Emotional and Cognitive Patterns
Hypnotherapy can help address…
Anxiety, Stress & Anger
When anxiety becomes constant, your nervous system stays locked in threat mode—racing thoughts, tension, poor sleep, and overwhelming reactions become automatic patterns your conscious mind can't override.
Traditional therapy and medication address symptoms and conscious thought, but anxiety operates in subconscious patterns. Hypnotherapy retrains these automatic responses, replacing panic with calm and reactive anger with patience. Research shows hypnosis reduces anxiety more effectively than 79% of control interventions.
I integrate CBT skills with hypnotic reprogramming and understand anxiety's medical physiology as a physician. This approach works best for chronic anxiety where other methods have shown limited success.
Depression
Depression drains pleasure from activities you once enjoyed, depletes energy, disrupts sleep, and makes everything feel futile. The underlying "why bother" belief persists even when medication helps symptoms and CBT addresses conscious thought patterns.
Hypnotherapy enhances CBT by interrupting the automatic negative filtering depression creates and addressing learned helplessness at the subconscious level. We target rumination loops and sleep disruption while you practice behavioral activation—engaging in valued activities even when motivation is absent.
As a physician, I assess medical conditions that may contribute to depression and determine when medication adjustment or more intensive treatment is needed. This approach works best for mild to moderate depression when you're stable on medication or prefer non-medication options, not for severe depression with psychotic features or active suicidal ideation.
Perfectionism & Self-Criticism
Perfectionism becomes a prison—internal standards so demanding that nothing feels good enough. A relentless inner critic minimizes accomplishments and magnifies flaws, creating anxiety, avoidance, procrastination, and exhaustion from never measuring up.
CBT helps identify perfectionist thoughts, but these patterns often run deeper than conscious awareness. Hypnotherapy addresses automatic self-criticism, ingrained beliefs about your worth, and fear of failure at the subconscious level where they operate.
Research shows self-compassion actually improves motivation and performance compared to harsh self-criticism. We shift toward healthy striving—maintaining excellence while accepting you're human. As a physician in high-pressure environments, I understand this tension intimately.
Research Support
Valentine KE, Milling LS, Clark LJ, Moriarty CL. (2019). The Efficacy of Hypnosis as a Treatment for Anxiety: A Meta-Analysis. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 67(3):336-363.
Rosendahl J, Alldredge CT, Haddenhorst A, et al. (2024). Meta-analytic evidence on the efficacy of hypnosis for mental and somatic health issues. Contemporary Hypnosis & Integrative Therapy, 38(1):34-58.
Anxiety & Stress:
Alladin A, Alibhai A. (2007). Cognitive hypnotherapy for depression: an empirical investigation. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 55(2):147-166.
Yapko MD. (2010). Hypnosis and treating depression: Applications in clinical practice. Routledge/Taylor & Francis.
Depression:
Egan SJ, Wade TD, Shafran R. (2011). Perfectionism as a transdiagnostic process: A clinical review. Clinical Psychology Review, 31(2):203-212.
Gilbert P, Procter S. (2006). Compassionate mind training for people with high shame and self-criticism. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 13(6):353-379.
Perfectionism & Self-Criticism: