Hypnotherapy for shy bladder & paruresis
It usually starts with one thought: "What if I can't go?" And from there, your mind takes over — running through every possible thing that could go wrong, playing out scenarios you haven't even reached yet. By the time you get to the bathroom, you've already failed a dozen times in your head.
Book a sessionShy bladder — clinically known as paruresis — is not a physical condition. It is an anxiety loop your mind has learned to run automatically in specific situations: a pre-employment medical, a mining site drug and alcohol screen, a public bathroom when others are waiting.
The loop starts early — often with one difficult experience — and the mind files it as a threat to prepare for next time. The preparation is the problem. By the time you arrive at the situation, your body has already spent the last hour working against you.
Most people who come to me have been managing around it for years — choosing jobs carefully, turning down opportunities, rehearsing excuses. That is a significant amount of life spent working around something that does not have to be permanent.
Hypnotherapy works with the part of your mind where the loop runs — not to suppress it, but to change how your mind reads the situation. The anticipatory anxiety that fires before you even arrive is a learned response. Learned responses can be unlearned.
You are alert and aware throughout the session. Hypnotherapy does not put you to sleep, does not take away your control, and does not require you to be "highly suggestible." It is a focused, clinical process for interrupting an automatic pattern that your mind has been running on your behalf.
The work addresses the anxiety at its source — the "what if" thought and everything that follows from it — rather than asking you to push through or reason your way past a physical response that is not under conscious control.
I work with people across Australia who are facing a specific, time-sensitive situation — a pre-employment medical, a mining site screen, a supervised urine test — as well as those who want to address the anxiety more broadly so it stops shaping their decisions.
If you have a medical coming up and you already know what is going to happen, this work is directly relevant. One session addresses the anticipatory pattern for most clients, though some prefer a follow-up to consolidate the work.
Sessions are online, via video, from wherever you are in Australia.
I spent 15 years in frontline mental health casework before specialising in hypnotherapy. That background means I understand what anxiety does to the body and the mind at a clinical level — not just the surface of it. Paruresis is one presentation of an anxiety pattern I have been working with for a long time.
Barbara Saba, MA — counsellor and clinical hypnotherapist, 5-PATH® certified. 22+ years in hypnotherapy and counselling, including 15 years in frontline mental health casework.
$220
90 minutes via video, from anywhere in Australia. This is the standard session and the format most clients use.
$190
Available at my Fremantle practice. If you would prefer to meet in person, please mention this when you get in touch.
$22
A professionally crafted personalised hypnosis recording you can use at home, as a starting point or to reinforce session work.
If you have a medical coming up, or you are ready to stop working around this, you can book a session below. Online sessions are available now. If you would prefer to meet in person in Fremantle, please get in touch to arrange.
If you would like to start with the self-hypnosis audio, you can find it at hypnoticimpact.com.au.
Or call Barbara directly: 0415 536 580