10 Ways Hypnotherapy Helps Musicians

Hypnotherapy is a powerful tool that can help musicians and performers of all levels. By tapping into the subconscious mind, musicians can overcome multiple obstacles that are holding them back from reaching their full potential. Here are 10 ways in which hypnotherapy can help musicians:

1. Overcome Stage Fright/Anxiety - As a musician, you might struggle with stage fright or music performance anxiety. Some musicians struggle with this so much that they stopped performing altogether. With hypnotherapy, this can be overcome and you can get back on stage! A study published by The Journal of Clinical Psychology showed that hypnotherapy reduced performance anxiety for musicians significantly. The results were immediate and also held up 6 months later [1].

2. Get Over Writer’s Block - Sometimes musicians experience writer’s block. The music or the lyrics are just not coming and you don’t know why. As a musician this can feel extremely frustrating and like it is out of your control. However, you can overcome writer’s block with hypnotherapy. With hypnotherapy you go into a deeply relaxed state where you can bypass the critical factor of the conscious mind. When you bypass the critical factor of the conscious mind, your creative thoughts and ideas can flow freely without judgement.

3. Optimize Performance - Did you know athletes use hypnosis to increase their performance? Did you know this can also be applied to musicians? During hypnosis, the hypnotherapist can help you visualize the desired outcome you want, whether that be an incredible performance or a successful practice. Studies have shown that mental practice is almost as effective as physical practice [2]. Combining visualizing with the theta brain wave state which you access during hypnosis can increase your performance even faster than visualizing alone. [3]

4. Break Through Learning Plateaus - Occasionally musicians get stuck in a rut when it comes to leveling up their skills. You might get caught on a “learning plateau” where you only play what you know and you don’t know how to increase your knowledge. Hypnosis helps you access the theta brain wave state which is connected to creativity, intuition and learning. This can help you break past the wall of habits and help you grow into the musician you know you really are. On top of that, a study done by Oxford concluded that, “hypnosis substantially boosted procedural-based sequence learning,” which is the type of learning used to play an instrument [4].

5. Choose Healthy Habits on Tour - Even if you just head out on the road for a weekend tour, you realize within a few hours how easy it is to load up on gas station snacks and eat Funyuns for dinner. Everyone in the town your playing wants you to try their “famous (insert delicious sounding dessert here)” and the venue is only providing you with free beer and pizza for the night. With hypnotherapy, you can wire your subconscious mind to choose healthy options on tour. You can crave a real dinner with vegetables and feel no desire to eat the gas station or late night snacks. Also, you can cut out the bad habits! Hypnotherapy helps with smoking cessation and even can decrease drinking [5]. Lastly, hypnosis was shown to increase immunity and energy which can make or break your day on tour [6]!

6. Travel with Ease - Musicians find themselves traveling a lot to get to gigs. Sometimes you find yourself on tour in a car or bus for hours upon hours in a day. Other times you can be on a 24 hour flight to start a tour in Australia. Whatever the case may be, if you are a musician and you struggle with claustrophobia or a fear of flying, this can hold back your career. You don’t have to be held back anymore. Hypnotherapy is used to release fears and phobias and can help you travel with internal ease [7].

7. Conquer Self-Doubt & Increase Confidence - A big hurdle many musicians face is getting over self-doubt and feeling confident in themselves. Hypnotherapy can help find the subconscious root cause of self-doubt and help you build your self-esteem back up. You don’t need to fake it ‘til you make it anymore, you can just be it [8].

8. Have Fun with Music Again - A lot of musicians become jaded over time or get too caught up in the music business side of things. After years of trying to be the next big thing, they lost the fun in the music. Hypnotherapy can help you with this by getting you in touch with your inner child again and remembering how to have fun and just play [9].

9. Feel Worthy of Abundance - A lot of musicians get caught in the “starving artist” mindset. They think if they aren’t struggling, then they must not really be a true artist. This mindset needs to change because a struggling musician might not have access to creative time, better equipment or studios that can help them produce quality music and be better artists. You can get rid of these subconscious mental blocks that are keeping you in the poverty mindset and get you back on the road to abundance with hypnotherapy.

10. Emotional Regulation - Musicians can oftentimes be susceptible to ride an emotional roller coaster during their career. From the extreme highs of an adrenalin rush before a show to the lowest lows of feeling like nobody is listening, you can experience a lot of ups and downs. Even during a performance a musician can deeply feel all the happy and sad notes throughout the show. Hypnotherapy can help you become emotionally regulated regardless of the ups and downs. Studies have shown that hypnotherapy can even help people with Major Depressive Disorder, improving their “difficulties in emotional regulation, mindfulness, and mental health…” [10].

So where do I begin?

If you are a musician and you are interested in using hypnotherapy to help relieve any of the above or related problems, you are in the right place. Melissa Lucciola, CHt is a certified hypnotherapist and a long time professional international touring musician, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who completely understands the in’s and out’s of everything musicians go through. She is now offering packages specifically for musicians to address these unique issues and is currently taking new clients.

References:

[1] - Brooker, E. Music performance anxiety: A clinical outcome study into the effects of cognitive hypotherapy and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing in advanced pianists. Psychology of Music. 2018, Pages 107-124, Journal of Clinical Psychology

[2] - Clark, L. V. (1960). Effect of mental practice on the development of a certain motor skill. Research Quarterly of the American Association for Health, Physical Education, & Recreation, 31, 560–569. American Psychological Association

[3] - Jalene, Sharon and Gabriele Wulf. “Brief Hypnotic Intervention Increases Throwing Accuracy.” International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching 9 (2014): 199 - 206. Semantic Scholar

[4] - Dezso Nemeth, Karolina Janacsek, Bertalan Polner, Zoltan Ambrus Kovacs, Boosting Human Learning by Hypnosis, Cerebral Cortex, Volume 23, Issue 4, April 2013, Pages 801–805, https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhs068

[5] - Elkins G, Marcus J, Bates J, Hasan Rajab M, Cook T. Intensive hypnotherapy for smoking cessation: a prospective study. Int J Clin Exp Hypn. 2006 Jul;54(3):303-15. doi: 10.1080/00207140600689512. PMID: 16766441.

[6] - Gruzelier J, Smith F, Nagy A, Henderson D. Cellular and humoral immunity, mood and exam stress: the influences of self-hypnosis and personality predictors. Int J Psychophysiol. 2001 Aug;42(1):55-71. doi: 10.1016/s0167-8760(01)00136-2. PMID: 11451479.

[7] - Hirsch JA. Integrating Hypnosis with Other Therapies for Treating Specific Phobias: A Case Series. Am J Clin Hypn. 2018 Apr;60(4):367-377. doi: 10.1080/00029157.2017.1326372. PMID: 29485374.

[8] - Grégoire C, Faymonville ME, Vanhaudenhuyse A, Jerusalem G, Willems S, Bragard I. Randomized controlled trial of a group intervention combining self-hypnosis and self-care: secondary results on self-esteem, emotional distress and regulation, and mindfulness in post-treatment cancer patients. Qual Life Res. 2021 Feb;30(2):425-436. doi: 10.1007/s11136-020-02655-7. Epub 2020 Oct 6. PMID: 33025372; PMCID: PMC7886776.

[9] - Eric Mener, Anne-Claude Mener,The E2R (Emotion, regression, repair) method: A case study of this new pragmatic hypnotherapy technique, Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice,Volume 50, 2023, 101701, ISSN 1744-3881, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctcp.2022.101701.

[10] - Khazraee H, Bakhtiari M, Kianimoghadam AS, Ghorbanikhah E. The effectiveness of mindful hypnotherapy on difficulties in emotion regulation, mindfulness, and mental health in patients with major depressive disorder. J Educ Health Promot. 2023 Oct 31;12:365. doi: 10.4103/jehp.jehp_1473_22. PMID: 38144000; PMCID: PMC10743934.