As time passed, something happened in the way we deal with anxiety, and that something was called Anxiety HIT.
Anxiety HIT therapy was created by Kevin Mullin. It was designed to be different — fast, dynamic and unlike the conventional 8 to 12 week therapy plans that many talking therapies offer. It was designed so clients don't have to relive every old memory, thought and feeling that has crippled them, and it's the opposite of pure talking therapy — a direct-action therapy. Here's the thinking behind it, why it was created, and what it aims to achieve.
Why we target anxiety
Anxiety has played a massive part in my life. I've watched it take hold of family, friends and loved ones for as long as I can remember. When people close to me were suffering, no one around them seemed able to help — no one seemed to understand anxiety on a deeper level, or gave much thought to the physical and emotional pain it brought. At the time, I wished I could do something, and I wished I could simply help them let go of it, so they didn't have to be torn apart by it. I couldn't, back then, but that's part of why we're so driven in this now.
We've studied the same material as other therapists and anxiety specialists, but what we also bring, alongside that academic knowledge, is a depth of understanding of anxiety itself — and knowledge and understanding are very different things.
Old way versus new way
Traditional hypnotherapy hasn't changed a great deal since it was founded. It tends to work with scripts and generic phrases, treating the anxiety rather than the individual. We do use hypnotherapy too, mainly towards the end of the process, to rebuild confidence and self-esteem (we find it very useful there), but we don't rely on the old generic scripts people use or download. We tailor every single session to the individual, not the problem.
NLP is still relatively new as a therapy. It was only created in the 1970s, by Bandler and Grinder in California, and has changed a fair bit since. It's our main tool against anxiety, because it allows us to go directly to the most powerful part of your entire set-up: the subconscious. Going directly to where the anxiety sits lets us work on it and help replace it, using NLP, from the inside out.
Who this can help
We don't claim this type of direct-action therapy is the right fit for everyone — we're all different people, and we all need a different approach. What we do say is: if you're simply tired of living with anxiety, and want to try something different, Anxiety HIT may be for you. We never stop, we never rest, and we never accept just being okay as the final outcome — we want you to have what we know you're capable of.
Remember, we're all normal, walking, talking human beings, and having anxiety is a normal human emotion. We need it, in fact, to push and drive us towards our hopes, dreams and goals — but like every other emotion, it should come, do its job, and go, replaced by a different emotion in turn. The problem happens when anxiety sits and blocks every other emotion from getting in and doing what it's designed to do.
What makes us different
For 18 years I spent my life in the ranks of the British Army. I learned many things in that time, and one of the most important was the drive to give my all, every single day, to everything I do. I learned just how powerful a positive mindset can be, and how determination, when it's strong enough, can take you from despair to achievement quickly. We don't accept second best, we don't do things for the sake of it, and we dispense with what doesn't work and embrace what does.
Anxiety HIT was built around those values. It's been tried and tested, and is now achieving things we didn't always foresee. Not everyone in the therapy world will embrace this way of doing things, and that's fine — everyone is different, and needs a different approach.
The programme itself is built around four sessions, each tailored to the individual rather than following a script.
