Personalised hypnotherapy · Brentwood & online UK

Hypnotherapy for anxiety

The alarm goes off before anything has happened. A tight chest on a normal Tuesday, a jolt when the phone buzzes, a scan of the room for the thing that's about to go wrong.

You can usually talk yourself down. The problem is that you have to, every time, and the talking down is its own full-time job.

01What's actually happening

Why it runs.

The primitive brain is the older, faster part of you, and its whole job is to sound the alarm early. It cannot tell a real threat from an imagined one, so a thought about next Thursday lands in the body exactly like next Thursday arriving. When the stress bucket is already high it fires sooner and louder, which is why anxiety feels like it escalates rather than starts.

The whole picture is on the method: the primitive brain, the stress bucket, the polar bear, and sleep.

02What HYE does about it

Your script.

You name what sets it off, what it feels like in the body, and the words you actually use in your own head. John builds a script around that and signs off every line before it reaches you. It lands in your library within days, in his voice, and you run it on ordinary days rather than only bad ones. As the pattern shifts, the next one arrives.

your situation, your language, your script

03What to expect

The first weeks.

You start by naming what actually sets it off, in your own words rather than clinical ones. The tightness on a normal Tuesday, the jolt at a phone buzz, the scan of the room. John reads that before he approves a single line, so what comes back is about your version of it and not anxiety in the abstract.

Your script lands in your library within a few days, in his voice. You run it on ordinary days, sitting or lying somewhere safe, never while driving. Running it when you feel fine is the point rather than a waste: you are lowering what is already in the bucket, not putting out a fire.

The check-in each day is one number and takes seconds. Across a few weeks it draws a line, which is useful because anxiety is poor at remembering its own good days. If the line dips, John sees it, and the next script starts from where you actually are.

Questions

Good to know.

Can hypnotherapy help with anxiety?

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Hypnotherapy is commonly used for anxiety because it works with the stress response directly rather than analysing the content of the worry. Solution-focused approaches concentrate on where you want to get to and on lowering what is already in the stress bucket.

Is this a substitute for treatment from my GP?

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No. HYE is wellbeing support, not the treatment of diagnosed conditions, and it is not a substitute for your GP or any care you are already receiving. If you are in crisis, contact your GP or Samaritans on 116 123.

Will I lose control or be made to do anything?

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No. Hypnosis is not sleep and it is not surrender. You stay aware throughout, you can stop a recording at any point, and you could get up and walk out if you wanted to. Stage hypnosis has given this a reputation with very little to do with the clinical version.

Is hypnotherapy safe?

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For most people it is a settled, ordinary experience with no loss of awareness. It is not suitable for everyone, so the intake asks about epilepsy, psychosis and a few other things, and John will say plainly if he thinks something else would serve you better.

How many hypnotherapy sessions are needed for anxiety?

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Solution-focused hypnotherapy is usually brief next to open-ended talking therapy, and many people think in terms of a small number of sessions rather than a long course. John gives a realistic read early instead of asking you to commit to a block.

Can I do this online from anywhere in the UK?

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Yes. Sessions run online across the UK and in person in Brentwood, Essex. The personalised scripts and the daily check-in work anywhere you have a phone.

All questions

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