Therapy

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.

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, 

Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy has amazing scientific evidence for significantly reducing the symptoms linked to IBS. NICE (the National Institute for Clinical Excellence) suggests the use of hypnotherapy and other psychological interventions for those whose IBS has not responded to medication within 12 months.  A combination of progressive relaxation with suggestions of soothing imagery and sensations during hypnosis has shown to help alleviate the symptoms, and in turn reduce the level of anxiety the sufferer has. This can then give back a sense of control which can greatly improve quality of life.  A formal diagnosis of IBS  from a medical professional is required before embarking on this programme.

Hypnotherapy is an excellent way to give you back control and help manage pain effectively.  The mind, body connection is more powerful than you could ever imagine and when shown how to harness and manage the pain it can be life changing.  It's important to realise that hypnosis cannot treat an underlying condition and doesn't take away the need for medical intervention.  Also, that pain is the body's warning system and it's important not to try to 'turn it off' without identifying, and treating, the underlying cause.  Therefore, learning techniques for this purpose can only be undertaken with your doctor's knowledge and permission.

All addictions stem from a benefit of some sort being received from a particular behaviour. We always have good intentions for ourselves! Unfortunately that benefit in the long term can be outweighed by the negative impact it causes us in our lives.  Trying to 'undo' the addiction unfortunately isn't quite as easy.  Working to overcome these addictions using hypnotherapy can be empowering and can enable you to replace the now undesired addiction with healthier more satisfying behaviours.

Phobias can attach themselves to just about anything! Our natural instinct to protect ourselves and remove us from danger can become overly hyper-sensitive, frustratingly so, when a situation seems to hold little or no threat to us at all. However all fears and phobias no matter how irrational they may seem, feel very real when they strike.  The fight or flight response is a powerful emotion and impossible to ignore. Hypnotherapy can help you deal with this by either getting to the root cause and changing the perception held or by gradually desensitising the powerful emotion that is elicited each time a phobic trigger arises. 

Anxiety is one of the most common and uncomfortable emotions that many of us face throughtout our lifetimes.  Unfortunately during this worrying and unsettling time, we have undoubtadly seen a significant rise in people feeling understandably overwhelmed.  Anxiety can surface in many forms, whether it be general anxiety, social anxiety, phobic anxiety, public speaking anxiety, panic disorder etc.  However severe your anxiety is, hypnotherapy can be used to bring back a sense of calm and control into your life and help to regain perspective.  

Habits come in many forms.  Some habits serve us really well and because they are unconscious behaviours, they conveniently free up our conscious mind to do other things. Remember how difficult it first seemed to tie a shoelace, learn the alphabet, drive a car?  However, some habits, although were formed originally with a positive intention, over time can become bothersome.  Nail biting, hair pulling, snacking, all of these habits can seem to happen out of your control but the truth is they are just behaviours whereby a shortcut has been installed so you don't have to think about it everytime you do it. Biting nails when nervous, snacking when upset, pulling hair out when bored, these habits can all be reversed with hypnotherapy.  By bringing the action into conscious awareness and repeatedly counteracting the behaviour the habit can then be reversed. Typically a habit is formed through repeated action over about 3 weeks, it then becomes an automatic action.  Reversal of the habit can therefore realistically be achieved in up to 3 weeks also.

Having low confidence can make life incredibly difficult, especially if life demands you step into situations where you need to be just that.  Whether it be school life, work related or social situations, you can end up feeling like your'e walking a tightrope and constantly fearing the next event that requires you to appear confident.  

However the low self esteem manifested itself, each time another feared situation comes along, and sems to go badly, this only serves to reinforce your belief that this will happen again in the next situation that your'e faced with. A viscious circle that can seem impossible to overcome.

Hypnotherapy helps to put these situations into perspective, to encourage and expect positive outcomes instead of the worst.  Through repeated imaginal exposure and in vivo exposure, you can find your self confidence gradually increasing.  And in contrast to the viscious circle it then becomes a virtious circle that will improve significantly over time.