How To Heal Trauma and Anxiety

Hypnosis can help many with psychological symptoms, including trauma and anxiety.

Anxiety refers to a real or perceived threat. Our perception of being under threat causes stress hormones such as adrenalin and cortisol, to be released into the brain.

The release of these stress hormones into the body can result in distressing physical sensations, such as:
 headaches
 stomach aches
 dry mouth
 trembling
 heart palpitations
 sweating
 feeling faint/dizziness
 hyperventilation
 nausea
 GI discomfort
 blood glucose spikes
 body aches

When young, our developing brain records information very quickly but does not always process information accurately, especially in traumatic events. This inaccuracy causes a mental split between what we consciously recall and the reality of what really happened. It might feel like we are thinking one thing yet feeling another.

Here’s the way our brain is set up: It consists of a Conscious Mind and a Subconscious Mind. Each part processes information differently.

The Subconscious Mind records every thought, feeling and experience and is non-linear, pictorial, and global. The Conscious Mind is linear, rational and time oriented. It likes to know as much as it can to feel secure, so it tends to narrow the field of perception, thinking that if we only have one thing to focus on, we’ll somehow be safer.

When we experience trauma, naturally our Conscious Mind goes into overwhelm and since it typically only handles 7-9 pieces of information at any time, trauma can overwhelm it quickly. We can feel confused, disoriented, and unsafe.

With trauma, our bodies also go into a deep freeze and lock our emotions in place for safety. This is known as fragmentation. It means that it’s difficult for us to consciously access the original event(s), so our emotions remain separate from what we can recall. This lack of emotional integrations causes us to be easily triggered and have difficulty regulating our behavior. Dysregulated behaviors can very quickly become habits that rule our lives.

Here’s how I help people with hypnotherapy. We correct these inaccuracies so you can align your perceptions correctly. Those very same early misperceptions are what causes limiting beliefs, which can feel psychologically limiting and cause experiences such as anxiety, procrastination or defensiveness, and habits such as smoking, drinking, or overeating.

Because it’s easier to access original events using hypnosis, 5-PATH Hypnotherapists will help you rewire your brain to perceive the original event more accurately and thus neutralize many life problems such as anxiety, negative self-talk, difficult relationships, lack of motivation and other unwanted life patterns. Then, you are free to move on!

There are many kinds of traumatic situations that can occur in childhood: domestic violence, family disruptions, alcohol, drug abuse, negative or limiting parental messages, school bullying, sudden moves, job loss, and physical or sexual abuse. All of this can cause youngsters to become fearful in some way.

However, there doesn’t always have to be a trauma for anxiety to emerge as a pattern in someone’s life. The anxiety response simply says, “Something bad might happen”. Anxiety warns us to take care of something. But when we become overly focused on that thing, we have a problem. The reason that youngsters or even young adults can develop anxiety, is because they have tried to make sense of their situation, but without success.

Perhaps a parent was not forthcoming, or a teacher was challenging, or a sibling was having difficulty. We attempt to move on, doing our best to understand, despite a lack of emotional or cognitive resolution. This lack of resolution points to a psychologically compensated part of us, which remains behind and doesn’t fully mature. It may show up later in life as procrastination, lack of motivation or feeling stuck. We simply compensate for that which we don’t understand or can’t cope with and keep trying to move forward.

Take the example of my client Suzy (not her real name). Suzy is now in her early 60’s and she comes from a large farm family where there was constant activity. Her parents were distracted by managing the family farm from sunup to sundown and there was little time for pleasurable pursuits. My client clearly recalls feeling lost in the crowd of kids, daily chores, and never-ending farm-related upkeep. Her basic needs for food and shelter were met, but beyond that, it was every kid for themselves. Suzy did not have the advantage of parents who could take time to sit down with her and deal with any childhood or school issues that might arise. In essence, she and her siblings were left to grow up on their own or rely upon each other.

This caused Suzy to feel insecure and lack the confidence she needed to address daily life issues, especially as she began attending school. She began to self-isolate and spent a lot of time in nature as a means of self-soothing. Growing up in this manner, she had no feedback mechanism for life’s trial and error. She grew up without much parental guidance and this caused her to feel disconnected, unsure, unclear, and just hoping for the best outcomes.

Suzy has spent a lifetime dealing with anxiety and depression, realizing that her judgment has been less-than-dependable, her relationships suffered and even her career has taken hits because of a lifetime pattern of being disempowered. She has suffered a great deal of betrayal and manipulation at the hands of authorities and each time, has tried to re-claim and re-build her self-esteem. All her issues have a point of origin in her childhood experiences.

When we experience childhood trauma and anxiety, the unprocessed feelings run continuously in the background of our minds even though we may be completely unaware of it. Our Conscious Mind may hold memories of the event(s), but we are split off from the feeling component. These feelings, located in our Subconscious Mind and accessible by hypnosis, are really what’s generating our behavior. It’s no wonder that we struggle to change our behavior patterns. The answer lies in accessing the deeper realms of our mind so that changes can be made very quickly, and you will feel lighter, freer, and more in control of yourself.