How many times have you seen jobs list “able to handle a high amount of stress” as one of their qualifications?
It’s time to get rid of this unhealthy mentality. Anxiety disorder is a mental illness that affects 42 million Americans every day, yet you would hardly notice it because of the stigma society has attached to it.
Without treatment, many people with anxiety disorders carry their anxiety into work, which leads to serious consequences for their job performance and mental health. As a result, some might begin to rely on drugs, medication, or alcohol as a coping mechanism.
If you are someone suffering from workplace anxiety, we want you to know you don’t have to deal with it alone. Hypnotherapy is a safe and healthy way to deal with anxiety without drugs. Read on to find out more about how can hypnosis help with anxiety.
What Does Workplace Anxiety Look Like?
Everyone deals with work-related stress from time to time but for people with anxiety disorders, it can feel like every day. Anxiety can make every aspect of a person’s job feel like a struggle. They might have trouble getting up for work in the morning, wake up with knots in the stomach, and go to sleep thinking about work all the time.
They might call out sick to avoid certain deadlines or projects. And when they are at work, they might have a hard time focusing and may even deliberately give up opportunities to avoid feeling anxious.
Over time, these symptoms can build up to bigger health issues such as drug abuse, insomnia, chronic fatigue, or panic attacks, all of which affect the person’s job and their relationship with others.
Anxiety Is Not Just in the Mind
One of the biggest misconceptions about anxiety disorder is that it only affects the mind. This is simply not true. People with anxiety disorders will tell you anxiety attacks feel very real and that’s because they are. They feel it not just in their minds but their bodies as well. Some physical symptoms of an anxiety disorder at work are:
- Heart racing
- Excessive fidgeting
- Irritability (snapping at people)
- Trouble focusing or concentrating
- Easily and frequently tired (fatigue)
- Muscle pains (especially in neck and shoulders)
Anxiety affects the brain and the body which is what makes hypnotherapy such an effective treatment because it aims to treat both.
What Is Hypnotherapy Exactly?
By definition, hypnotherapy is a form of therapy that helps people change old patterns of thinking. By putting people in hypnosis (a highly relaxed state) therapists can instill new patterns of thinking into a person’s subconscious to create healthier actions and thoughts.
Every person has a conscious and subconscious side of their mind. The conscious side rationalizes and tells us what to do. For example, if someone says something hurtful to you, your conscious mind might tell you to just shrug it off.
The subconscious mind, however, is the side that will feel hurt even though your conscious side just wants to move on. This can create internal conflict for our bodies and mind, and hypnosis aims to change the subconscious so we can create new ways of thinking.
What Hypnotherapy Is Not
Since hypnotherapy remains much of a mystery to the public, there is a lot of misinformation about the practice. It also doesn’t help that Hollywood likes to portray this branch of therapy as a brainwashing, pocket-watch-swinging-pseudoscience.
A real hypnotherapist cannot freeze you or make you do things against your will. They also cannot erase your memories, they actually do the opposite, they help you remember things.
All licensed hypnotherapists must also obtain a masters degree first in psychology or a related major. Some even hold doctoral or medical degrees. After their studies, one must get an NBCCH certification from the National Board for Certified Clinical Hypnotherapists, which requires the practitioner to get clinical experience and a certain number of hours in supervised practice.
How Does Hypnotherapy Work?
In your first hypnosis session, your hypnotherapist will ask you what you hope to achieve through your sessions, get a sense of what will help you relax during hypnosis, and explain to you how it all works.
Contrary to popular beliefs, your hypnotherapist does not control you during hypnosis. You do. You are always in the driver’s seat and your hypnotherapist is simply in the passenger seat guiding you.
Professional hypnotherapists will safely guide you through your subconscious mind and help you create new patterns of thinking through speech. Sometimes this means exploring suppressed memories and teaching you new ways to react to them.
If you sense extreme discomfort or trauma at any given point, you can tell your hypnotherapist to stop and they will safely and gently guide you out of hypnosis. Remember, you are always in full control of where your mind goes.
What Happens in A Hypnotherapy Session?
In a typical session, the following three steps will take place:
1. Induce Hypnosis
The first thing your hypnotherapist does is induction. This is the process where they’ll try to quiet your mind, relax your muscles, and put you in a calm and tranquil state. You won’t be sleeping, it’ll feel more like you’re meditating or daydreaming.
Depending on the person, the hypnotherapist will try to use different language and words to achieve this step. Being in a relaxed state is crucial in hypnotherapy because the mind is much more open to new ideas when it is calm.
2. Instill Therapy
Once your mind is in the highly calm state or “hypnosis”, your therapist will then ask you to explore memories that are related to the issue that you’d like to work on. They will try to get to the root of the problem. This process is sometimes called “age regression.”
Once a specific event is identified, your hypnotherapist will gently guide you through it and deal with it in a way that is positive for you. During this time, they might also start to instill messages into your subconscious mind to replace negative thoughts or limiting beliefs.
Depending on the severity of your anxiety or issues, this process might take several sessions. Negative thoughts in our subconscious mind might be the result of years of negative thinking and it can take time for us to unlearn them.
3. Waking Up
Once hypnosis and therapy are done, you’ll be led out of your trance state gently and carefully. Once awake, you should feel more energized and refreshed.
Can Hypnosis Help With Anxiety?
In terms of anxiety, hypnosis can do wonders. Unlike oral medication for anxiety, which usually just numbs the mind and doesn’t deal with the root of the problem, hypnosis deals with the problems directly.
Another thing that makes this form of therapy different from other treatments is that it addresses how anxiety affects the body and mind. It can help the person relieve tension immediately in specific parts of the body. For example, if the person usually finds their heart racing during an anxiety episode, they can learn to alter their breathing to slow it down. Hypnotherapy gives the person techniques to perform self-hypnosis for anxiety.
In addition, because the practice involves regressing into specific memories of a person’s life, it has the power to help a person change the way they feel about unpleasant memories. They can go through these events again in their mind and change the outcome of the situation.
Lastly, hypnosis can address very specific problems for the person. If the person struggles with extreme stage fright, they can work on that specifically. If the person has a fear of flying, they can work on that instead. Whatever the issue is, hypnosis can target that specific problem and help the person gain workplace confidence.
Things to Keep In Mind
When carried out properly, hypnosis is a powerful and effective way to treat anxiety but you should also know that it has limits. It cannot magically change the way you feel about something overnight. It takes time and persistence to produce results. Furthermore, the effectiveness of hypnosis for anxiety depends highly on each person.
Hypnotherapy is a practice that requires work from you. You cannot expect to just show up in your session and let your hypnotherapist do all the work. It’s a two-way street. Your therapist is there to guide you but you must be willing to trust their guidance.
Due to the triggering nature of the practice, it is generally not recommended for people with dissociative disorders or psychotic episodes. If a hypnotherapist identifies issues that are beyond what their practice can do, they will refer you to another specialist.
Lastly, keep in mind that certifications for hypnotherapists vary from state to state, so be sure to check with your state on who can practice this form of therapy.
Ready to Try Out Hypnosis For Anxiety?
If you’re still wondering can hypnosis help with anxiety, yes! Don’t be afraid to try something new and don’t be ashamed to ask for help. There are many resources to help you deal with your anxiety and you don’t have to suffer alone.
Proper treatment for anxiety will not only change the way you feel about work but it’ll lead to a more confident you. You’ll learn how to control your anxiety and be more productive at work. If you would like to get started on hypnosis for anxiety soon, find out more today.
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