Nadija is a multi-award-winning trauma and empowerment specialist with a double diploma in hypnotherapy, mind coaching, and online therapy. She is also a Reiki master and a grief educator, and she has been trained by an international grief specialist and best-selling author, David Kessler. Nadija is also an end-of-life doula.
Trauma, in all its forms, has the profound ability to shape the lives of those who experience it. It can linger like a shadow, darkening even the brightest moments and holding us back from living our full potential and the life we truly want. Whether rooted in past abuse, loss, or any deeply distressing event, the emotional and psychological scars that trauma leaves can seem insurmountable. However, there is hope. Powerful therapeutic interventions like hypnosis and hypnotherapy are offering a powerful, transformative path for healing trauma and helping individuals move beyond the pain. When combined with self-compassion, this approach creates a space for deep recovery and resilience, empowering people to rebuild themselves and reclaim their lives.
Understanding trauma and its effects
Trauma is any experience or event that overwhelms our ability to cope and undermines our sense of safety. Trauma can inspire powerlessness and hopelessness relative to our capacity to defend ourselves. It can rob us of the belief in our ability to heal, trust, live, and love as we once did before a traumatic experience occurred. This definition is extremely important as very often, when mentioning trauma, people only think of abuse!
Trauma can have long-lasting effects, often manifesting as anxiety, depression, panic attacks, or emotional numbness. These symptoms are the brain’s response to overwhelming experiences, where fight, flight, or freeze mechanisms are activated but never fully processed. Many people spend years, even decades, haunted by their traumatic pasts, feeling disconnected from themselves and the world around them.
At its core, trauma hijacks our mental, emotional, and even physical well-being. It creates neural pathways in the brain that constantly expect danger, making it difficult to feel safe, calm, or connected to others. Traditional therapies like talk therapy have been invaluable in addressing trauma, but more and more individuals are turning to complementary techniques like hypnosis to facilitate deeper healing. Indeed, talk therapies are necessary to talk about what happened and to help us acquire healthier coping mechanisms, and this helps with conscious actions, but very often, this is not enough as we need to change what is below the surface, i.e., the subconscious beliefs and patterns, and this is when hypnosis becomes an extremely powerful therapeutic modality.
Hypnosis: A powerful tool for healing trauma
When it comes to trauma work, hypnosis is often left aside. Nevertheless, hypnosis was one of the first therapeutic modalities used in the management of trauma experiences.
In the late eighteenth and early Nineteenth centuries, Pierre Janet, a French psychologist and neurologist, stressed psychological factors in hypnosis and contributed to the modern concept of mental and emotional disorders involving anxiety, phobias, and other abnormal behaviour.
Hypnosis, often misunderstood as mind control or parlour tricks, is in reality, a highly effective therapeutic tool for the management of trauma responses. Hypnosis works by inducing a deeply relaxed, focused state where the conscious mind takes a backseat, and the subconscious mind becomes more accessible. In this heighted state of awareness, people can explore painful memories or emotions with greater detachment and without feeling overwhelmed.
Hypnosis is a safe and natural state of relaxation with increased awareness during which you are not asleep and are fully in control. You will experience a pleasant state of mind with increased attention and focus. The hypnotic state is similar to some moments in your life when you are daydreaming or fully absorbed in a specific activity, like reading, for example.
Hypnosis is a shift in consciousness that enables you to tap into your core thoughts, emotions, perceptions, and beliefs and, with the guidance of a trained hypnotherapist, change your thinking pattern to make sustainable changes in your life.
Hypnotherapy, guided by a trained professional, helps individuals reframe traumatic experiences and begin healing from the inside out. Unlike talk therapy, which primarily works with the conscious mind, hypnotherapy goes deeper by communicating directly with the subconscious. This allows for profound shifts in how the mind perceives past trauma.
There is absolutely nothing to fear, as therapeutic and clinical hypnosis is different from stage and entertainment hypnosis, and as you remain in control, you will never be asked to do anything foolish or against your will. For the hypnotherapy session to be successful, the hypnotherapist must have your consent, collaboration, and full commitment, as the purpose is to help you reach a feeling of being more in charge and in control of your life.
While in a relaxed state of mind, new information can make its way into the subconscious, which transforms old beliefs and thought patterns. Hypnosis delves into your subconscious mind to plant positive thoughts and suggestions, which can create meaningful and lasting changes in your thought process. Hypnosis replaces the old with the new. Changing your thinking will change your beliefs, fears, desires, habits, and anything else that creates resistance when achieving new things. Guided by a fully trained and certified hypnotherapist, hypnosis allows you to be more open to suggestions for making healthy changes in your perceptions, sensations, emotions, memories, thoughts, or behaviours.
During a hypnotherapy session, individuals are not "controlled" by the hypnotherapist, as many myths suggest. Instead, they are guided into a trance-like state of heightened awareness. In this space, they can revisit traumatic memories in a safe, supportive way, gradually releasing the emotional charge associated with them. This process helps rewire the brain, creating new, healthier neural pathways. As a result, the emotional intensity of the trauma decreases, and the individual begins to see beyond the event.
They can process their experience with greater clarity and distance, which allows them to break free from the grip trauma has on their present lives.
Reframing trauma: A shift in perspective
Hypnosis allows individuals to reframe their trauma to look at it from a different perspective, with greater understanding and compassion for themselves. Rather than being stuck in a victim mindset, hypnotherapy can help individuals regain a sense of agency and control.
Through suggestion therapy, the hypnotherapist can encourage positive beliefs and healing thoughts. For instance, someone who feels powerless because of a past traumatic experience may, through hypnosis, come to see themselves as strong, resilient, and capable. This shift in self-perception is often the key to breaking free from the trauma cycle.
One of the most empowering aspects of hypnosis in trauma healing is that it helps people increase their sense of worth empowers them to rewrite their story. Instead of seeing themselves as defined by the trauma, they learn to see it as just one chapter of their life. They can begin to identify not just as survivors of unfortunate past circumstances but as ingenious survivors and thrivers people who have not only survived but emerged stronger, more compassionate, and more resilient.
The role of self-compassion in trauma healing
Hypnosis is an extremely powerful therapeutic tool, but it is just one piece of the healing puzzle. A critical element of trauma recovery is the practice of self-compassion. Far too often, people who have experienced trauma blame themselves for what happened, or they feel guilty for not having healed sooner. These feelings of self-blame and shame can create additional layers of emotional pain, making it harder to heal.
Self-compassion is about embracing yourself with kindness, understanding, and patience just as you would support a dear friend who was suffering. Trauma can make people feel broken, unworthy, or disconnected from their inner strength, but self-compassion offers a way to reconnect with their true selves. When we allow ourselves to experience self-compassion, we stop trying to rush the healing process or judge ourselves for our pain.
Motivational speaker and author Brené Brown once said, “Talk to yourself like you would to someone you love.” This simple yet profound quote captures the essence of what it means to practice self-compassion. When individuals begin to cultivate a kinder inner dialogue, they open the door to healing and begin to see beyond their trauma.
Self-compassion also helps people release the grip of perfectionism, a common trait among trauma survivors who may believe they need to "get it right" to be worthy of love or healing. It encourages individuals to embrace their imperfections, their vulnerability, and their humanity, recognizing that healing is a process, not a destination.
Hypnosis and self-compassion: A powerful duo
The combination of hypnosis and self-compassion creates a synergistic effect in trauma healing. While hypnosis allows individuals to access and reprogram the subconscious mind, self-compassion fosters emotional safety and acceptance, allowing the individual to heal without judgment. Together, these tools empower people to release the burden of trauma and embrace a future where they are free to live fully and authentically.
Through hypnosis, individuals can gently let go of the past, while self-compassion helps them hold space for their healing journey, no matter how long it takes. The transformation is not about erasing the trauma but rather learning to coexist with it in a way that no longer controls one’s life. People begin to see themselves as whole, worthy, and capable of healing.
Moving forward: Reclaiming your life
Trauma may have impacted you, but it does not define you. Hypnotherapy offers a pathway to release the emotional weight that trauma holds, enabling you to see your life through a new lens. As you step into this process of healing, remember that self-compassion is essential. Embrace your journey with kindness, knowing that healing takes time. There will be challenges, but with each step forward, you become more empowered to reclaim your life.
Let your trauma be part of your story, but not the entire narrative. You have the power to write a new chapter filled with strength, self-love, and purpose. Hypnosis and self-compassion can unlock that door, offering you not just a way to survive but a way to thrive.
In the words of Maya Angelou, "You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them." Trauma may be a part of your history, but it doesn’t have to be the end of your story. Hypnosis, when paired with self-compassion, can guide you towards the healing and empowerment you deserve, helping you live a life that is not just free from trauma but full of possibility.
Embrace this journey, knowing that healing is not linear, but with the right tools, it is possible. You are stronger than your trauma, and with hypnosis and self-compassion, you can reclaim your story, rewrite your future, and live empowered.
Nadija Bajrami, Strategic Hypnotherapist, Mind Coach
French by birth, Nadija lived in Scotland for 7 years and travelled the world. After recovering from some serious health issues, Nadija had a wake-up call and came to Ireland to find her path. She has been living in Dublin since 2017. Nadija is working mostly online worldwide and shares her time between Ireland, France, and Switzerland.
Nadija is a multi-award-winning trauma and empowerment specialist with a double diploma in hypnotherapy, mind coaching, and online therapy. She is also a Reiki master and a grief educator, and she has been trained by an international grief specialist and best-selling author, David Kessler. Nadija is also an end of life doula.
She is dedicated to helping her clients get empowered, supercharge their confidence and self-esteem, overcome their limiting beliefs as well as manage anxiety, and trauma responses. She also helps people on their grief and healing journey through her therapy, coaching, grief education and support programmes and spiritual work.
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