You just want to enjoy the FREEDOM that being able to drive ANYWHERE brings. I understand.
If you have developed a fear of driving, then you are certainly not alone. Our roads are becoming busier and other drivers seem to be less patient and less forgiving of others. This, amongst a host of other conditions, can lead an already nervous driver to become FEARFUL of going out on the roads.
Hypnotherapy is a really effective form of driving anxiety therapy that can be used to help you overcome your fear, enabling you to drive anywhere with confidence.
Perhaps you were a CONFIDENT driver and your current anxiety is related to a specific driving incident, such as a major accident. In this case, you will be experiencing an emotional IRRATIONAL reaction with even the thought of driving leaving you in a panicked state.
In this instance, you have developed a driving phobia. A series of hypnosis sessions can help you to overcome this response and feel in control when driving.
Hypnotherapy for fear of driving – How has my driving phobia developed?
A phobia can be described as an extreme, overwhelming, or debilitating fear of an object, place, situation, or feeling. When we experience a phobia, it can trigger an overwhelming physical and emotional response instantly engaging our fight/flight/ mode.
In simple terms, phobias are our brains’ way of trying to protect us. If you have for instance been involved in or witnessed an accident, then your brain will do all it can to try and stop you from putting yourself in this situation again. If your brain has perceived the situation to be so scary that it could endanger your life, then a little disaster movie has been lodged in a part of your brain responsible for memory.
Each time you think about driving your brain responds with FEAR. This will mean that your body temperature, heart rate, and breathing rate will rise as a result of the production of stress hormones, which can leave you feeling in a state of PANIC. We know this as your fight/flight response. Your body is preparing you to fight or flee from danger.
If you wish to find out more about phobias, please use the highlighted link.
It’s quick and EASY for you to overcome your fear of driving so you can look forward to driving with CONFIDENCE!
Hypnotherapy for driving anxiety – Why am I anxious when driving?
It may well be that you don’t have a fear response to driving, in other words, you can get in a car and drive, but you just don’t feel confident behind the wheel.
It’s very common for people that I’ve worked with to have been able to drive as long as they followed a familiar route. Their general lack of confidence behind the wheel, however, stopped them from going on busier roads and exploring different routes, which they found so RESTRICTIVE.
They wanted to be able to be SPORADIC and just hop in a car and go anywhere they wanted, but their lack of confidence meant that they either feared driving along new routes or on busier roads.
Perhaps you too are finding your anxiety around driving restrictive. Is it stopping you from visiting friends and relatives in different parts of the country? Is it stopping you from applying for jobs further away from home or are you FRUSTRATED that you have to rely on your partner to drive you places?
Maybe you find that driving just isn’t a pleasurable experience and even if you are driving a familiar route, you don’t have the confidence to drive quickly and keep up with traffic so you then worry about the impact this is having on other drivers.
So instead of being able to RELAX, you find that you are constantly on alert trying to second guess what other drivers are going to do which leaves you constantly feeling anxious.
You can become a confident driver in 3 easy steps
#01 Discover
You learn what’s happening to make you feel the way you do and the process we use to change your mindset.
#02 Change
We work together each week to bring about positive change, helping you to calm your mind and reduce feelings of overwhelm.
#03 Success
No more driving anxiety. You’ve completely changed your way of thinking, allowing you to drive with confidence.
Imagine how your life will be DIFFERENT when you can drive with a relaxed confidence. What will you look forward to the most?
You can leave your driving anxiety behind just like others have!
How can we work together?
One of the major benefits of Solution Focused Hypnotherapy is that it can be carried out online via Zoom. So no matter where you are reading this blog from, using the internet means that I am able to use hypnotherapy to help you achieve freedom from your driving anxiety. As your therapy will take place in your home it may actually be more beneficial.
Being able to relax in a familiar environment may make it easier for you to enter a naturally relaxed trance state more quickly, making the therapy more EFFECTIVE than if you went to an unfamiliar therapy room.
If you would like to find out more about the benefits of online hypnotherapy, please use this link.
How long will it take to stop being a nervous driver and what is the cost?
It is not possible to give an exact time scale due to a number of factors, however, all of my previous clients have removed their anxiety around driving in just 6 sessions. You can find out the cost of hypnotherapy by using the highlighted link.
Over a period of just a few weeks, solution focused hypnotherapy helps you to REDUCE your general stress and anxiety levels and increase your levels of confidence and SELF-ESTEEM. By doing so you enable yourself to think from the more intellectual parts of your brain where there is no anxiety. This leaves your primitive brain to do its intended job of looking out for life-threatening situations and not interfering with your driving.
The INTELLECTUAL part of your brain is under no illusion that driving is a part of your life that can bring BENEFIT and enjoyment.
Why have I created driving anxiety?
There can be a number of different reasons why driving is now causing you to be anxious which will be very individual to you. Usually, it will be related to negative driving experiences that you have had. It need not be related to one major event, but it can be a series of more minor events. Stalling at traffic lights, being honked at from behind and then being in a panic and not being able to start the car, or you might have been involved in a near miss or been PANICKED when a lorry overtook you and got too close.
The culmination of these events has meant that you have a GLOOMY perception of driving, so your thoughts around it are always negative. It’s not actually driving that is causing your anxiety but the negative thoughts that you associate with it.
You can create anxiety as a one-off response to a life-threatening situation although it’s more common for it to build up over time. When this happens we tend to spend more time thinking from the primitive part of our brain, which thinks with emotion rather than logic.
The primitive brain – Your security guard
The primitive part of your brain is very negative and obsessional. It will always see things from the WORST possible perspective. It’s essentially looking out to protect you.
Our primitive brain very often gets things wrong though. It is said to have the emotional intelligence and rationale of a 4 to 5-year-old child. If you begin to think about driving in a negative way, then it will start to enter your thought processes more often.
In its misguided attempt to keep you SAFE your primitive brain will see driving as a THREAT
It’s OBSESSIONAL so it will keep worries playing out in your mind!
How can I stop these anxious thoughts?
Solution focused hypnotherapy uses a combination of talking therapy and hypnosis to help you to achieve freedom from your anxiety around driving. It is very outcome-focused. There is no need for you to visit your past and try to analyse when or why your anxiety started.
Our talk is focused on how you want to feel, think and act in the FUTURE!
You may find that other aspects of your life are contributing factors to your driving anxiety. All negative thoughts will create anxiety. You might be worried about relationships and money or feel under pressure at work. All of these situations will contribute to you thinking from the primitive, EMOTIONAL part of your brain as opposed to the intelligent, logical part.
What is hypnosis?
You will probably have heard of both the terms hypnosis and trance. They can really be thought of as being interchangeable, as they both describe a time when you experience a shift in your conscious awareness. It’s often described as being in a daydream. So when you gaze out of the window you have gone into trance.
You may recall a time when you’ve been in conversation with a friend and tried to remember the name of a film or book. No matter how hard you try when you are consciously thinking about it you can’t recall the name. It’s only later at home when you are daydreaming that the name POPS into your head.
During the daydreaming state, your conscious and unconscious minds have worked together to give you the answer you were looking for. Hypnosis is a great PROBLEM-SOLVING state that we naturally go into many times during our day.
Does hypnosis for driving anxiety work?
Hypnosis is a really effective way of helping people to overcome and driving related anxiety. During the light trance state used in solution focused hypnotherapy, your brain will take the negative emotional edge of older memories. By mimicking your REM dream state, hypnosis helps you to relieve stress. It allows you to take control of your thoughts and think with logic and reason.
It also completely shuts off your supply of noradrenaline, one of your body’s main stress hormones. You, therefore, come back to full consciousness feeling calm and relaxed.
During hypnosis, our brain waves alter. When we are awake and especially if we are anxious our beta waves are predominant. However, when we are in a relaxed trance state this activity lessens. Our alpha and theta waves become more influential which enables us to visualise and then come up with SOLUTIONS to our problems.
Just like we do when we are in our natural REM dream state. It’s no coincidence that most languages in the world have a version of our ‘sleep on it’ to describe the amazing ability of our dream state to solve our problems.
Why I believe I’m the right person to help you
I have spent my working life helping people to reach their potential. I get enormous satisfaction from helping people to change and become the best version of themselves.
I am a qualified hypnotherapist and a member of a number of awarding bodies which means I have to adhere to strict codes of conduct and continue to develop myself professionally. You can be sure your mental health is in a safe empathetic pair of hands.
I am one of the most highly reviewed hypnotherapists in the UK because I get results for my clients.
Based on the RESULTS I achieve for my clients and the standard of my work I have won several nationally recognised awards.
How do I find out more about using hypnotherapy for fear of driving?
If you would like to find out more about how together we can use hypnosis for fear of driving to enable you to drive with confidence, then please get in touch using this link, or if you are ready to book an initial consultation please use the button below.
Think Better – Feel Better – Sleep Better
Author: Ian Murton HPD DSFH AfSFH Reg NCH Reg CNHC Reg is an award-winning Solution Focused Hypnotherapist running sessions via Zoom from his home on the Bedfordshire/ Hertfordshire border
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What happens during an initial consultation?
