Tasking and Anxiety Treatment
One of the most common issues that comes through my door is anxiety. Anxiety when left unchecked is an issue that many people suffer with at some point of their lives. Hypnosis with psychotherapy can be a very effective intervention when it comes to working with anxiety sufferers. However, one of the things that I find tends to make the greatest difference as to success or failure is whether a person carries out the tasks I give them to do between sessions.
These tasks are pyramided. This means that they are graded from easy to difficult. There is no point in setting tasks so hard that the client will be unable to achieve what is expected. Indeed, doing that would be cruel. However, by grading the tasks in such a way that they are able to build resilience makes it far more likely for the tasks to be successfully undertaken and more important for the client, the need for therapy will decrease.
I am fond of saying to clients that actually attending therapy is giving the person a safe space to explore issues, but the real therapeutic work happens outside the office in the real world. By giving clients tasks to complete we are using the outside world as a resource in order to effect the change desired by the client.
