Hi! I’m Steph McGee, an Online Hypnotherapist based in Oxford, UK. I’m going share a lovely story that helps remind us that no matter how successful, confident or happy a person may SEEM, they can still suffer with anxiety like anyone else. And that as you might expect, Hypnotherapy can help!

This case study has been written with the consent of my client, her name has been changed to maintain her privacy. Please be aware that this story of anxiety touches on trauma.

Hypnotherapy has a long history of successfully helping with pain. But ‘pain’ is not just a physical event, it can be purely emotion event as well!

In fact, whether pain is physical OR emotional, the SAME part of the brain lights up.

Which is why Hypnotherapy is so good at helping anxiety and stress. And it doesn’t matter what is causing that anxiety, or how the anxiety presents itself. Talk to any Hypnotherapist and they are filled to the brim with story after story of how hypnotherapy has helped with all the problems that are rooted in anxiety.

Another Hypnotherapy success story

Mel (not her real name) blew me away when we met. Passionate & confident just doesn’t go far enough! A loving mother, running a thriving business, but deep down coping with more than anyone would ever image.

Session 1 – Trauma assessment & establishing the therapeutic goal

Mel wanted to be the usual relaxed mum she knew she was. She described her level of anxiety as not debilitating, but she wanted it gone.

She described several traumas relating to her children: “Parents don’t realise” she said, “That having kids puts you at risk of so much trauma!”

One of Mel’s children was having treatment for cancer. Whilst she said it was traumatic, she said she was coping and her child was happy, and because there were months of cancer treatment still ahead?

It was too soon to:

• Use Rewind Therapy
• Know if Rewind Therapy was even needed

The Rewind Technique (also know as Trauma Rewind Therapy or Rewind Therapy is a remarkably straightforward therapy that can help reduce the symptoms of trauma and PTSD. But as a didactic process, it has various principles that the therapist must adhere to for a successful outcome, with the first one being that the trauma must be OVER and at least one month in the past.

Mel then described 2 separate traumatic accidents involving her children.

I won’t share details of the events, but an IES form (Impact of Events Scale) established that she was no longer suffering triggering symptoms, intrusive thoughts and had no lasting avoidance behaviours. So again, the Rewind Technique was not needed.

But Mel said she had noticed herself worrying a lot more since these events.

She described it as anxiety about:

• doing something wrong or making mistakes – particularly when driving
• being disapproved of
• not feeling like a good enough mum
• disappointing her those close to her

She knew she was being too hard on herself, and know she was a fabulous mum, knew her home life was good and she LOVED her work.

But then she described not being picked for the team as a teenager, saying it felt linked to her current anxiety and fears. She could feel it in her body and it somehow made her feel held back – even now.

Using Integrated Parts Hypnotherapy we focused on the ‘kick in the stomach’ feeling she described, and supported the subconscious metaphor to let that feeling go. By the end Mel now described that feeling as completely gone.

Parts Hypnosis is a therapy that can help update particularly stubborn self limiting beliefs and old, outdated subconscious metaphors.

Session 2 – Finding the happy in the here and now

I asked Mel to tell me more about what she wanted from Hypnotherapy:

She wanted to increase her income and travel the world with her family, maybe move to Bali and put her kids in an amazing school.

I asked what difference that would make?

‘Free and at peace’ she said

So free and at peace became our focus for the session.

“Let’s find your “free and at peace’ in the here and now, so you’ll know what it feels like to take it into that future with you.”

After all, it’s not the events in our life that create the perception of happiness. Happiness is found on the inside. So to have it in the future, we need to find it in the here and now.

I asked Mel how she would notice that inner freedom & peace in her everyday, if it presented itself tomorrow.

She said she would notice herself:

• Laughing more
• Writing a to-do list for the day
• Feeling good knowing her priorities
• Having more patience with her kids
• Being present with her kids, even if only for a moment

Mel had a light bulb moment

She said this wish list was already happening! She could already see it working. And could imagine what she would notice when it started to increase!

We put this into (confidence building) hypnosis to help build Mel’s resilience and positive expectations of herself – to let go of the baggage of negative self talk, and to find freedom and peace in spite of life’s challenges

Session 3

Mel had been noticing more peace since the last session, and gave a long list of examples.

She had only felt the fear of disappointing people twice and had been able to switch off to it.  She was delighted she hadn’t been triggered by her in-laws! And after 15years, that tight feeling in her stomach had finally gone.

Despite lots of things going wrong she’d been able to:

• keep moving on
• get things done
• find time for self care
• spend time with her husband
• feel relaxed!

I took Mel into a guided state of hypnosis that focused on helping her consciously and subconsciously use her mind to help her happiness and confidence.

Mel concluded that now she just needed to focus on loving herself and the rest could fall into place.

Session 4 – Successfully coping with stress

As life sometimes naturally does, everything felt like it had been going wrong for Mel but she was able to keep moving forward and put one foot in front of the other.

She had also created a gorgeous self care routine that she enjoyed, valued and needed.

What advice would Mel give to someone who’d been struggling with anxiety? After all, she had been coping so well…

Mel’s advice was:

• Keep moving forward
• Do something for yourself
• Treat yourself – you deserve it!

Who would be the least surprised when she successfully found that freedom and peace?

Her best friend, who would describe her as:

• loyal
• vibrant
• smart
• ambitious and driven
• determined
• the BEST

Once Mel had this clear, positive, mental picture of herself including what her best friend sees, I used hypnosis to help her focus on, and build that sense of self even further.

Session 5 – The money block

Mel breezed into her last session refreshed and renewed, saying “I’m stepping into what I want!”

There was no talk of anxiety or guilt, only talk of where she wanted her energies to flow and how she could see things going in the right direction.

Mel wanted to focus on money and taking her abundance to the next level.

Free from anxiety, she wanted to positively focus her mind to help more money enter her life and help money gravitate towards her.

She said she was more than capable and could see how more income could bring more opportunity and freedom to her life.

Seeing her keen and excited, I put all Mel’s best hopes into hypnosis and used it to focus on releasing her perceived money block and welcome in wealth and abundance.

Afterwards she said she was herself crushing her money block in Louis Vuitton heels!

Session 6 – The closing Arrow Technique

“I haven’t been feeling any anxious lately, no anxiety in my stomach either”

Mel’s husband had said how nice she had been, and she had said the same to him!

Mel, who had not mentioned a tendency to drink alcohol daily, said she had cut right back and felt really good about it.

She said seeing her child going through such a rigorous cancer treatment programme was heart breaking but she was levelling up and being strong for him.

She finally felt she could serve family and business more, being true to herself, in calmness and from a place of ‘flow & knowingness’ and with the ability to show up as herself and in her line of work – let people transform!

A sort of ‘catch all’ at the end of therapy, I used the Arrow Technique  to help me let go of any last things that might be remaining.

All finished and pleased with her success, Mel said saw those shoes again.