Session 4 or 6 - Anxiety Treatment Hypnotherapy - Worry Chair Metaphor
The worry chair is a tried and tested metaphor technique used in both NLP and hypnotherapy. You must be very dedicated to the idea of positive change, which is why most clients come to a therapist. Then in hypnosis you make a deal with yourself and your therapist to only worry when you are sat in your worry chair. If you stick to this deal, it should help your anxiety and the worries that often come with it.
Plan for Anxiety Therapy Session 4 of 6
- Discuss progress since last time and how much better you are coping.
- Hypnotic induction.
- SUDS scale (10 to 1) to measure your anxiety at the moment.
- Peaceful place and reinforce anchor.
- Worry chair metaphor Imagine you have 2 chairs in a room with you. 1 is a worry chair the other is a not worrying chair.
- Imagine you take a seat in your worry chair now. You have 10 minutes and only 10 minutes to worry here and verbalise your worries, speak them out loud. Go. 10 minutes of worrying comes to an end.
- Imagine now you take seat in the not worrying chair. I would like you to go over all your worries and rationalise them. Make the outcomes of your worries more realistic, balanced, and pleasant. Come up with more positive outcomes for them all. See all your worries and their outcomes in a different, more positive light. Go. 10 minutes of positive rationalisation comes to an end.
- Ego-strengthening suggestions.
- SUDS scale (10 to 1) to measure your anxiety.
- Count out of hypnosis.
Add-Ons to do at Home
- Reminder to practice with breathing, peaceful place anchor and STOP.
In your home or office create a worry chair or a worry corner. The only time you go there is when you have 10 minutes available to you.
Now we must strike a deal, that next week your assigned worry chair or worry corner is the only place you allow yourself to worry. All other times you start to worry you just STOP! and tell the worries to come back later.
You really want to change the outcome of your anxiety, don’t you? Good, making this deal with me and sticking to it as best you can will help change your outcomes for the better.
So, when you enter your worry chair or worry corner, you are allowed to worry for 5 minutes and only 5 minutes. You can do this out loud, quietly to yourself or silently in your minds eye. Check the time when you enter or set an alarm. Alexa is very useful for this.
Once you have worried for 5 minutes, sit anywhere else and rationalise your thoughts. Make the outcomes of your anxious worrying more positive and realistic. Look at your worries differently and see or understand it is very unlikely for the worst outcome you are imagining to happen.
It is far more likely your more realistic, rationalised, positive outcomes will happen.
Creating a Worry Time is an Alternative
An easy alternative to this is creating a specific worry time. 10 minutes a day at your allotted time you can worry. No worrying outside that time. If a worry comes to you at any other time in the day or night, you tell it to go away and come back at the specific time you have set aside. This is also a tried and tested technique and it does not have to happen in hypnosis. As long as the client sticks to the deal it should work. They have come to see a therapist for help so, they should have the motivation to help themselves with this.
That worry chair sounds like a great idea. I worry loads and can even loose sleep with it sometimes. Making myself a specific time to do it makes perfect sense. Can you tell me is it safe to do this on my own?
Hi Landa, Yes it is safe to do. However, it is best to do it under therapy as you are likely to get more out of it. Drop me an email if you would like to book in. All the best, Kevin