Brenda's Story: Anxiety Therapy Case Study

In Brenda's first session, she sat there looking down at the floor, avoiding eye contact, her shoulders hunched over as she cried.

"I don't know what's wrong with me. I have a great husband, a great family, and good friends. I love my job and everything to be thankful for. I wake up every morning dreading my day, worrying about everything, feeling anxious and depressed. I know I have nothing to worry about, and I just can't stop it."

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How It Started

Brenda came to us after a few suggestions from her husband. Her mental health started to slide when her dad became unwell and died after several months of illness.

Over the next year, her mental health slowly got worse. Despite trying medication and CBT counselling, things continued to decline. She was avoiding family events, avoiding her friends and struggling to focus at work.

Brenda was honest with me. She told me she didn't think anything would work and that she was only attending for her husband. She agreed to give it a go for her family.

Session One: Finding the Feeling

We started by examining "the feeling" that appeared every morning. Brenda described it as a feeling of dread, like a black knot in her stomach, followed by worry and low mood. Her face changed to curiosity as we examined it. She said she hadn't realised it had a shape, a colour and such intensity.

We then learned how to push that feeling away, out of her body. Immediately, the intensity dropped, and within two minutes she couldn't feel it at all. Now she looked confused.

We got to work picking a positive state from her past, her wedding day. I taught Brenda how to revisit that day, noticing everything she could see, hear and feel. We revived that feeling a few times so she could bring it back on demand, quickly.

Within just 15 minutes, she was smiling and laughing with me.

We built this into a hypnosis session to replace that unconscious pattern, and put together a plan of action for the next four weeks. This included 20 minutes of homework each day and an anxiety hypnosis track.

Session Two: A Different Brenda

Brenda's second session was rather different. Instead of tears, she smiled and laughed. She explained the week had been up and down. Some days she felt much better, and on a few others she noticed the feelings creeping back, although she was using the tools and managed to replace those feelings with better ones.

She repeatedly told me how silly she had been to get in such a state and said she was loving being more present around her family.

Building the Toolkit

As we worked through Brenda's program, we covered further techniques and tools to control her mental states, including positive mental exercises to switch worry into focus on the many good things in her life.

Brenda's health test uncovered several severe food intolerances that could be contributing to her bloating and inflammation. We created a plan to remove her problem foods and discussed the many alternatives we could explore as replacements.

Brenda also loved self-hypnosis and added it to her daily routine, finding it a fast way to step into her preferred mental state. She enjoyed practising this on her husband, Steve, and decided she quite liked hypnotising people.

The Final Session

At Brenda's final session, she was thrilled that her old anxiety, depression and worry were now gone. She was enjoying social events, doing well at work and pleased that her family was no longer worrying about her.

In five short weeks, everything had changed, and she was grateful to be back in control and choosing her mood.

Could This Be You?

If Brenda's story sounds familiar, if you're waking up with dread, worrying about things you know don't deserve the weight you're giving them, or watching anxiety take over parts of your life that used to feel easy, you don't have to keep living like this.

Your first step is your Free Anxiety Assessment Call.
During your anxiety assessment call, you can explain exactly what is going on, how anxiety is affecting you and those around you. Here we can assess if anxiety therapy can help you, and if so, we can talk about the process, what will be involved and the results you can expect to see.

Most of our anxiety therapy clients resolve their issues within 4 to 6 weeks.
You can see reviews and testimonials from clients here: https://www.newcastle-hypnotherapy.com/newcastle-hypnotherapy-reviews