Hypnosis and Impostor Syndrome

What feeling like a fraud actually is

It was described in 1978 by the psychologists Pauline Rose Clance and Suzanne Imes. The everyday term "impostor syndrome" came later, and it is somewhat misleading: this is not a pathology and it appears in no medical classification.

It is in fact normal to feel some apprehension on entering ground where you don't yet feel legitimate: a measure of apprehension in a new situation is an ordinary adaptive reaction.

It becomes a problem when the doubt bears on your worth, when it holds back what you set out to do, when you can no longer take any pleasure in your successes, and when the fear of being found out is added to it.

How many people? Nobody knows. You will read everywhere that "70 % of people experience it at least once". That figure comes from a 2007 press article, which itself took it from a survey that was never published: there is no study behind it. Actual surveys give rates ranging from 9 % to 82 % depending on the questionnaire used and the cut-off chosen — in one and the same group of people, moving the threshold by a few points takes the prevalence from 24 % to 39 %. What can honestly be said: it is very widespread, and nobody can put a number on it.

The cycle that keeps it going

Here is what separates feeling like a fraud from a simple lack of confidence, and why it holds out so well. Pauline Clance described the mechanism in 1985, under the name the impostor cycle.

An important task comes up. The anxiety rises. Two possible reactions: over-preparation, working far beyond what was needed; or procrastination, then a sprint at the last minute.

The result is good. Relief, for a few hours.

And that is where it all turns: the success is not credited to you. If there was over-preparation, the excessive work explains everything. If there was a sprint, it was luck. Either way, competence never enters the equation.

The upshot: nothing accumulates on the good side. Each success becomes further proof that you will have to do as much again next time, and the bar goes up.

This is also fed by an attribution bias, identified in the earliest work: successes are put down to luck or effort, failures to competence. One never adds up, the other always does. In practice, the mind doesn't merely set the good news aside: it actively looks for grounds to prove it doesn't count.

What it costs

Chronic doubt about your competence, your legitimacy, sometimes your worth, which holds back a career. Stress and rumination — the "I should haves" — which eat up considerable energy. Procrastination and self-sabotage, to avoid situations that might reveal a shortcoming. And the opportunities turned down: the post you don't apply for, the talk you decline, the project you leave to someone else.

And exhaustion. It is the most underestimated consequence: permanent over-preparation has a cost. Studies that measured both together find a clear link with emotional exhaustion, without being able to say which of the two comes first. What we see in practice is that many people come after a burnout rather than before.

And silence, finally. Talking about it would feel like fishing for compliments, so people say nothing — and believe they are alone in it.

What hypnosis can offer

Feeling like a fraud rests on long-standing beliefs — *I'm not capable, I'm not legitimate* — often laid down early and confirmed since by family, school and social surroundings. They have structured part of your life, which is why they hold out.

And being aware of a belief is not enough to change it. That is precisely what makes this subject so frustrating: you know it is irrational, and it doesn't shift.

None of what follows is a treatment. It is work on the way you tell yourself the story of your own successes.

• Identifying those beliefs, understanding what they served, what they allowed you to do — they have often been protective — and spotting when they became costly.
• Loosening them, rather than trying to replace them with their opposite.
• Restoring attribution. This is the central lever. Not convincing yourself that you are brilliant, but putting your own part back into what went well.
• Daring to act without it being perfect, often the first visible change.
• Spotting the moments when you put obstacles in your own way.
• And tolerating the discomfort of situations where you are not certain you measure up, because that is where the rest is decided.

A study of 200 working professionals looked for what best predicts this feeling. The answer is useful: it is not the idea you hold of your own intelligence, it is the fear of failing. In other words, the question isn't "am I good enough", it is "what will happen if I get it wrong".

The first sign of change is often quiet but telling: a compliment received without being immediately deflected.

A word about positive affirmations

You will often read that you should replace "I'm not legitimate" with "I am competent and I deserve my place". That is not how we work.

A sweeping, unverifiable statement gives an immediate foothold to someone who doubts themselves: one counter-example is enough, and they always have one. That is what a now-famous study suggested, where students with low self-esteem felt slightly worse after repeating "I am a lovable person". The result was not found again in a later replication, so it should not be made into a law — but it matches what we see in session.

What we suggest instead are formulations that are precise and attached to a fact: "I ran that project from start to finish" rather than "I am a competent person". Not because a study proved it, but because a verifiable sentence cannot be argued with.

Between sessions

Your practitioner may suggest listening again to the suggestions from your session, to settle them in. Or a success journal, with one detail that changes everything: note the success, and what you did, yourself, to bring it about. Without that second part, your memory will file it under luck or favourable circumstances, and the exercise will serve no purpose.

Or else the "as if" technique, to take up the posture of a confident person and let the feeling follow.

What the research says

To our knowledge, no study looks specifically at hypnosis and feeling like a fraud — and intervention research on the subject, still rare, concerns other approaches. We prefer to tell you.

What is documented is the effect of hypnosis on anxiety and psychological distress: a 2024 synthesis bringing together 49 meta-analyses reports medium to large effects. The authors do point out that fewer than one review in five reached a high standard of methodological quality, and that hypnosis is most often studied alongside other support rather than on its own.

How the work unfolds

The first conversation. In which situations the doubt is triggered, since when, and what it has cost you concretely — an application not sent, a talk declined, hours of over-preparation.

A concrete objective. Not "have confidence in myself", which cannot be measured. Rather: apply for that post before the end of the month, hand in a piece of work without rereading it eleven times, speak up in committee.

The induction, then the work itself: identifying the beliefs, loosening them, attribution, an anchor, preparing an action.

What carries on afterwards. An exercise, and often the journal, because memory is selective on this particular subject.

How many sessions? That's discussed at the first conversation. Nobody can know in advance.