Olive Hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy for Anxiety and Low Mood
When you’re living with anxiety and low mood, it feels like your mind never switches off. You’re always worrying about the things that haven’t happened, overthinking conversations or social experiences, feeling exhausted by negative thoughts or struggling to find enjoyment in the things you once loved.
The good news is, you can change all of this.
As a qualified hypnotherapist based in Chester, I help people to better understand their thoughts, regain a sense of control that’s been lost and build much healthier patterns of thinking that help to support long-term wellbeing. It’s not an easy journey, but it could be for you if you feel that you’ve tried lots of other things that just aren’t working.
How does hypnotherapy help anxiety and low mood?
Anxiety and low mood are more than simply feeling worried or sad. They influence everything about your life, including your confidence, sleep, relationships, work, motivation, physical health and the way you view yourself. Hypnotherapy is a holistic approach that works to figure out what’s happening in your mind. Hypnotherapy can help by:
1. Building confidence and self-belief
People who suffer from anxiety and low mood tend to lack both of these things. You might have lost trust in yourself, doubt your decisions, worry about what others think constantly or feel like you aren’t good enough.
Through hypnosis therapy for low mood and anxiety, we can work together to strengthen positive thought patterns and rebuild your confidence.
3. Accessing the subconscious mind
The brain is a tricky thing, and there’s so much we still don’t understand about it. But what we do know is that around 95% of our thoughts, behaviours and emotions are run by our subconscious. Hypnosis allows us to work with this and opens up the subconscious so that unwanted habits can be turned into positive changes. Your brain is more reactive to these changes when in a relaxed, trance-like state.
​
When your mind is relaxed, it’s much easier to create positive change.
2. Reducing fear, worry and overthinking
Anxiety is the best at making us imagine worst-case scenarios. This really is a safety mechanism, but sometimes it works a bit too hard. This is when you get stuck in a cycle of repetitive thinking.
Hypnotherapy calms the mind and reduces the intensity of these fears and worries so they don’t feel overwhelming or take over your life.
4. Lowering stress levels
Stress and anxiety absolutely go hand in hand. Some level of stress is required so that we feel motivated to do something, like completing a work project on time, but too much stress and anxiety isn’t healthy.
Sometimes, the source of stress is obvious and sometimes, it might come from somewhere you never expected. This is why the therapy aspect of the sessions are so important. Together, we'll explore what may be contributing to your stress and work on techniques that help your body and mind relax.
5. Breaking cycles of negative self-talk
For many people with anxiety and low mood, negative thinking is automatic. Solution-Focused Hypnotherapy helps interrupt those patterns and encourages your brain to focus on positive forward movement, like new possibilities, strengths and solutions.
6. Improving sleep
​Poor sleep and mental health are connected, so it’s no wonder people with anxiety and low mood struggle to rest. If you lie awake worrying, wake frequently throughout the night or struggle to switch off before bed, hypnotherapy can help to calm your mind and forge healthier sleep habits.
I'm here to help
You don’t have to struggle on your own with anxiety and low mood. It’s really hard to take that first step and ask for support, but many of my clients tell me they wish they'd done it sooner.
My role isn’t to judge, analyse or dictate. My role is to provide a safe and supportive environment where we can openly discuss your worries and concerns and use hypnotherapy to help you feel calmer and more in control.
I completed my hypnotherapy diploma with Clifton Practice Hypnotherapy Training (CPHT) and I’m also a certified member of the National Council for Hypnotherapy (NCH). Whether you've been struggling for years or have only recently started experiencing symptoms, I'd be happy to discuss how hypnotherapy may be able to help. You can view the kinds of sessions I offer here.
How does the process work?
Initial consultation
Our first session is about getting to know you. We'll discuss your anxiety or low mood, any factors that may be contributing to how you're feeling, your medical history, and the goals you'd like to achieve through therapy.
This session is crucial as it helps me to identify what kind of hypnotherapy is the right one (if it is the right path at all) and is the start of a relationship that’s built on trust.
Ongoing sessions
Sessions will differ depending on the approach but my hypnotherapy sessions generally follow a similar structure:
1. We focus on the positives.
We’ll discuss the happy thoughts or moments you experienced in the last couple of weeks.
​
2. We go through some therapeutic questions
Next, we’ll go through some therapeutic questions and go over the information about how the brain works, relating the science back to how you’re feeling so you can understand the ‘why’ a bit more.
3. We do some hypnosis.
Which isn’t the stereotypical stage hypnosis you might be thinking of. I won’t make you dance round like a chicken, I promise.
The hypnosis for anxiety and low mood lasts for about 20 minutes at the end of the session. I use Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) to combine sensory language with cognitive restructuring, guiding you into a calm, focused state in which your brain is able to fully relax and come up with solutions to your worries.
I might ask you to imagine certain things, like walking down some steps into a beautiful garden or controlling a steel ball in your mind, but it’s also completely normal to zone out during hypnosis and not concentrate on what I’m saying at all.
Most people find this part of the session deeply relaxing and often leave feeling lighter, calmer and more refreshed.
FAQs
What is the difference between hypnosis and hypnotherapy?
Hypnosis is the trance-like state you enter at the end of the session, while hypnotherapy describes the entire session, including the talking therapy and the hypnosis at the end.
A genuine hypnotherapy session draws on a combined approach, integrating elements of psychotherapy, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and neuroscience to create changes at both conscious and subconscious level.
Before any hypnosis takes place, we spend time exploring the roots of your anxiety. This might include where it comes from, what’s driving it and why your brain responds the way it does in certain situations. This talking therapy element is grounded in CBT principles, helping you to recognise unhelpful thought patterns and begin to reframe them.
The hypnosis itself then works at a deeper level. When you're in a trance-like state, your brain becomes more receptive to new ideas and perspectives, making it the ideal moment to reinforce the positive shifts you've already started to explore. You’re working with your brain, rather than against it, and it’s this combined approach that makes hypnotherapy so effective.
What types of anxiety can you help with?
There are lots of types of anxiety that I am able to help with, including:
-
Generalised anxiety (GAD)
-
Panic
-
Social anxiety disorder
-
Health anxiety
-
Driving anxiety
-
Performance anxiety
-
Anxiety associated with OCD
-
Phobia-related anxiety.
How many hypnotherapy sessions do you recommend?
The number generally depends on how you’re feeling, the emotions you’re experiencing and how quickly you begin to see a change. As a general rule, I recommend around eight to 12 sessions before deciding whether you’d like to continue. The sessions start weekly, moving into fortnightly, monthly, etc.
Where do the sessions take place?
I have a private and inviting garden pod at home that is a designated hypnotherapy space. It’s been purposefully designed to be as calm as possible, a space where you can release your emotions and completely relax.
Ready to take the next step?
Living with anxiety or low mood can be exhausting, but things don’t have to stay the way they are.
If you'd like to find out whether hypnotherapy is right for you, I'd love to hear from you. Get in touch today to book your initial consultation and take the first step towards feeling more like yourself again.