Addictive Behaviour

A habit is a behaviour we repeat over and over again until we get to a point where the behaviour becomes second nature. An addiction is  often something we are consciously aware of but our impulse to do whatever we are addicted to feels uncontrollable. Addictions are usually harmful.

Habits can become addictive when we are distracted from our normal routine and becomes difficult to control. Addictions often cause physical symptoms when you stop.

You can become addictive to substances such as drugs, nicotine, caffeine etc, and you can become addictive to behaviours. The common ones are eating, sex, gambling, social networking on the internet, pornograpy and extreme sports.

Confidence and Self-esteem

Low self confidence relates to your belief in your own abilities and therein lies the solution. Hypnotherapy will help you acknowlege and identify the root cause of why you lack confidence. It will also spoil those mistaken beliefs about yourself. Furthermore as you gain confidence you will learn new skills. All this will help to reinforce any new positive beliefs. Consequently, you can achieve anything you put your mind to.

Low self-esteem is about feeling negative about yourself. If you have a negative view about yourself it is likely you will feel depressed. Maybe you lack motivation to do anything, have nothing to look forward to or feel you are a failure. The root of low self-esteem lies in the messages you received during early childhood and adolescence. Again hypnotherapy will help you change your perception of self and who you are.

Depression

When you suffer from depression, it feels like nothing can ever help, and nothing will ever change…

That is what depression does to your thinking. It makes you feel certain that you can never feel happy again.

It drains the pleasure from things you used to enjoy, makes you see everything through grey-tinted glasses and eradicates hope and energy.

In short, depression is a parasite that feeds off your life.

But when you know how depression works; what it needs to sustain it, then you start to gain power over it and hope starts to sprout again.

I have been trained by Uncommon Knowledge in an approach to treating depression that focuses on getting you feeling better quickly.

The very first thing we will do in our session together is to ensure you understand why you are feeling this way. It has a lot to do with the levels of stress you are currently experiencing, which leads to physical as well as mental exhaustion.

Then I will work quickly to help you feel better by using deep relaxation with you. This is to prepare your brain to learn, because as you’ve probably noticed, depression makes it almost impossible to pay attention and retain information.

When you leave my clinic after that first session, I would expect you to feel better than you have in a long time.

But of course, depression doesn’t shift overnight.

In the following sessions, we will work together to:

• reduce the amount of worrying and introspection you are doing
• resolve any practical problems that are causing you stress
• work on any relationship difficulties you may be having
• help you balance your thinking so you are not plagued by
• negative thoughts
• as you feel better, gradually introduce elements to your life that will protect you from becoming depressed again

Depression can make you feel hopeless.

But there is hope, and I think I can help, so please give me a call on 07426088501 and I can tell you anything else you need to know.

Different types of depression include dysthymic disorder, bi-polar disorder and post-natal depression.

Psychotherapy combined with hypnotherapy

can help to identify and gain insight into the underlying causes of your depression. In using various techniques I can help you change your perception of the cause and enable you to release any unwanted emotions. You will be helped to regain control of the situation. This is through recognising and understanding unhelpful reactions and behaviours. In addition you with learn new coping strategies that benefit you.

Fears and Phobias

It is important to remember that fear can be positive – as it is is a natural human response to actual or threatened danger. Without fear we would take enormous risks, many of them life threatening.

On the other hand a phobia is very different.  A phobia is an irrational, intense fear of a situation or object that is likely to cause little or no danger. Adults often realise that their phobias are irrational, but often just  thinking about it is enough to induce severe anxiety or a panic attack.

Specific phobias affect as many as 10% of the population, with women being a little more likely suffer. Phobias also seem to run in families and usually first appear in adolescence or early adulthood. People often do not seek treatment if the object of the fear can be easily avoided.

Some of the more common phobias are: dogs, heights, flying, lifts, needles, bees & wasps, spiders and dentists.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome

For many people IBS symptoms can be mild, but for others it can be extremely painful and impact their daily life. IBS occurs when the bowel becomes extra sensitive and the nerves and muscle not working as they should. Consequently causing repeated stomach pain and altered bowel movements such as diarrhoea and constipation.

Commonly IBS often occurs between adolescence and midlife, mainly women, and according to recent statistics affects 20% of the population.  IBS is thought to be aggravated by stress.

Hypnotherapy is an effective treatment for IBS.

Nail Biting

Nail biting is a destructive habit, affecting around 30% of children and around 15% of adults. It commonly affects men more than women. Nail biting can be mild or severe. It can affect your confidence and self-worth and even become a barrier to making friends or an obstacle in your career.

Reasons as to why nail biting becomes such a problem may come from  a childhood habit, or a form of self-punishment. Whatever the reason it can create havoc with self-confidence and personal development.

Using hypnotherapy and psychotherapy I can help you discover the root of this unwanted habit. Together we can identify ways for you to regain control and use more constructive coping strategies.

Pain Management – including Childbirth

Pain is the body’s way of communicating to us that something is wrong. It is natural for all of us to experience pain from time to time. Usually, the pain lessens and disappears over time as the cause heals. However, there are times when the pain does not go away, and chronic pain develops. Obviously, if you experience persistant pain you must always seek the diagnosis and advice of your GP.

Using hypnotherapy I can help you reduce the intensity of the pain you experience, and teach you self-hypnosis to assist with pain management.

Pornography and sex addiction

Hypnosis can be very effective in releasing you from porn addiction and compulsive sexual activity. Pornography addiction risks your relationship with other people. It has the effect of dulling your senses and leaving you feeling empty and worthless. As well as unbalancing your attitude to healthy sex it often brings a sense of self-loathing.

These activities trigger the release of chemicals within the body which causes a feeling of great pleasure at the time. Hence why the activity is repeated over and over causing a dependancy.

Stop Smoking

Many people find stopping smoking extremely hard, maybe you have already tried yourself, many times. Hypnotherapy is one of the most successful ways you can stop smoking and the most healthiest as it does not use nicotine or drugs. Studies show that hypnosis is 3 times more effective than NRT (nicotine replacement treatment) in helping people to quit smoking – permanently.

Hypnosis combined with NLP (neuro-lingquistic programming) enables change to be made quickly once you’ve made the decision to stop.

How I can help.

I have helped lots of people to quit successfully using these techniques. I’ve written several books and produced cds and audio downloads on this subject. In addition I am also the creator of the ‘I-QUIT Smoking Programme’ which you can buy or download online. (please visit my website which deals exclusively with quitting smoking by clicking on this link www.want-to-stop-smoking.com.)

Face to face sessions with me are tailored to your needs, giving you the support you require to help you break the habit for good.

Stress and Anxiety

Although often deemed negative, stress can have a positive impact on us as it can help to motivate us and energise us. However, too much stress can become a problem. It can be a source of serious physical illnesses and conditions, as well as have a negative affect on our emotional and mental health.

We all cope with stress differently. What is overwhelming for one person can be highly motivational for another. If you feel overwhelmed and unable to cope with the levels of stress you face then  maybe it’s time to address it. Particularly before it impacts further on your health and your relationships.

Self-Hypnosis

I can help you learn self-hypnosis to enable you to manage stress and anxiety. I will also teach you relaxation techniques and enable you to develop natural responses through suggestive hypnosis.

By understanding stress and your body’s reaction to it, you can start to create new positive reactions which become a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Basically, the better you feel about your ability to cope with stressful situations, the better you will in fact cope with them. Hypnotherapy is an effective treatment for stress symptoms such as insomnia, muscle tension, rushing, worrying etc.  Furthermore, it is also a great approach to dealing with stress and anxiety before they even happen.

Trauma and PTSD

Most people think that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) affects those who have served in conflict situations. However PTSD can affect anyone who experienced a frightening incident. For example; a car accident, physical assault, mental or emotional abuse,  sexual abuse or natural disaster. In fact, according to recent studies around 30% of people who have experienced trauma suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Symptoms

Symptoms are reliving the event, having ‘flashbacks’ or nightmares, sleep problems, depression, mood swings and feeling emotionally numb or detached from others. Unchecked this can lead to alcohol or drug dependency.

Hypnotherapy and using EMDR (eye movement desensitization reprogramming) has produced incredible results in treatment of PTSD. In using these techniques I can help you to overcome the anxiety and stress and their related conditions that you suffer. I will help you to identify the causes of the anxiety and stress and then change your perception of the cause. I will also help you release any unwanted emotions linked to the trauma.

Weight Loss and Weight Management

Hypnotherapy will help you identify and gain insight into the underlying causes of your eating issues. You will become aware of unhelpful emotional responses and negative patterns of behaviour that jeopardise a healthy eating plan. I can help you to regain control of your eating,  and help you adopt healthy eating habits. You will become motivated again to stick with a healthy eating programme. Furthermore you will learn techniques that will help you keep on track in your journey towards your desired goals.