With most physical habits, the underlying causes might be quite varied, and at different psychological levels. Although hypnosis has a wide range of applications, the problems that are most directly related to physical habits are typically the ones that can be treated with hypnosis most immediately and directly. Hypnotherapy for smoking cessation is the most commonly recognized of these, and is among the more successful and least invasive techniques for reaching its goal. Another popular area for hypnosis treatment is for weight reduction. Similarly, hypnosis is also the best technique for conquering a nail biting habit.
The nail biting habit has much in common with smoking. Both are physical, ritualistic habits. Either can be caused by the mechanics of a simple physical routine, or can be symptomatic of deeper psychological issues. In either case the habit itself can be effectively stopped with hypnosis.
Discovering and resolving underlying psychological problems, which are exhibited in nail biting and smoking can be a process that requires a series of sessions with a knowledgeable hypnotherapist. Not all hypnotherapists and hypnotists are capable of performing at the deep psychological level. Fortunately, for the purposes of ending a smoking or a nail biting habit, they are not required to work below the most direct physical level.
The more immediate goal of curing the nail biting habit is much more straightforward. Many of our deeper emotional and psychological states are influenced by our physical state, so in solving physical symptoms directly, we can also have an indirect impact on deeper issues. Also, not all negative physical habits have underlying causes; sometimes it is merely just a physical habit; it "feels" good for the individual to take part in them.
In my experience, the focused and relaxed state of hypnosis can have nearly miraculous results when it comes to causing simple changes to one's physical state. Whenever I eliminate severe burn pain, remove nausea, and relieve other physical issues for a client in just seconds, it still amazes me, even though I am supposedly the one with the "power" (as we know, the true power exists in 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 nail-biting is a modest goal in comparison.
I have found three of the strongest aspects of hypnosis to be association, substitution and anchoring. With association, one can link a negative behavior to something truly unpleasant; with substitution, one may replace the bad habit with an innocuous one; with anchoring, one may link 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 a delectable slice of New York Cheesecake to a subject, one can make the taste and feeling of nail biting to be very distasteful. If your subject is consistently and repeatedly conditioned to feel that the taste and feel of nail biting is very unpleasant, it will help to cause the habit to cease.
There are chemical products that achieve this goal via unpleasant tasting nail polish. However, with a mental association they can stop nail biting without relying on using a chemical product. This "aversion" type of therapy is not generally very helpful. But it is only reliable when used as an adjunct to eliminating 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 effectively replace the nail biting compulsion with a more benign behavior. For instance, 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 exhale slowly, experiencing all the same feelings and resolution that nail biting used to bring. I have found the deep breathing substitute to be effective for a wide range of problems.
Anchoring similarly can be used to subvert one action into another, and works well with association and substitution techniques. It is useful to create the suggestion that every time subjects see their fingers coming to their mouth, they vividly recall the bad taste association, and that they instead take that deep breath to resolve the tension.
In summary, hypnosis has been proven as one of the best methods for negative behavior modification. Just as with smoking cessation, the techniques and concepts outlined here prove to be very successful as a long-term nail-biting cure.
About The Author: Alan B. Densky, CH is an established leader in the field of hypnosis. Visit his hypnosis site for
free hypnosis videos, articles, and advice. He's created an all-inclusive seven-session
self hypnosis nail biting program based on
Ericksonian Hypnosis and NLP.
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