You want to get on with your life, but anxiety keeps getting in the way. Sometimes it arrives as a rush of fear. Sometimes it’s an unsettled feeling that follows you through the day. You might know exactly what sets it off, or find yourself wondering why you feel anxious when nothing seems to be wrong. This is where hypnotherapy for anxiety can really help.
Perhaps the hardest part is finding that things you want to do have become things you dread. You still want to go, join in, enjoy yourself. You just want to feel comfortable doing it.
You may have started wondering whether this is simply how life is going to be. In our work together, I want to understand what happens when anxiety takes over, so we can work on changing that response. What matters is being able to do those things you miss, and actually enjoy them while you’re there.
Anxiety doesn’t look the same for everyone
You might feel it in your body first. A fluttering stomach before leaving home, tension that never quite eases, or a sudden wave of discomfort that makes you want to get away.
For someone else, it’s the anticipation. The appointment is next week, but it has already taken over this one.
You might carry on doing everything you need to do, while privately finding it exhausting. Or perhaps you have started avoiding things, making excuses that are easier to explain than how you really feel.
Sometimes anxiety seems particularly confusing because you feel confident in one part of life and completely unlike yourself in another. Being capable at work doesn’t necessarily make a social occasion comfortable. Being the person everyone relies on doesn’t mean you always feel secure yourself.
I want to understand those differences. They tell me far more about how to help than the word “anxiety” on its own.
Case Study: When anxiety shows up as nausea
For Margaret, the day often began with a check of her stomach. Before anything else had happened, she was already wondering whether she would feel sick.
The nausea was real and was affecting her everyday life. She had sought medical advice, but she also recognised a pattern: the more she worried about feeling sick, the more closely she watched every sensation. That worry seemed to make the nausea worse.
By the time we met, Margaret doubted that anything would help. I wanted to understand what she was experiencing, including how exhausting it had become to wake up expecting another difficult day.
Over several sessions, we used hypnosis and imagery centred on comfort and settling. We also worked on how she responded when discomfort appeared, helping her practise meeting a sensation without immediately expecting the worst.
Gradually, Margaret began noticing changes. There were periods when she felt more comfortable. Sometimes nausea passed more quickly. At other times, she became absorbed in something and realised she hadn’t been checking her stomach.
Those moments mattered. They gave her something more convincing than another instruction to stop worrying. She became less frightened of the sensations and more able to carry on with her day. A difficult morning no longer had to decide how the rest of it would go. For Margaret, progress meant beginning to trust her body again, with less of her attention taken up by what might happen next.
The client’s name and identifying details have been changed to protect confidentiality. Hypnotherapy was used alongside appropriate medical care.
Can hypnotherapy for anxiety help me?
You may be wondering whether hypnotherapy could help you, especially if you have already tried to make things better and still find yourself struggling.
My approach is to explore how your anxiety happens and work with the responses that seem to take over before you have much say in the matter. Hypnosis, practical strategies and mental rehearsal give us different ways to approach that work.
We also need to understand what you want to get back to. Being able to travel comfortably? Enjoying time with friends? Feeling at ease when you’re alone? Those details give therapy a direction that means something to you.
You don’t need to arrive knowing why you feel this way. Working that out together is part of my job.
When trying to feel safe starts getting in the way
It’s understandable to look for ways to make anxiety easier to bear.
Perhaps you only go somewhere if another person comes with you. You choose a seat near the exit, check how you’re feeling before agreeing to plans, or postpone something until you feel more confident.
These arrangements may help you get through the moment. The difficulty comes when they start deciding how you live.
A useful question in therapy is: what do you feel you have to do before you can feel comfortable?
Your answer might reveal something we can work on together. There is no criticism in that question. You have been finding ways to cope, often with considerable effort. I want to help you reach a point where less of that effort is necessary.
How I work with you
I have been using hypnotherapy for anxiety with clients for more than twenty years, and I remain interested in the details that make each person’s experience different.
Then we can begin working with your particular pattern. Depending on what emerges, I may draw on clinical hypnosis, cognitive behavioural techniques, NLP and practical exercises.
There is room to adapt. If an explanation doesn’t fit your experience, I want you to tell me. If an exercise feels difficult, we need to understand why. Your responses help shape the work as we go.
Sometimes earlier experiences are relevant. Sometimes the most useful place to begin is with what happens in everyday life now. You don’t need a complete explanation of your past before we can start.
I will ask about what happens, when it happens and what you find hardest. We’ll talk about what you have already tried, including anything that helped a little. If something hasn’t helped, that is useful information too.
Giving your imagination somewhere different to go
After an intensely frightening episode, the possibility of it happening again can become a worry in itself. My article about panic attacks explores this further.
Perhaps you want company but feel uncomfortable being noticed. Read more about social anxiety.
You may find it difficult to leave a bodily sensation alone, even after receiving reassurance. We can explore that worry while respecting the distinction between anxiety and symptoms that need medical assessment.
Think for a moment about something anxiety has made difficult.
What would you like that experience to be like?
Perhaps you would like to arrive at a restaurant and look forward to the food and company. Or walk into a meeting and give your attention to the conversation. It might be something as ordinary as leaving home without first assessing whether you feel able to cope.
A conversation about anxiety
Sometimes, it helps
to hear a human voice.
Join me on BBC Radio Kent as I talk about using hypnotherapy for anxiety. Press play and listen in your own time.
Listen to Karen Martin on BBC Radio Kent
Those details matter. “Less anxious” describes what you want to leave behind. This begins to describe what you want instead.
In therapy, we can use imagination to explore and rehearse those possibilities. We might start with a small part of a situation, finding a response that feels believable and building from there.
You don’t have to force a positive picture or pretend you already feel confident. We work from where you are.
FAQs
Hypnotherapy can help with anxiety, although people respond differently. My approach is to understand what happens when you become anxious and work with the reactions that seem to take over automatically. We use hypnosis alongside practical therapeutic techniques, with the aim of helping you feel more comfortable in situations you currently dread. What matters is how that change carries through into your everyday life.
There isn’t a set number that suits everyone. We’ll discuss what you want to change and review your progress as we work together. My aim is to begin making a useful difference from the first session. We’ll look for changes that matter to you, whether that means going somewhere you’ve avoided, feeling more comfortable on your own or spending less of your day dealing with anxiety.
Having anxiety for years doesn’t mean you are beyond help. It may feel like part of your personality, especially if you can barely remember life without it. We can start by exploring how it affects you now and what keeps the pattern going. You don’t need to remember exactly when it began or explain everything perfectly before we can begin working together.
No. Hypnosis doesn’t take away your ability to choose or put me in charge of your mind. You usually remain aware of what is being said, and you can speak, move or ask to stop. If the idea of letting go makes you uneasy, tell me. We can take time to make the experience comfortable, with you involved throughout.
You don’t have to arrive feeling calm. If relaxing feels difficult, or you find yourself checking whether you’re doing it properly, we can talk about that and adapt the approach. There is no performance to get right. People experience hypnosis differently, and we’ll explore how you respond rather than expecting you to fit a particular method.
It may still be worth exploring. An approach that hasn’t helped you doesn’t establish that nothing will. I’ll want to understand what you tried, what was useful and where you felt stuck. That gives us a starting point for considering whether my approach offers something different and relevant to you. You’re welcome to bring doubts and questions.
Related help for anxiety
Some experiences deserve a closer look. You may recognise yourself in more than one. These related pages may help you find the most relevant starting point.