Anxiety is a a very natural and human, usually short term reaction to a situation of stress or nervousness.

Sometimes however, we need a little help to break a patter of response we might have developed to anxiety causing situations. For example, nervousness about meeting new meeting, presenting at a meeting, or it could be a nervousness about a lack of control over a situation, someone or something, concern about a possible bad outcome.

This feeling of anxiousness can even feel like it has taken over your body and mind. Possibly causing your brain to go blank, body to freeze, nausea, sweating or heart racing.

The good news is, you can retrain your brain to have new response patterns. Responses that you control and choose. Hypnotherapy has been found to be an effective therapy that helps break unhelpful thought patterns and create new ones that help you do the things you want to do and be the person you want to be.

Articles and research on hypnosis for treating anxieties:

• Valentine KE, et al. 2019. The efficacy of hypnosis as a treatment for anxiety: A meta-analysis. Int J Clin Exp Hypn. 2019 Jul-Sep;67(3):336-363. doi: 10.1080/00207144.2019.1613863.

Is there something in your life causes you to be fearful - so much so that avoiding it is getting in the way of enjoying your life, being with friends and family or your own personal or professional development?

Phobias can take on so many different forms from a fear of flying, spider phobias, a fear of mice or rats, fear of heights, fear of public speaking, fear of dogs, a vomit phobia, or maybe even a fear of driving. Fears are very individual and can develop based on a combination of unique circumstances.

In a few short sessions, hypnosis is able to break the fear patterns you have been running and reliant on and help you to create new associations, regain control over your response choices. You can start living a life again where you know you can control your fears, instead of your fears controlling you.

Articles and research on hypnosis for treating phobias and fears:

• Needle fears and phobia, 2022. Acccesed at: https://www.cdc.gov/childrensmentalhealth/features/needle-fears-and-phobia.html

• Ulrike Halsband & Thomas Gerhard Wolf. 2019. Functional Changes in Brain Activity After Hypnosis: Neurobiological Mechanisms and Application to Patients with a Specific Phobia—Limitations and Future Directions, International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 67:4, 449-474, DOI: 10.1080/00207144.2019.1650551

• Hypnotherapy ended my fear of spiders .2021. The Healthy. Accessed at https://www.thehealthy.com/heart-disease/hypnotherapy-fear-of-spiders/

How much influence does what you think others might think about you have on your actions, mood and confidence?

There is one thing for certain in life. We will always be in situations where we face the potential for judgement, criticism and feedback.

Seeking and using constructive feedback is a good thing when done in the right way. However, some of us a very good at projecting or predicting potential catastrophic, or judgemental reactions of others before we have even done anything. For example the a person who avoids public speaking or sharing their opinion at work and it has held them back from progressing further.

Examples could be:

• a person who avoids public speaking or sharing their opinion at work and it has held them back from progressing further.

• parents who are trying to be “super mum” or “super dad” because of what they think their parent peers or grandparents think a good parent should be.

• someone who procrastinates endlessly rather than starting work because they are worried their test scores, or project might not be received well by others.

As you can imagine, this fear prevents people from moving forward in their career or personal development. It can also strain family relationships, and create stress on friendships

Hypnotherapy can be a great support tool to build confidence and resilience to judgement from others, to gain perspective about what is important to listen to and what you can “turn the volume down” on.