Madeline’s husband loved to play golf and was excited to play Pebble Beach with an old college buddy. She wanted to make the road trip with him to Monterey (400 miles in 7 hours) but she felt scared, unsafe and out of control when he was driving. Around town together, she usually did the driving to avoid these fears. This trip was too long for her to use that coping technique and just thinking about it was making her so anxious that she was considering not going. How might I help her?

Hypno-Desensitization or Hypnotherapy facilitated Systematic Desensitization is an integrated method that combines the power of hypnosis and the proven behavioral therapy technique of Systematic Desensitization. It can empower you to manage, reduce and overcome a wide variety of specific, situational fears and the anxiety you experience in those situations.

In our first session together, we used hypnosis to help Madeline achieve a state of deep relaxation and I gave her an anchor. An anchor is two words that “anchor” in the positive, relaxed feeling she felt in hypnosis. She could close her eyes (as long as he was driving) and breathe in as she said “Beach” and breathe out as she said “Happy,” the two words that described her special happy place and the positive feeling it gave her.

Next, I used systematic desensitization to help her let go of the feelings of being out of control and the anxiety that she felt when her husband was driving. She replaced the anxiety with the happy, positive feelings she feels at the beach. In hypnosis, I reminded her that while the brain is a wonderful, complex organ, it can only have one thought at a time. I encouraged her to get in touch with the feelings of being out of control while he was driving and then let those feelings pass and replace them with her feeling of being happy at the beach. We did this several times until she was no longer able to access those feelings of being out of control. This is systematic desensitization – replacing those negative feelings with a positive feeling of your special place.

After a few sessions Madeline was able to go with her husband cheerfully to Monterey. He thoroughly enjoyed his golf game. She enjoyed the beach in Monterey very much and now uses it as a new anchor whenever she and her husband head out on a road trip.

Used in conjunction with Hypnotherapy, I find Systematic Desensitization very effective in empowering clients to manage and overcome unwanted fears and associated anxiety that limit their enjoyment of life.

Some common fears:

Fear of Flying
Fear of Public Speaking
Fear of Driving

If this is something of interest to you, please give me a call (818-929-4944) or join us any Wednesday on my Hypnotherapy Q and A. You can register here..

https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0lfu6trjIvGNZ8XkMGblRSB97cmXEKVT6p

Sincerely,

Cinda