Healing at the Root: Understanding Anxiety and Repeating Patterns
Sep 14, 2025
You understand why you react the way you do. You have reflected on your past, read the books, and promised yourself you would respond differently.
Yet a familiar situation happens—and the same worry, self-doubt, or urge to please someone returns.
That can feel discouraging. But understanding a pattern and practicing a different response are not the same thing. Both deserve attention.
In my practice, “healing at the root” means exploring the beliefs, experiences, and learned responses that may contribute to a recurring struggle—while building practical ways to respond in the present.
What Does Healing at the Root Mean?
“Healing at the root” is a way of describing my approach, not a medical diagnosis or a promise of a cure.
It involves looking beyond an isolated reaction and asking:
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What situations tend to bring this response forward?
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What am I assuming about myself or the other person?
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What do I usually do next?
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Does that response help over time, or keep the pattern going?
For example, someone who fears rejection may agree to things they do not want. Saying yes brings temporary relief, but it can also lead to resentment and exhaustion.
Exploring that pattern means considering both the belief—“People will leave if I disappoint them”—and the everyday practice of expressing a preference or setting a boundary.
There may be several contributing factors, rather than one hidden cause.
Why Do Familiar Patterns Keep Returning?
Some responses become familiar through repetition.
You may have learned to stay quiet to avoid conflict, look for approval before making decisions, or expect disappointment even when circumstances have changed.
These responses may once have served a purpose. Today, they may limit how you relate to yourself and others.
However, not every difficulty begins in childhood or results from trauma. Current stress, relationships, physical health, and other factors can also matter. Persistent anxiety deserves an appropriate assessment rather than an assumption about its cause.
Understanding Your Past and Supporting Your Present
Exploring past experiences can provide useful context. But you do not need to identify a single defining event before taking a helpful step today.
You might begin by noticing when you abandon your own preference, assume responsibility for someone else’s mood, or postpone a decision until you feel completely certain.
The goal is not endless analysis. It is greater awareness followed by a response that better supports your needs and values.
If you are experiencing flashbacks, distressing memories, or other trauma-related symptoms, seek assessment from a licensed mental health professional experienced in trauma treatment. Hypnosis should not be used to establish whether an uncertain memory is historically accurate.
Coping Skills and Deeper Change Can Work Together
You do not have to choose between feeling better now and understanding a recurring pattern.
Coping skills can help you participate in daily life while you work toward broader changes. Psychotherapy can address troubling beliefs, emotions, behaviors, and traumatic experiences. Medication may also be an important part of an individualized treatment plan.
Using these forms of support does not mean you have failed to heal.
If your current care is not meeting your needs, discuss your concerns with your provider. Treatment may need adjustment. Do not stop or change prescribed medication without speaking with your prescriber.
My Approach: The Lapidus Shift Method™
The Lapidus Shift Method™ is the framework I use to organize my hypnotherapy and coaching work. It is not presented as a separately validated clinical treatment.
Its four stages are:
Discover
Notice recurring situations, self-beliefs, and responses. Clarify what you want to change and what meaningful progress would look like.
Release
Make room to acknowledge difficult feelings and reconsider familiar responses, at a pace that respects your comfort and needs. This does not require forcing an emotional breakthrough or reliving painful experiences.
Reframe & Renew
Explore a more balanced understanding of yourself and your choices. For example, “Setting a boundary makes me selfish” may become, “I can consider another person’s needs without ignoring my own.”
Transform
Bring that understanding into daily actions: expressing a preference, making a considered decision, or responding differently when an old pattern appears.
The emphasis is on developing your own skills and self-trust.
Where Hypnotherapy and Coaching Fit
My hypnotherapy and coaching services use guided attention, imagery, reflection, and practical goal-setting according to the individual’s needs.
Our work may focus on self-doubt, people-pleasing, confidence, or familiar relationship patterns. You can also explore my approach to anxiety support in Los Angeles and online.
Research on hypnosis varies by condition. It should not be described as a guaranteed cure for anxiety, trauma, or addiction, or as superior to established treatments.
When a concern requires medical care or specialized mental health treatment, those services remain important. Hypnotherapy and coaching are not substitutes for that care.
What Can Progress Look Like?
Progress does not have to mean never feeling anxious or upset again.
It may mean noticing a familiar response sooner, communicating more clearly, making a decision without asking several people to approve it, or treating a difficult moment with less self-criticism.
Ask yourself:
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What pattern is costing me the most energy right now?
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What is one small response I could practice differently this week?
You do not need to solve your entire history to begin making a different choice.
Explore Your Next Step
I’m Leanna Lapidus, a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist and Transformational Coach with more than 15 years of experience, including 10 years as a Clinical Hypnotherapist and Spiritual Counselor at Passages Malibu.
My work is to empower you to understand familiar patterns and develop greater confidence in how you respond.
If you would like to explore whether this approach fits your goals, schedule a free Clarity Call.
Sources and Further Reading
This article provides general education, not a diagnosis or individualized medical advice. Consult a qualified healthcare professional about persistent or disruptive symptoms.