Hypnotherapy for Imposter Syndrome

I’m a fraud

I’m not worthy

Is this really me?

I don’t belong here

Who do I think I am?

I’m not good enough

Who am I getting ideas above my station?

Sound familiar?

Welcome to Imposter Syndrome. You’re in good company. Michelle Obama, Tom Hanks Lady GaGa, and Emma Watson have all shared their imposter syndrome experiences publicly. But what is this demon?

What is imposter Syndrome?

Dr. Pauline Clance, along with her colleague Dr. Suzanne Imes, first identified and defined Imposter Syndrome in 1978. Their ground-breaking work emerged from their clinical observations and research at Georgia State University. They noticed that many high-achieving women, despite their academic and professional accomplishments, felt an internalised fear of being exposed as frauds. These women believed that their success was not due to their abilities but rather to luck, timing, or other external factors.

They observed a recurring pattern among their clients and students who, despite objective evidence of their competence, were unable to internalise their success. These individuals often felt they were deceiving others about their capabilities and feared being “found out” as impostors. This led to their initial definition:

An internal experience of intellectual phoniness that was prevalent among high-achieving women characterised by chronic self-doubt, the inability to accept and internalise success, and a tendency to attribute achievements to external factors like luck or effort rather than inherent ability.

The key issue is the incongruity between the individuals’ perception of their competence and worthiness versus that an objective external observer.

Imposter Syndrome and our Beliefs.

Our overall set of beliefs are developing all the time. However, most of us will carry some of our childhood beliefs with us through adulthood. Most of these will be innocuous most of the time. But some of them will, sometimes, impede our performance as high functioning, inter-dependent, adults. As adults, we benefit from identifying our limiting beliefs, and developing more valuable beliefs.

By way of an example, a common limiting belief with Imposter Syndrome is ‘I must compare myself to others.’ This can be re-framed to ‘I live my own life on my own terms’ or ‘I have a unique set of character strengths, as do others.’ In turn the re-framed beliefs can underpin valuable affirmations such as ‘Because I live my own life, I enjoy the successes of others’. Or ‘The fact that I choose to live my life authentically means I only compare myself against my own standards’.

A standard element of working with PERMA Hypnotherapy is developing a high degree of self-awareness via exploring your characters strengths, values, beliefs and limiting beliefs. This paves the way to defining your identity. In turn, this leaves you ideally placed to choose your own best future and use trance to support you in getting there. Working with Solution Focused Hypnotherapy is particularly well suited to personal development in this area. By its very nature, it opens up the pathways between the parts we know and recognise as ‘us’ and the deeper levels of our wisdom: ideal for when we’re ready to take those big steps forward.

So, for those who are ready to break free from imposter syndrome, I have developed Hypnotherapy for Imposter Syndrome: a comprehensive ten session program which will give you the insight, tools, and techniques to break free. Not only that, you will learn all you need to know to continue developing your beliefs about yourself and your fit with the world around you to thrive as a high functioning inter-dependent adult.

Hypnotherapy for Imposter Syndrome Program Benefits

Overcome Anxiety and Build Confidence

Reduce Stress and Build Emotional Resilience

Effectively Manage Your responses to Events

Let go of historic emotional ‘baggage’

Improve Your Sleep

Improved Your Mental Clarity and Focus

Enhanced Self-Awareness and Personal Growth

Sustain Your Wellbeing for The Long term

Hypnotherapy for Imposter Syndrome Program Outline

Discovery Call – a session to establish goals & expectations and answer any questions before starting out on the program.

Session one – I’ll talk you through the brain model which sits at the core of the work we’ll do together. We will develop this model progressively to incorporate Solution Focused Hypnotherapys’ (SFH) underpinning theories – you will become an expert in these in no time. This builds a solid understanding of how SFH and therapeutic trance actually works. Then we’ll kick our heels back and enjoy a lovely gently trance. We’ll close the session with any questions. After the session, I’ll send you your first suite of hypnosis downloads, notes on developing your thought patterns, and an Imposter Syndrome assessment to provide you with a baseline to build on.

From Session two – and subsequent sessions – we will broadly follow the structure of Solution Focused Hypnotherapy sessions: we’ll develop the brain model and introduce areas of strategic personal development, do what we call scaling, and then you’ll identify some small steps forward. This session’s trance is a gentle introduction to therapeutic trance – moving beyond using trance for relaxation only. After the session. I’ll send you a recording very similar to this session’s trance and you’ll explore your character strengths and personal values to continue developing you at a strategic level.

In session three, we complete the brain-model and our understanding of what therapeutic hypnosis really is. The trance session introduces you to a highly-effective hypnotic processes – one you can use any time you want. After the session, you’ll explore your personal values, beliefs / limiting beliefs and how you can use this insight to support living your best life.