A great many people associate hypnosis and hypnotherapy with being relaxed. Many therefore assume that in order to be hypnotised, they must be relaxed, and if you struggle to relax, you might therefore assume you’ll struggle with hypnosis. However, evidence shows us that hypnosis and relaxation are not correlated and certainly not dependent upon one another.
There is a large body of evidence showing active alert applications of hypnosis can be just as effective and are in fact more desirable on occasions.
This is great news for our anxiety clients who may respond poorly by a hypnotherapist insisting that they relax. Perfectly fine to tell those people that although we may plan to help them relax, they do not ned to relax in order for the hypnosis to happen or for it to be effective. Saying as much will often actually help them relax, ironically.