ones, so that you can finally move forward in your life again with a fresh and new perspective.

Talking therapy before hypnosis helps the client to gain awareness of the little programs in the background, bringing information to the surface that they may not have been aware of before, whilst the hypnosis part uses that new information to speak with the subconscious, reframing the old perceptions into new ones.

After working with many clients experiencing anxiety and related disorders, psychoeducation and mindfulness combined with hypnotherapy provide a really powerful tool for creating long-term sustainable change.