Hypnotherapy UK

Stopping smoking in the UK is being encouraged not only by education and the effects of smoking but also by legislation and the restriction on where smokers can smoke.

For years UK health bodies have attempted to persuade people to quit smoking by showing them images of smokers who have suffered with some of the most debilitating diseases connected to this life-threatening habit. Of course the government of the day has supported the advice to quit but at the same time collected 85% or more in taxes of the price of a packet of cigarettes. Taxing alcohol and tobacco use has always been a useful source of income to any government.

Today, though, and some would say, finally, the government has made it more difficult, or awkward to indulge in smoking. Smoking cigarettes, pipes and roll ups, and in fact any form of smoking tobacco has now been banned from public places.

Workers in factories and offices now have to step outside of their work building in order to have that cigarette. People who socialise in public houses or bars now also have to step outside of the building to smoke. Many pubs have constructed designated areas for smokers. These areas are not allowed to be enclosed, so some pub chains have covered area that may have walls on two sides to give some protection to smokers from adverse weather.

All of these measures, the horrific images of organs that have succumbed to smoking poisons, the videos of smokers who are still alive but whose quality of life is impaired, the dire warnings on each packet of cigarettes and the restrictions on where you can smoke are working. They are working from the point of view that more and more smokers are deciding to become ex-smokers.

The only question for many smokers is not “if” they want to stop it is “how” will they stop smoking. Most smokers will during their time as a smoker have had a number of attempts to quit smoking. Most will have tried will-power or cold turkey where they use no other form of support to quit with. Others who have failed at quitting a number of times will try patches, gum, lozenges and zyban. They may still fail.

More often than not it is the failed quitters who seek one-to-one help to finally stop smoking permanently. Hypnotherapy is proving to be the quit smoking method of choice for many people.

A quit smoking hypnotherapist knows how to help smokers change their perceptions about what smoking is and what it isn’t. This change of perception combined with suggestions in the form of hypnosis help support a change of mind. Often people who have struggled to quit before find it so easy to quit with hypnotherapy.

The success of hypnotherapy as a quit smoking method has led to the spread of hypnotherapy practices throughout the UK. Quit smoking hypnotherapists can now be found from Ipswich to London, Manchester to Birmingham. Wales and Scotland particularly have access to hypnotherapy smoking cessation services.

Some hypnotherapists focus solely on helping smokers to quit. Many hypnotherapists offer a range of help with other issues that may be connected to the reason for smoking such as stress, anxiety, relationships, alcohol intake, coping skills, low confidence and old habits that have yet to be dropped.

With so many hypnotherapists available in all counties of England, Wales and Scotland anyone in Suffolk, Essex and Surrey can find help. Large cities such as Birmingham, London, Glasgow, Manchester and Cardiff whose lifestyles have been encouraged a tendency to smoke have some of the most successful practices offering stop smoking hypnotherapy.

By: Steven Harold

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Hypnosis and Weight Loss Facts

If you are looking for stop smoking hypnotherapy, UK therapists have much to offer. In most counties, there are clinics or private practitioners. Self-help books and audio tapes are available throughout the world. Recent studies suggest that hypnosis is an effective approach for people who need to change their behavior. Smoking cessation, weight loss and compulsive behaviors are just some of the areas in which hypnosis may be helpful.

Contrary to what some people believe, hypnotherapy is not just another scam. It is an area of complementary and alternative medicine that has received a lot of attention. It is classified as a form of “behavioral therapy”.

Hypnosis is not a form of mind control or brain washing. Therapists place patients in a hypnotic state, which is simply a very relaxed condition, during which the subconscious and the conscious mind is particularly susceptible to the power of suggestion. When it comes to stop smoking hypnotherapy, UK practitioners should be well-trained in all aspects of hypnotherapy and most are, but always check credentials and, as with any option, discuss this form of treatment with a doctor who is familiar with your unique health requirements.

Remember that the therapist has no real power. He or she is simply reinforcing your own desire to quit. In order for hypnosis or any form of therapy to effectively help you quit smoking, you must have that desire to quit. A therapist cannot “force” you to change your behavior.

As a first step to stop smoking hypnotherapy, UK practitioners and those around the world will typically ask a smoker to list his or her reasons for wanting to quit. What is your motivation? Health, finances and relationships are common answers, but there are many others.

Recently, there was another motivation for some people to seek stop smoking hypnotherapy. UK hospitals in the National Health Service system were required to be “smoke-free” by the end of 2006. Most hospitals and many businesses throughout the world are leaning towards a smoke-free environment. So, keeping one’s job has become a new motivation that is often heard.

There are many stop smoking aids (pills, patches, gums, etc.) available in the UK and elsewhere that address the issue of nicotine addiction. But, nicotine addiction is only one of the problems that smokers face. Behavioral changes are necessary for smokers to quit and stay quit. This is where hypnotism comes in.

The National Library of Medicine lists over 200 separate studies concerning the effectiveness of hypnosis in smoking cessation. In the last two years, there were no stop smoking hypnotherapy UK studies, but a write up in the British Journal of Nursing does mention the importance of behavioral therapies for those who want to quit. Pills and patches do not work for everyone.

Hypnotism may not work for everyone either, but several studies have reported success rates greater than 40%. The most recent was in Texas in the United States and results were published in the International Journal of Experimental Hypnosis. Particularly for those who cannot or should not use drugs or nicotine replacement (such as pregnant or nursing women, people who are allergic to ingredients in the drugs or the patches, and those with other health conditions that contraindicate the use of drugs or nicotine replacement), hypnosis is an excellent option, since there are no known side effects. In addition, therapists usually offer counseling sessions, which alone can be as effective as some of the leading drugs.

Self-help books typically offer additional advice and counseling for quitters. Everything from short booklets to complete programs including audio types for self-relaxation and hypnosis are available for those who prefer their privacy.

Before you renew your search for stop smoking hypnotherapy UK practitioners, you may be interested in learning about all of your options. A group of ex-smokers, including myself, has accumulated a number of resources for those who want to quit. Please visit the Stop Smoking Blog to learn more about why and how people quit and why everyone should quit.

By: Patsy Hamilton

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Hypnotism and Weight Loss Program – A Natural Weight Loss Solution

Hypnotherapy Counselling is counselling applied within the medium of hypnosis. It falls under the umbrella category of “talking therapies”. In October 2007, the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) said of talking therapies that they are “just as effective as drugs” in dealing with such things as stress and depression (but with the advantage of no chemically induced side-effects).

People require Hypnotherapy Counselling for a whole range of reasons: bereavement, depression, becoming a parent, sleep problems, panic attacks, confidence building, stress, or perhaps even simply to understand themselves better.

As with counselling, Hypnotherapy Counselling involves talking and listening, but, because throughout the majority of the process, the client is in a state of hypnosis (the state of focussed awareness in which the critical faculties of the mind are temporarily suspended), the insights gained into a person’s situation often lead to rapid and enduringly effective problem resolution with little inner resistance and maximum commitment to change.

Hypnotherapy Counselling aims to discover and address the root cause of a person’s problem and to identify and develop the inner resources needed to overcome that problem. Hypnotherapeutic techniques such as deep relaxation, direct positive suggestion, post hypnotic suggestion, regression, future-pacing, creative visual imagery and pseudo-orientation in time are employed to alter automatic physical and emotional responses, to change maladaptive behaviours and negative patterns of thought, and to provide support during the change process, minimising unconscious resistance, developing commitment, drive and focus, building self-confidence and boosting self-esteem along the way.

Hypnotherapy Counselling is not a magic solution, and is very much client-centred, moving at a pace that’s right for the individual, but positive results tend to become evident very quickly.

By: Christine Woolfenden

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Hypnotism and Weight Loss Program – A Natural Weight Loss Solution

Agoraphobia is an anxiety disorder seen often in our hypnotherapy practice here in the UK. In fact, about 5% of the adult population will suffer from an agoraphobia disorder at some time in their lives. In the UK, it is the one phobia that is regularly treated as a medical issue.

As anyone who has ever experienced agoraphobia anxiety or a similar anxiety disorder is only too well aware, it is a condition that has the ability to produce intense and often incapacitating feelings of fear and panic.

Until fairly recently, agoraphobia was defined simply as the fear of open spaces, but the term has now been expanded to include a number of other fears, including the fear of public places and crowds, the fear of travelling alone, or simply the fear of leaving the home or other ’safe’ area.

When the individual is in the grips of agoraphobia and panic, the feeling can be one of absolute terror. Because these attacks can be unpredictable, occurring anywhere and at any time, the person experiencing them is very often terrified of them happening in a public place, where they feel the most vulnerable.

This can really compound and intensify feelings of anxiety and panic, producing a very real fear of public places, fear of crowds, fear of travelling alone and fear of leaving home.

Indeed, such intense fear can virtually force the person needing agoraphobia help to avoid leaving the home and putting him or herself into a situation that they feel might leave them vulnerable.

Agoraphobia disorder does appear to be more common in women than in men, although this may simply be because women tend to seek outside help with the condition more than do men. This is a disorder that can often manifest in a person’s twenties and can persist for years, if left untreated.

The good news is that skilfully applied transformational hypnotherapy can indeed be used as an effective agoraphobia treatment leading to an agoraphobia cure.

We know that agoraphobia and panic are intense feelings generated at the level of the subconscious mind – the home and repository of all feelings. The scary feelings are experienced because of an over-reaction by the subconscious mind which produces feelings inappropriate to the situation and circumstance. It imagines danger and so produces fear where no real reason for that fear exists.

The truth is, of course, that the subconscious mind cannot tell the difference between that which is imagined and that which is real. You only have to think about ******* on a lemon to prove this to yourself. An imaginary lemon can produce exactly the same effect as a real lemon – tightening of jaw muscles, increased salivation – because for the subconscious mind there really is no difference between the imagined and the real.

With agoraphobia and panic, the subconscious mind has got things wrong. It imagines that a harmless and essentially non-threatening situation is inherently threatening and dangerous and so it responds as though the individual were in real danger by flooding the body with adrenalin – in much the same way that an imagined lemon floods the mouth with saliva – and this in turn produces feelings of anxiety and panic.

Through the medium of transformational hypnotherapy, we can adjust false beliefs and perceptions held by the subconscious mind and correctly align them with reality. Once we have understood the origin of the subconscious mind’s faulty perception, we are in a position to correct and neutralise it, thereby freeing the person to move on with their life, free of this really restricting, confining condition.

There really is no need to continue to experience agoraphobia and panic. If agoraphobia disorder is a part of your life, real help is available: Transformational hypnotherapy can indeed provide effective agoraphobia treatment leading to an effective agoraphobia cure.

By: Peter James Field

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Hypnotherapy and Weight loss

Jaw clenching and teeth grinding — or to use the medical term ‘bruxism’ — is an issue we come across quite often here in our hypnotherapy practice in the UK

Many times our clients are referred by dentists who understand that this behaviour is linked to psychological causes. Other clients, of course, simply refer themselves and call when they have accepted that the problem just won’t disappear by itself.

Very often the person suffering from bruxism – known as a ‘bruxer’ – finds him or herself grinding teeth while sleeping and may have been given a plastic mouth guard to wear at night in order to prevent further damage to the teeth.

Though such measures may be necessary – and sometimes essential – to immediately safeguard the teeth, they are best used as a short-term solution.

No-one really denies that having to sleep with a plastic mouth guard in place is a pretty uncomfortable way to get a good night’s sleep.

Of course, a mouth guard works only at the symptom level. It does nothing about the reason for those symptoms, ‘the driver’, or underlying reason why the individual is grinding his or her teeth in the first place.

And this is where effective hypnotherapy can be extremely useful.

In my clinical experience of treating this condition, I have often found a real degree of underlying stress and anxiety acting as a trigger for teeth grinding and jaw clenching.

For some, the origins of bruxism lie in the present or in the recent past — a poor relationship, or stressful job, for example.

Often the cause can be found in some apparently unrelated past experience – often, though not always, having occurred in childhood. The experience which produced the anxiety has been recognised as being unfair, and so it quite naturally produced feelings of anger which were not properly processed and expressed at the time they were felt.

As each of us knows, human emotions are powerful things. Yet one thing we can be sure of is that they are also relatively short-lived – except when they are not allowed expression, when they are forced down and bottled up inside us.

When this happens then they never really give us peace. Like monsters from the deep, they keep on returning and vying for our attention, making their presence known in one way or another until they can no longer be ignored or denied.

When this happens, they need to be effectively processed and treated if further and more damaging problems are to be avoided.

You see, because the anxiety or the anger was not allowed real expression – or ‘processed’ – at the time it was felt, this powerful energy became internalised. And the result of this, of course, is that when the person’s conscious mind is ‘off guard’ – focused on other matters, day dreaming or asleep, for example – the subconscious mind finds a way to release some of its energy, grabbing the attention by clenching the jaw and grinding the teeth.

It’s as if the subconscious mind is attempting to find a way to really ‘get its teeth’ into the anxiety or stress or anger and to do something about it.

Unfortunately, what it is doing is not resolving the underlying issues that continue to generate the stress, anxiety, or anger, but to damage the individual’s teeth and seriously jeopardise their oral health.

Effective treatment for bruxism through the use of transformational hypnotherapy requires that the individual’s subconscious mind is first taught a better and less harmful way of handling stress, anxiety and anger during sleep.

With this accomplished, the underlying reasons for this behaviour are next uncovered and effectively neutralised.

Through the advanced techniques of transformational hypnotherapy, the subconscious mind can be helped to ‘re-process’ the past experience so that the mind no longer needs to find release by forcing the body into jaw clenching and teeth grinding behaviours.

If you or someone you care about suffers from this worrying and damaging condition, a fully qualified and experienced transformational hypnotherapist really can help you to end teeth grinding and bruxism.

In skilled hands, transformational hypnotherapy really can provide relief from grinding teeth allowing you to sleep peacefully and without the need of an uncomfortable night guard.

By: Peter James Field

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hypnotherapy uk