Need Stress Relief? Go from angry to calm with hypnosis.

Hypnosis helps you manage your perception of any stress event and teaches your mind/body a new response.

HYPNOSIS works by creating a new habit of responding with a calm physical body and a relaxed and clear mind in the presence of stressors. So when there is a stressor present you can more effectively decide how to handle it. It has been said that you can’t be both stressed out and calm and relaxed at the same time…the brain will go the course of what is the established path.

And that is the relaxation response, not a reactive response which sends you into fight or flight mode which is not healthy long term. Managing your response to stress is so vital because stress is said to be the cause of most illnesses.

While we can’t make our cities and jobs stress free, we can shift our perspective on the stressors involved.   For example you can learn to see traffic and crowds as part of the fabric of life and everyone is just trying to get from A to Z.

In 1991, yes even way back then we knew this, 60% of the visits to doctors were emotion induced stress responses. This was from an article in the journal Stress Research. Additionally a study connecting stress events and illness was conducted by Dr W. Thomas Boyce at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and he concluded that life change was the strongest predictor of how long a child stayed ill. Major life change in the setting of a highly ritualized / rigid family appeared to predispose greater illness severity. _{(Boyce, TW, et al. Influence of life events and family routines on childhood respiratory tract illnesses. Pediatrics 1977;60(4):609-615.)}

Stress suppresses ones immune system leaving the person susceptible to a multitude of infections, a Carnegie Melon University study showed. _{(Cohen, S, Tyrrell, D, Smith, A. Psychological stress and susceptibility to the common cold. New Engl J Med 1991;325:606-12.}

Black Monday Syndrome was named for the day when most heart attacks occur between the hours of 8 and 9 AM. Research prior to 1993 shows a link between the brain and our immune system. The immune system is hard wired into our autonomic nervous system and branches off to the lymph nodes, spleen, bone marrow and thymus gland. All of which is in direct communication with white blood cells which have been shown to possess receptors for neurochemicals. The brain and immune system are in communication. When the body is under stress and strain, chemicals are released for survival but when stress is compounded over time the release of cortisol continues which causes T-cell destruction in the thymus thus shrinking the gland. _{Dossey, L. Black Monday. New Age 1991: Nov/Dec:36,100-101.}

Hypnosis is important in this way, when we can change our perception to an event, we can quickly shift our response to it. Meaning the thing that once bothered us, no longer can. Remember it is not always the Stress, but how we cope.

Larry Dossey MD said, “We should always recall that no matter how stressful the event, we can always bring our attitudes and beliefs and meaning to bear on the situation and change its effect on us.” Larry Dossey was based in Dallas and blended medicine with a spiritual practice in the 80s. He left us in August on 2026, he was 86.

Here is a link to a list of the books Dr Dossey authored.

Stress occurs due to stressors such as:

• Biological changes
• Environmental pollutants
• Emotional Strain
• Deprivation
• Social Issues
• Family Problems

What can you do to change your response to the next stressful event?

Consider hypnosis, it is a state of mind wherein you can examine your out-dated, counter productive beliefs (which changes your perception of the stressor). It is a natural state of focused attention that allows powerful transformations that are lasting because they are subconscious. The Automonic Nervous System of the body is controlled by the subconscious and a hypnotic state allows access to those processes. Think of it this way, you “learned” those concepts and anything you learned you can unlearn through hypnosis. And your brain and body can learn how to create a Relaxation Response which it true Stress Relief.

Hypnosis sessions can also help a person UNDO their previous counterproductive coping habits that overtime have negative effects.

Counterproductive Stress Release Methods

• Tobacco, alcohol or other drugs
• Illness or injury produced by stress
• Overexertion
• Fear and high-risk behaviors
• Overeating
• Cruelty
• Orgasm

Each of these methods may work in different ways but all work to release pent-up stress. High-risk behavior works through a rush of adrenaline and the following period of “relaxation” or lassitude. Drugs lead to immediate lethargy. Each method has benefits and liabilities. They all share they primary benefit of producing a sense of satisfaction and a reduction of internal stress. The negative effects of each addiction, is generally obvious to most people.

The reasons people use or combine different methods of stress release remain as complex and varied as the personality itself. Factors may include early, random, or even accidental exposure to that form of release, the subconscious modeling or parental behaviors, peer pressure, beliefs, values, and associations or simply the fact that other methods are unavailable. Hypnosis sessions can help you reverse that process.

Alcohol and other drugs are often favored by those who seek a relatively passive or easy way to escape the pain of the everyday world; which is really the pain within their own psyche. Others may use alcohol or other drugs as a means of finding altered states, or seeing a more open, spiritual connection with life. Unfortunately, the long-term results are the opposite.

Illness and injury serve as a common method for children who don’t have ready access to other means of releasing pent-up energy. Those who use this method as an adult may have found as children that illness or injury were among the only ways they got their parents attention and a means to stay home from school or work or to avoid responsibility that seemed burdensome.

Overexertion or overwork become a path for those who feel driven to high achievement, unrealistic standards of fitness or puritanical work values.

Fear serves as a method for many different people for various reasons. Phobias or panic attacks often come to those who feel repressed or inhibited and who refrain from using other methods, or during times of unusual stress when usual means aren’t enough. Those who are more extroverted may consciously choose suspenseful, shocking, humorous or sad movies. Thrill seeking, gambling, or other high-risk behaviors may be motivated by the drive for excitement, getting high, and living on the edge. Crime is often used by those who are under-skilled, under-educated, or who feel angry at what they perceive as unfair society.

Overeating may serve as a psychological insulation from life or as a perceived protection against unwanted attention for those who have been sexually abused. It may also result from lack of education about food, familial pressures, or blocked creativity. Our subconscious mind may have associations between food, especially sweets and treats, and a form of love or indulgence; they may be trying to fill a lack that will never be filled until they learn to love themselves and feel loved.

Cruelty serves those feeling tremendous inner pain, self-hatred, and frustration (though it may not show at the surface). Work with a therapist and support group can help break through the walls of agonizing childhoods so that they can feel loved and cared for.

Orgasm, like food, services as a primary biological drive and is easy to access.

As we look more closely at our lives, we can recognize that we often combine different methods of stress release. We may use overexertion to balance out overeating; we may employ a combination of sex and drugs. On the darker side, we see combinations of drugs, crime, cruelty and other high-risk behaviors. We all face the human predicament of compulsive behaviors and addictions until the inner work necessary to clear out obstructions in the body, mind and emotions.

If you have developed a negative or counter productive habit to deal with stress and need to change that, hypnosis helps you do that too.

Whether you’re in Dallas County or Collin County or on the other side of the United States I can help you with in-person or virtual appointments. So if you’re ready to create a relaxation response to stress, contact me today.