Fiyaz Mughal

Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy for Anxiety and Phobias

You may have experienced anxiety for a relatively short period of time, or it may have been part of your life for many years. Either way, anxiety and phobias can gradually begin to affect your work, relationships, social life, confidence and emotional well-being.

I know how anxiety can bring up a powerful feeling of being out of control. It can create a sense that something catastrophic, frightening or overwhelming is just around the corner. Over time, we can become increasingly alert to possible threats — within our environment, within our thoughts and even within the sensations of our own bodies.

This is one of the reasons why I believe it is so important to seek support when anxiety or a phobia starts restricting your life.

My Approach: Combining Hypnotherapy with CBT

I am a qualified Counsellor and Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapist, and my approach to hypnotherapy is grounded in psychological and Cognitive Behavioural principles.

Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy brings together elements of modern hypnosis and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). Rather than seeing these as completely separate approaches, I use them alongside each other, depending upon the individual needs of the person I am working with.

This is important because anxiety is not simply about what we consciously think.

It can involve our thoughts, attention, imagination, emotions, physical sensations and behaviours — particularly the things we have gradually learnt to avoid because they make us anxious.

Modern Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy therefore moves away from some of the myths surrounding hypnosis. You are not simply “put under”, made unconscious or deprived of control. Hypnosis can instead be understood as involving focused attention, imagination and suggestion, which can be used therapeutically to help someone rehearse and experience different ways of thinking, feeling and responding.

Within this framework, I may combine hypnotherapy with cognitive restructuring, behavioural techniques, exposure and desensitisation, relaxation, breathing techniques, mindfulness, imagery, assertiveness work and psychoeducation.

The aim is not simply to make you feel relaxed for an hour. It is to help you develop skills and experiences that you can take back into your everyday life.

Understanding What Keeps Anxiety Going

An important part of my work is understanding what may be maintaining the anxiety or phobia today.

For example, when we become frightened of something, our natural response can be to avoid it.

If you fear flying, you may stop flying.

If you fear public speaking, you may turn down opportunities to speak.

If travelling on trains or buses makes you anxious, you may increasingly use other forms of transport.

And if you have a fear of needles, you may delay medical appointments or become highly anxious in anticipation of them.

Avoidance can bring enormous short-term relief. Yet that relief can sometimes reinforce the message within us that the situation really was dangerous and that avoidance kept us safe.

This is where CBT and hypnotherapy can work particularly well together. CBT can help us identify the thoughts, predictions, behaviours and avoidance patterns maintaining anxiety. Hypnotherapy can then bring in focused attention, suggestion and imaginative rehearsal to help us practise and strengthen alternative responses.

We can therefore work both with what you think and with how you experience the fear.

Working with the Imagination Rather Than Against It

One of the most interesting aspects of anxiety is the power of the imagination. An anxious mind can become extremely good at mentally rehearsing what might go wrong.

What if I panic on the plane?

What if I freeze when I give my speech?

What if I cannot get off the train?

What if I faint when I see the needle?

The imagined event can become so vivid that the body begins responding as though the danger is already happening.

Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy provides an opportunity to use some of these same capacities — attention, imagination, rehearsal and expectation — in a more helpful direction. Rather than repeatedly rehearsing catastrophe, we can begin practising different possibilities and responses.

Anxiety Has a Protective Purpose

I also believe it is important not to treat anxiety as though it is simply an enemy that needs to be eliminated.

Anxiety has a protective function. In appropriate circumstances, it makes us alert, prepares our bodies to respond and helps us deal with challenge or danger.

The difficulty comes when that protective system becomes over-sensitive and begins responding strongly to situations which may not present the level of danger that our mind and body predict.

There can be many reasons why this happens.

Perhaps anxiety developed following a frightening experience. Perhaps shame or a loss of confidence became involved. Perhaps you grew up with a parent or caregiver who was themselves highly anxious, fearful or phobic and who understandably tried to protect you by restricting certain activities.

Or perhaps you gradually developed a perception that the world is more dangerous, unpredictable or overwhelming than it actually is.

Whatever the pathway into anxiety, there can also be a pathway forward.

Phobias Can Restrict Far More Than the Thing We Fear

Clients regularly tell me that phobias such as a fear of flying, travelling on public transport, needles and injections, or public speaking have held them back personally and professionally.

What can be particularly painful is the effect this has on someone's sense of themselves.

People sometimes tell themselves:

"Why can't I just do this?"

"Everyone else seems able to cope."

"There must be something wrong with me."

Those thoughts can gradually erode self-confidence.

I understand this. I hear it, and I believe these experiences need to be recognised rather than dismissed.

A phobia is not a measure of your strength, intelligence or capability. It is a learned fear response — and therapeutic work can help us understand, challenge and begin changing that response.

How I Work?

I have worked with hundreds of clients experiencing anxiety conditions and phobias. Before developing my therapeutic practice, I spent over 25 years working with a diverse range of communities through national community engagement work. Those experiences have deeply shaped the way that I work with people.

My therapeutic approach can include Cognitive Behavioural techniques, hypnotherapy, psychoeducation, breathing and relaxation work, mindfulness, exposure and desensitisation, cognitive challenge, imagery and rehearsal, assertiveness techniques and reflective therapeutic work.

I do not believe in simply applying the same hypnotherapy script to every person. Your anxiety has developed within your experiences, your beliefs, your relationships and your understanding of yourself and the world around you.

Therapy therefore needs to be collaborative and responsive to you.

What Clients Have Said?

"Fiyaz's holistic approach incorporates a range of therapeutic styles to suit my changing needs, utilising traditional tools alongside a tailored, flexible and personable approach. All this combined with his naturally open and generous energy has been invaluable in guiding me through a period of life-affirming introspection, discovery and development."
Client S.Z, (March 2026)

"Working with Fiyaz has been a completely life-changing experience. When I first came to him, I was struggling with severe anxiety, panic attacks, a flying phobia, and agoraphobia, and I had no idea how many deeper layers were actually affecting me. Throughout our sessions, he helped me unpack many aspects I wasn't even aware of, gently guiding me to understand where my fears came from and how they were showing up in my day-to-day life..."
Client L.M, (June 2026)

Areas I Can Help With

I specialise in working with anxiety conditions, panic attacks and phobias, including:

Fear of flying
Fear of public speaking and giving speeches
Fear of travelling on public transport
Fear of needles and injections (trypanophobia)
Anxiety and panic
Avoidance behaviours
Loss of confidence connected with anxiety and phobias

You can read more about me here:

https://counselling4anxiety.com/#who-am-i

Read more about my work on treating fears around flying:

https://counselling4anxiety.com/fear-of-flying/

Read more about my work on treating fears of giving public speeches or talks:

https://counselling4anxiety.com/fear-of-public-speaking/

Read more about my work on treating fears of travelling on public transport:

https://counselling4anxiety.com/fear-of-public-transport/

Finally, read more about my work on treating a fear of needles or injections:

https://counselling4anxiety.com/overcoming-a-fear-of-needles/

There Is a Way Forward You do not have to organise your life around anxiety or a phobia.

My aim through Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy and counselling is not simply to tell you to “stop worrying” or to make your anxiety disappear.

Instead, we can work together to understand what is driving and maintaining the fear, recognise how your mind and body have learnt to respond to it, and gradually develop and rehearse different ways of responding.

It is about helping you regain a greater sense of choice, confidence and control.

Your mental and emotional well-being matters. That is why I feel passionately about my work as a qualified practising Counsellor and Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapist.

Sometimes the first stage in loosening anxiety's hold is simply making contact and beginning the conversation.

Other areas I work with

Although I specialise in anxiety conditions, panic and phobias, I believe that anxiety rarely exists neatly on its own. We are complex human beings, shaped by our experiences, relationships, families, identities and the environments in which we have lived.

For this reason, my therapeutic work also explores some of the deeper issues that may sit alongside anxiety.

I work with people experiencing stress, low self-confidence, low self-esteem, shame, trauma, difficulties around identity and belonging, and a loss of their sense of self. Sometimes clients come to me because they simply feel stuck. They may outwardly be functioning well, yet internally feel that something is holding them back from living the life they want.

I am particularly interested in our sense of self and the stories that we develop about who we are. How we view ourselves matters.

Critical experiences in childhood, difficult family relationships, bullying, rejection, discrimination, shame or repeatedly being made to feel that we are somehow "not good enough" can leave emotional footprints. Over time, these experiences can influence our confidence, relationships and the way that we interpret ourselves and the world around us.

My approach is therefore not about simply treating a symptom. I want to understand you as a person and what has happened in your life.

My background in Integrative Humanistic Counselling means that I bring a person-centred and empathic approach to this work. Alongside this, my training in Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy and neuroscience allows me to draw upon CBT, hypnotherapy, psychoeducation, relaxation, imagery, mindfulness, cognitive techniques and practical strategies where these may be helpful.

I also work with people from a wide range of cultural, faith and community backgrounds. Having spent more than 25 years working with diverse communities, I understand that identity, culture, family expectations, faith and belonging can be important parts of someone's emotional world. Therapy should provide a space where these parts of you can be explored rather than judged or overlooked.

Above all, I believe in creating a therapeutic relationship where you can feel heard, respected and emotionally safe.

Whether you are struggling with anxiety, confidence, identity, shame, stress or experiences from your past, our work can be about understanding what has shaped you while also asking an equally important question:

Where do you want your life to go from here?

• People who are registered students are charged a lower fee of £70.
• Pensioners over the age of 65, will be charged £70 per session.
• Six sessions paid upfront in a single payment will receive a 10% discount.

Client Testimonials:

"Fiyaz's holistic approach incorporates a range of therapeutic styles to suit my changing needs, utilising traditional tools alongside a tailored, flexible and personable approach. All this combined with his naturally open and generous energy has been invaluable in guiding me through a period of life-affirming introspection, discovery and development."
Client S.Z, (March 2026)

"Working with Fiyaz has been a completely life-changing experience. When I first came to him, I was struggling with severe anxiety, panic attacks, a flying phobia, and agoraphobia, and I had no idea how many deeper layers were actually affecting me. Throughout our sessions, he helped me unpack many aspects I wasn't even aware of, gently guiding me to understand where my fears came from and how they were showing up in my day-to-day life..."
Client L.M, (June 2026)

"I feel like we found a lot of clarity in that session. I also feel a lot more confident about my ability to handle my thoughts and feelings in discovering and tolerating any hypothetically potentially upsetting realities that I would otherwise be burdened by."
Client N. (April 2024)

"Thank you so much for your support over our time together, it's really helped lift me up during a number of hard times and brought a new perspective into my life and thinking which I will always be grateful for."
Client J. (January 2024)

"I had a fear of flying and the work with Fiyaz gave me the courage and the ability to get on my first flight after many years. His style of therapy, his knowledge and his work really allowed me to open up with my fears and phobias". 
Client P. (April 2024)

"I have not been able to get my bloods checked for over 3 years and whenever I book something, I just back out. I also had real problems with getting the Covid-19 jabs. It took me many goes to get two of the vaccines, but the anxiety and the build up to the injections literally drove me to the edge. The scale of my anxiety went off the scale and I kept seeing needles as images in my mind and kept re-enforcing my fears. This is why I believe specialists who work on anxiety and specifically on this condition, are so needed. My work with Fiyaz on my fear of needles and injections has made a real difference.” 
Client B. (March 2024)