When looking for help to overcome anxiety, low confidence, phobias, unhelpful habits, or any other kind emotional or psychological issue, or even physical pain, many people seek out hypnotherapy. Less well known as a therapy, but just as powerful is NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming).

You may have even noticed that many therapists offer them together as they integrate so well.

NLP and hypnotherapy are both highly effective for helping you with many issues on a deeper level, and with faster and longer lasting results than traditional approaches. And when combined together in an integrated way they become even more powerful and effective for long term positive change.

If you’re wondering about the differences between NLP and hypnotherapy, you may like to read my blog, What’s the Real Difference Between NLP and Hypnotherapy?

In this blog, I focus on how NLP and hypnotherapy work so well together and how combining them can create even more effective and lasting change.

What is NLP and Hypnotherapy Combined?

NLP and hypnotherapy combined is about integrating the strengths of both approaches for more effective, holistic, and lasting change.

NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) is a way of understanding how we create patterns of thought, emotion, and behaviour, and how we can change unhelpful patterns, often very rapidly.

Rather than focusing on the story of a problem, NLP focuses on the internal processes that are keeping it going, and what needs to shift for things to be different. It works with both your conscious and unconscious mind, and many NLP techniques can be quite hypnotic, even without a formal trance induction.

Hypnotherapy creates a calm, focused state in which your mind becomes more receptive to positive change. In that state, it can be easier to let go of unwanted emotional responses, strengthen new ways of thinking, and build confidence, resilience and healthier habits. It’s a natural state, very much like daydreaming or being very engrossed in a book or film.

NLP and hypnotherapy combined is an integration of both in a flexible way where whether we are using one or the other at a particular moment can become a bit blurred as we creatively draw on both for best results at any one time in a session.

This can create deeper and longer-lasting change than either approach on its own. Each makes the other more effective, and together they work in a more complete and integrated way than either does alone.

How NLP Enhanced the Way I Work with Hypnotherapy and Other Modalities

Becoming fully trained in NLP greatly enhanced the way I work, not just in hypnotherapy, but across all the modalities I use.

NLP gave me a much deeper understanding of how our minds work, how we create and maintain our emotional and behavioural patterns, and the kind of thing that might be happening beneath the surface in a person’s mind when they describe their problem.

It gave me better questions to ask, the kind that quickly get to what a problem is really about, beneath the story the client talks about it, and ways to observe clients to better understand what they might be doing in their mind, e.g. ways of thinking or feeling.

It gave me a much clearer sense of where to aim my hypnotherapy work for the best results. Not just, for example, to “use hypnosis and calming techniques to reduce anxiety” as a general aim, but a much more precise understanding of the internal processes and patterns that underlie the problem, and the specific changes that seem to be needed to create long lasting change.

This meant that my hypnotherapy sessions (and my EFT sessions) became considerably more effective because I understood what I was doing with a depth I had not had before.

Why Combining NLP and Hypnotherapy is so Powerful

NLP and hypnotherapy are two different modalities that are intrinsically linked and complementary to each other, and they are more even powerful and effective when combined.

NLP and hypnotherapy have many things in common. They both use hypnotic language, and they both work with the same deeper part of you, the part that runs your habits, emotional reactions, and automatic responses, and they reach that part in different ways.

NLP and hypnotherapy greatly enhance each other, and interweaving them in a flexible tailored way helps us to create deeper and lasting changes.

NLP helps us identify patterns related to problems and what keeps a problem going, so that whatever we do next, whether it’s a particular hypnotherapy process or something else, it’s aimed at the right place rather than at the problem in a general sense.

Hypnotherapy can create a calm, focused attention, and often deep relaxation, and can make NLP based change work more powerful because your deeper mind becomes more open and receptive. In that calm, focused state, old unwanted patterns can soften and new more helpful ones can take root more easily.

Some NLP techniques can be quite trancey, creating a light or medium trance without an actual hypnosis induction. In other cases, I might use a hypnosis induction and weave specific NLP processes within hypnosis to enhance the effectiveness of those techniques and combine them with various hypnotherapy processes.

Time Line Therapy™ is a good example of how naturally the two interweave. It’s an advanced NLP process that works gently with how your mind holds onto the past, helping you release old negative emotions and limiting beliefs at the root rather than simply managing them, and it draws on elements of both NLP and hypnotherapy.

What Typically Happens in an NLP, Hypnotherapy Combined Session?

Because NLP and hypnotherapy integrate so naturally, a typical session is fluid and tailored to what seems to work best for you in the moment.

We always begin with a natural conversation. Using gentle, focused questioning, we explore what’s really going on for you and the hidden triggers and mental loops that are keeping you stuck. I listen closely not just to the history of the issues you have been having, but to the specific ways you describe them. I use carefully designed questions to help me to understand how your mind represents various aspects of the problem. We also identify exactly what you want instead, such as to feel calmer or more confident in certain situations.

Change can begin before any formal technique is used, even in what might seem like normal conversation. I might be using NLP reframes, ways of asking questions that help you to see things differently, and hypnotic language techniques, all of which are designed to help you to begin make positive changes, even at an unconscious level.

Formal hypnosis is not always needed for positive changes to be made on an unconscious level, NLP works with both the conscious and unconscious mind, and it’s sometimes referred to as eyes open hypnosis.

Your unconscious mind will only accept what is right for you and will reject what doesn’t feel right, so you are always in control, whether we are working with the unconscious mind using NLP techniques or hypnotherapy.

We may use specific eyes open NLP techniques and/or use them within hypnosis to help you make positive changes related to certain issues or situations where you want to have a different response.

In subsequent sessions each session builds upon the previous sessions.

Real Examples of Combining NLP and Hypnotherapy

The following are examples of how NLP and hypnotherapy have worked together in practice. Although I also use EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) a great deal with clients, these examples focus specifically on the NLP and hypnotherapy combination.

• Overcoming Anxiety: A client who had struggled with anxiety many for years was able to become much calmer and more self-assured through a combination of NLP and hypnotherapy. By using certain NLP and hypnotherapy techniques, we were able to trace his anxiety back to traumatic events in his past. Then using NLP techniques, we resolved the trauma and used hypnotherapy to reinforce those changes at a subconscious level. After five or six sessions he had lasting relief.
• Overcoming a Phobia: Another client who had a debilitating phobia of dogs was able to overcome her fear after we used an NLP technique called the Fast Phobia Cure (also called The Rewind Technique) to release the emotional charge from a past event where her fear of dogs started, and then hypnotherapy to imagine herself feeling much calmer and completely comfortable with dogs. After a couple of sessions, she said she liked being around dogs.
• Fear of Speaking up in Meetings: A client said she would freeze every time she needed to speak up in meetings at work. She would have something useful to say, and her mind would simply go blank. Careful NLP questioning revealed that the moment just before the froze she would picture her manager’s face, hear a critical voice in her head, and feel a tightening in her chest. We worked with those specific triggers and the past experiences at the root of her fear, removing the emotional charge that they had for her. Then using hypnosis to reinforce her new sense of confidence and NLP anchoring to anchor positive emotions within hypnosis she was able to feel much more confident in meetings.

What can NLP and Hypnotherapy Combined Help With?

NLP and Hypnotherapy combined can help with a wide range of issues, including:

• Anxiety worry or overthinking
• Panic attacks
• OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder)
• Depression or low mood
• Insomnia or sleep problems
• Phobias and fears
• Trauma and PTSD
• Smoking or vaping
• Emotional eating and weight management
• Limiting beliefs and self-sabotage
• Procrastination
• Unwanted habits
• Chronic pain
• Improving sports performance
• Increasing confidence and performance in any area such as in business or social situations

How NLP and Hypnotherapy Combined Can Help You

During a session of NLP and hypnotherapy combined you won’t need to know which approach is being used at any given moment, and you don’t need to understand NLP or hypnotherapy for it to work. The different approaches are woven together in response to what is genuinely happening for you.

Combining NLP and hypnotherapy gives you a more complete and holistic approach to overcoming your problems, addressing both conscious and subconscious aspects, and working at the deeper level of where the real problem lives.

The combination of NLP and hypnotherapy can often lead to quicker and more profound and lasting changes compared to using either of them alone, and also vastly more so than traditional approaches.

An Integration of Therapies Tailored to You

My approach is tailored to your needs and issues.

Alongside NLP and hypnotherapy, I also use EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques), and Matrix Reimprinting, and I often integrate aspects of NLP and hypnotherapy with those modalities too.

I work with clients in Luton, Bedfordshire and Harpenden, Hertfordshire, and through online therapy sessions. I would be happy to talk through whether this approach might be the right fit for what you are going through.

 

If you have any questions or would like to find out more about working with me, please get in touch, I offer a free 20-minute telephone consultation.