Relationship issues
When we find ourselves not having the relationships we want, our self esteem can suffer. This in turn can lead to stress and upset, preventing us from getting the best out of life. Hypnotherapy can help by focusing on our strengths, building confidence, lowering stress levels and planning small achievable steps towards creating a happier life and better relationships.
I have helped clients improve communication within their relationships, find the strength to leave relationships which aren’t right for them, as well as build the self confidence and belief we need in order to form new relationships.
Performance improvement
When we know we need to perform, many of us suffer from debilitating nerves and lack of confidence.
Whether it’s a sporting feat, delivering a presentation or sitting a test or exam, we might think about the event hundreds of times beforehand, telling ourselves that we won’t do well or we won’t achieve our goals. Our powerful subconscious mind imagines the worst, causing us to become increasingly stressed and more often than not, this leads to a “self-fulfilling prophecy”.
Solution focused hypnotherapy is a powerful tool to help you focus on your strengths and skills, and instead of concentrating on potential failure, to vividly imagine success.
The use of goal-oriented discussion, visualisation and relaxation techniques helps you to feel calmer, more focused and increase your confidence, ready to tackle anything.
I have helped clients deliver confident presentations, face exams calmly and improve in their chosen sport so do get in touch to chat about how I can help you.
Obsessive behaviour
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) affects as many as 1 in 50 of the population. Obsessions and compulsions come in many shapes and forms, and everyone will be different in the way they experience it, for example, being over tidy, rechecking things multiple times, horror of germs, repetitive habits or obsessive thoughts and worries.
OCD symptoms are regular and persistent, and can significantly affect an individual’s quality of life, in severe cases interfering with every day functioning making it difficult to sleep, go out, or to work. It commonly leads to anxiety or panic attacks and ¾ of OCD sufferers will have accompanying depression,
Hypnotherapy can help obsessions and compulsions through a combination of solution focused brief talking therapy and hypnosis. This process helps to lower stress and anxiety, focus on the positive aspects of life and gain more control over thoughts and actions.
For more information about OCD visit http://www.ocduk.org/
Anger management
When we find ourselves becoming increasingly angry and frustrated, often in reaction to relatively minor events, this is often an indication that we are experiencing high levels of stress. Stress can build up gradually over days, weeks, months and even years resulting in unwanted physical and emotional symptoms.
Hypnotherapy, through its combination of solution focused talking therapy and hypnosis, can help you to lower stress and become calmer, helping you gain more control of your emotional reactions.
Pain management
When we are in pain or discomfort, messages go between the brain and spinal cord to alert us to the fact that our body needs attention*.
Dame Cecily Saunders, the founder of the hospice movement developed the concept of 'total pain' which 'recognises pain as being physical, psychological, social and spiritual', in other words, our experience of physical pain can be exacerbated by our psychological reactions.
Naturally, we can become anxious and distressed when in pain and tend to focus on the pain, causing it to become greater and more central in our mind. To see how this happens, for a moment, just focus your attention on a part of your body not in pain, such as your right foot or the tip of your nose. Even doing this can create feelings of irritation that weren’t there before.
Our anxiety about the pain, in turn, can lead us to cut down on, or stop everyday activities that can help us to manage the pain more effectively and we find ourselves caught in a vicious circle.
Hypnotherapy, a combination of talking therapy and trance, or hypnosis, can help us to relax and break into this cycle of pain messages, as well as helping to redirect our focus from the pain to other more positive aspects of our lives.
*If you are experiencing pain you should consult your GP
For expert Physiotherapy visit Jason Ford and his team at https://www.stroudsportsclinic.com/
Symptoms of depression
1 in 4 of us will suffer from mental health issues at some time in our lives, so if you are suffering symptoms of depression, you are certainly not alone.
Many of my clients come to see me feeling low, isolated, finding it hard to find joy and get the best out of their lives. When we feel like this, it’s easy to focus on what’s wrong or missing from our lives and what our problems are.
We can imagine that our problems are the ‘elephant in the room’. The more we talk, think and focus on this ‘elephant’, we metaphorically feed it and it grows larger and more overwhelming.
Solution focused hypnotherapy is a powerful and effective way to help. Rather than focus on the ‘elephant’ during the talking part of the therapy, we discuss the way forward, in other words, the solution, rather than the problem. Visualising a happier and more fulfilled life helps us to form goals and small achievable steps to work towards achieving a preferred future.
The hypnosis part of the session creates space within the therapy room for a relaxed state of trance, allowing the unconscious part of our brain to work together with the conscious part to find creative solutions and move forward towards a happier life.
