Hypnosis & Hypnotherapy Los Angeles

 

The American Psychological Association describes trauma as the emotional reaction someone has as a result of a negative event. While the definition may be quite general, there are several specific traumas that people suffer from. 

 

From abusive relationships and sexual abuse to losing a loved one, a traumatic event has a major impact on your life. In most cases, it even shapes the person that you have become or are becoming. And it goes without saying that you must have felt helpless in the face of this situation that you just cannot seem to rid yourself of. 

 

Science has proved how traumatic events actually affect you emotionally and physically. Research mentioned in Fulfillment Daily talks about how the body and mind coordinate lesser when you suffer from trauma. Your body acts on its own accord and there isn’t much control that the brain has on it. This results in the following;

 

• You get irritable and mistrusting of people around you. 

• It becomes very hard for you to maintain or even initiate relationships.

• You may become an introvert or develop impulse control issues that distance you from people. 

 

How Does Trauma Affect Your Life?

 

Post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD is a major problem in the world right now. While we continue to be aware of our physical health, we often tend to neglect our mental health. Trauma can ruin your life and your relationships if it is not dealt with properly. 

 

Firstly, it makes you anxious and mistrusting. For instance, if you have been a victim of physical assault or sexual abuse, you will not be able to trust anyone again. This is especially true if the abuse comes from someone close to you like a parent, family member or spouse. Because if people who are so close to you can harm you in such a way, so can anyone else, right?

 

In the same way, trauma also makes you depressed to the extent that some people develop physical problems like insomnia. Death of a loved one can really break you internally. Or maybe being a victim of terrorism or police brutality has stolen your slumber. 

 

One of the things that we often seem to ignore is the physical symptoms. Trauma can give you excessive stress that can worsen into hypertension or cardiovascular problems. The National Centre for PTSD research shows that trauma can have biological as well as behavioral and physiological effects on the body. 

 

What Makes it Worse?

 

There are so many things that make trauma even worse. Most importantly, the kind of people you surround yourself with can either help worsen or heal your trauma. For anyone going through trauma, there is perhaps nothing worse than someone telling you that there are so many people out there going through worse things than you. 

 

When people around you belittle your problems, they end up making you feel worse about yourself.

 

Another thing that makes trauma worse is when people do not seek help. If you do not reach out to find help, how will you be able to get rid of this mental cage that restricts your life? 

 

How Can Hypnotherapy Help with Trauma?

 

Along with getting enough sleep and getting healthy nutrition, hypnotherapy also helps with trauma. A study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry revealed that hypnotherapy can help treat trauma. The study showed that hypnosis allows accession into the memories that are kept in the unconsciousness. 

 

Hypnosis helps reach these horrible memories and reconstruct them into more positive ones. The concept of re-moralizing memories is used in this process. So, even if you do have flashbacks of that time, they do not hurt or have a negative effect on the body.

Another study, which was published in the same journal, showed the effectiveness of treating trauma of sexual abuse. Dr. Spiegel, the author of this study, explained that sexual abuse victims associate the events of the past with personality fragmentation and often blame themselves. 

Hypnosis helps to restructure the memories by maintaining a balance between the painful aspects of the past and the attempt to protect someone or yourself. This psychotherapeutic technique proves to be quite useful in the clinical treatment of PTSD resulting from childhood incidents of sexual abuse. 

 

Does it Work?

 

Hypnotherapy definitely works. It lets your practitioner reach into the deeper recesses of your brain and alter memories to make them less painful and more uplifting. 

 

A report published in 2016 by the name, Pilot Study of the Contemplative Counselling Method of Depth Hypnosis in the Treatment of Symptoms of PTSD, Depression, Anxiety and Changes in Well-Being showed that just 8 visits to a hypnotherapist can help reduce the symptoms of PTSD by half!

 

Judging from this, it is not wrong to say that hypnosis can actually make your life so much better by treating the aftereffects of trauma.

If you are looking for hypnotherapy to help you overcome your trauma, then get in touch with us at Westside Hypnotherapy. Call or click today to book an appointment or schedule your complimentary 20-Minute Phone Consultation.