Millions of people nibble their nails, usually as an absent-minded behaviour when they’re bored for a moment. It can be an indication of mild stress but, in some cases, it’s a response to deeper anxiety. 

Nail biting, also known as onychophagia, doesn’t just lead to nibbled finger and toe nails: sufferers bite the cuticle and soft tissue around the nail too. 

As well as being painful, nail biting can look unsightly, leading to embarrassing responses that prompt a negative emotional cycle. 

My Solution Focused hypnotherapy for nail biting can put an end to this damaging behaviour once and for all, boosting your confidence and helping you regain control. 

Ready to get started? Book an initial consultation. 

Nail biting, hair pulling and other bad habits 

Nail biting or onychophagia is one of several recognised, body focused repetitive behaviours, often known as bad habits. 

Other BFRBs include hair pulling (trichotillamania) or skin picking, also known as dermatillomania. 

Almost half of all teenagers and roughly one third of adults admit to biting their fingernails, and for many of them it’s a habit that’s easy to break. 

However, for others, the urge to pick, pull or bite at their finger and toe nails can be as overwhelming as trying to stop smoking without any help. 

The causes of extreme nail biting 

People who bite their nails down to or even past the quick, and pick the skin around their fingers, often do so when dealing with stress, rather than coping with boredom. 

It can be both a conscious and an unconscious behaviour, in fact many people don’t notice they’re doing it at all. This is one reason why it can be challenging to stop nail biting habits. 

Stress and anxiety are also major triggers for nail biting. Self-grooming and seeking out perceived imperfections can also lead to constantly bitten nails. 

Far from just being a cosmetic problem, chronic nail biting can impact people’s lives in many ways. For example, it can result in: 

• Uncomfortable feelings before biting
• Being ashamed or embarrassed about how their nails look 
• Feeling anxious about other people’s reactions 
• Unable to relax, or losing sleep due to anxiety 
• Physical damage to nails, cuticles and skin 
• Dental problems, mouth abscesses or infections

My Solution Focused hypnotherapy for nail biting is the first step toward ending this negative cycle and finding healthier habits. Book an initial consultation now. 

How hypnosis helps you stop biting your nails 

Like any unwanted habit developed to cope with life, there are numerous ways to swap nail biting for new habits that don’t cause pain or anxiety.  

Hypnosis is an ideal therapy for making you more aware of your hands, helping you listen to and notice what you do with your body. 

It is a great process for restoring focus control, so you can break the habit completely, and enables you to swap feelings of embarrassment for self-assurance or relaxation. 

My Solution Focused hypnotherapy for nail biting goes even further. 

By connecting to your unconscious mind during sessions, it directly addresses the triggers causing you to bite your nails, and uses positive suggestions to reduce anxiety, help you stop biting your nails and affect lasting change. 

What to expect from nail biting hypnosis sessions 

My Solution Focused approach can stop nail biting in just a few sessions.  

Hypnotherapy for nail biting begins with a free, 25-minute Zoom consultation during which I find out all about you, why you bite your nails, and your hypnotherapy goals.

Habit reversal training to stop nail biting 

During the sessions, I will place you into a state of deep relaxation, allowing the conscious mind to quieten and the subconscious mind to be accessed. 

I work with you to release the nail biting habit but also the underlying cause of that unwanted habit.

Once any triggers have been identified we bring awareness to your habit allowing you to make both conscious and sub conscious choices to stop repeating that unwanted behaviour.

My Solution Focused hypnotherapy treatment can also help with any other harmful behaviours and help clients improve their emotional responses to potentially stressful situations or events. 

Feeling more calm and in control of your body minimises the nail biting urge, leaving you free to relax and focus on the future. 

Ready to chat more or get further information? Book an initial consultation today. 

Testimonial  

Stopping a bad habit like nail biting can be incredibly difficult, because there are so many issues bound up in it: fear, stress, self confidence. 

A client who was already conscious of, and working on, their issues, but “could not get rid of them.” Using hypnotic suggestion, I helped them understand their behaviour more clearly, boosting their self-confidence in the process. 

Another client found my Solution Focused hypnotherapy sessions helped “calm down” their anxious mind and enabled their nervous system to relax.

Contact me 

I’m ready to help you move past any conscious or subconscious issues driving you to bite your nails, and set you free from any sense of shame or feelings of anxiety. 

I hold online and in-person sessions Wednesdays to Fridays at Salus Wellness Clinic in Cambridge. 

If you would like to find out more about how hypnosis can help you stop nail biting, book your FREE initial consultation here.