helping you make positive changes
Treatments
This is not an exhaustive list, but it will indicate the range of conditions that can be helped by hypnotherapy.
I must emphasise that hypnotherapy as a psychological intervention should not replace standard medication for biological illness. However, clinical hypnotherapy has been shown to be helpful in relieving symptoms when used in conjunction with the patient's usual medication.
Habit-breaking
Many people have a habit that
they wish to break but cannot. There is a feeling of “I just
can’t stop
myself”, a compulsion to continue the habit even though the
benefits of
stopping are obvious. Brief and strategic hypnotherapy can be a very
helpful
intervention. Treatment enables the client to eliminate unwanted habits
and
provides procedures for permanent behaviour modification.
Anxiety
and stress
Hypnotherapy uses techniques to
reduce or eliminate stress and promote relaxation. In severe cases,
someone
suffering from high levels of anxiety may reach a point where a panic
state is
triggered and they experience a variety of very unpleasant symptoms. It
is
essential that the cause of the anxiety is investigated and treated
properly.
This may be achieved either by the professional application of brief
and
strategic hypnotherapy, by the use of counselling, or a combination of
these
two approaches. Through hypnotherapy, clients are taught how to gain
control
over a panic attack, stop thoughts that produce panic attacks and
replace
panic-driven thoughts with positive coping thoughts.
Eating and weight control
issues
Clients who are overweight tend
to fall into two categories: those who need to lose a few kilograms and
those
who are grossly overweight. Provided that there is no medical cause for
the
individual being overweight, hypnotherapy enables clients to tackle
their
approach to food and eating habits and to start to gain control over
their
bodyweight.
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common gastrointestinal disorder and can be a chronic disorder of gastrointestinal functioning. Worldwide prevalence rates range from 9% to 23%. The symptoms can vary but generally they are that of abdominal pain or discomfort, bloating or a sense of gaseousness, and altered bowel habits (diarrhoea or constipation). Over 20 years of scientific research has demonstrated hypnotherapy to be an effective, safe and inexpensive choice for IBS symptom alleviation. Hypnotherapy routinely produces positive results in over 80% of the people who use it as a treatment for IBS.
Performance anxiety is a fear
of
the negative evaluation by others. A confident performer does not focus
on
themselves or their nervousness, whereas a person who is not confident
is
afraid of failure and/or mistakes - and their imagination of failure
increases
their anxiety. The individual may be so distressed that they avoid the
situation altogether. This confirms the individual’s fear or
belief e.g. “I
can’t speak to an audience”. Public speaking is the
most common performance
anxiety, but other anxieties include taking exams, driving tests,
‘walking up
the aisle’, stammering and impotence. Brief and strategic
hypnotherapy as a
treatment approach has extremely good results for all forms of
performance
anxiety.
Insomnia
Sleep is as essential as food,
air and water. Most people have difficulty sleeping at some time in
their life
and anyone can suffer from insomnia. Although it is not an illness and
is in no
way life-threatening, insomnia can be a frustrating, exhausting,
depressing and
distressing experience. Once it has been established that insomnia is
not
associated with any obvious physical or psychiatric illness, brief and
strategic hypnotherapy may prove an effective way of treating insomnia.
A phobia is an irrational, or
extreme and constant fear of an object or animal, place or situation
that other
people would regard as harmless. A few examples are:
- fear of flying (pteromerhanophobia);
- fear of dentists (dentophobia);
- fear of birds (ornithophobia);
- fear of bleeding/blood (hemophobia); and
- the fear of socialising (sociophobia).
Coming
into contact with the cause of the phobia, or even the thought of
coming into
contact with it, makes the individual anxious or panicky. This leads to
avoidance of the feared situation or object which, in turn, increases
the
severity of the phobia. The professional application of brief and
strategic
hypnotherapy provides an effective approach to eliminating the phobia.
Panic attacks
A panic attack is a severe
attack of anxiety and fear which occurs suddenly, often without
warning, and
for no apparent reason. Panic attacks are extremely frightening and
make people
feel powerless, out of control, and as if they are about to die or go
mad. Many
people experience this problem, but many also learn to cope and,
eventually, to
overcome it successfully. Each year, up to 10% of people experience a
panic
attack caused by a simple phobia, such as flying, going to the dentist,
or the
fear of blood loss. As part of a consultation, a professional
hypnotherapist
will explain to the client the physiology behind panic attacks and how
to deal
with them. The application of brief and strategic hypnotherapy can
bring relief
from the problem.
Erythrophobia, or blushing, is
a
symptom of anxiety which usually involves the face but may also spread
to the
chest. It is a distressing symptom for the sufferer that interferes
with social
interaction. Once the individual fears they may be starting to blush,
this
brings on the blush, making them embarrassed, which makes the situation
even
worse. Erythrophobia responds particularly well to brief and strategic
hypnotherapy.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
(OCD) is a serious anxiety-related condition that affects as many as 3%
of
people; from young children to older adults, regardless of gender and
social or
cultural background. Because of the intense feelings of embarrassment,
guilt
and sometimes even shame associated with it, it is often called the
‘secret illness’.
- Compulsion is a
repetitive and seemingly purposeful action that’s performed
as a ritual -
perhaps in order to prevent some undesired event from happening. The
fact that
the activity is needless or nonsensical is recognised by the
individual, but
cannot be resisted Attempts at resistance increases anxiety, while
carrying out
the activity reinforces the compulsion.
- Result is people
with OCD have recurrent impulses, thoughts, doubts, fears or images
about
something that they feel compelled to do something about, despite the
desire to
resist.
Tinnitus (from the Latin word
for "ringing") can be an indicator of damage to the auditory system.
As well as ringing, tinnitus sufferers perceive sounds of buzzing,
whines,
hums, and white noise etc. Sufferers are typically those who have been
subjected to loud noise over a period of time, but the condition can
also be
caused by ear infection, drugs and head injuries, and can be
age-related.
However, most of the time, the condition is not caused by damage, but
psychological
factors such as anxiety. Brief and strategic clinical hypnotherapy can
be
helpful in alleviating this distressing condition.
Pain
serves a purpose: it is the
body’s way of informing us that something is wrong. It is
therefore important
that the cause of pain is thoroughly investigated and the appropriate
medical
treatment given.
Parents
know that when their child
is distraught and tearful through pain they can comfort them by
'kissing it
better' or by distracting the child’s attention towards
something else they
find comforting or pleasant. Pain can therefore be alleviated by the
individual
having an appropriate frame of mind. When brief and strategic
hypnotherapy is
used, it can help to relieve pain even when standard treatments have
proved to
be ineffective.
Some common applications for
pain control include headaches and migraines, chronic fatigue syndrome,
childbirth/obstetrics, dental or other acute pain
