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hypnotherapy: cognitive behavioural therapy (cbt): counselling: nlp: swedish massage: aromatherapy: deep tissue massage
I have written a number of small articles which give a little more of an insight in to the following areas: Hypnotherapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Counselling, NLP, Massage and Aromatherapy. I have also included the unique but not uncommon experiences of two clients.
10 Quick Checks to Reduce Stress - A Cognitive Approach
When people seek support for stress, they usually describe their problems in terms of their feelings, or in terms of a situation with which they cannot cope. People rarely complain about their thoughts. Yet it is our thoughts which are invariably the cause of our stress.
The Cognitive approach to stress is based on three main assumptions.
1. Stress is determined by the thoughts one has about oneself or one’s experiences.
2. Stress often results from negative and unrealistic thoughts.
3. Altering negative and unrealistic thoughts usually reduces stress.
The cognitive therapist helps the client to become more aware of his or her thoughts and feelings and the situations that trigger them. The aim of Cognitive Therapy is to uncover the irrational and inaccurate thoughts and thinking styles that often cause stress. Identifying irrational and inaccurate thoughts can be a relief in itself and is a good first step in reducing stress.
Here is a check list of 10 problematic thinking styles that result in unnecessary stress.
1. Mind reading: You assume that you know what people are thinking without having sufficient evidence of there thoughts. For example: “He thinks I’m a loser.”
2. Fortune telling: You predict the future – that things will get worse or that there is danger ahead. For example: “I won’t get the job.”
3. Catastrophising: You believe that what has happened or will happen will be so awful and unbearable that you won’t be able to bare it. For example: “It would be terrible if I failed.”
4. Discounting positives: You claim that the positive accomplishments that you or others attain are trivial. For example: “Those successes were easy so they don’t matter.” Or “That’s what wives are supposed to do- so it doesn’t count that she is nice to me.”
5. Negative filter: You focus almost exclusively on the negative and seldom notice the positives. For example: “Look at all the people who don’t like me.”
6. Over generalization: You have a tendency towards sweeping conclusions made from limited evidence. For example: “This seems to happen to me. I tend to fail at a lot of things.”
7. Regret Orientation: You focus on the idea that you could have done better in the past, rather then on what you could do better now. For example: “I could have had a better job if I had tried harder.” Or “I shouldn’t have said that.”
8. What if?: You ask a series of questions about “what if” something happens and are never satisfied with the answers. For example: “Yeah, but what if I get anxious?” Or “What if I can’t catch my breath?”
9. “Shoulds”: You interpret events in terms of how things should be rather then simply focusing on what is. For example: “I should do well. If I don’t, then I’m a failure.”
10. Personalisation: You attribute disproportionate amount of blame for negative events to your self and fail to see that certain events are also caused by others. For example: “My marriage ended because I failed.”
It’s likely that you will be familiar with at least one of these thinking styles and that it will have caused you countless stressful moments. Next time you feel tense use this check list to highlight any inaccurate thoughts. This process alone will encourage a more positive and realistic way of thinking. More positive and realistic thoughts will immediately reduce unnecessary stress and tension. This is just one step in Cognitive Therapy.
Hypnotherapy - Detox your Mind
Modern life styles - junk food, inadequate exercise and too much stress - mean our bodies need a break ever so often. However while we are all helping our physical bodies to get rid of every day stresses, we often neglect our minds.
Negative thoughts, low self-image, anger, frustration and depression dump toxic waste into our minds just as junk foods do to our bodies. To live happy healthy lives we must not neglect our minds, but should instead give ourselves regular ‘mind detoxes.’
Based on the same principle as physical detoxing, mind detoxes help to cleanse your mind. During the therapeutic application of Hypnosis you can shed unwanted thoughts and habits, and learn to replaces them with self-confidence and creativity. Whether you want to loose weight, boost self- confidence, stop smoking, or simply boost well-being, regular mind detoxing can help you.
Detox your mind with Hypnotherapy. Simple and powerful techniques such as suggestion, contemplation and visualization, can rid you of unwanted mental baggage, freeing you to realize your true potential and reach it!
Life Coaching - Focused People are Simply More Effective
Do you feel “out of balance” in your life? Do you feel you are drifting off course? Do you feel that something important is missing from your life? Do you have a vision of how you would like your life to be?
Anyone can be better at anything with effective coaching. This is as true in business as it is in sport. Coaches encourage, support and motivate, helping to define goals and facilitate change.
Life coaching encourages a particular way of looking at yourself, your role and your ambitions. By setting long, medium and short term goals and agreeing the steps to achieve them life coaching encourages a calm focus. Having a clear, realistic life plan has been shown to reduce stress and enhance morale. Focussed people are simply more effective.
A coach comes with an open mind and skills to make things happen. The coach listens to you, asks you questions, and helps you gain new perspectives on yourself and the world in which you operate. A coach has no preconceptions about you and wants to find out what makes you tick, to help you discover what you really want to change and then set about helping you to create those changes yourself.
A life coach can offer people the confidence and ability to move forward in a positive manner in the areas of their life where they crave change. Coaching is about identifying those areas, breaking down the barriers that prevent or inhibit change and creating the environment for positive action to take place. It is an approach that looks at the present and sets goals for a successful future.
Massage - Mind and Body
Most people, including myself, experience tension in the neck, shoulders and other areas of the body from time to time. Massage does not only dissolve physical tension, it can also dissolve the fear and anxiety that create this bodily ‘armour’.
Massage releases endorphins – the hormones that produce a feeling of well being and create a contented, even euphoric feeling. Working on both a physical and mental levels, it helps to restore the balance of a troubled mind and a tense body.
The skin is the largest organ in the body and an important sensory organ through which individuals are aware of their environment. Listen to what your body is telling you and if you need a helping hand why not try a massage.
Cognitive behavioural Therapy - Helpful Tools and Techniques
How we think affects how we feel - which affects how we think. When distressed it is all too easy to become trapped in a spiral of negative interpretations leading to negative feelings and so on.
Cognitive Behaviour therapy (CBT) combines two very effective forms of psychotherapy - Cognitive Therapy and Behaviour Therapy. It offers tools and techniques for assessing the accuracy, value and consistency of our beliefs whilst weakening the connection between troublesome situations and unwanted reactions to them.
Cognitive Behaviour therapy (CBT) offers a pathway out of ingrained habits of negative thought towards a more positive, optimistic attitude. A positive mental attitude is the essential precursor of peak performance in any arena, while a negative one makes any task a grind. CBT has a remarkable track record of transforming people’s attitudes - turning grind into peak performance.
CBT is active therapy
In Cognitive Behaviour therapy (CBT), your therapist takes an active part in solving your problems. In many ways it resembles education, coaching or tutoring. Under guidance, as a CBT client you will share in setting treatment goals and in deciding which techniques work best for you personally.
CBT is structured and focused
Cognitive Behaviour therapy (CBT) provides clear structure and focus to treatment. CBT sticks to the point and changes course only when there are sound reasons for doing so. As a CBT client, you may take on valuable "homework" tasks to speed your progress.
CBT is usually brief
Most Cognitive Behaviour therapy (CBT) patients are able to complete their treatment in just a few weeks or months.
Self Hypnosis - Hypnotherapy on the Run
A certain amount of stress is crucial to keep us healthy and motivated. Too little leaves us feeling bored and apathetic. Too much can send us crashing into a nervous breakdown. A balance is needed.
We are all made so aware of the risks and consequences of stress that you would have thought we would have a means of keeping it under control. Unfortunately in the vast majority of cases this menace still has the upper hand. It has been estimated that three quarters of all medical complaints are stress related. In this case, approximately 75% of all clients attending the Aston Clinic would benefit from some sort of advice on how to reduce the stress in their lives.
The subtle effects of stress can ruin our lives and the lives around us, sometimes making the simplest of daily routines intolerable. These symptoms may go unnoticed at first but the quality of life soon suffers until one day we are left wondering where all the good times have gone. Often the long term effects of stress can manifest and result in unpleasant and often dangerous consequences.
The therapeutic use of self-hypnosis can be beneficial in improving the quality of life and is especially effective if used with stress management techniques. Here are just a few common symptoms of stress:- anxiety, lack of confidence, eating disorders, panic attacks, phobias, sleeping problems, smoking, weight control, stomach disorders and high blood pressure.
Self-hypnosis offers a tool which can allow you to take control of your life. It offers ways to improve your outlook, reduce the risk of disease and enhance your quality of life. Learning self-hypnosis and stress management techniques is enjoyable and rewarding. It may well add years to your life if not life to your years!
Massage - A Clients Perspective
Its Friday afternoon cold, wet, grey and windy. The journey through Kingston is slow. It has been a busy day and it is the end of the week. Ive done the shopping for the weekend and I’ve walked the dog, but I still have a list of chores.
Massage! Will I be late? Have I got time? An hour of indulgence! An hour to myself! How greedy with so much to do.
But once lying on the massage table, soothing music playing gently in the background and soothing hands gently working along my spine, I begin to relax at last. Hidden tensions in various muscles show themselves and are eased away.
A stress, a worry in the mind, but somehow they are eased away too. I’m back in touch with myself quiet, calm and ready for anything. That is the way to start the weekend. I wish I could have a massage every day!
I first had hypnotherapy because I had an uncontrollable fear. My worst nightmare was airplanes or more specifically flying in them. Last summer I decided that I wasn't going to be beaten and so courageously booked a holiday for myself and my husband in Greece. Within days my courage ran out on me and was nowhere to be seen. In its place was an overwhelming sense of panic.
Hypnotherapy - A Clients Perspective
A friend who had a weight problem had recommended hypnotherapy to me. There were no two ways about it I needed some help so I made an appointment. I have to confess that I kind of expected something a bit strange and out of the ordinary to take place. So I was relieved when the treatment was so pleasant and natural.
First of all we had a good chat about my thoughts and feelings about flying. This in its self brought about a sense of relief. Just getting things off my chest with someone who wanted to help me, without feeling embarrassed was a good start.
The hypnosis itself felt great. It was like the meditation that I did at Yoga. It was pure relaxation, the whole of my body let go of its tension and my mind became very, very calm indeed. It was a wonderful sensation of peace one that I had almost forgotten existed. When I was in this state, the hypnotherapist gave me the suggestions I needed to overcome my fear. We did a lot of visualization techniques, strengthened the thoughts I wanted and I learned self- hypnosis too.
Needless to say I got on that plane and had my first holiday abroad in seven years. I still use the self-hypnosis when I feel stressed at work and would recommend it to anyone who needs some extra help.
Imagine You Could Buy A Remedy that ...
- Eases Muscular Pain
- Reduces Stress and Stress Related Symptoms from Indigestion to Migraine
- Improves Circulation and Lowers High Blood Pressure
- Naturally Combats Mental and Physical Fatigue
- Stimulates the Release of Endorphins - the Body's Happy Hormones
Imagine that this remedy had no side effects, left you feeling fantastic and carries on having a beneficial effect for days, weeks or even permanently.
Obviously no such remedy exists but massage has these benefits and more!
There are a wide variety of massage techniques which can be employed depending on clients needs and preferences. Swedish holistic massage is a good all round technique with a broad range of benefits. Remedial massage tends to focus on specific muscular aches and pains. Acupressure involves the manipulation of pressure points to affect areas beyond the reach of ordinary massage strokes. In practice these various techniques are often combined for maximum benefit. Aromatherapy uses essential oils to enhance all forms of massage. As the essential oils are absorbed in to the skin they have a range of further beneficial effects.
It has been said that "massage is the antidote to stress". Stress is one of the greatest causes of illness and is implicated in many life threatening conditions. Massage is the simple drug free antidote to stress. Anyone who has experienced a good massage will tell you that apart from its benefits, it is a uniquely relaxing experience. Anyone who has not can benefit from a 20% discount on their first massage here.
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