Processing trauma after robbery with hypnosis

A robbery is one of the most traumatic things you can experience. Your sense of security is gone AND someone has also taken your property. So you lose something emotionally and in the physical world. How do you get over this and still feel safe again?

In this blog article, we take a closer look at the effect of robbery, what such trauma can look like, and what role hypnotherapy can play in coping with it.

Does robbery always lead to trauma?

A robbery is something that happens to you personally. It can happen at your work, such as when you work in a bank or store, or at your home. This is obviously a drastic event, but does it always lead to trauma?

A study in which 383 people who had been robbed at work were examined 15 days and 45 days after the robbery found that 13% experienced symptoms similar to those seen in people with PTSD. So, by no means does everyone who experiences a robbery at work go on to develop trauma.

What is particularly important is how helpless and fearful you felt during the robbery. The stronger those feelings, the greater the likelihood of trauma. Even if you’ve been robbed at work before, this increases the likelihood of developing trauma[1].

Dutch research among bank employees also shows this. However, over time you may experience less of the stress or anxiety that caused the robbery.

In that sense, time heals this "wound."

Are you already prone to depression, or do you avoid talking to someone about the robbery, for example? If so, this increases the risk of developing trauma.

Even if, in addition to the robbery, you’re going through other difficult experiences in your personal life—such as a divorce or something else that causes a lot of stress —this can make the risk of trauma even worse[2].

According to an even larger study, which also included bank employees who had experienced robberies, a link was found between low self-confidence and the development of PTSD[3].

Research specifically on people who worked in a store that experienced armed robbery showed that 25% of those people suffered trauma from the robbery[4].

So not everyone suffers, but how depressed you are laid out, not talking about what happened and having low self-esteem can contribute to the development of trauma.

Recognizing trauma after robbery

But how do you know if you are suffering from post-robbery trauma? If you came upon this blog article because you googled it, thinking you have trauma is in itself an indication. After all, you don't think this for no reason.

Reliving the robbery, for example, can be a warning sign. You might have nightmares about it, see it playing out in your mind over and over again, or find yourself thinking about it often, even though you don’t want to[5].

You can also avoid places or things that remind you of the robbery[6]. However, this can be a problem if, for example, you were mugged at work or in your own home.

• All you have left is a depressed mood or a negative outlook.
• You can't sleep well anymore .
• You get angry quickly.
• You can no longer control your impulses very well—such as when you snack, drink alcohol, or do something else that isn’t actually good for you.

Do you recognize several of these symptoms after being mugged? If so, you may be suffering from trauma.

Assault Processing

One of the things that comes with post-robbery trauma treatment is to re-expose yourself to the location where the robbery took place. If this was at work, or in your own home, this is often something that is simply necessary.

Are you overwhelmed at work? If so, support from your employer, such as talking about the assault and offering help, is important for recovery[7]. This does not necessarily have to be a referral to a psychologist; even getting information about what to expect and how to deal with something can do a lot for people[8]. For example, a supervisor can have an expert on recovering from an assault come to work to educate the team on how to deal with the trauma.

No matter where you are overwhelmed, talking to family and friends is always a good idea. It helps show you that you are not alone, and that there are people who care about you. This can already have a great calming effect[9].

But have you been mugged on the street, or while you were in a particular store? Then it is much easier to avoid the place. By actually going there, you can notice that you don't get mugged every time you are there.

In addition, you can also learn techniques to cope with the symptoms of stress caused by the robbery. For example, if you have those unwanted thoughts in which you relive the trauma, knowledge of mindfulness can help you bring your attention back to the here and now.

Also, cognitive behavioral therapy (you often get that from a psychologist) is something that is widely used to cope with a robbery or other trauma caused by violence[10].

Coping with robbery with hypnosis

Sometimes just getting some information from a trauma expert is not enough, and a trauma caused by an assault can still stay with you for too long. Whether a week or years after the robbery, hypnosis also helps people process a robbery.

A robbery is essentially a violent event, even if no actual violence occurred and it was merely threatened.

Hypnotherapy is used to process experiences of violence. Hypnosis is often combined with cognitive behavioral therapy. The advantage of combining it with hypnosis is that it can help you accept that the robbery actually happened to you. For many people, that is the first step toward coming to terms with the robbery.

It also promotes mindfulness, making you more aware of your thought patterns and that you can change them. Very useful if you keep thinking about the robbery when you don't want to at all[11].

In a case study involving a person who, due to PTSD, also suffered from panic attacks and was taking medication for them, hypnotherapy helped reduce the PTSD and panic attacks to such an extent that he was able to stop taking the medication[12].

Another case study of a 48-year-old woman who was mugged at home, but was able to call the police after hours of talking quietly with the mugger also shows that hypnotherapy can do many things to cope with trauma caused by a robbery.

During the first session, she was mainly able to share her story, and a rapport was established between her and the hypnotherapist. She was also given exercises to help her relax and “ground” herself.

Later sessions also used visualizations to help her sleep better at night and reduce panic caused by nightmares. This included visualizing a safe place where she could relax.

That space was later used to strengthen her inner strength and self-confidence through metaphors, direct suggestions, and indirect suggestions. In addition, she received posthypnotic suggestions on how to integrate the positive feelings this brought about into her daily life and how to maintain a sense of calm through self-hypnosis.

This already helped her feel while on vacation that the whole robbery never happened, but when she returned home that feeling was back. Not surprising, since a robbery attempt had been made there.

Then the fast-phobia technique was used. This involves visualizations, and imagine you are in a theater watching a movie of the robbery. Then all kinds of things are done to that movie so that the robbery has less and less impact on you and it is more and more clear to your subconscious that the robbery is really over.

She then also practiced visualizations of walking through her own home to see if the feelings created by the robbery were gone[13]. So this is basically you going to the location of the robbery, but you do it in your mind.

So this technique can also be very helpful if you have been mugged not at home, but somewhere else.

Learn Hypnosis

Do you want to help people who are suffering from trauma from a robbery or other violent event? Then knowledge of hypnosis is incredibly valuable.

Come to a free master class for an introduction.

Or register directly for one of our events and trainings. There you will also get demonstrations of hypnosis.

Click here for our calendar.

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Have a question about our training (so not a problem to solve, but want to learn hypnosis and have a question about it)? Schedule a 1-on-1 consultation here.

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