How to Break Free from Anxiety and Intrusive Thoughts with NLP Therapy

I have constant thoughts that something terrible is about to happen like an accident or illness. I’m also afraid to attend funerals, go to crowded places, or get stuck in traffic for hours. How can I deal with this, especially when anxiety takes over?

In general, we distinguish between fears and anxieties:

• Fears are responses to real, immediate threats, such as fear of dogs or heights.

• Anxieties stem from the imagination and often arise from past experiences, rather than from anything happening in the present moment.

The subconscious mind, which governs much of our brain’s activity, cannot differentiate between reality and imagination. As a result, imagined fears can feel very real, leading to chronic anxiety that disrupts daily functioning across many areas of life.

The Treatment Approach

In therapy, the goal is to identify the common denominator behind the various anxiety triggers and uncover the underlying mechanism and recurring patterns. Specifically, we seek to reveal and break the brain's learned association between a stimulus (a trigger) and the automatic anxious response.

These learned associations were originally formed as protective mechanisms. The conclusion the brain reached might have been useful in a specific moment, but often becomes unhelpful or harmful over time. When such patterns begin to interfere with daily life, they need to be restructured.

How NLP Therapy Helps

In NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), we operate from the understanding that the brain receives external events as input and encodes them as mental images and symbols stored in the subconscious as templates. These are linked to earlier memories and emotional experiences. When the brain encounters a similar event in the future, it reacts based on the stored emotional memory, rather than the actual facts of the current moment.

In anxiety-related events, the distress often arises from the gap between reality and expectation. People develop unrealistic expectations and feel like everything depends on them. This leads to perfectionism and a sense of failure if expectations aren't met, which fuels anxiety. The healing process involves lowering those expectations and rebuilding self-trust. Excessive control over one’s life stems from the belief that "I’m in charge of everything," which ironically creates fertile ground for anxiety.

NLP Techniques in Practice

NLP uses techniques for rewriting memories and emotional experiences, allowing people to reshape how past events are perceived and remembered. By changing the internal representations of past events (what you saw, heard, or felt), the brain can respond more calmly to similar future situations.

This includes:

• Adjusting sensory perceptions (sight, sound, touch)

• Altering the emotional tone or meaning of past experiences

• Reprogramming automatic thought patterns

The therapeutic process involves:

• Identifying the mental patterns that produce recurring anxiety

• Rewiring the associations your brain has made between certain events and emotional responses

• Introducing new, more peaceful interpretations of those experiences

As negative memories are cleaned out and replaced with calmer associations, your mental and emotional resilience grows, and anxiety loses its grip. Ultimately, this process strengthens not only your mental control but also your spiritual perspective, reinforcing the belief that everything is under the guidance of the Divine.

Inbal Elhayani, M.A., is a Certified NLP and Guided Imagery Therapist