Celebrity Hypnotherapy for Stress

The media and popular culture frequently portrays of Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy as something strange or unreal. Despite this, many people in the know use this powerful set of techniques to cure themselves of phobias, ailments and other problems.

Below are a set of case studies where notable people have used Hypnotherapy to help with stress

Daryl Hannah 

Daryl Hannah is an American Actress best known for portraying a mermaid in the 1984 fantasy-romantic comedy Splash.

According to a report from the BBC in 2000 she has been using TV hypnotist Paul McKenna to help her conquer her stage fright before the play The Seven Year Itch. Speaking at the time to GMTV news she said, “What he did, which was really valuable for me, was all I had been projecting was that I am going to be terrified. I am going to faint. I am going to be nauseous. You know, it’s going to be miserable. And he helped replace those projections with doing some creative visualisation of positive things”.

Britney Spears 

Britney Spears is an American Singer, Songwriter, Dancer, and Actress. She is credited with influencing the revival of teen pop during the late 1990s.

In 2021 Britney Spears turned to hypnosis to help her deal with her anxiety and anger. According to the Globe, has spent several years of battling to get out of a conservatorship. She had bottled up anxiety and anger. In order to help her deal with her struggles she turned to hypnotherapy and has hour-long sessions several times a week. “They’re helping, but Britney knows she has a way to go before she starts feeling normal again. No matter how much freedom she earns, the misery and pain of what she’s endured will haunt Britney forever,” the source said.

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David Beckham

David Beckham is an English former professional footballer, a co-owner of Inter Miami CF and co-owner of Salford City football club.  

In 2004, while playing for Real Madrid and following a number of personal and sporting incidents the Daily Mail reported he contacted Pail McKenna for help.  The footballer, whose problems reportedly had left him tearful and unable to sleep, had told friends, “I don’t know who I am any more”. His mother-in-law, Jackie Adams, suggested he contact McKenna for help.

Mel Gibson

Mel Gibson is an American Actor, film director and producer. He is best known for his role as Max Rockatansky in the first three films of the Mad Max franchise.  

During 2010, while facing allegations of domestic abuse, he had a 10-day series of hypnotherapy session to help him cope with stress. He sought help from Hypnotherapist Rick Collingwood who is the founder of The Australian Academy of Hypnosis. Collingwood was flown from Perth, Australia, to Mel’s Los Angeles home. He said: “I gave him a few sessions to help him with the stress he is obviously experiencing at the moment”.

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Mandy Moore

Amanda “Mandy” Moore is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. 

In 2011 she performed at the Oscars. She was joined by Zachary Levi to sing ‘I See the Light’ from Tangled, which was nominated for Best Original Song that year. Beforehand she was nervous and so turned to hypnotherapy to help with the stress of nerves of the situation.

In an interview on the chat show ‘The Talk’ she said, “I knew about six weeks before and I was super nervous and I decided that I was going to go and get hypnotised. I know it sounds crazy, but I went and had this hypnosis session and then spent the next month listening to this session before I went to bed every night.”

She went on to say, “You basically imagine your perfect day,”, she continued. “You’re sort of retraining your brain. I was nervous about forgetting the words or getting onstage and messing up somehow. So I went through and imagined this perfect day and the performance going flawlessly and it all ended up working out thanks to the hypnosis.”

Reese Witherspoon

Reese Witherspoon is an American Actress and Producer.

Amongst others she received an Oscar nomination for her role in the 2014 film ‘Wild’. When interviewed she confessed that she struggled mentally with the role.

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Witherspoon told Tracee Ellis Ross for Interview’s summer cover that she had hypnotherapy before she could start work on the movie. Said she, ” I was so scared to do that, Tracee, had hypnosis, I was so scared. I was having  panic attacks or three weeks before I started. There was the nudity, sexuality, and drug-use aspect, but also being alone on camera with no other actors”.

She went on to say, “There were probably 25 days of the shoot where I had no other actor opposite me. It was just me and a camera and a backpack. I was like, ‘Is this going to be so boring?’. I don’t know if I’ll ever work that hard again, but it changed me on a cellular level”.

Kiera Knightley

Keira Knightley is an English Actress best known for playing Elizabeth Swann in Pirates of the Caribbean films.

She told the Hollywood Reporter that she suffered a breakdown in 2007 and had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Her breakdown was attributed to the pressures and attention that comes with fame. She also said that the paparazzi exasperated the situation. “It was big money to get pictures of women falling apart,” Knightley told the Hollywood Reporter during their Awards Chatter podcast referring to Britney Spears’s breakdown.

Over time the situation overwhelmed her, anxiety built up and it took a serious toll on her health. She said, “I did have a mental breakdown at 22, so I did take a year off there and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder because of all that stuff”. She credits hypnotherapy with helping her to overcome these issues saying, “I actually did hypnotherapy so that I could stand on the red carpet at the BAFTAs and not have a panic attack. The hypnotherapy worked because I did stand there and I didn’t have a panic attack”.

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Susan Calman

Susan Calman is a Scottish comedian, writer, television and radio presenter. In April 2021 she wrote extensively about her experience with Hypnotherapy in the Good Housekeeping magazine. For example, she wrote about seeing a Hypnotherapist to overcome her anxiety.

She said, “Hypnosis was revelatory for me and made me understand the main source of my anxiety. You’ll know the theory of fight or flight, of course – it’s when your body and mind make a snap decision on your behalf to protect you. It turns out that what’s been happening over the years is that my lovely brain has slightly lost perspective and the flight reflex has become dominant, leading to some rather disproportionate responses”.

She also says, “I love my subconscious. It warns me of danger and keeps me safe. But it’s like having a really overprotective friend who won’t let you do anything for fear of harm”. She goes on to say, “The process of hypnotherapy, for me, is a gentle attempt to persuade my subconscious to let go and enjoy the here and now”.

Also, hypnotherapy has given Susan a way to remain calm and feel safe even after hypnotherapy sessions. She said, “What’s lovely is my hypnotherapist has helped me visualise a safe place where I can go when I feel threatened; a huge room with bookshelves stuffed with books, and all the things I find calming: cat snoring by a huge open fire, a soft jumper and, oddly enough, Liza Tarbuck”.   

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