Can Hypnotherapy Help With Health Anxiety?

Health anxiety involves excessive worry about having or developing an illness. It can cause someone to repeatedly check their body, search symptoms online, seek reassurance or become highly alert to normal physical sensations.
Hypnotherapy may help address the anxiety and thought patterns surrounding these behaviours.
For example, a normal sensation such as a headache, muscle twitch or change in heartbeat may trigger the thought that something serious is wrong. That thought increases anxiety, which creates more physical sensations, which then appear to confirm the original fear.
This can become a self-reinforcing cycle.
Therapy can help you develop a calmer response to uncertainty and reduce the emotional intensity attached to bodily sensations.
Importantly, hypnotherapy should never be used to dismiss genuine physical symptoms. New, persistent or concerning symptoms should always be appropriately assessed by a healthcare professional.
The therapeutic focus is on the anxiety surrounding health rather than attempting to diagnose or treat physical illness.