Anxiety Hypnotherapy Leighton Buzzard

Anxiety doesn't always look like a panic attack

Anxiety can be obviousm but it can also look like:

Constant overthinking, Racing thoughts, Replaying conversations, Imagining worst-case scenarios, Feeling overwhelmed.

A knot or butterflies in your stomach.  Difficulty relaxing.  Feeling constantly on alert.  Problems sleeping because your mind won't stop.

Avoiding situations. Needing reassurance. Losing confidence. Feeling irritable or emotional.

Procrastinating because everything feels too much.

Using food, alcohol, smoking or vaping to switch off

Sometimes you can appear completely fine to everybody else while your mind is running at 100 miles an hour.

“Why can't I just stop overthinking?”

Because knowing something logically doesn't necessarily change the automatic response your brain has learnt.

You can tell yourself:

“There's nothing to worry about.”  And still feel anxious.

You can know, “I'm probably overthinking this”  and continue thinking about it for the next three hours.

You can decide “I'm going to stop worrying.” Only to find yourself doing exactly the same thing tomorrow.

Our brains learn patterns.

Stress, difficult relationships, bereavement, frightening experiences, periods of uncertainty and other experiences can influence how we respond to situations later.

Sometimes the mind becomes very good at looking for danger.

Hypnotherapy gives us an opportunity to work with some of these automatic responses rather than relying purely on conscious willpower.

Can hypnotherapy help anxiety?

Hypnotherapy uses hypnosis therapeutically.  During hypnosis, you're not unconscious and you're not under somebody else's control.

You're usually aware of what I'm saying and can speak, move or open your eyes if you want to.

We use that focused state to work with thoughts, associations, beliefs and responses that may have become automatic.

Depending on what's happening for you, our sessions may focus on calming anxious responses, reducing overthinking, building confidence, changing unhelpful patterns or exploring experiences that may still be influencing how you feel today.

There isn't one identical anxiety script that I read to every client.  Your anxiety has a story.  I want to understand yours.

What is causing my anxiety?

There isn't always one simple answer.

For some people anxiety begins following a specific event.  For others it gradually develops after months or years of stress.

Sometimes clients tell me, “I've always been a worrier.”  Others say “I wasn't like this before.”

We may explore when your anxiety started, what was happening around that time, what triggers it now and what your brain appears to be trying to protect you from.

The aim isn't to endlessly analyse your past.

It's to understand enough about the pattern to help you begin changing what happens now.

Hypnotherapy for overthinking

Overthinking is one of the things I particularly enjoy working with.

Perhaps your mind constantly jumps ahead.

“What if I mess this up?”

“What if something happens?”

“What did they mean by that?”

“What if they don't reply?”

“What if I can't cope?”

The more you try to find certainty, the more questions your brain creates.

Hypnotherapy can be used alongside practical therapeutic techniques to help interrupt these repetitive patterns and encourage a calmer response.

The goal isn't to stop you thinking.

It's to help you stop feeling as though your thoughts are controlling you.

Hypnotherapy for panic and feeling constantly on edge

Anxiety isn't only in your thoughts.

You might experience a racing heart, sweating, shaking, nausea, dizziness, breathlessness or an overwhelming feeling that something terrible is about to happen.

These physical symptoms can feel frightening.

If symptoms are new, severe or unexplained, it's important to speak with an appropriate healthcare professional to rule out medical causes.

Where anxiety is contributing, hypnotherapy can form part of an approach to changing how you respond to those sensations and triggers.

Anxiety after grief, trauma or difficult life experiences

Sometimes anxiety makes much more sense when we understand what somebody has lived through.

Bereavement.  Divorce.  Relationship breakdown.  Illness.  Workplace stress.  A frightening event.  Caring responsibilities.  Years of putting everyone else first.

These experiences can leave people feeling less safe, less confident or constantly prepared for something else to go wrong.

Where appropriate, we can work sensitively with experiences from your past without forcing you to disclose anything you're not comfortable discussing.

Anxiety in perimenopause and menopause

I also have extensive experience supporting women through perimenopause and menopause.

Hormonal changes, disrupted sleep, hot flushes, life stress and changing confidence can all coincide with increased anxiety during midlife.

For some women, the anxiety feels completely unfamiliar:

“I've never been an anxious person. Why am I suddenly like this?”

My wider background in natural medicine and menopause support means I understand that midlife anxiety isn't always simply a mindset problem.

Where appropriate, I can help you consider the bigger picture while using hypnotherapy to work with the anxiety itself.