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The Power of Hypnotherapy in Nature: A Holistic Approach to Mental Well-being.


Your brain on a walk in nature with and without a phone. Which looks healthy to you?
Your brain on a walk in nature with and without a phone. Which looks healthy to you?

In today's fast-paced, technology-driven world, it's easy to lose touch with nature and the profound benefits it offers for our mental and physical health. As a practitioner of holistic hypnotherapy, I've seen firsthand how reconnecting with nature can be a powerful tool for rewiring the brain, finding calm, and reactivating parts of the brain for positive wellness.

In this article, i will reference science and scientists who are exploring this field, please do follow the science to have confidence and understanding in what i am proscribing. First i want to share how i work, and how I use a combination of sensory stimulus to illicit a connection to nature in what i call holistic hypnotherapy:

 

  • Storytelling during hypnosis states, using metaphors and images of nature.

  • A combination of binaural music with nature sounds, be it bird song, a forest in the breeze, a gentle stream etc.

  • Location, my sessions take place at my home office with a large window looking onto my garden, large trees and the valley beyond. Not to mention my office is full of plants.

  • Post session active encouragement to participate in nature based activities; gardening, walking, hiking, outdoor tai-chi etc.

  • Encouragement to reduce technological interaction (screen time)

  • Nutrition; we now know, scientifically, that the phrase “you are what you eat” is quite literally true. Your gut biome controls your brain, so make sure you eat real quailty food, best to grow it.

 

This approach, which I call nature hypnotherapy, is grounded in the holistic principles of nature—a diverse ecosystem of parts that work together to maintain balance and harmony.

 

The Impact of Modernization on Mental Health:

 

Modernization and technology have significantly impacted our mental well-being. A study by Sapien Labs, led by neuroscientist Tara Thiagarajan, found that lifelong exposure to modernity, including smartphone use and ultra-processed foods, has led to a decline in mental health, particularly among younger generations. The Global Mind Project, initiated by Thiagarajan, has shown that greater wealth and economic development do not necessarily lead to greater mental well-being. Instead, they can lead to consumption patterns and a fraying of social bonds that are detrimental to our ability to thrive. Currently 50% of the world’s population live in urban spaces, by 2050 it is predicted to be 75% yet it is these urban environments and their intrinsic patterns of lifestyle that disconnect you from what your body intuitively knows is good for you, nature.

 

The Healing Power of Nature:

 

Dr. David Strayer, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University of Utah, has explored how our over-stressed, technologically bombarded brains are restored when we immerse ourselves in nature. His research shows that even short walks in natural settings can reduce stress, lower cortisol levels, blood pressure, and heart rate, and improve creativity. This restoration occurs because nature allows the prefrontal cortex, the brain's command center, to dial down and rest, much like an overused muscle.

 

The Three-Day Effect:

 

Dr. Strayer's concept of the "three-day effect" suggests that spending three days in nature can significantly recalibrate the brain, reducing stress and improving cognitive performance. This effect is supported by numerous studies that show how nature immersion can lead to measurable changes in physiology, including reduced levels of biological stress and improved mental health. However, even just 30 minutes with nature, being in a green space, have shown positive wellbeing outcomes on brain function and just as importantly, client perception of how they feel. I know this because a usual session of hypnotherapy with me, lasts around 1 hour and 15 minutes and the effects are clear in my clients, the combination of a natural setting, a bath in nature if you will, and the guidance of a good hypnotherapist combine to create a restful much needed recalibration of the brain and the client’s sense of feeling.

 

Nature Therapy and Its Benefits:

 

Nature therapy, also known as ecotherapy or green therapy, has been shown to have a wide range of mental and physical health benefits. Activities like forest bathing, nature walks, and horticulture therapy can reduce stress, anxiety, and depression. These practices incorporate outdoor activities and mindfulness, which are known to boost well-being. Nature therapy is seen as preventative medicine to address mental health issues prevalent in an increasingly urbanized and artificial world. So much so that GP’s in England are now prescribing nature. A wonderful realisation and yet also an indictment of how far we have strayed from what is natural that we now must proscribe it. However, in a world where the average citizen in the west spends between 7 to 10 hours on a screen, that is between work, social media, tv and the internet, perhaps we have arrived at this point, where we need to remind ourselves to proscribe what early homo sapiens unconsciously knew and participated in. This is why hypnotherapy with nature, what I call holistic hypnotherapy can be so profound, precisely because it works with the unconscious. The unconscious desire and knowledge, the feeling in your guts, that you need and crave nature and that it will do you good.

 

Scientific Evidence for Nature Hypnotherapy:

 

A recent study by Amy S. McDonnell and David L. Strayer, published in Scientific Reports, provides compelling evidence for the benefits of nature immersion. The study, a randomized controlled trial, explored differences in self-reported affect and frontal midline theta (FMθ)—a neural oscillation linked to executive attention—between a 40-min, low-intensity nature walk and an urban walk of comparable time and distance. The results showed that while both walks improved affect, the nature walkers showed a significantly greater boost in positive affect than the urban walkers.

Electroencephalography (EEG) data revealed significantly greater FMθ activity following the urban walk compared to the nature walk, suggesting that the urban walk placed higher demands on executive attention. In contrast, the nature walk allowed executive attention to rest, as indicated by the lower FMθ activity observed after the walk. This study suggests that changes in FMθ may be a potential neural mechanism underlying the attentional strain of urban environments in contrast to the attentional rest in nature.

 

Practical Applications and Examples:

 

Nature hypnotherapy sessions can be conducted in 45 minutes to 1 and a half hour sessions, either with individuals or small groups. For even greater effect we could try three-day period in a natural setting to maximize the benefits. This extended immersion can help individuals experience a profound mental and emotional reset, feeling more centered, less stressed, and more creative upon returning to their daily life.

 

Tips for Practitioners. For practitioners looking to integrate nature into their hypnotherapy sessions, consider the following tips:

 

  • Setting and Awareness: Lead clients into an outdoor environment or a halfway point between the threshold of a room and the outdoors and encouraging them to engage all their senses—sight, sound, smell, and touch, observe and be with the nature. Fix their attention on a leaf, a branch, a blade of grass, a cloud and observe it, search its stillness and look for detail you did not at first notice.  In doing so you will begin to move the client from Beta brainwaves to Alpha brainwaves.


  • Guided Nature Hypnotherapy Sessions: Conduct hypnotherapy sessions in natural environments, guiding clients to close their eyes, focus on the sounds of nature, the sound of your voice, adjusted to according frequency, and any other sounds such as birdsong or the rustling of leaves. In doing so you will begin to move the client from Alpha brainwaves to Theta brainwaves.

     

  • Mindful Engagement via Storytelling: Now with client sufficiently relaxed and their unconscious open to suggestion, encourage clients to journey inwards, taking the relaxing mindful energy of the nature around them and to let their minds wander creatively, guided always by the storytelling of the hypnotherapist, so that soon they are in two place at once, literally and physically there in the nature setting and mentally elsewhere in their mind, walking up a mountain you describe, or journeying along a river you offer, or walking down earthen stairs into a clearing that is in fact an inner garden you tell them has revealed itself – whatever it may be, craft the narrative.


  • Restore, Return and Remind: bring the client back, count them back into their preset place, remind them of where they are sitting, focus them on their body, on their location and have them focus on their wonderfully calm restored feeling, thanks to the experience they willfully participated in.

 

Conclusion:

This approach I have created, Nature hypnotherapy, offers a holistic approach to mental well-being, grounded in scientific research that supports its effectiveness. By reconnecting with nature, we can counteract the negative effects of modern life and achieve a deeper state of relaxation, mental clarity and authenticity.

 

Call to Action:

Nature Hypnotherapy is my own approach. If you're interested in learning more about this approach, please reach out to me. Together, we can harness the power of nature to improve our mental and physical well-being. And I encourage you to explore nature, and perhaps nature hypnotherapy for yourself or to share your experiences with others.

It is my hope that by integrating my belief, with these scientific findings and the experience and testimony of my clients that inform my approach, that we can create a compelling and informative article that highlights the benefits of nature hypnotherapy and its grounding in scientific research.

 

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