Hypnotherapy Can Help in Building Your Confidence Today
Being confident in your life and work can be a boon for us all. However sometimes when you need it most, it deserts you. Don’t worry hypnotherapy can help. Firstly, in this post I will define what confidence is all about. Secondly, I describe different examples of situational confidence that you may need help with. Thirdly, I explain how therapy can help your cope with the related high stress factors. Fourthly, I explain how hypnotherapy can help to give your confidence the boost it needs right now. Lastly, I go through some visualisation techniques that can help boost confidence.
What is Confidence?
Confidence for our purposes is defined as, having full trust or belief in the reliability of a person or thing. “I am confident the powers of hypnotherapy will help me.” It is not quite the same thing as self-assurance or being self-confident. Another way of understanding confidence is it tends to be situational. Given a specific situation you may require help to lift your confidence which is where we can help.
Confidence Coaching for Situational Confidence Issues
Confidence can be a situational thing we can help you with. You may be in need of a boost for a specific situation like the ones below.
- You are being asked to do something new you have never done before (make a best man’s speech for the first time).
- You are asked to do something you have done well before but, the situation has now changed (you studied drama for years but, now you are about to take the exam).
- You are asked to do something that is tied to a previous bad experience (go to an interview when last time you tripped over entering the room).
- You can see in all of the above low confidence tends to be bad. Don’t worry we can help.
How Hypnotherapy Can Boost Your Confidence
There are several different techniques that can boost confidence levels. All of the above can also be seen as stress related and hypnotherapy is well known as offering good coping techniques for high stress. In other words, your reaction to all of the above is your mind and body are on high alert pumped up ready to run away or fight for your survival (fff reaction). So, the first hypnotherapy technique to boost your confidence can be improving how you cope with stress. E.g. Suggestions can be offered to better understand your stressed-out feelings and realise they are actually good, they are there for your benefit. If you saw tiger at the edge of a jungle forest you would need all this adrenaline to run away. However, the situation your are in is not life threatening it is just exciting, and you can do it well.
Developing Confidence Using Calm Relaxed Feelings
During a hypnotherapy session you will be induced into hypnosis which means you will become very relaxed, calm and soothed by the words of your therapist. While you are in this comfortable, peaceful state your therapist can suggest you “anchor” these wonderful feelings. This is done by suggesting you really enjoy them, understand them and channel them from where they exist in your relaxed body, down your arm and into a single finger and thumb which you are asked to touch together.
Your subconscious mind will be listening to this and accepting it because, you have told your therapist this is how you want to feel in the stressful situation you are soon going to experience. It is in fact your idea and your ideas will be very acceptable to you under hypnosis. You can then use this anchor to trigger these wonderful calm feelings whenever you want them. You simply press your thumb and finger together again to feel relaxed just before you make that best mans speech for the first time, take your examination or walk into the interview. You might even choose to press together several times during your experience to become calm and relaxed in the moment.
Visualise Doing What You Need to do Well
Before your hypnotherapy session you have an intake interview. In this you will go through a detailed description of your unique, personal issue. This will include enough detail for your therapist to describe back to you in your own words while under relaxing hypnosis. While in hypnosis your subconscious mind is listening while your conscious mind is asleep. The subconscious will always feel that what it is experiencing is actually happening, just like when you dream, and it feels so very real. This means you can be taken through the positive act of doing it well.
So, using your own words you are taken through a positive dream like experience of the event where the outcome is exactly how you want it to be. This the entire reason you have come to hypnotherapy to build your confidence before the event. A suggestion of making a film of this positive experience for you can be offered. Then, in your mind’s eye, you can rerun it several times make sure you remember you can do it and do it very well. You can end up feeling very confident because you have done it very well many times now. All of this will be in your own words which makes it your dream, built by you, for you, in your imagination. This could be just the enhancement to your confidence you are requiring right now.
References:
Hudson L (2010) More Scripts & Strategies in Hypnotherapy. Crown House Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Rosen S (1982) My Voice Will Go with You: The Teaching Tales of Milton H. Erickson (p. 30). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition.
Waller D el al (2008) Student Notes Module Six Working with Self Esteem and Confidence;