Almost everyone is looking for an ideal work-life balance. Getting it right can have massive benefits for individuals, their families, and even their employers.
For many, the balancing struggle is ongoing. Work pressures can spiral into emotional tantrums, outbursts of anger, chaotic thinking, workplace tension, ill health, and overall unhappiness.
These can add to general depression and anxiety, contribute to physical symptoms such as body aches and migraines, and underlie many lost work days.
It is not surprising, therefore, that many employers are on the alert for robust, affordable strategies that can help their workers improve productivity and restore emotional calm.
What is clinical hypnotherapy?
Clinical hypnotherapy is a form of focused attention that can induce calm within minutes. Many coaches and therapists teach it to their clients as an effective stress-management strategy.
Just 10 minutes is sufficient to leave one feeling emotionally refreshed, confident and rejuvenated. This method has become known as the “power nap”.
Clinical hypnotherapy is effective across age groups, backgrounds, and employment environments. Indeed, anyone who experiences emotional frustration can benefit.
Exploring this form of therapy is a way to improve one’s mental wellbeing in a safe environment. It expands one’s natural ability to daydream, when your mind’s focus is magnified into a powerful resource that stimulates your brain, enhancing learning and creating new neural pathways.
The magic begins when this new focus is combined with the deeply relaxing state of hypnosis. Participants often find their memory improves and confidence grows, and their sense of fun and wonder with regard to everyday experiences and interactions returns, even after just one session.
So how does it help at work?
Learning about clinical hypnosis provides people with a means of navigating life’s curveballs secure in the knowledge that they will re-establish their internal equilibrium. This helps them keep calm and see problems in perspective, which in turn reduces stress, promotes resilience, and helps them stay open to solutions that arise.
These skills will clearly come in handy in a stressful workplace. After all, it’s not always possible to change one’s environment, but controlling the way you respond in that environment can be empowering and transforming.
And when things are calm and manageable at work, this translates to a happier, more worry-free life beyond the walls of the workplace.
In organisations, clinical hypnotherapy can be introduced as part of an in-service coaching or motivation programme. Group sessions can help employees learn the art of managing stress, and can also encourage them to create and maintain corporate goals while boosting team motivation and cohesiveness.
It takes about one hour to learn self-hypnosis in a group session, but coaches generally recommend several short sessions so the skill is learnt and practised effectively and habitually.
Extended training also covers problem-solving skills, goal setting, and strategies for effective motivation. Participants find that these tools translate well into their personal lives as they help them cope with emotional triggers.
The London College of Clinical Hypnosis (LCCH) Asia Foundation programme offers a four-month part-time opportunity to get to know your mind. This month, LCCH is offering the following for FMT readers:
- free self-hypnosis sessions throughout February;
- free workshop on Goal Directed Hypnotherapy on Feb 21.
To learn more about LCCH’s courses, click here.
Sheila Menon is the principal of LCCH in Asia and Australia, and the CEO of the LSCCH Therapy Centre.