Solution Focused
Hypnotherapy Services
Hypnotherapy can help treat a great many conditions, particularly those which are made worse by our automatic stress responses. Some of these problems are listed below, however, this isn't an exhaustive list so please ask and I may be able to help.
Stress & Anxiety
In our modern lives we are used to talking about feeling worried and stressed. We might have a stressful day at work, a stressful journey, we might worry about what something that happened in our past or even something that may never happen. Anxiety, along with Anger and Depression, are our body's natural response to stress and creates a host of hormonal and bodily responses. Our stress responses however, are a throwback to our primitive beginnings. Back when as primitive man and woman our primary aim was to survive, we had to rely on our reflexes and automatic responses to survive. If a bear suddenly appeared we had to run, fight, hide (or be eaten). As we evolved we developed brains that could plan, imagine and invent but the flight, fight and freeze region, the primitive brain, still remains at our brain's centre. Its aim 'to keep us safe'. Of course today we don't have to fight or flee from any bears (well not often) but our automatic responses are still there trying 'to keep us safe' waiting to be activated by things that upset, anger or worry us, anything our brain interprets as being something to be avoided or fought.
Unfortunately, when we find ourselves under pressure and stress without much respite, stress and anxiety can have destructive effects in our lives. There are many symptoms of prolonged stress, including a lack of energy, problems with sleep, headaches, brain fog, a greater susceptibility to illness, panic attacks, weight gain, weight loss, depression, anxiety, and a host of other ills.
Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can help calm the anxiety and stress we feel by combining modern psychotherapeutic techniques and trance by finding the solutions that are the right ones for you.
Physical symptoms of stress include:
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Upset stomach, including IBS, diarrhea, constipation, and nausea.
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Aches, pains, and tense muscles.
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Chest pain and rapid heartbeat.
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Insomnia.
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Headaches.
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Brain fog.
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Frequent colds and infections.
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Loss of sexual desire and/or ability.
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Teeth grinding.
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Trichotillomania (hair pulling).
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Emotional and dysfunctional eating
How we respond when we're 'depressed' varies from person to person. We may feel lacking in energy, we might want to sleep and sleep because we just can't seem to feel rested. The depressed brain is a brain starved of the chemicals it needs to function. Once we start feeling low, we start to see other areas of our lives through negative lenses. The glass is always half empty and we struggle to see any of the good things in our lives. Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can help stop this downward spiral, supporting your brain and body to produce the hormones and neurotransmitters you need, helping you to spiral upwards, back to the way you want to feel.
"Being brave isn't the absence of fear.
Being brave is having that fear but finding a way through it."
- Bear Grylls
Phobias
Have you put off a visit to the dentist because you are secretly afraid having any dental treatment? Would you avoid having a life saving injection because of a fear of needles? Phobias are our bodies natural response to fear.
At some time in our life we have come across something that our brain has decided threatens our survival. Our body is only trying to help us but unfortunately we can then develop totally out of proportion and unnecessary responses.
Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can be your way to combat that phobia helping you to live your life to the full.
Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
"The gastrointestinal tract is sensitive to emotion. Anger, anxiety, sadness, elation — all of these feelings (and others) can trigger symptoms in the gut. The brain has a direct effect on the stomach and intestines".
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According to Bupa UK, IBS effects 1 in 5 people in the UK. Fortunately, through a number of recent clinical studies it was found that hypnosis can be an effective treatment for IBS.
If your gut is causing you discomfort and affecting your life please get in touch.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder PTSD
PTSD as described by nhs.uk "is a mental health condition caused by a traumatic experience". Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder include flashbacks, nightmares, feeling very anxious and difficulty sleeping. Any situation that a person finds traumatic can cause post-traumatic stress disorder such as a road accident, an assault and childbirth". Solution Focused Hypnotherapy (SFH) can help. SFH is not focussed on reliving or examining past memories but exploring the way forward to your best life, one free from the residual effects of a past trauma. Our brains are incredible 'jugglers' of our daily lives with hypnotherapy giving us a way to tap into the unconscious mind, finding the best solutions for our problems and giving us the happier life we want.
Smoking Cessation
People say that they smoke for many different reasons such as stress relief, pleasure or in social situations.
The smoking habit is not a single behaviour and it consists of multiple biological and cultural components (Pennacchio, Jefferson, & Havens, 2010).
Nonetheless, we now know that the smoking is very bad for our health so it is in our best interests and that of our nearest and dearest, that we do everything we can to stop.
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14.4% of the population smoke which is 5.9 million people in the UK
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2.9 million E cig users in the UK
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60% want to quit and 6.4% of those do quit on their own
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That’s 377,600 a year that give up
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So 1,034 will today stub out their cigarette for the last time and these people will never smoke again - You can be one of this number!
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Hypnotherapy can help harness your subconscious mind, directing your thinking towards your smoke-free future. I deliver a one-off smoking cessation session. Please get in touch and I would be very happy to talk to you about how solution focused hypnotherapy can help you.
"Once you have understood the basic principle of being present as the watcher of what happens inside you and you understand it by experiencing it - you have at your disposal the most potent transformational tool."
Eckhart Tolle
Pain
Our bodies are incredibly complex, with many automatic biological responses activated when something sets off our pain response.
Hypnosis for pain relief has been used for centuries. It helps our bodies reduce the production of our stress hormones, creating instead the natural analgesics that help us to control our pain and experience relief. Scientific research has shown that hypnotherapy can significantly improve how people experience pain. As a complementary therapy, hypnotherapy can be used alongside conventional therapies to help alleviate chronic pain.
Performance
"Research shows that the more clearly you are able to experience mental images and the more accurately you can control your imagined movements, the more likely you are to translate the images into superior performance." Dr Costas Karageorghis
How we 'perform' in our lives, whether it be during a long distance marathon, an important business presentation or even an examination can be effected by the way we think. Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can help harness your subconscious mind, overcoming negatives beliefs and unhelpful thought patterns, harnessing the body's ability to visualise the necessary responses both physical and emotional, to provide the success you want.
Weight Management
A study analysis from 1970 on weight reduction found hypnosis to have a 93 percent success rate, with fewer sessions needed than both psychotherapy and behavioural therapy. “This led researchers to believe that, for changing habits, thought patterns, and behaviour, hypnosis was the most effective method,” Friedmutter says. 28 Jun 2019
Our relationship with food is complex. From our early life we develop likes and dislikes. The foods we love and the foods we will most definitely avoid. Eating certain food can become a 'treat', a habit, a reason to socialise, a relief from boredom, a hobby to share with others. As we mature, an emotional connection between eating and our body image can manifest because over or under eating will affect our body.
Certain foods can become 'bad', make us feel guilty for eating them, engaging negative emotional responses. At this point, our relationship with food can become dysfunctional, nevertheless, our eating always starts with our thoughts. If you imagine cutting a juicy lemon now, smell that sharp, citrusy smell, see that juice. Now imagine biting into that large, juicy lemon and notice how your mouth starts watering. Your body responds to your mind. This mind/body connection is where hypnotherapy can help, tapping into your unconscious thought processes and changing unhelpful habits.
Please take a look at this amazing article by Oprah for more information.
"Take care of your body.
It's the only place you have to live"
- Jim Rohn
Sleep Problems
Sleep is as important to our health as eating, drinking and breathing. It allows our bodies to repair themselves and our brains to consolidate our memories and process information.
When we lose sleep, we notice how it negatively effects our mood and concentration. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg in respect to how sleep deprivation effects our physical and mental health. With the modern technology now available to the scientific community, researchers have been able to show how sleep, and lack of it, has damaging effects on every major system, tissue and organ in the human body. Sleep deprivation has been shown to have a negative effect on the heart and cardiovascular system. Our nervous system including our brain health and our thoughts, our emotions and judgements, all need sufficient, good quality sleep to operate successfully. How we heal and repair our bodies requires sleep. Even our weight and the way our bodies metabolises food is negatively impacted by the lack of sleep.
Our bodies really are incredibly complicated. The biological balancing act that is required to create the chemicals and automatic responses that run our bodies and lives successfully, is miraculous. Sleep is essential to these processes and our bodies way of resting, renewing, healing and processing what our bodies and minds experience every day.
Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can help by providing a way to change the negative thought patterns and habits that inhibit a good night's sleep. As with all treatments, sessions are supported by the client listening to the relaxing hypnotherapy track before sleep.
Please take a look at this external article for more information.