The concept of anxiety can in itself feel overwhelming. It is often spoken about in the same way that we would describe a mysterious disease. It can feel like something that went wrong with us and doesn’t make logical sense.

 

But one way we can begin to approach anxiety in more tangible terms is by giving it a more accurate name…. fear.

 

Think about anxiety as the set of symptoms, and fear as the root cause. You can treat the symptoms with certain therapeutic protocol, medication or various wellness hacks. But without addressing the root cause it can be hard to free ourselves from these symptoms in the long term.

 

So if fear is the root cause of the symptoms of anxiety it begs the question… fear of what? Answering this question is the first step in addressing the problem. 

 

The hallmark of anxiety is a set of common thinking habits such as worry, ruination, catastrophising, black and white thinking and negative bias. What lies beneath these habits are a set of fundamental, fearful beliefs. 

 

How fear-based beliefs can run riot in our lives

 

We accumulate various beliefs throughout our lives. Some of which we are aware of, others we have formed without necessarily being conscious of doing so. When you hold a belief that something is a threat (however deeply held and unconscious that fear may be) and then you face that thing out in the world, your body’s response actually makes perfect sense.

 

It shifts into a survival response. However unconscious the fear and however safe you actually are, your system has detected a potential threat and will activate its fight / flight / flee response. Cue a raised heart rate, shallow breath, digestive discomfort, muscular tension and all of those other delightful symptoms of stress. This happens however benign the thing you are facing actually is, which is one of the reasons anxiety can feel so frustrating.

 

The cognitive symptoms of anxiety come about for similar reasons. Overthinking is a mental survival strategy. Our clever minds want to protect us from our fears by going into planning overdrive. If we can project forwards in time to consider every potential outcome and flag up any possible catastrophe, we can keep ourselves safe.

A similar process is at play when we ruminate on past events. Again, those clever brains of ours are processing and analysing what has occurred in the past in order to make sense of what went wrong so that we can protect ourselves in the future. Our minds think that if we can just make logical sense out of what has happened, then we can forward plan in order to keep ourselves safe.

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What to do?

 

To work with the core, underlying beliefs at the heart of these thinking habits, we first need to identify what these beliefs actually are. 

 

Our beliefs do not arise from nowhere. They form as part of experiences we’ve had and information we have been exposed to since childhood. This can make the prospect of working with beliefs feel a little daunting. Most of us don’t relish the idea of raking over painful past events in order to discover the beliefs that are at play in our lives.

 

That’s where CBT comes in. Unlike many psychoanalytic models of therapy, cognitive therapy offers a range of techniques which help you to identify these beliefs without the necessity of revisiting painful past events. 

 

Once we have identified the set of fears and beliefs that are at work, we can set about changing them.

 

Thoughts are not facts and beliefs can change

 

But how? Beliefs are hardwired networks of information that our brain holds on record, many of which have become so deeply ingrained in our neural architecture that we are unaware that they even exist. The first way to destabilise a belief is to know that thoughts are not facts. And just because you believe something, it doesn’t make it true, accurate or helpful.

 

Step 1- Understanding that thoughts are not facts

 

Just because you believe something or think something over and over again, it doesn’t mean that it is objectively true or accurate. This first step automatically disputes the beliefs you have. Simply by questioning and disputing unhelpful beliefs you bring them into question which, by default, shifts them from ‘fixed’ facts to a piece of information to be questioned. 

 

Step 2 - Build new more helpful beliefs

 

The beliefs you currently possess were formed by the experiences you have had and the information you have been exposed to since childhood. Therefore, to create new beliefs you can simulate that same process: give yourself new experiences and expose your mind to new information. 

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One way to do this is in real life. To orchestrate a set of experiences which will train your mind to think differently. The other is to do so in your mind. This is where the science behind hypnosis comes in. 

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We have long known that hypnosis works but the science has never been clear on exactly why. It is only in recent years that our understanding has gone from a vague description of 'reprogramming the subconscious mind' to something more scientifically robust.

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What recent research from the fields of cognitive science and neuroscience into ‘mental rehearsal’ have found is that the neural processes which occur in the brain when you repeatedly imagine something in vivid detail are remarkably similar to those that happen when you experience the same event in real life.

 

So much so that by placing your attention on an idea over and over you build the same neural connections and networks in the brain that you would do when you experience something in real life. 

 

This phenomena is what we utilise in hypnosis to help build new beliefs. By consciously questioning and disputing unhelpful beliefs you destabilise them. By strategically and repeatedly focussing on a new set of ideas you can introduce and reinforce new beliefs and ways of thinking. The neural connections and networks that we build in the brain by repeatedly, systematically following along with a set of strategic ideas, with heightened focus and reputation - become our new ways of thinking and responding to life. 

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The more that you repeat this process, running your attention along your preferred ideas, thoughts and beliefs, the weaker the old connections and networks (beliefs and habitual thoughts) become. Gradually, thanks to the natural process of 'neuroplasticity', these lesser used connections and networks are pruned and dissolved, and your new way of thinking becomes your default setting.

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Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy approach to anxiety

 

In these sessions we utilise evidence-based hypnosis combined with a range of CBT techniques including:

 

• Cognitive defusion: Helping you to de-fuse yourself from your thoughts

• Cognitive restructuring: Identifying cognitive distortions and automatic negative thoughts

• Evidence-based hypnotic techniques: Rewrite unhelpful beliefs and thinking habits

• Relaxation skills training: To help lower your everyday stress levels

• Coping skills training: Identifying triggers and providing supportive techniques to help manage problematic situations.

 

For more information or to find out how this therapy may be of benefit to you, please contact me or book in your free phone consultation.