What is Bruxism?
Bruxism or Jaw Clenching
Bruxism is the medical term for teeth grinding or jaw clenching, often happening unconsciously — either during the day (awake bruxism) or while you sleep (sleep bruxism). While it might seem harmless at first, over time it can lead to a range of uncomfortable physical and emotional symptoms.
Common Signs of Bruxism:
- Jaw tension or pain
- Clicking or popping in the jaw (TMJ issues)
- Headaches, especially in the morning
- Worn-down, sensitive, or chipped teeth
- Neck and shoulder tension
- Disturbed sleep or fatigue
- A sense of “holding tension” in the body
What Causes It?
Bruxism is often linked to stress, anxiety, unresolved emotions, or a nervous system stuck in "fight or flight" mode. It’s your body’s way of expressing internal tension — even if you’re not fully aware of it. Sometimes it’s also connected to perfectionism, overthinking, or difficulty expressing emotions like anger or frustration.
How Counselling and Hypnotherapy Help with Bruxism
Bruxism — the clenching or grinding of the jaw — is often more than just a physical habit. It’s a body-based response to emotional or mental stress, often running on autopilot beneath the surface of daily awareness. That’s why a mind-body approach, like combining counselling and hypnotherapy, can be so effective.
1. Understanding the Root Cause (Counselling)
Counselling offers a safe space to explore what might be behind the tension. Are you holding in stress or anger? Is anxiety showing up in your body at night? Is your nervous system constantly in overdrive? Together, we gently unpack these patterns, helping you gain clarity, emotional relief, and healthier ways to cope with stress or overwhelm.
2. Calming the Nervous System (Clinical Hypnotherapy)
Hypnotherapy helps guide your body and mind out of "fight or flight" mode and into a state of deep relaxation — something many people with bruxism struggle to access on their own. It also works directly with the subconscious mind, where the habit of clenching or grinding is often stored, helping to retrain your body's automatic responses.
3. Creating New Patterns
With both therapies working together, you’re not just managing symptoms — you’re rewiring your stress response. We work to:
- Reduce unconscious clenching and grinding
- Reconnect with a sense of safety and calm in the body
- Build more supportive emotional habits
- Improve sleep quality and overall wellbeing
Real Relief, Not Just a Mouthguard
Mouthguards can protect your teeth — but therapy helps you release the underlying tension that’s causing the problem in the first place.
If your jaw feels tired, tight, or painful… if you wake up tense or exhausted… or if you just know your stress is living in your body — this work can help.
Other areas mindheal can help you break free
Counselling and Clinical Hypnotherapy
personalised therapy (available onsite or online)
Stress, Anxiety & Overwhelmed
Are you one of the 1 in 4 suffering from anxiety?
Stop anxiety limiting you today. It's important to know that if the mind can create these feelings, then we can get the mind to dissolve them.
Are you ready to dissolve limiting thoughts today?
Trauma & Emotional Regulation
Are you struggling with emotions linked to past trauma?
Make the necessary changes to regain control by letting go of unwanted emotions that cause so much pain and despair.
Are you ready to let go of that past trauma that was never meant for you?
Weight Loss & Hypnotic Gastric Banding
Hypnotherapy-based weight loss focuses on mindset, motivation, and rewiring your relationship with food. For some clients, the Hypnotic Gastric Band process is a powerful tool to help curb emotional eating and build long-term healthy habits.
Are you ready to start now?.........
(ask about hypnotic gastric banding therapy)
Sleep Issues & Insomnia
If falling asleep (or staying asleep) feels impossible, your nervous system may be stuck in "alert" mode. Hypnotherapy helps reprogram your sleep cycles and calm internal stress, while counselling works through any emotional triggers keeping you up at night.
Are you ready to sleep peacefully tonight, waking fresh and revitalised?
Quit Smoking/Vaping & Habit Change
Ready to break free from a habit that no longer serves you? Hypnotherapy can target the subconscious drivers of smoking, vaping, or unwanted habits. Whether it’s emotional eating, nail biting, or something else — change is possible.
Are you ready to stop today?
Negative Thoughts, Inner Critic & Confidence
Feel like you’re stuck in a loop of negative self-talk or perfectionism? Counselling and hypnotherapy help you challenge limiting beliefs, quiet the inner critic, and reconnect with your true self-worth.
Are you ready to get off the merry go round? Book now
Remove Phobias
Do you have fears that are holding you back?
It could be a fear of the dentist or injections or snakes. Uncreate the phobia that your mind created and regain your freedom today. Revisiting your mind's programming can effortlessly alleviate this annoying issue.
Are you ready to move forward free of anxiety and fear?
EMDR and other Modalities available as required
personalised therapy (available onsite or online)
EMDR
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy focuses directly on the memory, and is intended to change the way that memory is stored in the brain, thus reducing and eliminating the problematic symptoms. While you briefly focus on the trauma memory and simultaneously experience bilateral stimulation (BLS), the vividness and emotion of the memory are reduced.
Conditionally helpful for the treatment of PTSD and other disorders.
NLP
Neuro-Linguistic Programming uses perceptual, behavioural, and communication techniques to make it easier for you to change your thoughts and actions in order to help achieve desired outcomes.
Helpful for psychological disorders including phobias, depression, anxiety disorders and PTSD.
EFT
Emotional Freedom Technique is similar to acupuncture, but we don't use needles. Instead we stimulate certain release points, by tapping on them with our fingertips. It balances the body's Meridian energy system in relationship to the offending substance or condition. Once the body's energy system flows freely again the symptoms may no longer exist, but if they do they will be more receptive to other treatments.
Helpful for pain relief, fears and phobias, anger, allergies, anxiety, trauma and mo
Gestalt
The Empty Chair technique is talk therapy in which you expresses thoughts and feelings as if talking to a specific person. It allows you to discuss your feelings and emotions, but experienced in a disassociated manner to assist in realising you do in fact have the control and the power over your own feelings, thoughts and behaviour.
Helpful for grief and loss, past trauma, planning future encounters, while also helping to identify and explore your own feelings and thoughts, in a safe environment
Ideomotor
Ideomotor Response movements communicate with the unconscious, pre-verbal parts of the mind. It is an invaluable tool in uncovering the source of early learning experiences that have contributed to problems and the patterns that have maintained them.
Helpful for understanding the true feelings of an issue, event or experience, learning correct from incorrect memories, finding root causes of events and more.......
mindheal hypnotherapy obides by the Australian Hypnotherapy Associations recognition requirements and has met all required training in clinical hypnosis and hypnotherapy to obtain membership status. For information on AHA go to https://www.ahahypnotherapy.org.au/
Are you clenching your jaw at night?
Find out why counselling and clinical hypnotherapy work so well together for jaw clenching relief.....tell me more now!