In the main, anxiety reduction is the main focus of a Solution focused Hypnotherapist, if the clients “stress bucket” has capacity inside it, the client is able to deal with day to day life a lot easier and work from their intellectual mind, rather than the much quicker and negative Primitive mind. The client leads us and we follow asking questions and focusing in on solutions to what may be causing the anxiety. For this we use Scaling and the Miracle question to guide conversations on how we could make some small changes in the client’s life that will move them up the Happiness or Confidence scales.
There may be times when, in addition to the above, we use additional techniques. NLP methods such as the Rewind technique are very successful in assisting with PTSD and Phobia. Clients are relaxed and taken to an imaginary place with a TV or a Cinema where they can watch themselves, watching old movies in black and white of the trauma or phobia that they have experienced. Watching them forwards and in reverse until the emotional spike is reduced or has gone. Them we can “reframe” the situation to a more positive outcome.
Another technique is the “swish” technique. This could be used for a variety of complaints. For weight loss, we get the client to picture themselves at how they look now and replace that with their preferred image of themselves and teach them to “swish” the images back and forth in their minds to allow the brain to train itself for positive outcomes. Also in sports, we could have a picture of the moment of anxiety, for instance before lifting a weight and the moment of success, when the weight is safely been lifted.
We use inductions to relax the clients into Trance and get them deeper into relaxation by utilising deepener scripts. When they are comfortably in trance, we tell stories or metaphors to allow their brains to think and process to solve the riddles contained within them. Suggestions, whether indirect or direct can be used in trance to solidify the conversations that we had with the client during our session.
Each client is individual and we should always use what we feel is the best course of action to help with their issues. Reducing anxiety, I feel, is the priority initially, as with a low anxiety level, other techniques are far more effective.
