PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder affects many more people than is often recognized. Trauma has lasting effects on the mind, body, and emotions that don’t just go away. Many people suffer from symptoms of PTSD without even knowing that’s what they are suffering from.
If you find yourself reacting to certain situations with extreme anxiety, having a disproportionate response to specific things, difficulty remembering portions of your life, flashbacks, nightmares, trouble sleeping, or feeling unable to relax and constantly tense you could possibly be suffering from PTSD.
We often think of PTSD as affecting veterans who have come back from traumatic situations in war zones and this is very true. But PTSD is a problem for not just veterans but anyone who has suffered trauma and finds themselves reacting to triggers in ways that feel out of their control.
How Hypnotherapy Can Help You Heal From PTSD
The amazing news is that you don’t have to stay stuck suffering from symptoms of PTSD. Hypnotherapy is an effective tool to help you heal your mind and body and reclaim your life.
With hypnotherapy, you are in a state where you are relaxed and aware. You don’t lose control at all, but rather gain the ability to move past your conscious thoughts into your subconscious mind. When you have access to your subconscious mind through hypnotherapy, we are able to work together to identify the original traumas and resulting triggers that are the root of the PTSD symptoms.
For example, if you have PTSD from childhood trauma and abuse, maybe you have certain situations that create extreme anxiety and your heart starts pounding and you feel like you either need to run or maybe you shut down. You might not even be aware that this is PTSD or know exactly why you are reacting this way. Or maybe you know exactly the event that is causing the PTSD and struggle from constant flashbacks or recurring nightmares. In either case (as well as many others) hypnotherapy can help.
Hypnotherapy can help you identify the triggers, face them, and create new thought patterns around the triggering event to teach your body that it is safe and help you gain control over your life once again.
When you are in a state of hypnosis your mind is open to new suggestions. We can identify the trauma and the thoughts and perceptions that resulted from it. Then we teach your mind new thoughts and ways of perceiving the world around you. Thoughts that affirm your safety, autonomy and wholeness. Then next time when you experience a trigger, your mind will have a new way to respond and gradually you will see your symptoms decrease.
Mental health is all about integration and hypnotherapy is an amazing tool to help your mind and body integrate.
Hypnotherapy, PTSD, and your Nervous System.
The sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are two parts of your autonomic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system that creates the fight or flight response in your body. This is super helpful and necessary when you are actually in danger.
The problem is that sometimes your body doesn’t recognize the difference between actual danger and the sounds or smells or surroundings that trigger a subconscious memory of danger when there isn’t danger anymore. This leads to PTSD symptoms and your body being stuck in fight or flight mode.
The parasympathetic nervous system is the part of your nervous system that is operating when your body is at rest, sometimes known as “rest and digest.” Hypnotherapy can help with activating your parasympathetic nervous system and as a result deactivate your sympathetic nervous system.
This is vital in healing PTSD.
If you are suffering from symptoms of PTSD and need help and relief call Kelly today at 913-634-7553 and let’s work together so your mind can heal.
