Anxiety is at the forefront of many people’s lives in this fast paced world we live in and can take on many different disguises. I can only wonder if any of the following statements resonate with you:
• Do you want to feel inspired by life, but instead feel anxious or depressed?
• Do you yearn for deep, authentic connection with others but are uneasy about letting them truly see you?
• Are you suffering from ‘burn-out’, over extended, simply sick and tired of taking care of everyone and your dreams and ambitions are on hold?
• Do you wonder what your purpose is and feel like you can never get what you truly deserve?
If any of the above seem familiar to you then it's time to change.Hypnosis will begin to reveal what has held you back and give you the opportunity to start a new chapter in your life. It can bring about increased awareness and create new possibilities for how you see yourself and your world. You may leave feeling confident, assured in your decisions about the future or even a deep insight into yourself. Every individuals experience is very unique.
Hypnotherapy & Stress
Our brains evolved to help us survive back in the Stone Age when we were facing daily threats to our life. When a threat revealed itself, our brains would fire off hormones like adrenaline and cortisol which got our hearts to beat faster, our breath to quicken and our muscles to tense. This put us in ‘fight or flight’ mode, giving our bodies the physical edge they needed to either run away from the threat or fight it off.
While times have certainly changed and the level of threats to our lives has decreased - our brains have retained this survival feature. Now, different things are perceived as threats to our brains - for example when your manager emails you with a tight deadline. Your brain still goes through the motions to prepare you to ‘fight or flight’, but instead of fighting your manager or running away from your desk, it’s more likely that you’ll stay sat at your desk.
This leaves stress hormones coursing through your veins, making you feel stressed. Usually, this sensation will pass, but when we’re coming face to face with multiple stressors regularly, we can feel in a constant state of stress and start to develop symptoms.
What can help reduce stress?
The first step to managing stress is to become aware of what triggers it for you and what stress symptoms you experience. Remember, we’re all different and will respond and react to stress differently.
Try making a list of the different things in your life that makes you feel stressed and then note how stress shows up for you. Do you notice symptoms physically, mentally or emotionally? What causes you to you feel stressed? Understanding your triggers means you can anticipate when you might struggle in the future and come up with ways to cope.
Tools and techniques to help you manage stress better include:
• Increasing your communication skills and being more assertive (learn to say no when your plate is already full).
• Using relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, meditation or having a bath can help to ease tension mentally and physically.
• Exercising frequently helps to decrease stress and promotes relaxation. If you’re not a fan of the gym, try going for a walk, swimming or a yoga class.
• Making time for self-care is a good reminder that you matter and will help you develop emotional resilience.
• Connecting with friends and loved ones. Talking problems out and spending time in other people’s company can help you feel less alone and more able to cope.
• Making space for hobbies and fun can encourage a sense of playfulness and help to alleviate stress.
• Working on your sleep routine to ensure you’re getting enough restful sleep can help you feel more energetic and resilient.
• Assessing your diet and reducing the amount of sugar and caffeine you’re consuming can help ease some physical stress symptoms
Hypnosis for stress
Hypnotherapy aims to break negative thought patterns and responses to stress and instead provide you with a more healthy reaction. This is done via the subconscious - the part of our mind that works automatically and without us realising.
I will help you enter a state of deep relaxation (hypnosis). When you’re in this state, your subconscious is more open to suggestion. The idea here is for the hypnotherapist to ‘suggest’ different ways of responding to stress, to your subconscious.
Some people will see results after one session while others may require a number of sessions. This will depend on your individual circumstances and the depth of work needed. I will also teach you self-hypnosis and relaxation techniques you can use after the sessions are over.
If you’re drinking alcohol to feel good (or so that you don’t feel bad), you could have a drinking problem. Alcohol abuse and alcoholism can sneak up on you before you know it. Recognise the warning signs and make an effort to reduce consumption if you think you’re developing a dependency.
Understanding alcohol abuse-Both alcohol abuse and alcoholism can occur as a result of factors including genetics, your upbringing, your emotional health and your social environment. People who associate with heavy drinkers, or who have a family history of alcohol abuse, are more likely to have similar problems themselves. If you have a mental health problem, including depression, anxiety, or bipolar disorder, you’re more at risk if you drink to self-medicate.
Drinking alcohol is commonplace in many cultures, so it can be hard to realise when you’ve crossed the line between social and problem drinking.
Do you have a drinking problem? If you feel drinking is causing problems in your day-to-day life, then it’s likely you have a problem. Look out for the signs, including feeling ashamed or guilty, or lying about your drinking habits. Do your family and friends worry about your drinking? Do you need to drink in order to feel better or relax? If you regularly drink more than you should, or if you black out while drunk, you have a serious problem. Recognise any of these symptoms? First consult your GP, before consulting Mark Wright Hypnotherapy.
Alcohol abuse-Medical experts distinguish between alcohol abuse and alcoholism – also known as alcohol dependency. Alcohol abusers still have the ability to set some limits on their drinking. Alcoholics can no longer do so. The common signs of alcohol abuse include neglecting your responsibilities. Performing inefficiently at work, neglecting your children, or shirking duties because of a hangover are all signs. It becomes serious if you’re drinking and driving, operating machinery while drunk, or taking prescription medication and mixing it with alcohol. You may have legal problems, such as being arrested for drink-driving. Alcohol abuse can cause relationship problems. If your drinking upsets your partner or your family, but you continue regardless, you may need medical help. Using alcohol as a crutch to relieve stress at the end of the day is the start of problem drinking.
Getting help-Once you recognise you have a problem, consult your GP first.
If you’ve admitted to yourself that you have a drinking problem, you’ve taken the first major step. The second step is reaching out for support.
What I Offer.
When you sign up for my Stop Smoking programme you have already taken that vital first step. I offer a package that includes education on the risks of smoking and , of course , the numerous benefits of quitting. Along with this you get Mp3 and email support as well as after care.It normally costs £200 face to face but online I am offering this for £150 online or £50 for as many sessions as will help you.
Why stop smoking?
Smoking increases the risk of developing a wide range of health ailments and diseases. But unfortunately, the habit doesn’t only harm the smoker’s health, it can also have a negative impact on the people around them. If smoking around children and babies, for example, they become vulnerable to many smoking-related health problems, such as COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and the risk of cot death will increase.
Common smoking-related illnesses include:
• Infertility - Smoking affects the fertility of men and women, making it difficult to conceive.
• Gum disease - As well as staining, smoking can cause premature tooth loss due to gum disease.
• Heart disease - The UK’s 'biggest killer'. Nearly one in six cases are smoking-related.
• Lung cancer - More than eight in 10 cases of lung cancer are directly related to smoking.
• Other cancers - This includes mouth, throat, nose, blood, cervical and pancreatic cancer.
Adults who endure passive smoking for a long period of time are also at an increased risk of heart disease and lung cancer. Tobacco is also an irritant; therefore it can make conditions such as asthma worse.
Benefits of quitting smoking-It’s never too late to quit smoking (also known as smoking cessation). Whatever age you are, if you make the decision to stop, your health will benefit. However, the sooner you quit; the faster the body can recover and the risk of developing serious health conditions will decrease.
There are many benefits to stopping smoking, from more money and energy to improved physical appearance. Benefits of smoking cessation include:
More energy-As carbon monoxide affects how much oxygen the blood can carry, the body can find it difficult to function properly. When a person stops smoking, the carbon monoxide in the blood lowers. This allows the lungs and muscles to work the way they should. It also means more oxygen can reach the brain, boosting alertness and energy.
Improved immune system-Smoking causes the immune system to drop. This makes the body more susceptible to colds and flu. Quitting allows the immune system to remain healthy.
Longer life expectancy-If a person quits smoking by the age of 30, their life expectancy can increase by 10 years. Even if a smoker is 60 years old, quitting can still add three years to their life.
Better breathing-Within nine months of giving up, lung capacity is said to increase by as much as 10 per cent. This allows the body to carry out daily tasks without the loss of breath. The “smoker’s cough” should also disappear and any breathing conditions, such as asthma, should be reduced.
Less stress-Many smokers reach for a cigarette when in a stressful situation. The immediate hit of nicotine after withdrawal may make them feel relaxed but in the long-term, smoking increases stress levels.
Younger looking skin-Smoking prematurely ages the skin. Regular smoking can leave the skin dull, dry and prone to wrinkles. When a person decides to stop smoking, the effect is reversed as the skin begins to receive the nutrients it needs. Over time, the appearance of the skin should improve.
More money-The average cost of a 20-pack of cigarettes is £9.91. If a person is smoking 20 cigarettes a day for 10 years, they will have spent over £35,000. Quitting smoking could mean you are nearly £300.00 richer every month.
Hypnotherapy to quit smoking
A great number of people find hypnotherapy for smoking an effective treatment. The method works to break the negative behaviours and thinking patterns associated with smoking; like smoking to relieve stress. It is these negative thoughts and behaviours that often prevents people from successfully giving up. Quitting does not deal with the underlying issues.
So, when a person makes the decision to stop smoking, the key aspect is to let go of the routine and change how they view cigarettes. Breaking an addiction like this is a challenge; it won’t be easy, especially if it is a lifelong habit, and changing how you think about something can be difficult.
Hypnotherapy focuses on this change. I will support you and guide you through the motions, you’re no longer alone in the trying to quit. Because of this, hypnotherapy is fast becoming one of the most popular forms of treatment.
When considering hypnosis to stop smoking, the first thing to do is to make sure you are ready and are choosing to quit for yourself. Hypnotherapy for smoking has been found to be most effective when the person really wants to quit and is determined in succeeding.
How can you quit smoking through hypnosis?
Hypnotherapy works by guiding the individual into a deep, relaxed state. During this time, the mind is more open to suggestion and change. At this point, the hypnotherapist makes suggestions, which will help you in changing your thought patterns and behaviours associated with smoking.
Suggestions will be tailored to you, but will be along the lines of “I do not want a cigarette” and “the smell of cigarette smoke makes me feel unwell”. They may also ask you to visualise smoking a cigarette, but imagining an unpleasant taste or smell. This can help build an association - when you think of smoking, the unpleasant thoughts will come as well.
It’s common to be taught self-hypnosis techniques to practise at home, long after your sessions are over. This means that when a potential trigger occurs, you know how to cope with the feeling.
Many people find hypnotherapy is enough to break the habit, while others prefer to combine the treatment with NRT (nicotine replacement therapy) or medication. Of course, everyone is different and what may work for one person, may not work for you. By exploring all options, you should be able to find a suitable and effective treatment. The best thing is to speak to people - friends, family, other people who have quit.
It is important to remember that hypnotherapy for smoking is not a quick fix. While for some people, one session is enough to quit smoking (or continue the journey alone), others may benefit from follow-up sessions. The ultimate aim of hypnosis for smoking is to empower YOU to take control of your addiction and improve your health.
How does hypnosis for weight loss work?
Hypnotherapy for weight loss is becoming increasingly popular and people all over the world are finding it helpful for maintaining a healthy weight in the long-term.
Over time - and a series of weight loss hypnotherapy sessions - you will learn how to replace your negative habits and eating patterns with positive ones.
What happens during hypnosis for weight loss?
• I will guide you into a state of deep relaxation.
• Once your body and mind are fully relaxed, I will be able to access your unconscious mind (the part of us that works all the time but that we're not necessarily aware of, i.e. innate instincts and survival mechanisms).
• Soothing, carefully worded scripts can be used to explore reasons for overeating and suggest new ways of thinking through visualisations. You have the control to reject any suggestions you don't feel happy with without any guidance from me.
Hypnotherapy for weight loss techniques
While each case is different because everyone has their own reasons for wanting to lose weight, some suggestions you might encounter include:
• Envisioning the body you want or the level of fitness/health you wish to achieve.
• Imagining how you will feel with your new look and health.
• Imagining yourself reaching that goal effortlessly.
• Seeing how much you will have improved from today.
• Imagining how energised and confident you will feel.
• Realising that the more you exercise, the more you will want to exercise and the easier it will become to do so.
These techniques are designed to empower you so that you can take control of your choices. If you’re worried that your relationship with certain types of food is becoming unhealthy, however, hypnotherapy for food addiction could help you to break these negative thought patterns.
Through weight loss hypnosis, you can learn to enjoy the taste of healthy food and stop craving sugary, fatty foods. You should also learn to enjoy your body and not see it as a source of anxiety. By tackling those deep feelings that form the foundations of your eating habits, hypnosis for weight loss can help you adopt a healthier lifestyle and a happier mindset.
Having been a primary teacher, nurturing and empowering children for the last 20 years, this is an area that I feel passionate about. Childhood should be free from worries, stress and anxieties, and it should be full of freedom, happiness and laughter. Also having 2 teenagers of my own has given me insight into how the young mind works and all its quirks! Children are excellent subjects for hypnotherapy.
Hypnotherapy for children has proved to be extremely successful in treating both emotional and physical symptoms. Children are used to using their imagination all the time; they live in it on a daily basis which usually makes them very open to hypnotherapy. The doorway between the conscious and the unconscious mind is the imagination. For children, it’s relatively easy to reach at the deepest levels, in a much quicker time than required by a good many adults. Stories, adventures, visualization, imaginative games, role-playing, magic, puppets, and costumes work most effectively with children. Children are far better than most adults at hypnotherapy, finding the state of hypnosis very natural and pleasing.
Issues that can be successfully treated with hypnotherapy include:
doing homework, performing better in the classroom, getting to school and liking it, improving grades, friendlessness, thumb sucking, bedwetting, nightmares and fear of the dark, stealing, low self-esteem, dealing with divorce or death in a family, illness – their own or someone in the family, and a myriad of other problems.
The benefits of hypnosis with children are the same as for adults, as long as their problems are treated as seriously as adults. Hypnosis is a powerful tool in strengthening a child’s confidence. It helps a child to feel empowered where, before, they have been “victim.” It releases willingness to use their natural gifts. It elicits talent and creativity. It provides a wonderful foundation in their education.
With a good hypnotherapist, children can experience true success in their lives in all areas. They feel happier, and have a sense of real freedom. If your child is unhappy because of an issue they are having problems with, don’t delay, help them to become happy and carefree again; Hypnotherapy can help them achieve this.
I usually work with children from the age of 11 upwards and insist that 1 parent or carer remains with the child throughout any session, (especially if the child is under the age of 16.) Issues that I have been trained to deal with whilst working with children include weight and body issues, stress, anxiety, bed wetting, nail biting, hair pulling and confidence as well as separation issues.
Compulsive behaviours and disorders are often linked with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) – a diagnosis widely used by mental health professionals. It more helpful to separate compulsive and obsessive behaviours, as they impact on people’s lives in different ways.
Usually, a compulsive behaviour is undertaken on impulse, with little thought, or with a feeling of having been “driven” to do it. Instant relief is felt, once it has been done. There may be a feeling of shame or guilt afterwards, with immediate gratification at the time.
For people with obsessive thoughts and behaviour, the sense of relief is often never experienced. The sufferer is more likely to focus on the issue at hand, becoming excessively preoccupied by it. They can become involved in carrying out repetitive cycles of behaviour.
The activities provide little or no relief. Some people have to carry out additional activities to alleviate their fears that something bad will happen if they don’t.
Different compulsive behaviours
There are different types of compulsive behaviour, ranging from everyday activities, such as shopping, to reckless behaviour, including self-harming.
Hypnosis can help alleviate many of the more common compulsive behaviours. These can include excessive drinking, excessive shopping and harmful addictive behaviours, such as abusing drugs, alcohol and other substances.
It can also help with gambling, sexual behaviour, lying, cheating, self-harming, nail-biting and hair-pulling, known as trichotillomania.
If we haven’t identified your particular issue, please don’t be deterred, as compulsive disorders and behaviours are extremely varied. They can be specific to the individual and it is impossible to list them all here.
It’s important to realise that the underlying reason for the behaviour is significant and that is what we treat with hypnotherapy, not the behaviour itself.
How Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy can help
People with compulsive behaviours and disorders commonly feel a little out of control and driven by factors they don’t understand. They may feel guilty or ashamed about their compulsive behaviour and as a result, won’t seek help. Feelings of guilt or shame should NEVER stop you from asking for help.
Irritable bowel syndrome is relatively wide spread with estimates that 20% of people will suffer from it at one time or another.
It is widely recognised that one of the principle contributing factors is STRESS or ANXIETY and although medication is often prescribed for the condition, hypnotherapy and psychotherapy treatments aimed at resolving the stress or anxiety are often the most effective way of treating it.
There are a number of symptoms associated with irritable bowel syndrome and one, or several, of the symptoms may be present at any one time.
Typical symptoms are:-▪ Bloating▪ Constipation▪ Abdominal cramps▪ Wind▪ For women pain in the left side during sex▪ Gurgling stomach▪ Fatigue▪ Depression▪ Loss of appetite▪ Nausea
Irritable bowel syndrome is a condition that may remain “hidden” or is not spoken about or consulted for due to the often embarrassing symptoms that are associated with it and the difficulty that people feel in discussing issues of this nature and whilst the media is making efforts to “normalise” our view of the condition, irritable bowel syndrome may be more widespread due to this reluctance to talk about it.
If YOU suffer from irritable bowel syndrome then you will already know how limiting the symptoms can be and how it can affect your ability to get on with your life.
The symptoms can be very unpredictable and intrusive and IBS has a reputation of being difficult to treat.
There are numerous “cures” and “remedies” available in the market place but the one common approach taken with all these solutions is that they target the symptoms and seem to totally ignore the cause of the problem.
Whilst these remedies may provide temporary relief, the sufferer is unlikely to ever be free of the symptoms as the cause of the problem remains unresolved./Irritable Bowel Syndrome varies from person to person and it is difficult to be prescriptive about which therapeutic solution is the most appropriate, however, following a course of CPI may help you to significantly reduce your level of stress thus helping to alleviate your IBS Symptoms/Once your un-processed experiences are understood and no longer poorly integrated in the unconscious part of the mind, the symptoms that are present as a result of these issues are often either very minor or can be completely alleviated./We understand that it can be embarrassing to talk to somebody about irritable bowel syndrome, but you can be assured of our integrity, understanding and assurance that your consultation with us will be totally confidential.
When a person believes in themselves and their abilities to succeed in life we describe them as “being full of confidence”.Self confident people tend to have certain characteristics associated with them such as the ability to be:▪ Successful in their chosen career▪ Highly sociable▪ Popular with others▪ Unruffled by problems▪ Un-phased by illnesses▪ Relaxed
Many people will experience low self confidence at some point in our lives and this is a perfectly normal experience to have, but there are some people whose entire lives seem to be experienced with these feelings of low self confidence, often expressed as feeling “not good enough” and for them, life can be challenging on a daily basis.
It could be, for example, that they do not feel good enough to mix with people and so become socially withdrawn, or perhaps the idea of going for a job interview seems so pointless as they already “know” that they aren’t good enough for the job and so what’s the point in attending.
People with low self confidence or low self esteem have been shown to also suffer from a high degree of social phobia.
In fact, there is a known correlation between low self-esteem (low self confidence) and high social phobia. (The degree to which you feel judged by other people)
The more social anxiety you suffer, the more low self confidence you experience and the higher your self-confidence the lower your social anxiety.
What causes low self confidence?
There are a large number of things that can result in low self confidence, but as far as we are concerned they probably fall into two main categories:
1. Some sort of negative or emotional experience that has taken place, normally where you failed to live up to some “standard” and felt, or were made to feel, embarrassed or “small” as a consequence.
It is particularly important to note that this “standard” which was not achieved may be real, or simply imagined.
This experience may be buried or “repressed” into the unconscious part of the mind, or you may be fully aware of it, the problem is that it is having a direct effect on the way that you feel NOW.
2. The slow development, over time, of negative thinking patterns that start to impact more widely on the way you feel about yourself. We call this a “cognitive distortion” and it is well known that thoughts actually directly affect feelings. In other words the “way you think” determines the “way you feel”. These thinking styles can self-reinforce and lead into a downward spiral of low self confidence that get worse over time.
Anyone who suffers from panic attacks will know how terrifying and debilitating they can be. They can happen suddenly, for no apparent reason, making you feel powerless. They can leave a sufferer feeling out of control, experiencing wild thoughts that they will fall unconscious, go mad, or even die.
According to research, about 5% of the adult population has panic attacks. As an exaggerated version of the natural response to stress, fear, or even excitement, the body automatically prepares itself for a dangerous situation by producing large quantities of adrenalin.
This is known as a “freeze, flight or fight” reaction. It would have prepared people to fight, or run away, from danger in years gone by. The reaction is less appropriate for our stressful situations today. However, our body isn’t convinced of this.
We still respond in the same way, even to imagined danger. As adrenalin rushes around our body, it causes our muscles to tense up and our breathing to become faster. The heart must pump harder to circulate the blood and we may become pale as a result. Sweating increases, our digestion slows down and our salivary glands dry up, causing a “dry mouth” sensation. Our senses become more alert and even a slight sound or touch can provoke a reaction.
As the panic attack kicks in, people may experience more extreme symptoms, such as feeling unable to breathe, chest pains, ringing ears, numbness and tingling in the hands and feet, hot flushes, nausea, feelings of terror and a sense of unreality.
Most panic attacks last from five to 20 minutes, with the symptoms peaking, on average, in ten minutes. Some might experience one after another, with the feeling they’ve been having a continual panic attack for up to an hour, and as they’re unpredictable, people can spend their life worrying whether one is going to happen.
Before seeking advice from a hypnotherapist, rule out any possible physical causes for panic attacks by seeing your GP.
Fear of Dentists-Dental fear refers to the fear of dentistry or of receiving dental care. A severe form of this fear is called dental phobia, odontophobia, dentophobia, dentist phobia, or dental anxiety. However, it has been suggested that the term “dental phobia” is often a misnomer, as many people with this condition do not feel their fears to be excessive or unreasonable and resemble individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder, caused by previous traumatic dental experiences. In many cases the actual fear may be more about the fear of injections or needles. A survey by the British Dental Association found that 25% of people were afraid of visiting the dentist. “Some people blame the cost because it’s easier than saying they’re frightened “says Dr Carole Boyle, a specialist in sedation and special care dentistry at King’s College London.
Fear of the unknown-As with any type of anxiety, there are varying degrees of fear of the dentist.
The most common, and least severe, is simply a fear of the unknown. This may arise if you’ve heard horror stories from other people or you’re worried about what could happen. The next level of fear is dental fear, which is a reaction to a known danger. For example, you may have had a tooth removed and experienced some pain. As a result, you may worry about experiencing it again. Dental phobia is similar to dental fear but is more severe. It’s often the result of a bad past experience. For some people, dental phobia can be so crippling that simply seeing a toothpaste advert or a dental surgery can cause distress. This is known as Anticipatory Anxiety
Reasons you may have developed the fear of dentists include: bad childhood experiences, fear of injections, fear of the anaesthetic, fear of the dentist’s drill or the sound of the drill itself, fear of being out of control, feeling vulnerable, invasion of your personal space
Fear of Flying-First of all, it is not the inability to travel in a plane!Most ‘fearful flyers’ do actually fly – although they find it a very uncomfortable experience.How each person experiences the fear of flying will differ considerably and can range from a mild concern, that passes once you have made the decision to fly, to a powerful and over-powering fear that makes air travel an impossibility.To gauge how your own ‘flying nerves’ compare with others just imagine a scale with mild nervousness at one end, a severe and disabling phobia of air travel at the opposite end and, somewhere in the middle, the person who travels by air only when they really, absolutely, have to.
Mild fear of flying-At the mild end of the gauge is the person who becomes a little nervous for a little while at certain stages of the flight.They may become uneasy on entering the plane, when the doors close, when the plane takes off or lands or manoeuvres, or if they experience turbulence, etc.This is not a true fear of flying – and even the most confident flyers will, on occasions, experience these thoughts or feelings.
Fear of Planes and White-Knuckle Flying-Midway along this “scale” is the nervous or ‘white knuckle’ flyer.This person will travel by plane as a last resort, because they have no other choice.They will try to avoid going on holidays or applying for jobs that might involve air travel.Or they will spend long hours travelling by car and ferry, much to the discomfort of family members or colleagues who have to accompany them.(Dennis Bergkamp. the famous Dutch Footballer, was a very fearful Flyer and would only travel by land to get to International Matches.)If they really have to fly they will usually use strong medication or alcohol to help them deal with their fear of flying.Any trip involving air travel is an ordeal for them.When they arrive they may take quite a while to get over their outward journey – only to then begin nervously anticipating the return journey.
Flying Phobia-At the far end of the spectrum is the person whose fear of flying is so strong that they cannot fly at all – even the thought of being in a plane causes anxiety.
For the person with such a flying phobia the experience of being on a plane can be quite distressing and may result in panic attacks, nausea, shaking, hyperventilating, etc.A phobia of flying can be so incapacitating as to make air travel quite impossible and can even prevent them travelling to an airport to meet someone else.
You can learn how to manage your fear of Flying-A flying phobia can be resolved.You do not have to ‘learn to live with it’.Nor do you have to continue holding yourself back from the convenience of air travel or from holidays or career advancement that involve travel by air.
Fear of Injections- If you have a fear of needles, you may dread receiving medical care, particularly injections.When you are required to undergo a medical procedure, you are likely to experience high blood pressure and an elevated heart rate in the hours and days leading up to your procedure.However, at the time of the event, your blood pressure may rapidly drop. You may even faint. Another danger of needle phobia is that it can cause sufferers to avoid visiting the doctor or dentist. Although the actual phobia is of needles or injections, it can lead to a more generalized fear of medical and dental healthcare providers. (Sometime leading to a Fear of Dentists in itself) In extreme cases, the sufferer may refuse to receive even routine check-ups.
Causes of Needle Phobia-As with all phobias, Scientists are still unsure precisely what causes needle phobia. It seems to be inherited, as an estimated 80% of those who have the condition have a close relative that suffers from the same phobia. However, it is possible that the fear is learned (what we call “Learned Behaviour”) rather than biologically inherited. Some psychologists believe that the fear may be rooted in an ancient survival technique. Puncture wounds could be deadly, particularly in the days before modern antibiotics. It is possible that a fear of puncturing the skin was an evolutionary adaptation although not everybody seems to suffer from this problem.
Treating the Fear of Needles-Many people have found have their needle phobia significantly improved with Clinical Hypnosis sessions. In addition, new methods for medication distribution are being developed.
For example, a nasal spray form of the flu vaccine has recently been approved for use in most healthy people. Researchers are working on possible needle-free ways of testing diabetics’ blood sugar and performing other needed medical tests. Needle phobia can be a serious condition that should be treated, as it could eventually lead you to miss out on essential medical care. If you think that you have a Fear of Needles then please contact me.
How to cope with exam nerves
Most people experience some degree of anxiety about exams. Whilst a certain amount of exam stress is and can be used as a motivating force, it is important to keep on top of exam anxiety. An important way to do this is to be organised. Some people suffer with exam stress more than others. For those people, it is important to learn some stress reduction techniques as well as using specific study tips for revision.
Useful stress reduction ideas Don’t drink too much coffee, tea and fizzy drinks; the caffeine will ‘hype’ you and make your thinking less clear. Eat healthily and regularly; your brain will benefit from the nutrients. The physical symptoms associated with stress are caused by the hormone adrenaline, which is necessary to prepare the body for the ‘fight or flight’ reaction. When overproduced by chronic stress, it simply causes unpleasant physical symptoms rather than of being any use to you. Physical activity will use up the adrenaline, for the purpose it is intended. This can help to reduce some of the unpleasant physical effects associated with stress, such as racing heart, over-breathing and muscular tension.
Build some regular moderate exercise into your day to boost your energy and clear your mind.
A brisk walk for 30 minutes is as good a form of exercise as any and doesn’t need much planning in advance. Try out some relaxation techniques. They will help to keep you feeling calm and balanced, improve your concentration levels and help you to sleep better. Get into a sensible sleep pattern; make sure that you stop academic work at least an hour before you go to bed and then do something relaxing so that your sleep is refreshing and useful. Don’t work half the night and then get up late instead.
Relaxation techniques you can try yourself-Practise tensing and relaxing each of your muscle groups in turn. Begin with your toes. Clench them and hold them tight for a few seconds, concentrating fully on the feeling. Now gradually and slowly relax the muscles, unclenching your toes and letting them go loose. Progressively move up the body doing the same, until you reach the forehead.
Frown tightly, screwing up the facial muscles and then relax them. Practise breathing deeply, evenly and slowly. As you develop this slow rhythm, try to imagine that you are lying on a warm beach, watching the waves .Put the mental picture in tune with your breathing. As you breathe in, imagine the waves washing in: as you breathe out, the waves wash out. Hypnosis is well known for helping people to overcome nerves and really helpful to relieve exam stress.
Create an overview of what you want to revise and break each subject down into manageable chunks
Help during the revision period-Make headings and allocate each section on a or weekly planner.
Ask your tutors for practice questions/past papers. Set definite start and finish times for your revision sessions and have a clear goal for each session. Aim to break your revision sessions up with five minutes break every half hour. Use active revision techniques to make the best use of your revision time. Build a system of regular review into your revision, checking what you know and what you don’t know. Develop a technique for question analysis and planning answers to use in the exam. Practise making plans and answering questions under timed conditions. Plan how you will use your time in the exams before-hand.
Other tips for dealing with pre exam nerves-Believe in yourself. You wouldn’t have been given a place on the course if you didn’t have the ability to do it. Therefore, if you prepare for the exams properly you should do fine, meaning that there is no need to worry excessively. Be realistic. Success is wonderful, by all means aim high. But keep things in balance. If you create unrealistic goals, you will only be disappointed. Aim to do your best and for yourself, rather than for friends or your parents.
Recognise that none of us can be perfect all of the time. Take steps to overcome problems. Don’t battle on alone, get help from a tutor if you don’t understand a topic.
Hypnotherapy, Hypnosis and Cognitive services can provide REAL help to cope more effectively within yourself and to gain a clearer perspective on your test nerves. Don’t keep things bottled up. Confiding in someone you trust and who will be supportive is a great way of alleviating stress and worry. Keep things in perspective. The exams might seem like the most crucial thing right now, but in the grander scheme of your whole life they are only a small part.
If nothing seems to be helping-Some people find that despite all their best efforts, anxiety levels simply keep on rising. This can be self-defeating and you can go round and round in circles.
If this is happening, then do not hesitate to contact me to discuss how I can help YOU. Sometimes a single 60 minute session of Clinical Hypnosis is all you will need, although often a couple of sessions is most effective.
Although social phobia may be a “new” name, it is a problem that has been around for many hundreds of years.Social Phobia is the Fear (or worry) of being judged by other people and for many people it can have a very debilitating effect on their lives.People suffering from social phobia will be very familiar with the phrase “you worry too much about what people think” and in essence, this is true.Social Phobia may be experienced in many different ways, and to help you identify if this IS your problem, I have listed below some typical symptoms associated with this anxiety:-
▪ Often feeling like your being “put on the spot”
▪ Go cold at the idea of standing up and talking to a large group of people
▪ Have a very limited social life with very few friends
▪ Being “shy” in common social settings
▪ Dislike being at parties
▪ Worry about Exam results
▪ Always sticking to the rules
▪ Difficulty talking on the telephone
▪ Stuttering and Stammering
▪ Find it difficult to look people in the eye
▪ Unable to use public toilets (Known as “shy bladder”)
▪ Feeling like a “fraud” and that people may be able to “see through you”
▪ Always asking for feedback about “how well you are doing”
Social Phobia should not be underestimated as it can cause people to withdraw from life and, if not addressed, “migrate” into a Depressive Disorders. Social Phobia can influence almost every aspect of your life and is almost certainly the most common form of anxiety experienced by people.One recent revelation about Social Phobia is that most of the people who “feel judged” can be quite judgemental themselves.
In other words, one of the reasons that social phobia sufferers believe that everybody is essentially “coming to some negative conclusion” about them as a person, is because this is exactly what they are doing to other people!If you find yourself judging other people (even if you keep it to yourself) is it any wonder that you might believe this is a trait shared by everybody else too?
What causes Social Phobia? Most people who suffer from social phobia are likely to have had the problem from an early age. It is unusual to develop this type of problem later in life, although it may not become “expressed” as a problem until after some significant event triggers these buried feelings.
Social Phobia is almost always “created” when some experience in our developmental years leaves us feeling emotionally overwhelmed and unable to deal with the feelings we felt at the time of the incident.
We might, perhaps, have had an experience where we felt like we “made a fool of ourselves” and have perceived that all the people who witnessed this incident were somehow “laughing at me”. Something may have happened that made us feel terribly embarrassed causing us to “blush”, only then to find that any situation that in some way reminds us of this experience, causes this “blush response” to occur again.
Perhaps there were very high expectations to succeed in your family environment, in which case you may have felt that “failing” in some way would lead to “ridicule” or perhaps even some form of punishment, in which case you would learn to “dread” failure and constantly worry about it. Almost any experience of this nature can create social phobia in life.