Hypnotherapy for Anxiety

Anxiety disorders have doubled in the last 30 years in England. But only one in four people with anxiety ever seek help. It doesn’t need to be this way.

If you have experienced it, you know that anxiety can feel very unpleasant and even overwhelming. You may feel like you are always on edge or have a racing mind that never settles. It can manifest as general discomfort, worry, fear, or dread, often without a clear cause. Physically, you might experience shortness of breath, rapid heart rate, muscle tension, and stomach problems. When it becomes chronic, it can interfere with your wellbeing.

Anxiety is different from stress. Stress usually has a source — a deadline, a difficult situation, something external. Anxiety often doesn't. It feels like it just lives inside you. And because you don't always know where it comes from, it can feel impossible to shift. That's exactly why working with the subconscious is so powerful for anxiety.

Hypnotherapy works on the physiological and psychological levels.

First, hypnosis guides you into a deeply relaxed state, which in itself begins to calm the nervous system — your body's fight, flight or freeze response. The physical benefits are real.

One literature review examining 49 studies from around the globe showed that hypnosis consistently reduces sympathetic nervous system activity (responsible for the ‘fight or flight’ response) and enhances parasympathetic tone. The review also found immediate, measurable effects on ANS markers such as heart rate, electrodermal activity, respiratory rate, and even blood pressure during hypnotic suggestions of relaxation.

And while you are in a lovely relaxed trance state, we can gently start to find the root of the anxiety, reframe patterns, and teach your mind new responses. Here’s how it can help:

• Reframe your situation — see challenges from a new, empowering perspective.

  
  

• Mentally rehearse the future — through guided visualisation, you can practise success and calm responses in triggering situations.

  
  

• Desensitisation — while in a safe and emotional comfortable state in hypnosis you can visualise anxiety-inducing situations in small steps until they lose their hold on you.

  
  

• Dismantle negative beliefs — gently replace them with positive, supportive ones.

  
  

• Activate your inner strengths — bring your positive resource states to the surface when you need them most, including your experiences, skills, knowledge and character traits.

  
  

• Restore calm — hypnotherapy works on both the mind and body, promoting deep relaxation and switching off the fight-or-flight response.

Research shows that hypnotherapy can be an effective tool for managing anxiety. One meta-analysis found that “the average participant treated with hypnosis improved more than about 84% of control participants”. That analysis found that hypnosis was about as effective in alleviating anxiety as CBT and psychodynamic psychotherapy and possibly more effective than mindfulness.

Many people find that hypnotherapy helps them regain control, reduce anxiety, and restore balance in their lives. You don’t have to live with anxiety — relief is possible.

Please get in touch if you’d like to discuss how hypnotherapy can help you.

References

Valentine, K. E., Milling, L. S., Clark, L. J., & Moriarty, C. L. (2019). The Efficacy of Hypnosis as a Treatment for Anxiety: A Meta-Analysis. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 67(3), 336–363.

Fernandez, A., Urwicz, L., Vuilleumier, P., & Berna, C. (2021). Impact of hypnosis on psychophysiological measures: A scoping literature review. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 64(1), 36–52.

De Benedittis G. Hypnotic Modulation of Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) Activity. Brain Sci. 2024 Mar 4;14(3):249.