Anxiety can be paralyzing. It can keep us from making friends, putting ourselves in social situations, or moving forward in our careers. Worse, it is extremely uncomfortable and interfere with our everyday lives and our health.
Anxiety can be experienced both somatically and cognitively, and people’s reactions to anxiety often exacerbate their symptoms. Somatically, anxiety can show up as a racing heart, shallow breath, or another uncomfortable bodily reaction. Cognitively, anxiety appears in thoughts that something terrible might happen and/or worry about what others might think. People’s reactions to anxiety may lead them to develop a drinking problem or overindulge in food. Anxiety can also interfere with a person’s career or relationships, which can also result in lowered self-esteem.
All of our therapists are Clinical Psychologists and use hypnotic techniques combined with therapy to address troubling symptoms associated with anxiety and panic. In reaching a relaxed and reflective state, clients are able to decrease the intensity of their anxious feelings, while gaining insight into the root causes of their behavior. By tapping into their inner resources and creative problem-solving skills, clients are able to challenge the irrational beliefs and catastrophic thinking patterns so often associated with anxiety. And through the use of guided imagery and indirect suggestion, clients are able to accept and cope with their fears.
Hypnosis, as a complement to therapy, can be extremely beneficial as it addresses several aspects of anxiety. First, it can focus on physical reactions through hypnotic relaxation and visualization techniques. It can counteract obsessive thoughts by helping the client to focus on positive thoughts, while quieting negative self-talk. Lastly, it can tackle difficulties that develop in response to anxiety, such as lifestyle habits or problems that interfere with everyday functioning. In order to address the complexities of anxiety, our therapists employ mindfulness, psychoanalysis, and CBT to address the underlying causes of anxiety, while using hypnosis for the specific difficulties that arise as a result of anxiety.
Hypnosis can be particularly helpful in treating difficulties associated with anxiety:
In addition to working with generalized anxiety and panic, Dr. Karolina Pekala is our expert in working with the stress that comes along with demanding careers. She provides a comfortable and supportive environment that helps individuals navigate the challenges of their high pressure careers while helping them create a life that feels fulfilling, prosperous, and balanced. She uses traditional CBT and psychodynamic approaches to help a person make systematic and practical decisions for their lives, while also incorporating hypnosis and mindfulness to alleviate stress and envision a more gratifying future. This leads to greater joy, wellbeing, and peace in both the workplace and at home.
Anxiety is often thought of as an amount of emotional discomfort that is disproportionate to the amount of stress one encounters. However, many of us in demanding jobs endure an extraordinary amount of stress that comes from the pressure of our jobs, and while that stress may indeed be proportionate, it can wreak havoc on our lives, impact our relationships, and leave us in a state of continual hypervigilance. These work demands are further exacerbated by financial stress, worry about the changing economy, and pressure to keep providing a comfortable life for those whom we care about the most. Dr. Pekala helps people navigate these issues, using a combination of mindfulness-based techniques and CBT, so that individuals can truly enjoy the benefits of having a demanding career, while also living their best lives.
Research has shown that hypnosis is particularly beneficial in treating anxiety as well as the issues that people develop in response to their anxiety. These may include fears such as public speaking, flying, and test taking, as well as phobias to needles, animals, or other anxiety-provoking stimuli. Generally, people become fearful of the stimuli as well as their somatic reaction to it. Our method works by altering the way one views the fear, while calming a person’s reaction to that fear.
To read research related to hypnosis and integrative therapy for treating anxiety and related struggles, please visit the scholarly articles below:
Hypnosis & Anxiety (Sunnen, 2016)
Hypnosis Today (Smith, 2011)
Hypnosis in the Therapy of Phobias (McGuinness, 1984)
Rapid Therapy of Compulsion by Flooding with Hypnosis (Scrignar, 2011)
Self-hypnosis for anxiety associated with severe asthma (Anbar, 2003)
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