Hypnotherapy for anxiety – in brief
Clinical hypnotherapy helps with anxiety by calming the subconscious stress response that generates anxious feelings and panic attacks. Unlike approaches that rely on conscious willpower or logic, hypnotherapy works directly with the part of the mind that creates anxiety in the first place, which is why it can be effective where other strategies have not been. A 2019 meta-analysis found hypnosis outperformed controls for anxiety reduction across 79–84% of trials (Valentine et al., International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 67(4):338–363). Brisbane Hypnosis Centre has been helping people with anxiety and panic disorders since 1997, in person in Brisbane and online across Australia via Zoom.
People use hypnotherapy for anxiety every day. Anxiety issues are among the most common reasons people come and see us. There is a good body of evidence to support the use of hypnotherapy for anxiety issues. Of course, it is experienced differently by everyone – sometimes people don't know the cause of their anxiety, but sometimes they do.
Anxiousness can become a self-sustaining loop, and hypnosis can be used to change that pattern.
Anxiety and depression are not the same thing, and shouldn't be treated the same way. Hypnotherapy is an evidence-based approach to help with the physical symptoms of anxiety, along with the emotional symptoms, and the habitual cognitive processes that can be both a cause and effect of anxiety. We are all capable of change.
Almost everyone experiences anxiousness at some time or other. It is an entirely normal physical and emotional phenomenon that our mind creates in response to some worry or perceived threat. Usually when the worry or threat is resolved, the anxiety dissipates.
Sometimes however, the anxiety can become exaggerated, out of proportion, or it can continue even when it is no longer appropriate to the situation. It can be that a pattern of responding to certain events is created, and the anxiety may become generalised and habitual.
People differ in the way stress affects them – their response may be made up of the memory of past experiences, beliefs and attitudes about situations, and other aspects of their current situation. As well as the psychological aspects of anxiety, it can also result in a range of physical symptoms, which may sometimes seem to manifest 'out of thin air' – shaking or trembling, tightness in the chest or a sense of breathing restriction, elevated heart rate, skin complaints, IBS and digestive problems, to name a few. There's a solid body of evidence to support the use of hypnotherapy for anxiety issues.
When anxiety has become a problem in this way, it can seem difficult to become free of it. Using logic to try to defeat it is usually of little help. You may not even remember when you began to feel anxious, or what the original trigger was. This is ok, and it is a dynamic we are experienced working with.
A panic attack is a severe and overwhelming experience of anxiety that can come upon someone quite suddenly, with or without a specific trigger. In severe cases, a person having a panic attack may feel that they are going to die, or suffer a sense of terror or impending doom.
It can seem like there is no way to control these feelings. Sometimes simply the thought of having a panic attack can bring on an attack. The attempt to control anxiety can itself lead to more anxiety.
Most people who have this experience will assume something is going horribly wrong within them, and will assume that they alone are suffering this type of experience.
In fact this type of experience is more common than you might imagine. When someone suffers this kind of difficulty it is not because they are being 'dramatic' or are 'highly-strung', but because the mind has created a link between a normal occurrence (stress) and a way of responding to that stress (anxiety and panic).
A common experience is a feeling of being "stuck" in this problem. A person naturally tries to escape their anxious feelings by thinking in a certain way – trying to think rationally, or to tell themselves certain things, in the hope of making the anxiety go away. Often it can seem like there is no way to control these feelings. This is simply because the part of the mind trying to get control of the anxiety is not the part of the mind that is manifesting it. Often there is an attempt to find or understand the logical trigger for the anxiousness, but a panic attack does not need a logical trigger to occur. The problem is not originating in the conscious mind, and therefore the conscious mind is limited in its capacity to change the anxiousness.
Often in the attempt to make the anxiety go away, more anxiety is created, and it becomes a self-sustaining loop.
Many people will be prescribed anti-depressant medication as a response to the problem. Sometimes this may be helpful, but often it is not. Certainly, experiencing anxiousness over an extended period of time can become depressing, but anxiety and depression are not the same thing, and should not be treated as such.
One of the ways hypnotherapy reduces anxiety is by calming the subconscious stress response, lowering cortisol via guided relaxation and reframing your triggers, or the things that cause you to have these feelings. A 2019 meta-analysis found hypnosis reduced anxiety symptoms more than 79–84% of controls across 17 trials (Valentine et al., Int J Clin Exp Hypn, 67(4):338–363).
The most important understanding is that these anxious responses can be changed. Freedom from these difficult experiences comes from using the part of the mind that does have the capacity to change the way we feel, and the capacity to influence the way our nervous system is working. Hypnosis is a tool that enables us to directly access this part of our mind. Of course, we cannot take away the stresses in your life, but we can help you to create an easier and more appropriate response to stress.
A trauma-informed approach is often essential when helping people who have anxiety issues, and that's something we are educated about.
Where appropriate when you are using hypnosis for anxiety, we can teach you techniques which you can use if or when you have a panic attack or anxious feelings, so that you can 'short-circuit' this response yourself. We will also look at ways where your conscious, rational processes can be utilised more effectively and helpfully. Primarily though, we are seeking not just management of the problem, but a resolution of it.
Our anxiety hypnotherapy sessions are available via Zoom, so you don't need to be in Brisbane to work with us. We see clients from across Australia. If you're looking for experienced online hypnotherapy for anxiety, we'd be glad to discuss this with you, or you can just go ahead and book a time.
Many of the people who come to us have already done a full course of CBT for anxiety or panic and found that it didn't help in the way they hoped. Sometimes the structured homework and the constant focus on thoughts can feel effortful, or even stressful, particularly when the anxious feelings keep showing up in your body regardless. This is not unusual, and it does not mean something is wrong with you or that nothing will help.
Large research reviews now suggest that while CBT is effective for anxiety and depression, it doesn't consistently outperform other well-delivered therapies, and its outcomes are often comparable to other credible approaches over the longer term. This means that if CBT has not been a good fit for you, it is not the only way forward.
Our approach uses hypnosis and other appropriate methods to work directly with the automatic patterns that sit underneath the anxiety response. Using hypnotherapy you can address the way your body responds to perceived threat, how quickly you return to feeling calm, and how safe you feel in situations that used to trigger panic. This can sit alongside skills you already learned in CBT, or it can offer a fresh start if you felt stuck. The aim is not simply to manage anxiety, or to help you cope with the anxiousness you carry, but to resolve it where that is genuinely possible.
All the written content on this page was written by us, not by AI.
