Nail Biting - Overcome The Urge With Hypnotherapy - Article Blast! Free Articles And Content For Reprint On Your Website, Newsletters and Ezines. Submit Your Articles For Free!

Nail Biting - Overcome The Urge With Hypnotherapy

Written by Alan B. Densky, CH

Wednesday, 19 March 2008

The underlying causes of the majority physical habits may be quite varied, and rooted at different psychological levels. Although hypnotherapy has a wide range of uses, the behaviors that are most directly related to physical habits tend to be the ones that can be treated with hypnotherapy most easily and directly. Hypnosis for smoking cessation is the most commonly recognized of these, and is one of the most effective and less invasive techniques for reaching its goal. Another popular area for hypnotherapy treatment is for weight reduction. Similarly, hypnotherapy is also the most effective technique for conquering the nail biting habit.

Nail biting shares many similarities to smoking. It is a ritualistic, physical habit. Either might be caused by the mechanics of a simple physical routine, or might be symptomatic of deeper psychological problems. And in either case the habit itself can be quite effectively halted with hypnotherapy.

Discovering and treating underlying psychological problems, which are exhibited in nail biting and smoking can be a process that necessitates several sessions with a knowledgeable hypnotherapist. However, not all hypnotists and hypnotherapists are capable of performing at the deep psychological level. Fortunately, for the purposes of eliminating a nail biting or a smoking habit, they are not required to work below the most direct physical level.

The more immediate goal of curing nail biting is much more straightforward. Many of our deeper psychological and emotional states are impacted by our physical state, so in solving physical symptoms directly, we are also able to have an indirect impact on deeper issues. Furthermore, not all negative physical behaviors have an underlying cause; sometimes it is merely just a physical habit; it just "feels" good for the individual to take part in them.

In my experience, the relaxed and focused state of hypnosis can have nearly miraculous results when it comes to achieving simple changes to one's physical state. Whenever I eliminate severe burn pain, alleviate nausea, and solve other physical issues for a client in just seconds, it still amazes me, even though I'm supposedly the one with the "power" (although as we know, the true power exists within the client's unconscious mind). The capabilities exist in each of our minds to block severe pain and nausea; so the ability to prevent one from biting their nails is a modest goal in comparison.

I have found three of the most powerful hypnotherapy techniques to be anchoring, substitution and association. With association, one can link a negative behavior to something very unpleasant; with substitution, one may replace the bad habit with an innocuous one; with anchoring, one may connect physical movement triggers with alternative feelings and behaviors.

With association, just like the simple hypnotic parlor trick can make a piece of white bread taste like the most delicious New York Cheesecake to a subject, one can make the taste and feeling of nail biting to be very distasteful. If your subject is repeatedly conditioned to feel that the taste and feel of nail biting is very unpleasant, it will help eliminate the habit.

There are chemical products that achieve this goal via unpleasant tasting nail polish. However, with a mental association it is easy to stop nail biting without depending upon using a chemical product. This "aversion" type of therapy is not generally very helpful. But it is reliable only when used as an adjunct to relieving the stress that causes one to bite their nails, as well as extinguishing conditioned responses (unconscious associations), which triggers one to bite their nails.

Substitution can be used to replace the nail-biting compulsion with a more benign behavior. For example, it is quite effective to make the suggestion that whenever one feels the urges that lead them towards nail biting, they will take a deep breath instead, and slowly exhale, experiencing all the same feelings and resolution that nail biting used to bring. I have found the deep breathing substitute to be very effective for a wide variety of problems.

Anchoring similarly can be used to subvert one action into another, and works well with the association and substitution techniques. It is useful to create the suggestion that every time subjects see their fingers approach their mouth, they vividly remember the bad taste association, and they instead take that deep breath to relieve the tension.

In summary, hypnotherapy has long been established as one of the most effective methods for negative behavior modification. Just as with smoking cessation, the techniques and concepts outlined here prove to be very effective as a long-term nail-biting cure.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleBlast.com

About The Author:

Alan B. Densky, CH is a recognized leader in the field of hypnotherapy. Visit his self-hypnosis site for free hypnosis videos, articles, and advice. He's perfected a comprehensive 7-session hypnotherapy for nail-biting program based on NLP and Ericksonian Hypnosis.

You are welcome to publish this article free of charge on your website, newsletter, or e-zine, provided:

You don't change the article in any way
You include the entire article, including the "about the author" box
All hyperlinks must remain intact, including email addresses, and the link to ArticleBlast.com at the bottom
In doing so you agree to indemnify the article's author, and ArticleBlast.com and its directors, officers, employees and agents from and against all losses, claims, damages and liabilities which arise out of its use
It is also recommended that you provide a courtesy copy of your publication to the author of the article