Emotional Triggers and Hypnosis
/There is sometimes a disconnect between the way we feel about an issue and the truth of it. There may have been a time in your when you have become emotionally compromised “triggered” or experienced impaired judgement in a normally benign situation. Someone may say or you might be in a situation that is seeming small yet you find that your reaction becomes highly charged or “over the top.” In this state it can be difficult think rationally and realistically and our reaction does not represent the face we put out into the world. Emotions can range from despondency, to rage, to fear. Others can feel confused by the sudden and abrupt change within us and our outward reaction. Afterward you may feel embarrassed or angry with yourself and vow to never act that way again or be fearful. It can be a difficult promise to keep. Over the top emotional reactions to triggers are, for the most part, past pains experienced at a an earlier age or stage in our lives. A time when it was unsafe to express emotion, or the tools or support were not available to properly process what we were feeling. The suppression of that pain and the associated emotion ends up surfacing when we least expect it..
There are many great therapies that assist in working through these triggers. Somatic therapy and EMDR for example will assist with helping to desensitize and process the pain while building new pathways to healing. Talk therapy is great to address the underlying events that have created the suppression in the first place. Hypnosis also can be a great tool, when used in conjunction with traditional therapy. It can be used to explore the stories surrounding the emotions and situations that initiated the pain. It can help desensitize fear through visualizations. It can be used to explore emotions that feel uncomfortable, in a safe and supportive environment. And through hypnosis, clients can rewrite the stories stored in the subconscious and break the loop, thus enabling forward momentum.
A example of how hypnosis could work is seen through a caregiver client of mine who would experience extreme feelings of overwhelm to the point that it was becoming difficult to want to continue working her profession. While under hypnosis we used techniques to connect to the first time the feeling of overwhelm occurred in relation to caregiving. We followed the trail from memory to memory until thoughts began to emerge and she starts to verbalize, “I can’t hurt the baby, I have to take care of the baby, I can’t drop the baby,” and so on. Exploring further, we find that she is approximately 6 years old and has been given partial responsibility of caring for her newborn sibling. She is feeling overwhelmed and scared. She is afraid she isn’t up to the challenge but believes that she is not allowed say so. As go deeper in to these feelings, she realizes she is resentful that her mother had the baby and is angry both at both her mother and the newborn. She also feels guilty because of her anger and doesn’t want to disappoint her mother. At 6, she did not possess the proper skills or support to be able to express and reconcile these emotions. This contributed to her feeling not just overwhelmed and scared, but resentful and shame as well. Thoughts and emotions that followed her into her adult life.
With hypnosis she could experience the situation, detached and through her adult perspective. She could visualize herself in a supportive role assisting her younger self explore and validate her feelings. She could see where this situation had created similar feelings when taking on her caretaking role. Eventually she was able to lessen the impact the emotions held and was able to resume her duties without feeling overwhelmed by the overbearing weight of responsibility that she had felt before.
Another example would be an actor client of mine who had extreme stage fright. Every time he got on stage he found himself freezing up and having to push through. It was always the same, at every performance. We explored the feeling of fear and a memory surfaced of when when was a child performing at a school play. He was eager to do so. He memorized his lines and was proud of being on stage. At one point in the performance he made a mistake and a few of his classmates laughed at him and shouted cruel things that embarrassed him. He felt useless to fight back as he had to continue the performance. We replayed the scene a few times, each time changing the story for the better. We used visualization techniques to remove the the fear and brought in feelings of accomplishment and ease on stage. It took a couple of sessions before the extreme stage fright dissipated to acceptable levels. I never saw him after that.
A note about hypnosis regression and memory: When we regress to a earlier time, the “memory” that is accessed is not what we would call a true memory. It is a depiction created by layers of experience, emotion and perspective. It is the expression of what the mind does to make sense of what occurred from the perspective of the observer. It is never 100% truth, but rather the “truth” through the client’s understanding. They are still helpful as it opened a door to finding the insight needed for resolving what was unresolved.
If you are experiencing a trigger and have exhausted traditional means to resolve it or if you and your therapist would like to explore adding hypnosis to your treatment plan, feel free to reach out to schedule a free phone consultation or an appointment.
Disclaimers: All blog post are for informational purposes only. Kris Krueger Hypnosis does not claim to practice medicine or prescribe drugs. We do not represent services as any form of health care, and by law, make no health benefit claims. Any Services listed are for self exploration, reflection, and insight and are considered alternative or complementary self-improvement. Hypnosis is not a replacement for medical care, psychotherapy, or counseling. Always consult with a licensed professional before making personal care treatment decisions. For full policies and conditions visit my policies page.
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