People often ask me if everyone can be hypnotised. Hypnotisability is a characteristic that can be hereditary, and is also influenced by environmental factors (e.g. life experiences). So the answer is that everyone is at least moderately hypnotisable, and this is all that is necessary for you to benefit from clinical hypnotherapy.
Some people have very bad anxiety, and ask “Will hypnosis work on me?” And the answer is yes, even if you are suffering with ‘anticipatory anxiety.’ Many people with anxiety disorders have anticipatory anxiety. That is, once people have had an unexpected experience that elicited a negative or uncomfortable reaction, they can often become worried and/or expectant that it will happen again.
Similarly, sometimes people will generalise their anxiety from a particular thing to something related to that thing. Anticipatory anxiety and generalisable anxiety ARE negative self-hypnotic suggestions. You are literally giving yourself the suggestion that you are going to become anxious… and voilà… you become anxious.
So if you are talented at giving yourself negative hypnotic suggestions, it means that you are hypnotisable and also have the capacity to be responsive to positive hypnotic suggestion! Anxious people are already skilled at imagining something vividly, and experiencing the reality of that imagining in an emotional and or physiological reaction.
