Ways you can help people with anxiety and depression as a hypnotherapist
We have known for some time that hypnosis helps support treatments for depression and anxiety. This is partly because cognitive behavioral therapy is enhanced when performed under hypnosis. In addition, hypnosis can also help people against anxiety and depressive symptoms in other ways.
In this blog, I discuss how, as a hypnotherapist, you can help an anxious person.
When someone comes to you with anxiety and depression symptoms
Before you begin helping your client, it’s important to have a clear understanding of their anxieties and symptoms; this is crucial in case consultation with a doctor is necessary. If the person is already being treated for depression , it is advisable for your client to also inform their doctor that they want to try hypnosis. That way, the doctor can take this into account if the treatment is effective—for example, by gradually adjusting medication to accommodate the new situation.
This is also needed when anxiety and depression symptoms are beyond your control. A hypnotherapist can be a psychologist, but not all psychologists are hypnotherapists and not all hypnotherapists are psychologists in addition.
If anxiety and depressive symptoms are so severe that your client’s safety is at risk—for example, due to suicidal tendencies or self-harm —it is important to refer your client to a psychologist or psychiatrist if you do not hold the appropriate credentials yourself.
So now that we've highlighted the legal side of this issue, it's time for the real thing.
How does hypnosis help with anxiety and depression?
Hypnosis influences your subconscious. Your subconscious is where your true identity lies. This is who you really are, regardless of how you present yourself to the outside world.
Hypnosis engages the conscious mind in a way that allows it to influence the subconscious mind. The client's identity is affected as a result.
This is because your client’s identity has been shaped by all kinds of beliefs that have developed over the course of his or her life. These may be beliefs passed down by parents, or they may be beliefs your client has formed through personal experiences.
This is another reason why trauma treatment is often incredibly important to reduce depression and anxiety symptoms.
A look at what is possible
Hypnosis offers your client a glimpse into what life is possible. You can do this, for example, with a guided visualization. In that visualization, you show your client what is possible if they care less about their fears and their depressive thoughts.
Perhaps they recognize the story that sometimes you get an idea that is super positive, then the conscious brain starts listing all kinds of reasons why this good idea is unworkable or not a good idea after all. Through hypnosis, you make sure that all these arguments that the conscious brain gives you are transformed into realistic arguments, making your client much more likely to overcome fears.
The internal conversations your client has with themselves become less present as a result, which also reduces anxiety.
Visualization of the ideal situation
Can your client independently not even imagine what is possible? Then you can help your client with a guided visualization in which he/she is precisely unaffected by his/her fear.
In visualization, you show how the person is feeling, how the situation is going and how they are moving. Keeping this as positive as possible allows the person to imagine that they can do the same.
This imagination is very important for actually changing behaviors and feelings and overcoming anxiety and depressive symptoms.
Restructuring automatic thoughts
You’ve probably been in a situation that triggers a series of thoughts that always bother you in that situation. For example, you’re about to give a presentation , and you start wondering if you look good, if you’ve prepared everything properly, and so on.
For people with anxiety, this can include automatic thoughts that are mostly negative. "I don't look good."
"I could have done X more, now the presentation already sucks."
Which only increases anxiety. Hypnosis can change the cognitive structure, the way a person thinks, and therefore the automatic thoughts your client suffers from during moments of anxiety.
This often stems directly from beliefs about oneself, such as self-image, self-worth, self-confidence, and more.
As a hypnotherapist, you figure out these beliefs and thought structures so you can rewrite them.
Ritual Change
Automatic thoughts can also be a kind of ritual or part of a ritual. During hypnotherapy, you can have your client visualize this ritual and then you can completely transform the ritual.
Through this, your client can gain the insight that they are not helping themselves further with these automatic thoughts and as a result, they can care more about this next time and stop and ignore the train of thought more quickly.
Finding the inner power
Anxiety often triggers a response to fight, flee or freeze. In people who suffer greatly from anxiety, it is primarily flight and freeze that are triggered. As a result, however, problems are not solved and opportunities are not seized.
To fight, and adapt the problem, requires strength. Strong people will fight, weak people will flee.
Therefore, it is important to help your client find his/her inner power.
You can do this, for example, by improving self-image and self-confidence. This is often done by identifying beliefs that damage self-esteem and replacing them with beliefs that actually make people feel more empowered.
Hypnotic suggestions
For example, you can then use hypnotic suggestions for your client to repeat aloud such as:
"I'm awesome."
"I'm smart."
"I am strong."
"I can learn new things."
"I learn from mistakes."
Engaging with the negative side
Another hypnotherapy is to work with your client to engage with the part of your client that makes him/her feel anxious or worthless.
That inner voice that says something is not a good idea, why does it think that? It is important not to make judgments during this conversation. That way, you will find out why some fears are evoked by the subconscious and for what purpose.
For example, acceptance by the environment can be a goal of the unconscious negative part. Or conversely, to protect the person from rejection.
By figuring out this deeper purpose, you can give your client better tools to meet those goals than the freeze-or-flight response.
Note! If someone has a history of schizophrenia or voices, it is better not to use this technique.
Socratic conversation
Another way to engage in conversation to figure out beliefs is to engage in a socratic conversation. This is a cognitive behavioral therapy method that can be conducted under the influence of hypnosis.
You then actually start asking "why" just like a toddler every time. This eventually gets you to the core of the belief, or your client realizes that the belief makes no sense. Then you can start building new "healthy" beliefs.
Context of belief
Have you ever noticed that you feel and probably behave differently when you are in different settings. With your family, you are different than at work and than when you are alone.
So certain situations can trigger automatic thoughts and certain settings cause certain beliefs to take over.
To change your client's beliefs, it is important that you also apply the beliefs in multiple contexts.
For example, the belief that you don't look good for a presentation can have a very different effect in the gym or during an evening watching movies with friends and family.
This also allows conviction to be viewed in a different way in the situation of presentation.
Bringing homework
In addition, hypnosis treatments help best if your client also practices self-hypnosis at home. For example, you can record a hypnosis session per client that they can play at home every day during self-hypnosis this enhances the effects of your therapy and because of this you can have faster progress in your next sessions and the client is rid of his/her problem faster.
This ultimately only creates more positive experiences that will help you become a successful hypnotherapist faster.
Would you like to learn more about hypnosis? Then come to a workshop or check out the training programs offered by the Hypnosis Institute of the Netherlands. These are suitable for both beginners and advanced learners.