Hypnosis for Change-Induced Stress
by/Margit Cathrine moller

Mara Lopez (not her real name) was twenty years old when her family migrated to New Brunswick, Canada from the Philippines. After the initial weeks of excitement, tours, and exploration of her new home, she began to experience headaches. After a month, she succumbed to depression and locked herself in her room. Her family had to forcibly unlock the door and bring Mara to a hospital where she was treated for depression. Fortunately, a good friend suggested hypnosis to help her work out her issues of fear and anxiety. After two months Mara is back to her usual self. She has embraced the changes in her life and is now working in convenience store.

Mara is among the millions of people all over the world stressed by change. In a fast-changing world where climate change, global economy, and migration provide a large context to personal changes such as divorce, career movements, or simply growing old, many people are simply overwhelmed.

“There was just too much to deal with. Fear of being rejected. Fear of the cold weather…anxiety because of joblessness…pain of losing my sources of comfort. All these were too much to bear,” wrote Mara in one of her blogs.

Some people can deal with stresses in a healthy manner. But a lot of them do not have the coping mechanism or the inner resources to withstand the stress. That is where hypnosis becomes a valuable tool.

a. It relieves tensions

Through a guided exercise that leads to an altered state of consciousness, your body and mind will be guided to release what you need to let go of to find peace. Even one session of hypnosis can bring much relaxation to the body however frequent sessions are required to bring the body to a level where the hormones return to normal and for the muscles to rest.

b. It resolves underlying issues

Consulting Hypnosis – where hypnosis is accompanied by a counseling session – seeks to understand the root causes and the basis of your stress-responses. Hypnosis may help you reframe how you experience life by introducing a new experience to substitute the old. It is called reframing and is used to detach yourself from any previous negative control over your life.

c. It releases creative energies Another potential, positive result of hypnosis, although it does not happen all the time, is that it can lead to a release of creative energies. On some occasions, the healing experience awakes several passions such as writing, or art. It has been a known fact that majority of the people who went through regular hypnotherapy session become very productive afterwards.

d. It boosts the immune system

A controlled research for medical students of Ohio University revealed that those who went through regular hypnosis have stronger immune systems based on blood tests.

These are just some of the many ways in which hypnosis helps people deal with the stresses induced by change however the results are really personal and individual.