Welcome back to the doctor body mind soul podcast. My name is Dr. Jude. And this is a podcast which explores how we can integrate modern medicine and alternative therapies to help you get the holistic health care that you deserve. I will be speaking to healers and seekers, researchers and authors who will share their experiences and the evidence to help guide us all to Holistic Health. Let's do this. Sophie is a free spirited Tarot slinging hypnotherapist from East Yorkshire specializing in treating anxiety with hypnosis. She believes our emotions from the past become trapped in our body, minds and souls. And we can literally reprogram our thoughts and rewire our brains with the help of hypnotherapy. Well, welcome, Sophie.

Hello. Thank you for having me.

Well, Sophie, it's such a pleasure to have you. And I'm so grateful that you're on to discuss such an important topic because I see so many patients present to a&e with symptoms of anxiety. And I'm always at a bit of a loss with what to suggest for them. Because it's, you know, they come really concerned that they're having a physical experience, and they are having a physical experience, but they come in really worried there's something typically wrong with their hearts. And once we exclude that, within the a&e department, there's very little options that I can offer them to help. So it's a real, I think this is a really important conversation for us all to have, just so we can offer some choice to these patients, can you start by just explaining how hypnotherapy is thought to work, especially in patients with anxiety.

So hypnosis works with the subconscious part of the brain. And what we're aiming for in a therapy session is to be able to access that access that part of the brain to see what's going on in there. And then we can start to give suggestions to reprogram the subconscious. Because what happens is, if you imagine this part of your brain, the subconscious part of your brain, is purely to keep you alive, it's there to keep you safe, away from danger. That's the part that absorbs everything. And because it thinks up until now, I've kept you alive. So absorbed the built in creates these beliefs. But when we what happens is there's something called the conscious critical factor. And this is part of this is kind of like a gag dog in your mind protecting your subconscious. Because your subconscious doesn't want to change. Because up until now it's kept you say. So hypnosis, getting you into this relaxed state bypasses that conscious critical factor that is protecting your current beliefs. And it's almost like you're willing this guard dog to sleep, so we can sneak past it and start changing things up and start reprogramming. Does that make sense?

I love that analogy. I love that analogy. Because I'm sort of thinking about it on for people who who present in E with with panic. And I, I guess what may be going on for them at that time as they've been in an experience and their body, their subconscious mind as you're saying. Like has detected a threat. And that is that the guard dog that those times are literally sort of raw

it's keep milking it? Yeah, well, it's keeping you in this kind of fight flight freeze or fawn state. And usually when, say for example, if you're, if you're having a panic attack, what's happening is something is happening in your external experience that is triggering an old emotion, an old fear response. And that's when your amygdala will start to kind of sound the alarms. And it sends all these signals to another part of your brain called the hypothalamus. And that's where the stress chemicals are produced. So something's happened in your or awareness or something is going on in your life that is triggering these old systems, this old alarm in your brain to go off, stress chemicals are reduced. And in that point, your body is going into the state of panic. It's a real physical experience for so many people. And that's your brain sending signals all over your body, for your blood to be sent to your legs, so you can run away, which is all well and good. If you know, if you're in front of a lion, you're in front of me in imminent danger, and you need to get away. But if you're doing your shopping in Tescos, and you've just been triggered, and you start to have a panic attack, not so helpful. So at this point, this, you know, this is all about finding ways to manage the anxiety because it's not actually the anxiety. That's the problem. It's the way we're reacting to those triggers. And that's what hypnosis can really help with.

Well, what I'm really hearing with that, I mean, it's, it's so interesting, because many patients that actually come to, to a&e will say that there's nothing stressful, yeah, figured this, and that they don't know what's brought this on. And, unfortunately, there's, we have such limited time within the a&e department to go deep into what is going on. Because I often say to them that, you know, your anxiety is often like, you know, the canary in the mine, it's letting you know that there is something wrong. And we may not know at this point, what it is, probably because we've been ignoring and repressing whatever, it is not quite right. For us for a really long time, it's something that we don't want to look at is probably part of our shadow. Yeah. But the this is our body's way of alerting us to something to some wrong. And that is an invitation to go deeper into that. And I've been hearing that hypnotherapy is one tool to access our subconscious, and really start to understand ourselves in a deep in a deep way.

Exactly. And as soon as we, as soon as we're aware, we can start to work on releasing all of those heavy, built up emotions. And we work on physically going through releasing all of the heaviness all of the heavy emotions. And for some people that can feel like a real physical change in their body. Because your mind essentially creates these feelings. And just as those beliefs and emotions have been created, we can change them and create new ones. So as soon as the thing I'm releasing where, you know, it gives us room to go further and start reprogramming and creating those new neural pathways in the brain.

When we use terminology like reprogramming, reprogramming, it sounds a bit scary. Can you can you break down what? Like what I mean? What what does that really look like?

So yeah, if you imagine so, I often use this analogy. So imagine that there's a forest. And there's a pathway that has been walked and walked and one. If you imagine that I'll use the example of a belief that, you know, a real men belief that often comes with a fear anxiety. And it's usually something along the lines of, I don't feel good enough. Or I'm not interesting enough, or, you know, people don't want to hear what I say or something like that. So if you have had this belief that you're not good enough, imagine that that has been shown to you over and over again, in your life. And sometimes it's really subtle. You know, you don't have to have had this horrendous upbringing. There are so many factors that lead to our, you know, the conditioning that we receive from the world around us, peers, our caregivers, teachers. You know, things like that and our mind has been programmed Armed with these beliefs, so it's our beliefs are kind of been worn in our brain. So it's like that one path through the forest. Now, with hypnotherapy, we want to create a new pathway. So imagine grass, when you first just start walking over it, you can kind of see where you've walked. But if we walk that path over time, it becomes one. Like the other path. And imagine that new path is this new bully, this new belief, adverse experiences, we if we tried to reprogram our mind with a new belief, it's like walking that path over and over again until it becomes one. And we're not walking down that other path anymore. We allow the grass to grow again. So we are walking down the new path. Does that make sense?

Yeah, this um, it's from an anatomical point of view, we're talking about neural pathways, aren't we? Yeah. And like any muscle, as you described before, when you're exercising a muscle, so when you are choosing to adopt a new belief, yeah, the more that that is repeated, yeah, the more the neurotransmitters fire in that circulatory system. And the more that that, that the stronger that that the stronger that new pathway get. So you can bypass the old circuitry. And then the hope is, then the new circuitry isn't attached to the stress signals, then then spiral spiral you into a panic attack, because I guess in some, somewhere along this line, we are grounded in the present rather than the past, which is where it's very likely, there was an event that triggered a panic wish would have been appropriate for you at that stage of life. Exactly clay longer appropriate or required for you, in this new phase of our life in the present, like our body

is, is basically like this big GPS system, our emotions have this big GPS system in our body. And it's communicating something is either wrong, or not aligned. And that's what I'm really interested in, is helping my clients come back into alignment with who they really are. Process the things that need processing, release the things that need releasing, and really start to get down get to know who they are, and what masks have they been wearing in their life, and what it means to come back into alignment. And I truly, truly believe that is a way to find that inner peace and that calm and that fulfillment.

I couldn't agree with you more I think alignment with the body mind and soul is not just to inner peace, it's also to is this the key to to health, then that is actually what Yeah, health and vitality are a product of they are of the they are a product of alignment. I think

that's the stuff that I think that's the stuff that's not really recognized, you know, that this kind of concept may not be as recognized, because it's not about dealing with. It's not about treating a symptom. And, you know, when I first started suffering with anxiety, and experiencing panic attacks, I had an idea, you know, that had an idea of why I felt this way, but I couldn't understand why I couldn't just deal with my situation, as I thought everybody else was.

I think that people who present with anxiety also then carry shame with them a sense of shame that comes along with presenting with a panic attack or anxiety. And I think the medical system has a part to play with that so many doctors see in response to the panic attack. There's nothing wrong. It's just anxiety. You can go here. And I think that that is problematic because actually You know, this body is alerting them to panic, although there is nothing physically that's going to harm them from this state. No, it is an alarm bell for them that there is something internally emotionally, that isn't right. And this is an invitation for them to, to reach out to a therapist to get to get a little bit more clarity on what that might be.

100% You know,

and I know you,

but what if your anxiety is completely reasonable? What if it's a completely reasonable response to what's actually happened in your life that hasn't been dealt with that hasn't been processed? You know, your anxiety may be correct. And maybe that's something that, you know, you hit want some support, where to deal to help deal with the big feelings? Because I think that's sometimes we push away big feelings and having someone there to hold you to support you, through these big feelings can be really, really cathartic and really helpful.

And under that's, and I'm curious, because I know that you had your own experience with anxiety, and difficulties accessing help that helped you through the medical model. Can you expand a little bit about your experience?

I can, yes. So we're going back to around 2014. And I was training to be a teacher. And I bet so many teachers can relate to this. And you know, other people in other professions, doctors, nurses, and you know, any kind of job where you have to be kind of all the time, and you're very overloaded. So what happened was, I was getting these symptoms in my chest, really strong chest pains, and they were starting to scare me. At this point, I was not linking this with anxiety. So at that point, I'm thinking, Oh, my word, what is happening. And very soon after panic attacks started happening. So when I started experiencing these symptoms, experiencing these symptoms, I, of course, went to my GP, and had all the tests. And obviously, it was told there was nothing physically wrong with me. And I was prescribed medication. And I went off and took that medication. And that night. I, well, I completely blacked out. And it was terrifying. And after that, I went back to the doctors, and I was put on sick for a few weeks. And that was the best thing that could have happened to me at the time to get some sort of rest, some clarity. And funnily enough, as these things happen, sometimes, someone actually mentioned a local hypnotherapist, and I just said, I've got to go and do something, you know. And I'd had talk therapy, that this is, you know, a little bit of time after I'd had talk therapy, which was great, you know, it's good to talk. But it was really the hypnotherapy that changed everything for me. So what really changed the game for me was being able to pinpoint what it was that I was carrying around that was so heavy. And to actually find out how I wanted to feel like no one had really ever asked me, What do you need? What is it that you want in your life? How do you want to feel? And at the time, all I could say was, I just don't want to feel like this. But over time, working with these parts of me, my inner child you know, building that resilience to these, you know, building the resilience to change was a big thing for myself, and also just really starting to find my purpose. And I think that can be a real game changer. And I'm really dedicated to help people move towards their purpose because I believe that everyone has a soul purpose on this planet. I truly believe that and I truly really believe that when we can start to get to know the real us the true authentic version of us, because often anxiety is a result of not living in alignment with yourself not being the true you wearing masks around certain people in certain situations. And the thing is, when you're doing that, when you are wearing these masks, and when you are people pleasing, you know, these are all, these are all traits that a lot of people with anxiety carry, I see this quite a lot. And when we're not being our authentic self that does cause this, what we call cognitive dissonance, it causes this battle inside of us, which is exhausting. It takes so much mental, emotional, spiritual energy to be someone that you're not. And repeating the repeating this is exhausting for your whole system.

And we can. And we can do that without being aware of that for a really long time. Because as you say, we sometimes don't really stop to listen or even know what is really us. And really not. Until, for example, we have a panic attack, which really there jolts us into presence, and alerts us that there is something really wrong, not necessarily with the physical body, but with the emotional body. And actually, normally, people present with pain in their chest. And it feels like they're having a heart attack that I experienced that a lot. Yeah, I often say, there's nothing wrong with your physical heart. But there is something wrong with your emotional heart. And that's right there. And this is a real opportunity for you to do a deep dive into that. And I'm really learning that hypnotherapy is a way to enter this journey from talk therapy, as you said, might help some people but I'm really getting the hypnotherapy is a way to get into the subconscious, past those guard dogs. Exactly. And and allow perhaps an entry into into a place of depth that we may not be aware of.

Hmm, no, that's, that's my personal mission is to do that real deep dive into what's going on for you and how we can move you forward through that. It just really gives you that space to get to know you. And

yeah, and when we start living in alignment with ourselves, then suddenly, we don't feel that anxiety that we've been carrying for, for so long.

I truly, truly believe that I really do. You know, as someone who has, has suffered with anxiety, and I can honestly say, I haven't had a panic attack for years for years. And, you know, sometimes anxiety does come up, because we can't stop the things happen in our life that trigger this anxiety. But again, it's, it's how we deal with it. It's how we respond to it. And just learn how to do that can be

Yeah, and also I want to just sort of not demonize anxiety. I mean, there's a difference between anxiety is a really useful emotion. And as we've talked about, like, it's there to help bring us into line with ourselves. So yeah, but it's, as you say, it's how we react to that. Are we are we listening to the anxiety for what it's for what it's saying? Is it appropriate? Am I missing anything?

You know, what? Anxiety is a real blessing. If you decide to do the deep dive stuff, you know, ah, often we can make our anxiety this bad. You know, this, you know, this bad wrong entity, so that we don't have to deal with what it's telling us. You know, we focus on the symptoms instead of what's it telling me? What needs to change? What's not feeling good in my life. You know? Are you in a relationship that doesn't feel right for you? Do you have dysfunctional family or dysfunctional friendships? Do you get anxious around certain people? People, you know, this is usually telling is, like I said, it's your intuition telling you something's not right for you here, something's not working for you. And we tried to fight it, you know, so many. And I've definitely done this myself. We tried to fight it by fixing it, making sure everything's okay, you know, ignoring things we choose not to listen to ourselves. I don't know if anyone has ever. For example, I'm going to use the relationship thing, because that was one of my triggers. At the time, where I was actually finding out was the job that I was in, wasn't aligned to me, the relationship that I was in wasn't giving me what I needed, which were all triggering these old beliefs in me that was intent and triggering this anxiety. And what we do is we try to push it away, because we don't want to confront these things, because it's scary, and we feel what's going to come next. But having a therapist there to support us through these things to support you, through big emotions, really is a lifeline. You don't have to make these changes alone. And if anyone I just want anyone to know if anyone's listening to this resonating with those feelings, please know that you do not have to settle for a life that doesn't feel good to you. There is your anxiety is honestly a blessing, it might not feel like it now. But from my heart, I say this from my heart, your anxiety is a blessing, and can open up so many doors for you can open brand new opportunities, it can essentially help you get to what you really want. You've been shown what you do at one. So what do you really want and find someone to help you move through that. Because support is out there. And if there's anything that I want to tell anybody, my message is that you can change, you can change your circumstances, you can change how you react and respond to situations. You're not stuck.

I love that. And that was said so with so much heart as well. I think that's this is a really good segue because I checked him I shouted out on my socials this week, if anyone had any questions for you, and so I want to just get to them.

So these are the new segment of the podcast called community questions. And let's kick off with those. The first question that came through was, Can hypnotherapy work, even if I get panic attacks? As I think we've covered that a little bit like it sounds like hypnotherapy can really help even if you get panic attacks. I wonder though, can you answer this question? Can you answer this question which is, you know, can hypnotherapy work? In the panic attack, like are there techniques that we can use when we're in the panic attack itself? Around Us, yeah, there's

a really, really cool technique that we can so essentially hypnotherapy is using your imagination and using your your brain and a really nice technique you can use in the moment. Now I often I know how hard it is to sort of get yourself out of a panic attack. You know, when you're first experiencing panic attacks because it can feel really scary and, you know, you might feel that you're having a heart attack, you might feel that you're dying for some people. But if you can get yourself to just in the moment, firstly, taking a deep breath, and to really use your diaphragm. So breathing into your stomach and really inflating your stomach. And just nice long breath so you can breathe in for a count of five, filling up your stomach, holding for to and breathing out and that will start to calm you in the moment. The next little tip then, if we're going to use hypnotherapy, or use hypnosis is learn to warm your hands with your brain. Okay, so using the power of imagery to warm your hands by imagining something that would warm your hands so You can in that moment, close your eyes. And imagine maybe that there's a fire in front of you. Now, this is just that, you know, you can do this really quickly, you can just close your eyes now. And imagine that there's a big blazing warm fire in front of you. And you can use all your senses. So you can imagine hearing the crackles and the part of the flames. You can see the fire in front of you. And imagine it is heat coming off. And you might want to hold your hands up to that fire. And just imagine that your buyer is blazing. And your hands are becoming a little bit warmer. And the closer your hands get that fire, the warmer they get. And this is just allowing you to activate your Harrison parasympathetic nervous system. So what this activity does, it generates oxytocin, which lowers cortisol, which is the stress hormone. So oxytocin is, it's what's released. It's how we feel love, isn't it? So it's kind of balancing out and instantly start to feel that sense of calm, and it takes our attention away from the panic that we were feeling.

I've never heard of that technique. I totally love it. Totally. Okay, so question number two, I get really bad panic attacks, and they are getting worse. How many sessions would I typically need of hypnotherapy?

It's just tricky. Because every therapist works differently. It really, really depends on you and your situation. Some therapists will go from four sessions. I personally offer packages of 12 sessions. So I offer this real deep dive into making change over the course of three months. For me, that's a personal preference with the clients that I kind of seeing the clients that I'm calling, I suppose. But then again, when I first had when I first heard of hypnotherapy, and had anxiety myself, I saw a therapist for four sessions. And that was enough to stop my panic attacks. So it really does depend on your situation and your circumstance. And, and I suppose how deep you want to go in to the therapy.

So it sounds like a standard, a standard dose as it were of them a therapy would be four sessions. But I really live needs longer. And you would actually personally recommend and like to work with people for 12. And I guess that that leads on nicely to the last question that we got from from the community and that was can you get hypnotherapy on the NHS?

At the moment? I'm not aware of it available on the NHS at the moment. But hopefully, this is something that would be more widely offered on the NHS. I'd love to see that. I really would.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think we can see hypnotherapy, hypnotherapy being offered from the NHS to help people give up smoking. I've certainly Yeah. But I haven't seen it being offered for people who suffer with anxiety. But a really good option that I'm certainly going to be suggesting to the patients that come and see me. When if if they ask what other options are available, then at least there's there is another option I can offer them, although, like it would be only available to those who can access it privately at this time.

Yeah, yeah. And the thing is, as well, you know, when you see a hypnotherapist or any therapist, there's a high chance they've got lots of different tools in their toolbox that you can take away and use in everyday life, you know. And if you are looking for a therapist, I would just take your time and make sure that you choose a therapist that you feel comfortable with because obviously the more comfortable you are with someone the more open you'll feel and be able to connect and the more open you are are, the more you'll get out to therapy.

Thank you so much for your time, your wisdom, your experience, Sophie. Um, it certainly opened my eyes to this whole new world of hypnotherapy and how we can use it to help people with their anxiety and actually listen to their anxiety and allow it to make sort of be a compass towards what we really want in our lives.

Thank you so much for having me.