Category Archives: Therapy for Stress and Anxiety

Hypnotherapy helps man with agoraphobia.

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Jeremy Norton had been too afraid to leave his house since the age of 20 but has been cured by hypnotherapy

Jeremy Norton

Jeremy Norton

Source :
http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/13877853.Man_s_agoraphobia_cured_after_just_three_sessions_of_hypnotherapy/

Holly Keogh / Monday 19 October 2015 / News

A MAN who suffered from agoraphobia for 20 years says he has been cured – after just three sessions of hypnotherapy.

Jeremy Norton, 40, had been too afraid to leave his house since the age of 20 and suffered from severe anxiety and panic attacks as a result.

However, after being introduced to hypnotherapist, Liz Davis, he has now beaten his fears and has not only ventured outside his house but travelled around Europe and even been on a plane.

 Mr Norton, from Brighton, said: “My little life was generally confined to a very tiny amount of restricted places, before the treatment, and even then only at certain times.

“This affected friendships, relationships, family and ultimately my self-esteem.”

Even a simple journey to a friend’s house needed a specific “safe route” and if he went outside of this specific route it could cause intense panic.

He said: “I would be taken with an uncontrollably overwhelming feeling of vertigo when I was outside.

“It felt as though I was suddenly upside down, dangling from the Earth by my feet and that I was going to fall from the ground into the sky.” During a panic attack Jeremy needed to get inside a building so that he could feel safe from the feeling that he could fall into open space.

 Being able to access somewhere at a moments notice was essential.

He added: “Western Road in Brighton was a perfect safe zone during the day because I could run into a shop at any point and calm down.

“In the evening it is more scary for me because the shops are closed so the only buildings open are the bars and restaurants.

“Even if there was a busy main road to cross, my only instinct was to run.”

Feeling helpless, he decided to visit Seven Dials-based hypnotherapist Liz Davis who said his agoraphobia was due to repressed and blocked memories of childhood traumas.

She told how she used hypnotherapy “age regression” to take him back to his childhood so he could deal with his problems.

The 38-year-old said: “Jeremy was really determined to get some positive results because he really wanted to start living his life again.

 “I took him back to where the problem began and when he could see it more clearly, it no longer scared him so much.

“Everything suddenly made absolute sense and Jeremy felt that he had finally uncovered the very original cause of his fears.”

The Argus: Jeremy Norton with Liz Davies. Photo: Tony Wood.

Jeremy Norton with hypnotheraist Liz Davies.  

Ms Davis added: “People only usually need a few sessions at the most, so it’s such a fast method of effective therapy.”

 

A Positive Attitude Towards Stress Can Change How It Affects You

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A Positive Attitude Towards Stress Can Change How It Affects You.

HeartMath-UK-Kelly-McGonigalWe are all too aware these days of the negative affects of prolonged periods of stress on our bodies, but short lived bursts can help us to perform at our peak and help us rise to the challenge of difficult tasks. If you are in fear of feeling that increase of heart rate and that slightly flushed feeling as the blood pumps a bit faster through your body, increasing the oxygen supply, then stress may well result in poor performance, but if you view these changes as a welcome benefit, then you will reap the rewards that this heightened state of awareness can give you, as well as decreasing the negative impact.

At a recent TED seminar, Kelly McGonigal explains how to make stress your friend. If you can regard stress as a useful tool in your emotional and physical states rather than fear its existence you will find that its negative impact can be reduced. As with many negative states, it is all too often the fear of those feelings such as pain or adrenaline that keeps us feeling them. An adrenaline ‘junkie’ welcomes that intense rush and looks to feel it again and again but in wanting to have that intensity they find that it ebbs away all too quickly. It you don’t let go of the fear your body will think you are in constant danger and so prolong the feared state, relax into it and you will return to safety. In psychology you often get more of anything you attempt to avoid, so welcome in the stress as your friend and you will get less of it 🙂

Bunny

Stress and How it Affects Your Health

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Stress and how it affects your health.

We all suffer from stress at some point in our lives, particularly when we undergo big changes such as moving house, changing jobs, changing relationships or bereavement.

Stress is created by excessive worry and is increased when you feel that you have little or no ability to cope with these changes and you begin to lose sight of any potential benefit to your life. Your mind overly focuses on all types of worst case scenarios and the only future you predict for your self is one of potential disaster and failure! This then increases your stress levels until they become overwhelming, often tipping people into burn out or depression.

The hormones connected with these stress increases keep the body in a heightened state of alert and the bodies repair and immune systems don’t work as well as they should, often resulting in more illnesses and susceptibility to common viruses such as colds.

In order to begin to reduce your stress, you need to learn how to understand and let go of those worry thoughts that are responsible as well as examining your physical responses. Your mind and body are intrinsically linked and treating both through therapy can reduce the stress levels experienced dramatically. Hypnotherapy offers you deep relaxation and inner focus on the habitual thoughts and processes that hold you in this cycle and gives you the tools you need to release yourself and ultimately give you more health and happiness.

My practice is in Colchester and if you live further afield I may be able to recommend a similarly qualified therapist in your area.

Hypnotherapy Stopping for Worrying

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Hypnotherapy for worrying, or rather should I say, to alleviate worry!

Worrying is one of the main causes for stress and anxiety and is connected with the desire to be prepared. A low level of worrying can be very useful and can ensure you are fully able to get the best from your life, but when it is focused on trying to avoid all worst case scenarios and potential disasters, many people find they can’t switch off from the perpetual circle of possible catastrophes.

Hypnotherapy for worrying can help you find the root causes for these issues and learn to change your thought patterns through a process of awareness and acceptance.

Often these worries are developed at a time when we are reacting to the world around us through how we ‘feel’, such as when we are children, rather than what we know to be logical and rational as adults. These habits are then maintained through by placing the feelings of worrying on everyday situations and if left unchecked they can become overwhelming.

Most people find they can make a significant difference through hypnotherapy in as little as four weeks and these changes can make a profound impact upon their lives. It takes courage to ask for help, but if you find you are thinking about therapy and want to find out more, please email me or give me a call.

Bunny

07748647489

Hypnotherapy for Panic Attacks.

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Hypnotherapy for panic attacks.

Hypnosis can be a very effective tool for the treatment of panic attacks and other physical manifestations of stress and anxiety issues.

The physical symptoms of the panic attacks can often lead to fear of loss of control or even death, as the effects can be similar to heart attack or strokes. The quick, shallow breathing causes hyperventilation which leads to respiratory alkalosis, which may cause a number of physical symptoms: dizziness, tingling in the lips, hands or feet, headache, weakness, fainting and seizures.

Often panic attacks become so ingrained in the subconscious that they seemingly happen without warning and without the ability to be controlled. Hypnotherapy allows this process to be effectively slowed down and studied from a detached prospective, giving back the control to the person and allowing new neurological pathways to be created.

Understanding all aspects of the condition, from it’s inception to it’s current infliction, enables you to make changes to the often illogical and irrational thoughts and behaviours that have become attached to certain triggers, which result in these recurrent panic attacks.

Hypnotherapy can be a fast and effective treatment, often taking only 4 sessions to make real, long term changes to those old, unwanted habits.

I have appointments available day times, evenings and weekends, so if you would like to email or call me I would be delighted to discuss your issue further.

Bunny

 

Hypnotherapy for Anxiety

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Hypnotherapy for Anxiety

Trait anxiety or neuroticism, has been sited by Digman (1990) as one of 5 core dimensions of personalities and low levels of anxiety are useful in that it encourages us to think through our actions and be well prepared, particularly when we are face with potential challenges or dangers.

These useful levels of anxiety become increased when a person is over attentive to possible sources of threat and makes unrealistic appraisals and interpretations about the potential danger of external and internal events. This is often as a result of past experiences or influence from worries of those who are close to us and this can set a pattern or excessive worry and anxiety.

An anxious person is likely to see the worst case scenario in future events and predict catastrophic outcomes even when the evidence for this is unsupported.

There a many issues that can be labeled anxiety and the basic feeling of anxiety can branch into many different areas such as phobias, panic attacks, OCDs and PTSD. Anxiety can also lead to the client developing somatic symptoms such as IBS.

In order to treat the anxiety effectively the client must become fully aware of it and how it affects the three key areas  of physiological, cognitive and behavioual reactions.

Hypnotherapy can be a very effective tool in the treatment of a wide variety of anxiety and stress related issues. In the modern world people often suffer from the effects of increase adrenaline levels associated with our primeval survival reactions and the subsequent effect of a build up of these hormones can lead to such conditions as panic attacks, IBS, asthma and a variety of skin conditions.

High stress levels also affect the immune system leaving people feeling tired and run down.

Hypnotherapy and CBT techniques address the underlying patterns of thought and behaviour that maintain these issues and seek to find alternative ways to cope and to change the processes that have held you in that perpetual worry.

The treatment can be effective in as little as 4 weeks and my service offers you personal one to one sessions and detailed email back up.

 

Driving Test Stress!!

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Driving Test Stress

I was almost feeling sick with nerves yesterday morning ,knowing that my daughter was taking her test! I remembered the fear I had felt many years previous and that memory still burns strongly. I could recall the moment  in such detail, the test and the examiner and the moment when I made that decision to overtake the bicycle on that hill, and the sound as the examiner sucked in sharply through his teeth and the sinking feeling in my heart!!

Unlike my daughter, who passed her first test, I had to retake mine 4 weeks later!

It is an interesting point, that our stronger memories are burnt through the release of powerful chemicals in our bodies, such as fear, anger and joy. In the most part this is a useful occurrence since we need to remember to avoid fearful situations, however, that which a child might find fearful may not be frightening to an adult.

Since we are burning memories from the day we are born, it is a wise idea that an adult spends sometime reflecting on their life and addressing any patterns which may have been set by a 2,3,4 year old and releasing themselves from them!

Hypnosis is an amazing way to undertake this process and through careful guidance any irrational fears, worries and nervous habits can be erased and overwritten by the adult self! I doubt you would allow a child to make important decisions for you now….

x Bunny x