How Can Hypnotherapy Help Your Mental Health?

Hypnotherapy is a great tool that can be used to help:

• Relaxation
• Sleeplessness
• Anxiety, fear, nerves and panic
• Phobias, OCD and irrational beliefs
• Depression and low mood
• Anger and aggression
• Pain management
• Confidence and self esteem
• Stopping destructive behaviours and habits, like smoking or biting nails
• Eating disorders
• Trauma
• Visualisation and motivation

Hypnotherapy has been described as a form of guided meditation. In order to get you into a hypnotic state you will be made to relax. Many people find this hard to do. Therefore being taught how to completely relax can sometimes be a new skill for some people. This new skill can therefore be invaluable to help people get to sleep and stay asleep. There are many apps on the market currently using hypnotherapy to help you sleep.

As it has relaxation at the heart, hypnotherapy is also fantastic to help with anxiety and fear. Visualizations of worries floating away and you able to deal with stressful situations, as well as breathing techniques and muscle relaxation are all used to help you gain control of your anxiety. Teaching you invaluable coping strategies and giving you the drive to reach your goal of being free of your anxieties and fears.

Hypnotherapy is fantastic for phobias, compulsive behaviours and intrusive thoughts. These often have no logical reason for being there. Often the subconscious holds the key to breaking and removing these destructive thoughts and behaviours as it holds all of our memories. There could be a past event (which you may not even remember) that causes you to think or act in a certain way. Your mind could have reached a conclusion when you were younger, which is no longer applicable but that still effects your thoughts and behaviour. You could have developed a defence or coping strategy, which you no longer want or need. All of these can be dealt with through hypnotherapy. 

Habits are all run by the subconscious, as we do them automatically without thinking. Therefore, by going directly to the source, to the subconscious through hypnotherapy, habits can be changed easily. Hypnotherapy is therefore great to break destructive habits like smoking, overeating and nail biting. It is also fantastic for starting new habits like eating healthily, exercising more, or successfully doing a presentation.

As the subconscious is also where our beliefs are stored, hypnotherapy is also incredibly effective with changing self-confidence and limiting beliefs. We have all developed limiting beliefs over time, like I am not good enough, or people cannot be trusted. These beliefs can then affect our thoughts, emotions and behaviours and can lead to mental health issues. These beliefs can be challenged, changed, replaced or deleted through hypnotherapy.

Pain is controlled by our nervous system, the brain. It therefore stands to reason that we can change our pain by changing our mindset and our beliefs about ourselves. Visualisation can also be used to ‘turn down’ our pain and increase our pain tolerance. Hypnotherapy has been used in childbirth for years. It is also increasingly used in dentistry, and pain management.

As visualisation is used in hypnotherapy, it is also great for goal setting and motivation. Top athletes often use hypnotherapy to help them perform at their best and win medals by visualising themselves succeeding. 

Recordings of hypnotherapy sessions are also often given to clients to help to reinforce the changes. Habits are formed through repetition and so recordings provide this.

You can also be taught to hypnotise yourself. Self-hypnosis techniques are particularly useful with anxiety and pain.

For more information, or just a chat, please contact me on 07742 209312 or nicole@greenoaktherapies.co.uk