Techniques for managing stress, addictions and phobias

Gregory Antão

Gregory Antão, originally trained as a Chartered Engineer, is a Licensed Practitioner of NLP and a Certified Hypnotherapist. He is a member of the British Institute of Hypnotherapy and was trained in hypnosis in the USA. He studied Neuro Linguistic Programming under its co-founder Richard Bandler and uses his own particular combination, which he terms HypnosNLP, at his Weybridge and London practices.

SOME very effective 'mind tools' have been evolved, using modern psychological techniques, to deal with stress, 'anger management', 'panic attacks', addictions, phobias, and the like.

I have personally found hypnosis and NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) to be very effective and use both simultaneously (HypnosNLP). Here I describe how each basically works and show, in examples of case studies, how they can be applied.

Hypnosis

Although considered mainstream nowadays, hypnosis needs some clarification. It is derived from the Greek word for sleep (hypnos), although this is not a strictly accurate description of the hypnotic state because, unlike sleep, a state of general 'unconsciousness', hypnosis may be described as a state of altered consciousness - indeed a state of 'heightened consciousness' or even 'enhanced awareness'. You do not lose your control. Hypnosis allows a skilled practitioner to directly access and communicate with the 'Unconscious Mind'. The Conscious Mind acts as a 'critical filter' for any external information, before it reaches your powerful, but trusting, 'Unconscious Mind'. What this means is that the former can sometimes work against you by blocking out some positive suggestions intended for the Unconscious. The Conscious Mind is very logical and highly analytical - it questions the validity or truth of any information presented to it. The Unconscious Mind is very literal and un-analytical - it accepts as being 'true' any information presented to it.

So how can one bypass the Conscious Mind filtering? Hypnosis achieves it by a process of distraction or confusion, or indeed a bit of both. A little bit like a burglar and a guard dog. If the Conscious Mind is the guard dog that guards the Unconscious Mind, the hypnotherapist is a bit like a burglar, who throws the guard dog a juicy bone. Whilst the 'guard dog' is gnawing on the bone, the hypnotherapist sneaks under the gate to talk to the Unconscious directly. Unlike the burglar, however, the hypnotherapist's intentions are positive, beneficial and honourable. This allows the hypnotherapist to 'seed' the Unconscious with suggestions to achieve the desired outcomes without interference from the 'guard dog'.

Losing weight and stopping smoking are just two of the many problems that can be successfully tackled, together with gaining confidence and overcoming shyness, curing panic attacks, overcoming fears, such as fear of flying, etc.

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)

Neuro Linguistic Programming is a form of 'near waking state' hypnosis. It is used to optimize performance, overcome traumas and also in the cure of fears, phobias and much more. We are the sum total of all our life experiences. We store these experiences as internal sensory representations, which I shall call IntReps. These IntReps are essentially made up of mental pictures, sounds, feelings, smells and even tastes. Visually biased people have more mental pictures than the other sensory modalities. Similarly, auditory people have more mental sounds than the other sensory modalities, and so on. In NLP we can 'adjust' these IntReps, tweaking them to make them more powerful if they are positively biased, or to weaken them if they are negatively biased - such as in cases of trauma.

NLP also helps us to model 'excellence' or good behaviours. If you see a good public speaker perform, for instance, you emulate what they do, in order to replicate their behaviour. The same is the case with a good golfer or tennis player. To do this one can 'mentally model' component behavioural 'paradigms of excellence'. This allows us to put together a cocktail of recognised winning strategies and rehearse them mentally.

Strangely enough, the brain doesn't easily differentiate between actually doing something and simply just thinking about doing something. So doing a mental rehearsal can be very valuable. This is where both hypnosis and NLP really come in to their own.

Therefore a cocktail of positive empowering winning strategies can be set up as a complex IntRep and strongly 'anchored' and invoked in given situations. This complex IntRep must be strongly 'sensorised', ie. each of the component, associated senses must be experienced strongly - mentally. This creates a mental icon.

What is this 'anchoring' that I've just mentioned. You probably remember a song from years ago or a particular smell that can trigger old memories. This is a similar mechanism. Those old sounds and smells are 'anchors' set up unconsciously in the past; when you hear the song again, it brings back old memories of sights, sounds and feelings. Similarly, with specific smells. So, what a practitioner attempts to do is to consciously set up an anchor to invoke positive mental states.

This can be done in a variety of ways - let's just consider a couple of them. Whilst experiencing the complex IntRep or mental icon - that I'd mentioned previously - perhaps take a long, deep breath and touch the tips of your thumb and finger together. This sets up a kinaesthetic anchor. To 'fire off' this anchor to evoke the sensory responses associated with the IntRep, all that has to be done is to take a long, deep breath and to touch the tips of the thumb and finger together.

Another way of anchoring - especially if one needs the use of both hands, during sports for instance - is to take the long, deep breath and to touch the tongue to the roof of the mouth at the same time. This also sets up a connection between the sensorised mental icon or IntRep and the physical act of touching the roof of your mouth with the tongue as well as taking that deep breath. These processes are known in NLP as 'anchoring'. The mental icon can be fired and will activate immediately and spring into your mind. Practice frequently for best effects.

Another powerful tool in the NLP arsenal of techniques is 'Timelining'. In NLP it is recognised that we human beings all code time in our own different ways. We each have our own mental timelines. For instance, some right-handers represent 'the past' at some point way towards our left (and perhaps slightly behind us). The future is represented by points to our left and slightly to the front of us. Connect these points by an imaginary line and you have your own personal timeline.

Other people code their timelines quite differently. Past below them, future above them, etc. There can be many individual variations. You can determine your own timeline by gauging where past and future 'mental images' are in relation to each other. Join them together with an imaginary line and there you have it - our own personal timeline. Using NLP techniques, it is possible to manipulate IntReps set on that timeline. Future and possibly unclear goals can be brought onto focus and located in fairly precise positions on the timeline - this helps to define and actualise these goals. This also sets up target times for achieving these goals.

Also, negative IntReps - such as those related to trauma or phobias - may be diminished by being moved further back into the past along the timeline. This changes the present and future mindset of the client in relation to the original IntRep, and thus the effects of past traumas may be significantly diminished or even eradicated completely.

HypnosNLP

HypnosNLP is my own particular implementation of Hypnosis and NLP. I term it the 'synergistic utilization of NLP in an hypnotic context'. Sometimes it is not entirely straightforward for clients to operate on their IntReps effectively in the near normal, waking consciousness state - that is commonly used in most NLP interventions. With the HypnosNLP intervention, maximum benefits can actually be obtained by actually 'tweaking' IntReps, manipulating timelines and setting up or collapsing anchors, whilst in light to moderately deep, hypnotic trance states.

It is also thus possible to identify and negate negative precipitating IntRep(s), induce or create a replacement, positive resource state IntRep - suitably intensified in an hypnotic context. This positive resource state may then be accessed at any time after the therapeutic session is over, by using a post-hypnotic trigger or anchor. This trigger may be 'fired' by using a combination of mental trigger words and, for instance, a sequence of breaths. This can then elicit the newly created positive state - on demand or even automatically.

Thus, using both hypnotic and NLP techniques synergistically can significantly maximize the beneficial effects of the therapies.

Some Real Life Applications

Stress Management

One of my clients had a problem with a senior colleague at work. He felt quite intimated in the presence of this person and felt flustered and quite stressed. This affected his performance and made him look incompetent. His reaction was to speak breathlessly at high speed. This made him feel even worse as it affected his ability to communicate properly.

When he thought of the person who intimidated him the associated IntRep was a large, menacing image right in front on his mental screen. I worked on this, reducing it in size and intensity, making it less life-like and even somewhat comical, moving it backward along his timeline, diminishing its significance. I then created a positive IntRep based upon some of his very positive life experiences and intensified it. I made it a cocktail of positive states - mental calm, a feeling of quiet competence, a deliberate rhythmic speech pattern. He could then fire it off at will by using a simple, post-hypnotic trigger or anchor, initiated by taking a long, deep breath, which itself creates a state of calm.

This helped him to restore his self-esteem and improved his performance.

Anger Management

Another of my clients, who came across as being very amiable, likeable and good-natured, had a problem with anger. Unfortunately, he found himself getting 'wound up' by one of his teenage sons. Almost anything, however trivial, that his son did could spark him off. This resulted in explosive outbursts of temper.

My approach was for the client to 're-frame' his perception of his son as a troublesome teenager. I took him back to his own youth - at his son's age and got him to identify his own behavioural similarities with his son. He felt embarrassed about them now, given his greater knowledge, wisdom and experience. I got him to acknowledge his own lack of perfection at that age and this set up a bond of understanding with his son. I then accessed the IntReps related to the birth of his son and also the subsequent period of growing up. He acknowledged the deep paternal love that he had for his son. I amplified this IntRep and anchored it, also associating it also with a state of tolerant, benevolent amusement when he related his son's current behaviour to his own at the same age. This process worked very effectively. His son was totally thrown by his father's new attitude and this really improved father-son communication and understanding.

Phobias: Fear of Flying

A young lady of about 25-years-old came to me who was petrified of flying, heights and lifts. In fact, she had not flown for about 13 years. She had last flown at about the age of 12. The flight was cramped and uncomfortable and unfortunately there was also some air turbulence as well. This left its mark and resulted in the phobic behaviour that I've described earlier.

I addressed this by setting up some positive 'resource states' - using some NLP techniques. I first created a place of calm and a powerful mental resource state. I anchored this powerfully and increased the intensity of this state in 'normal waking consciousness'.

Then I took her back to that 'flight from hell' and diminished the power of the evoked IntRep - diminishing it to almost the point of oblivion using a timeline management technique.

Afterwards I then mentally took her back on to a plane that was idealised for feelings of comfort, safety, calm and pleasure - thus creating a new IntRep to replace the previous negative IntRep. This 're-framed' her past experience.

In the following session I operated on these modified IntReps in a hypnotic context - powerfully reinforcing and anchoring them. Indeed, after a couple of sessions, a relative who accompanied the client during her visits to me phoned me excitedly saying, "I'd never believe it but Ms X actually got into a lift without thinking, almost immediately after the consultation....". She then went on to take her first flight in 13 years about three weeks after my last treatment session with her.

Addictions: Smoking Cessation

A similar approach can be taken for addictions. I saw a client who had made several attempts to give up cigarette smoking. Again, I used my HypnosNLP approach to good effect. Indeed, I anticipated seeing her for a follow-up session after the initial one-hour consultation. I do not necessarily believe that the 'one shot' approach to smoking cessation works because additions have a strong psycho-biological component - in this case nicotine addiction. I want to protect my clients from the traumatic effects of 'cold turkey'. To this end my standard approach is to use phased reduction - augmented by nicotine patches or gum - a weaning regime for long-lasting results.

In this instance, the treatment regime of the initial consultation session augmented by the nicotine replacement strategy - on a diminishing scale - seemed to give very positive results.

In fact, it has been identified in some scientific studies* that counseling in conjunction with NRT strategies works significantly better than nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) strategies used in isolation. I believe that one of the most pro-active form of counseling is that afforded by the synergistic utilization of hypnosis and NLP - HypnosNLP.

The above discussion and examples demonstrate that there are some very effective, modern, mind tools that can really be of great help in managing stress and many related problems.

* V. Jane Kattapong, MD, MPH, Todd L. Locher, MD et al - "Tobacco-Cessation Patient Counseling: American College of Preventive Medicine Practice Policy Statement"

For more information, call Greg Antao on Weybridge (01932) 232370 or see his website at: www.hypnosNLP.com (for Harley Street and other appointments), or email him at: Hypnos@innovatus.net