Can Hypnotherapy Help With Anxiety on the Gold Coast?

If you're dealing with racing thoughts, panic attacks, constant worry, or overwhelming fear, you're not alone. After helping Gold Coast residents overcome anxiety for over a decade, I can tell you this: yes, hypnotherapy can help with anxiety – and it often works when other treatments haven't.

Here's what you need to know about anxiety treatment on the Gold Coast, and how hypnotherapy offers a different approach than what you've probably tried before.

Anxiety Treatment Gold Coast: Understanding What's Really Happening

When searching for anxiety treatment on the Gold Coast, you'll find psychologists, psychiatrists, and counselors. But here's something most people don't understand about anxiety:

Anxiety isn't something you're consciously creating. You didn't wake up one day and decide to feel anxious. That's why positive thinking and "just relax" advice feels so frustrating – you would if you could, right?

Watch this to understand what's really happening with your anxiety:

Why Do I Feel So Out of Control When Anxiety Strikes?

The effects of panic attacks and anxiety can range from uncomfortable to terrifying and incapacitating. What makes it worse is that anxiety and panic attacks are triggered and compounded at an automatic, subconscious level of your mind.

This gives you that very "out of control" feeling. Your conscious attempts to calm down seem to have little or no effect. By the time you're aware of your anxious feelings, it's already too late to "think" your way out of it. You're already sliding down that slippery slope.

Often, it's very difficult for friends, family, or loved ones to offer meaningful help. They struggle to understand why you become so worked up about something that falls outside their own logical understanding and experience.

This often leads individuals with anxiety or panic attacks to feel isolated, misunderstood, and alone in dealing with the problem.

What About Phobias? How Are They Different From General Anxiety?

An individual with a phobia of a given object, environment, or situation will find themselves virtually instantaneously swept up and flushed with feelings of anxiety bordering on overwhelm.

This materializes as sweaty palms, elevated pulse rate, quickened breathing, accompanied by feelings of panic and anxiety – triggered simply by the presence of, or sometimes just the suggestion of, the object of their phobia.

The good news? Phobias respond incredibly well to hypnotherapy – usually in just 1-3 sessions.

What's Really Causing My Anxiety? Is It a Mental Illness?

Here's where conventional thinking gets it wrong. Anxiety, panic attacks, and phobias are greatly misunderstood in many circles.

They all arise as an inbuilt protection mechanism of the unconscious mind doing its job – performing one of its primary functions of ensuring your protection and survival.

In the case of ALL phobias and MOST anxiety and panic attacks, the unconscious mind is simply "overprotecting." It's an adaptive response trying to keep you safe.

For phobias, a scare activates a dormant protector. For anxiety, a series of upsetting experiences puts this 'security guard' on high alert. Your subconscious mind cannot distinguish between real and imagined threats.

Viewing anxiety as a mental illness is not helpful. It's your brain trying to protect you – it just needs to be recalibrated.

Left untreated, most forms of anxiety and phobias will generally worsen over time.

After 15 years of crippling anxiety, Annette overcomes agoraphobia and panic attacks:

Why Don't Traditional Anxiety Treatments Work?

The current thinking in traditional mental health services for treating anxiety consists of a combination of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and mood-altering medications.

The Problem With Anxiety Medications

Common anxiety medications include:

• Ativan
• Buspar
• Celexa
• Effexor
• Klonopin
• Paxil
• Prozac
• Wellbutrin
• Xanax
• Zoloft

Many of these drugs are benzodiazepines, which can be both mentally and physically addictive. If you've been on any of these medications for any length of time, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Trying to quit these drugs is a nightmare experience for most. You must do it very carefully, under constant supervision of a physician, and only over a period of weeks or months. Breaking free from these drugs comes at a knee-crawl pace.

If stopped too quickly, the physical withdrawal symptoms can mimic the very same emotional problems you had before starting the medication – anxiety, panic, physical symptoms.

The purpose of medication is to help you change your state – to help you feel better. But it's easy to change your state simply by changing how you perceive the things you used to fear. That's exactly what we'll be helping you do with hypnotherapy.

Why Doesn't CBT Work for Anxiety?

Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy has significant limitations when it comes to anxiety treatment.

Anxiety is not a consciously created activity. You didn't consciously choose to have your anxiety problem. So how can anyone expect that by simply consciously thinking "the right way" about it when faced with the situation that triggers your anxiety, you'll suddenly be anxiety-free?

It doesn't work that way. And therein lies the problem with conventional CBT. You have to THINK about it.

But by the time you're aware of your anxious feelings, it's already too late to "think" your way out of it. You're already sliding down the slippery slope.

Clinical levels of anxiety are almost totally the result of subconsciously driven processes. That's part of the reason your problem feels so out of control.

Trying to control a subconsciously driven problem through conscious means (talk therapy) is pretty futile. It's like trying to put a square peg in a round hole.

Gold Coast Hypnotherapy for Anxiety: How Does It Work Differently?

Our Gold Coast hypnotherapy clinic specializes in anxiety disorders including generalized anxiety, panic attacks, social anxiety, performance anxiety, and phobias.

Some part of you probably knows very well that your anxiety or phobia is irrational and doesn't really make any logical sense. In fact, on some level, you probably realize that it's not "that thing out there" that makes you feel fearful, scared, or anxious.

It's your individual perception of what's going on that determines your seemingly automatic feelings about it.

That explains why you have this reaction, while others are able to be in that situation or context all day long, feeling just fine about it. They literally perceive that object or situation differently than you do. And they don't have to try to feel fine about it. They just do. Seemingly easily and automatically.

The Breakthrough: Changing Perception at the Subconscious Level

Here's the good news: Our program involves using NLP, EFT, and hypnosis to change your perception and automatic, subconscious responses to whatever it is you've been fearing.

Whenever you change your perception of anything – whether it's a present moment object, a past memory, or a fearful imagining of what could go wrong in the future – you can't help but feel differently about it.

As an NLP Practitioner, I can help you do this because we're experts at altering something called subjective experience. Rather than something vague, intangible and nondescript, subjective experience has a clear and identifiable structure.

When you alter that structure, your perceptions change immediately – they can't NOT change.

How Does NLP and Hypnosis Actually Change My Brain's Response to Anxiety?

Let me use an interesting analogy. Think of your brain as a jukebox. Inside a jukebox, you have a lot of different records. If you push this button, that record plays very reliably, again and again and again. If you push a different button, a different record plays reliably, again and again and again.

It's a great example of an automatic, pre-programmed stimulus-response association.

But what IS a record? A record is literally a recording of something that happened a long time ago. It's not the ORIGINAL event – it's just a RECORD of that event, which when you push the right "trigger" buttons, sounds just like the original and may even cause you to feel the same exact way you felt when the original event was taking place.

Re-Recording Your Brain's Anxiety Response

The only way your brain could know how to feel now about various situations, contexts, or things is by virtue of your past experiences in those situations or contexts.

How does your brain know what happened in the past? The only way it could know is by virtue of your memories – your own personal mental "records" of things that happened in the past.

But just like a musical record, a memory is not the real event. It's just a mental record of the event, which when you play it back, can cause you to feel exactly the same way you felt when the original event happened.

At Positive TranceFormations, we teach you how to take that record out of the jukebox and literally re-record it, so that when you put that record back in the jukebox, you can push that button all you want, but that record will never play the same way again – no matter how hard you try.

The reference material your brain had been using to tell you to feel fearful in these situations will be altered for good.

Your brain will literally forget why it should feel fearful in those formerly troubling contexts – freeing you up to live comfortably and confidently based on what's happening right here in the present, rather than being a prisoner of your past.

These are conscious mental exercises you'll be doing, but their effect on the subconscious mind is powerful, effective, and best of all, permanent!

How Many Sessions Will I Need for Anxiety Treatment?

Here's the fantastic news for Gold Coast Anxiety and Panic Attack sufferers and those with Phobias:

Simple Phobias (Those caused by either 1 or 2 Past Traumas) can be completely cured using NLP, EFT and Hypnosis in just 1-2 Sessions! Complex Phobias (Those caused by multiple Traumas) usually require 3-6 sessions.

Anxiety and Panic Attacks can be managed and brought right under control, if not outright quelled, usually in 3 to 8 sessions (depending on a number of factors). If you're currently on medication, expect 6-12 sessions.

Because we go deep and work at the root cause – not just symptoms – change happens fast.

What Specific Conditions Do You Treat?

A sample of the phobias we commonly treat on the Gold Coast include:

• Heights (Acrophobia)
• Water (Aquaphobia)
• Open Spaces (Agoraphobia)
• Closed Spaces (Claustrophobia)
• Crowds
• Social Phobia
• Public Speaking
• Spiders (Arachnophobia)
• Snakes
• Birds
• Dogs
• Flying (Aviophobia)
• Elevators
• Bridges
• Needles (Trypanophobia)
• Vomiting (Emetophobia)
• And many more

We also specialize in treating:

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
• Panic Attacks
• Social Anxiety
• Performance Anxiety
• Health Anxiety
• Driving Anxiety
• White Coat Syndrome

→ Watch how one client overcame severe depression and health anxiety after Ross River fever

Do You Offer a Guarantee for Anxiety Treatment Gold Coast?

No. Absolutely Not. In fact, to do so would be Against The Trade Practices Act in Health Care !

At Positive TranceFormations, we do specialize in helping people become Free of their Phobias, Anxiety, and Panic Attacks. We're so confident of, and committed to, helping people with Phobias and Anxiety, that in some Instances where Michael (The Therapist) deems that it is Appropriate and Practical, you might (Upon Request) be offered the Option of a taking out A Results Commitment.

What this Results Commitment means to you is quite simple: Once you define the outcome you're looking for, Michael at Positive TranceFormations will work with you until that outcome is achieved at a fixed price, regardless of how many sessions that involves!

Those clients that are Eligible for a “Results Commitment” and Elect to take one out, do pay a Premium for this service.

Individual results may vary. While most clients experience significant improvement, outcomes depend on various factors including individual circumstances and commitment to the process.

Can I Do This Online, or Do I Need to Come to Your Gold Coast Clinic?

Both options are available, However, Face-to-Face Sessions are the Ideal Scenario and have the Highest Success Rate.

For those clients who live too far away to attend face-to-face sessions with Michael of Positive TranceFormations, Distance Sessions Via Zoom are Available !

Distance sessions via Zoom, can and have been effective.

One of our Most Successful Anxiety Treatments was conducted entirely online. Watch Annette's story – she overcame 15 years of Debilitating Agoraphobia, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, White Coat Syndrome as well as a fear of General Anasthesia and Death through numerous Remote Sessions !

What Will My Life Look Like After Anxiety Treatment?

Imagine the freedoms of your new life, free of your phobia(s), or with the debilitating effects of anxiety and panic attacks being a thing of the past!

Imagine being able to:

• Drive without that gripping fear
• Attend social events without overwhelming dread
• Sleep through the night without racing thoughts
• Make decisions without second-guessing everything
• Enjoy activities you've been avoiding for years
• Feel calm and in control in situations that used to terrify you

Now, don't just imagine that new freedom from anxiety – create it!

Contact Michael Boehm for Anxiety Treatment Gold Coast

Ready to take back control of your life?

Success Stories