Understanding Anxiety: What Triggers It and How Hypnotherapy Can Help
Anxiety is something many people live with, often silently. It can affect sleep, concentration, confidence, and even relationships. Anxiety causes people to do less, achieve less and avoid more. Behind every anxious response lies a a trigger often rooted in past experiences or unprocessed emotions. Hypnotherapy for anxiety and getting to the root cause is one of the keys to change.
As a clinical hypnotherapist and psychotherapist with over 20 years experience, I have worked with hundreds of people who thought anxiety was something they simply had to live with. The truth is: it’s not. Once we identify and address the root cause with hypnotherapy, healing is possible.
Types of Anxiety
Anxiety can show up in many forms. Understanding the different types can help you recognise your own experiences and begin to see that you’re not alone, and that support is available.
Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
This is a constant feeling of worry, nervousness or dread, even when there’s no obvious reason. People with GAD often describe a mind that “won’t switch off,” especially at night. They regularly say things like “I’ve always been a worrier” or “I worry about everything”.
In therapy, we work together to uncover the underlying beliefs or past events fuelling this constant sense of unease. Hypnotherapy is particularly effective for calming the nervous system and creating a sense of inner peace.
Social Anxiety
Social anxiety goes beyond shyness. It can create intense fear of being judged, embarrassed or rejected in social settings. This can hold people back from friendships, work opportunities and everyday interactions.
Clients often tell me how they’ve avoided social situations for years. Through a combination of enhanced CBT psychotherapy and analytical hynotherapy, we gently explore when these fears first began, often during the developmental years of childhood. Hypnotherapy helps rewire those responses and build new confidence.
Panic Attacks
Panic attacks come suddenly and can feel terrifying with a racing heart, shortness of breath, chest pain or dizziness. Often, there is a fear of the next attack, which creates a cycle of worry and avoidance. Many people describe how they call an ambulance feeling so certain that they are going to have a heart attack, stroke or faint. The aftermath is to live in fear of a panic attack reoccurring and then the fear of an other attack causes even more anxiety.
With the right support, I’ve seen people go from panic attacks and fear of having a panic attach to a sense of feeling in control. Together we identify the original source of fear stored in the mind and body and use regression hypnotherapy to resolve it at its core.
Phobias
A phobia is an intense fear of a specific object or situation—like needles, flying, spiders, or enclosed spaces. Often, people know the fear is irrational, but it feels impossible to control.
In sessions specific techniques to understand where the phobia began, often a forgotten or childhood event. Hypnotherapy helps replace the fear with calm and rational responses.
Health Anxiety (Hypochondria)
This type of anxiety is marked by persistent worry about health—even when medical tests offer reassurance. It can be exhausting and impact daily life.
Health anxiety often arises from a fear of loss, illness, or a past traumatic event. Together we trace the emotional root, work with it gently through health anxiety enhanced CBT tools to restore a sense of safety in the body.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
OCD involves intrusive thoughts and repetitive behaviours (like checking or cleaning) that are difficult to stop, even when they cause distress.
OCD is often a way the mind tries to gain control when life feels unpredictable. I help clients understand what the compulsions are trying to protect them from and use tailored hypnotherapy techniques to break the cycle and ease the mind.
Post-Traumatic Stress (PTSD)
PTSD can develop after a person experiences or witnesses a deeply distressing event, such as an accident, assault, loss, or childhood trauma. It often includes flashbacks, nightmares, heightened alertness, and a sense of emotional detachment. Many people with PTSD don’t always connect their current symptoms to the past experience.
In my practice, I’ve helped many clients gently process traumatic memories using a blend of hypnotherapy and psychotherapy trauma-informed protocols. We create a safe space to heal the emotional imprint of the trauma.
The Power of Finding the Root Cause
In all forms of anxiety, the symptoms are messages from the body and mind, signalling unresolved emotions, unmet needs, or past traumas. Hypnotherapy is not just about managing the symptoms. It’s about healing what lies beneath.
Over the past two decades, I’ve learned that the most lasting change comes when we stop asking, “What’s wrong with me?” and start asking, “What happened to me?”
Using a combination of analytical hypnotherapy, psychotherapy and mind-body techniques, we gently explore these roots in a safe, compassionate space. Many clients are surprised by how deeply these sessions unlock emotional insights and bring lasting relief, even after years of suffering.
You Don’t Have to Live with Anxiety
If you are experiencing anxiety, whether it’s constant, situational or something you can’t quite name, know that there is a reason for it, and more importantly, a path out of it.
Hypnotherapy offers you the space to understand yourself more fully, heal what hurts, and rediscover calm, confidence and clarity.
I’m here to walk that journey with you.
Contact Sinead Duffy to find out more.
Clinical Hypnotherapist and Psychotherapist, Monaghan and Online
How Hypnotherapy Can Help You Overcome Emotional Trauma
If you feel like you are carrying emotional pain from your past, whether in the form of low self-worth, anxiety, or difficulties in relationships, your childhood experiences may be affecting you. When our emotional needs in childhood go unmet, it can leave a lasting impact that follows us into adulthood. The good news is that it is never too late to heal those old wounds. Hypnotherapy offers a powerful way to release emotional trauma and feel good.
During childhood, we rely on our caregivers to meet our emotional needs for love, nourishment safety, and validation. When those needs are not met for whatever reason, children adapt to survive. These coping mechanisms, while necessary at the time, often create patterns that follow us into adulthood and limit our ability to thrive.
- Low self-worth: If you grew up without consistent love or validation, you may struggle with feelings of inadequacy, constantly seeking approval from others to feel worthy.
- Difficulty in relationships: Unmet needs in childhood can lead to fear of intimacy, trust issues, or emotional distance in adult relationships. You may struggle to form deep, meaningful connections or fear abandonment.
- Perfectionism and people-pleasing: When children do not feel valued, they often learn to seek approval through perfectionism or people-pleasing, always trying to meet others’ expectations to feel secure.
- Chronic anxiety or numbness: Childhood trauma can lead to living in a constant state of anxiety or emotional detachment, as your nervous system stays on alert to avoid further pain or disappointment.
These behaviours are often deeply ingrained and difficult to change on your own because they are tied to emotional wounds stored in your subconscious. Sometimes we simply have no awareness of what we are doing because we have been doing it for so long. However, with the right therapeutic approach, you can heal and move beyond the patterns that no longer serve you.
The Path to Healing Through Emotional Release
Healing from unmet childhood needs is not about understanding what happened; it is about releasing the emotional pain that has been felt and repressed in your mind and body for years.
The emotions that were too overwhelming to process at the time—such as fear, sadness, or anger—are often repressed, affecting your thoughts, behaviours, and even physical health.
Hypnotherapy is a powerful tool for releasing these suppressed emotions. By working directly with the subconscious mind, hypnotherapy allows you to access and heal emotional pain in a safe and supportive environment.
Why Hypnotherapy is Effective in Releasing Emotional Trauma
Hypnotherapy works by guiding you into a deeply relaxed state where the conscious mind—the part that often blocks painful memories and emotions—steps aside. In this relaxed state, the subconscious becomes more accessible, allowing you to release old emotional pain and rebuild healthier beliefs and behaviours.
How hypnotherapy can help:
- Accessing suppressed emotions: Hypnotherapy allows you to safely access emotions. By bringing these emotions to the surface, you can finally acknowledge and release them, freeing yourself from their grip.
- Creating a safe space for healing: In a hypnotherapy session, you are guided through your memories and emotions in a safe, supportive environment. This helps you revisit painful childhood experiences without fear or judgment, allowing for deeper healing.
- Healing the inner child: Often, the emotional wounds we carry come from the younger version of ourselves—the inner child who still holds the pain of unmet needs. Hypnotherapy helps you connect with that inner child, offering them the love, care, and validation they didn’t receive growing up.
- Reprogramming limiting beliefs: Once you have released old emotional pain you are ready to create powerful, beneficial thoughts and feelings that serve you replacing old feelings such as “I’m not good enough” or “I don’t deserve love”—with new, empowering beliefs that reflect your true worth.
The Benefits of Engaging in Therapy
- The process of healing from childhood trauma is liberating. As you release old emotions and rebuild your sense of self, you will begin to experience a profound shift in how you live and interact with the world.
- Greater emotional freedom: By releasing the emotional pain stored in your subconscious, you will feel lighter, more present, and less weighed down by the past.
- Improved relationships: Healing old wounds allows you to form healthier, more fulfilling relationships. You will no longer feel the need to prove your worth or fear vulnerability in your connections with others.
- Enhanced self-esteem and confidence: As you reprogram your subconscious with healthier beliefs, you’ll begin to see yourself in a new light—one of self-compassion, confidence, and worth.
- Reduced anxiety and stress: Once your emotional wounds are addressed, you will experience a reduction in anxiety and stress, allowing you to live with more peace and calm.
Take the First Step Towards Healing
If you are struggling with low self-worth, anxiety, or difficulty in relationships, unmet childhood needs may be playing a larger role than you realise. Maybe now is the time for change.
Hypnotherapy offers a compassionate and effective way to release the emotional pain of the past and begin living with greater freedom and authenticity.
Healing is a journey, and each step you take brings you closer to the life you deserve,one where you feel worthy, loved, and emotionally free. If you are ready to start your healing journey, hypnotherapy can provide the support and tools you need to finally let go of the past and enjoy living your life.
Contact Sinéad Duffy to book your first hypnotherapy session today.
Enhancing CBT with Hypnotherapy
In the world of psychology, new approaches continually emerge, offering new pathways to healing and personal growth. One such approach gaining attention is Enhanced Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) whereby aspects of hypnotherapy and CBT are used together. This dynamic combination integrates the principles of traditional CBT with the profound effects of hypnosis, creating a powerful tool for therapists and clients alike.
At its core, CBT focuses on the connection between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. By identifying and challenging negative thought patterns, individuals can transform their emotional responses and actions, leading to improved mental well-being. Hypnotherapy, on the other hand, harnesses the power of deep relaxation to access the subconscious mind, where underlying beliefs and emotions reside.
How Does Hypnotherapy-Enhanced CBT Work in Practice?
- Deep Relaxation: Through hypnosis, clients enter a state of deep relaxation, enabling them to access a heightened state of awareness and receptivity. This relaxation serves as a foundation for therapeutic work, fostering a sense of calm and safety.
- Exploring the Subconscious: Hypnosis allows therapists to delve into the subconscious mind, where deeply ingrained beliefs and memories are stored. By accessing this level of awareness, clients can gain insight into the root causes of their issues, paving the way for profound healing.
- Enhanced Imagery: Hypnosis amplifies the power of imagery techniques commonly used in CBT. Clients can vividly visualise positive outcomes, confront fears, and rehearse new behaviours, making cognitive restructuring more impactful and transformative.
- Behavioural Rehearsal: Hypnotherapy facilitates mental rehearsal, empowering clients to practice new behaviours and coping strategies in the safety of their imagination. This rehearsal builds confidence and resilience, preparing clients for real-life challenges.
- Empowerment and Self-Efficacy: Through the process of Enhanced CBT with hypnotherapy, clients develop a deeper understanding of their thoughts, emotions, and behaviours. This self-awareness fosters a sense of empowerment and self-efficacy, empowering clients to take control of their lives and make positive changes.
By integrating the strengths of both CBT and hypnotherapy, a comprehensive and holistic approach is available to address psychological issues. This blend of modalities opens doors to new possibilities for healing, growth, and well-being.
To book your CBT and hypnotherapy session contact me.
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A panic attack is a sudden and intense feeling of terror, fear, or apprehension, without the presence of actual danger. The symptoms of a panic attack are very intense with sudden onset. Panic attacks usually peak and subside within 10 minutes. Physical responses in the body include palpitations, dizziness, sweating, choking, trembling or shaking and breathlessness.
During a panic attack, a person may feel as though they are suffocating, having a heart-attack or indeed dying. Sufferers of panic attacks feel their symptoms so intensely that they call emergency services for help and following physical examination paramedics can find nothing wrong.
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5)
A panic attack is characterised by a “surge of intense fear or intense discomfort that reaches a peak within minutes”
Symptoms of Panic Attacks
The experience can vary from one person to the next, but some of the most common symptoms include:
- Chest pain or discomfort
- Chills or hot sensations
- Feeling of choking
- Feeling dizzy, unsteady, lightheaded, or faint
- Fear of dying
- Fear of losing control or going crazy
- Feelings of being detached from oneself
- Nausea or abdominal distress
- Numbness or tingling sensations
- Palpitations, pounding heart, or accelerated heart rate
- Sensations of shortness of breath or smothering
- Sweating
- Trembling or shaking
Treatment for Panic Attacks
Evidence based clinical hypnotherapy and psychotherapy is effective in the treatment of panic attacks. It focuses on:
– Alleviatingthe underlying anxiety triggering panic attacks
– Minimising the occurrence of panic attacks
– Reducing the persistent worry about having additional panic attacks
– Removing the need for avoidant safety behaviours and activities
Click here to make an appointment with Sinead
Experienced Hypno-Psychotherapist in Monaghan town and online.
Insomnia and Sleepless Nights – How to Gain Freedom from Lack of Sleep
If you are reading this you are probably already too familiar with insomnia and sleepless nights. Experts believe that one in three of us suffer from insomnia or sleep related problems at some stage in our lives. According to the “Truth About Sleep BBC Documentary” we are sleeping almost 2 hours less than we were 60 years ago. 40% of the population are actually getting less than 6 hours sleep per night.
Sleep is a much studied subject and countless researchers and physicians worldwide continue to study the negative affects of lack of sleep. Stanford University state that there are over 100 different types of sleep disorders ranging from difficulty sleeping at night to problems with excessive daytime sleepiness.
When peoples’ lives are greatly affected by sleep deprivation and they just want to know what they can do about it so that they can get to sleep naturally.
What is Insomnia?
Insomnia is defined as a difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep, waking up too early, or not getting restful, restorative sleep.
Acute insomnia is defined as insomnia that lasts a few weeks and is usually the result of emotional or physical stress or anxiety.
Chronic insomnia is defined as difficulty sleeping for at least 3 nights a week or more for more that 1 month and is often associated with medical or psychological disorders.
How Does Lack of Sleep Affect Your Health?
Everybody has a broken night’s sleep every now and then but when it happens more often it may be affecting your overall health.
Symptoms of insomnia include lack of energy, problems with memory or concentration, daytime sleepiness, impairments to attention and memory, poor performance and problems with family due to irritability. Lack of sleep alters a person’s mood and can predispose then to anxiety, depression and other mood related disorders.
There is lots of evidence to show that lack of sleep can also contribute to weight gain and type 2 diabetes, as people reach for carbohydrate and sweet foods as their glucose levels have been affected by lack of sleep.
Our thoughts, feelings and beliefs about sleep play an important role in getting a comfortable nights sleep. Whether you lie awake worrying about the future or ruminating about the past everyone can learn the skill of stilling the mind. If reoccurring dreams keep you awake, then perhaps your mind is trying to resolve something that therapy can further facilitate.
Hypnotherapy and Psychotherapy for Insomnia and Sleep Related Problems
There’s lots of evidence supporting hypnotherapy and psychotherapy is one of the most effective ways of treating insomnia and sleep related problems. The word hypnosis is from the Greek god of sleep and is effective in training the mind and body to relax deeply. The treatment for insomnia includes the use of therapeutic interventions to establish and ultimately ease the conscious or subconscious reasons why you may like awake at night.
“I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I’m awake, you know?”
– Ernest Hemingway
Poor sleep, insomnia and sleep related problems can have a huge impact on your health and wellbeing, leaving you feeling exhausted and worn-out. If you are not getting adequate or restorative sleep and would like to find out how hypnotherapy and psychotherapy can help, please give me a call.
Reduce Anxiety, Improve Memory, and Stay Focused During Exams
Exam season can bring intense pressure. For many students, the fear of failure, mental overload, and sleepless nights can start months before the exams even begin. While a certain level of stress can enhance motivation, excessive exam stress and anxiety can impair concentration, memory retention, and academic performance. Hypnotherapy has helped many students manage exam stress and perform at their best.
It is quite normal to feel apprehensive before exams, especially when your results affect your future choices and opportunities. However when too much worry can lead to anxiety and panic which in turn effects performance. Patterns of poor sleep and late night studying can compound the problem
When the mind is calm, concentration flows, memory improves, and exams feel more manageable.
How Hypnotherapy Helps with Exam Stress
Hypnotherapy for exam anxiety is a natural and effective approach that helps calm the nervous system, reduce performance anxiety, and improve focus and confidence. With guided relaxation and positive suggestion techniques, students can access a more balanced mental state that supports memory and clear thinking.
Research supports the use of Hypnotherapy for academic performance:
- A 2020 study in Contemporary Hypnosis & Integrative Therapy found that students who received hypnotherapy for test anxiety showed significant improvements in exam scores and mental focus.
- Hypnosis has been shown to increase alpha brainwave activity, which is associated with relaxed alertness and improved recall.
- According to the British Psychological Society, hypnotherapy can be a useful adjunct for students managing anxiety and sleep disturbances before exams.
Hypnotherapy Helps Exam Students:
- Reduce anxiety and nervousness that impair memory
- Improve concentration and attention span
- Boost confidence and motivation
- Support deep relaxation and restorative sleep
- Enhance mental clarity and information recall
“With a calm mind you can perform at your best.”
Start Early for Best Results
Hypnotherapy works best when there is time to prepare and practice. Regular sessions before exam season allow the mind to build resilience, reduce stress levels, and anchor a sense of confidence and readiness.
A well prepared mind is an effective one
Welcome to Hynotherapy for Health.
Whether you want to freedom from anxiety or over come depression or have a behaviour you simply cannot control, then hypnotherapy and psychotherapy can help.
- Overcome anxiety, fears, phobias & panic attacks
- Eliminate stress, insomnia and depression
- Ease psychosomatic conditions e.g. eczema, psoriasis, IBS
- Banish exam nerves and performance anxiety
- Increase confidence and self esteem
- Overcome unwanted behaviour e.g. nail biting, smoking, snoring, sleepwalking
Hypnosis is not a therapy in itself. Rather, a therapy is conducted in hypnosis, which is known as hypnotherapy or hypno-psychotherapy. Hypnosis is a state of relaxation and concentration at one with the state of heightened awareness induced by suggestion. It is a natural trance state, like daydreaming, when the mind is relaxed and focused, where time passes very quickly, accompanied by good feelings of deep relaxation of mind and body.
Hypnotherapy is a treatment that is based on the premise that the mind and body do not work in isolation. By guiding a person into a hypnotic state, the therapist aims to trigger the body’s mental and physical self-healing processes that lie in the subconscious.
Anybody can be guided into a hypnotic state; it is not a sign of gullibility or suggestibility on the part of the patient. Hypnosis induces a state of relaxation and concentration that practitioners claim is a natural manifestation of the mind at work.
When undergoing hypnotherapy, patients are conscious and aware, but are open to the power of suggestion. They cannot be induced to do anything against their will.
Birth Calmly with Hypnobirthing
Women the world over are seeking out hypnobirthing to facilitate a calm and natural birth. By practising simple and specific hypnotic relaxation techniques during pregnancy, you can release birthing fears and anxieties and build confidence in yourself and your body’s ability to give birth naturally. When you are physically and mentally relaxed during labour you can have much more manageable child birthing experience.
With the help of hypnobirthing, you can:
- Enjoy deep sleep during pregnancy
- Reduce the need for pain relief
- Shorten labour times
- Learn the deep hypnotic relaxation techniques
- Release fears and anxiety of the birthing process
- Build confidence in your own ability to birth naturally
- Calmly connect with the natural birthing process
- Connect with your body’s innate wisdom
Contact Sinead Duffy to book your hypnobirthing sessions.