Frequently Asked Questions

Hypnotherapy is a gentle, powerful therapeutic approach that works with the subconscious mind - the part of your mind that stores habits, beliefs, and emotional responses. Unlike stage hypnosis, which is designed to entertain, hypnotherapy is a safe, collaborative process used to create real, lasting change.

In a hypnotherapy session, you’ll enter a relaxed, focused state (a bit like daydreaming or being deeply absorbed in music). While in this state, your mind becomes more open to positive suggestions and new ways of thinking. This allows us to reprogramme unhelpful patterns like fear, self-doubt or anxiety, and replace them with more empowering ones.

You’re always in control during hypnosis. You can talk, move, or even open your eyes at any time. Most people find the experience deeply calming and surprisingly enjoyable.

Hypnotherapy is backed by research and has been used effectively for everything from performance anxiety and phobias, to habit change and emotional healing.

Hypnosis is a powerful tool for musicians to transform fear into confidence. It helps you identify and address the root causes of performance anxiety, working on a subconscious level to resolve the core beliefs that hold you back. This allows you to tap into your natural state of confidence and flow. My tailored assessment tool is a great starting point. Answer a few questions to uncover the hidden patterns behind your performance anxiety and learn how to transform nerves into confidence and ease.

Positive Visualisation:

One of the most effective self-hypnosis tools for musicians is positive visualisation.

How To Practice:

• Close your eyes and imagine watching yourself from the audience - performing confidently and flawlessly

• It can help to remember a past positive performance if you struggle to see yourself in a positive light

• See how you look - confident, in flow, enjoying the moment

• Feel how you feel - at ease, effortlessly executing your craft, expressing yourself with freedom, focused, flowing

• Feel your emotions - excited, fulfilled, moved by the music, joyful, transcendent

• Next, choose a performance in your future, or imagine one and step inside yourself on your imaginary stage. Be in the moment - as if it is happening right now. Feel all the emotions you want to feel and what you want to feel in your body and mind.

Practising this technique regularly will help to create new positive neural pathways in your brain, so that when the actual performance moment arrives, your body and mind know exactly what to do and how to be.

Reframing Negative Thoughts:

Another self-hypnosis technique is challenging negative and self-sabotaging thoughts and replacing them with positive ones.

How to practice:

• Notice a limiting thought you have before a performance

• Reflect on what you think this thought is telling you (eg. I'm not capable, I'll mess up, I'm afraid of letting myself down)

• Challenge the thought and belief: ask yourself - "Is that actually true?"

• Think back to a performance where you proved that to be false

• Construct a new thought and belief which can create a positive outcome (eg. in my last performance I pulled off a piece I never believed I could, and I was really happy with it because...I am more capable than I think...and that means...I can do it again)

You can take this practice further if you want, by slotting in a positive visualisation to conclude. This will help to consolidate your new positive thoughts and prime you for a positive performance outcome.

Positive Priming:

Before a performance, self-hypnosis can be used to ‘prime’ your mind. You can do this by feeding your subconscious with positive suggestions and embedded commands - statements which your subconscious can use to create a positive perception of performance.

How to practice:

• Use the thought-reframing technique above to create positive statements

• Add commands for how you would like to perform, such as 'play freely,' 'feel confident,' 'enjoy my performance'

• Write a short script for yourself, using these statements and commands as building blocks

• Weave positive performance memories into this, or elements of your positive visualisation if you like

• Record your script on your phone

• Listen daily just before you sleep, or just before a performance, whenever you need a boost

Want to take the next step?

My entry-level mini-course, Fearless Foundations™ gives you 5 practical, mind–based tools that combine self-hypnosis, mindset work and reflection to help you begin rewiring your mind and transforming performance anxiety into freedom and flow.

Hypnotherapy is one of the most effective methods for treating music performance anxiety. It is a transformational modality that works directly with your subconscious mind to reprogramme the self-limiting beliefs and emotional triggers behind your performance anxiety. It helps you create behaviours which are more positively self-fulfilling for you as a musician.

Learn more about how it works in my blog post: The Magic of Hypnosis for Music Performance Anxiety - Transmute Fear into Confidence