Asking for help
is the first step.
Human life has never been easy. In a world of what seems like exponential, technological, social and environmental change, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed. Therapy sessions in Norwich (or delivered remotely) can explore your values and cognitive behavioural hypnotherapy (CBH), in particular, can enable you to change patterns of thought and behaviour to help you live a richer and more fulfilling life.
What issues can Focused Attention help me with?
Anxiety
It’s perfectly normal to feel anxious, worried, or fearful in certain situations. This is our body's natural ‘fight, flight or freeze' response - something that evolved over millions of years of evolution in response to perceived dangers or threats.
Anxiety can be related to a specific fear, such as public speaking, socialising or exams. It can also take a more generalised form where anxiety is experienced across multiple situations.
Our modern, stressful, hyper-stimulated world sometimes creates environments where our anxiety response can become over-activated, leaving many of us to feel chronically anxious much of the time, leading to fatigue or even physical illness. Cognitive behavioural hypnotherapy (CBH) uses techniques such a relaxation, mindfulness, hypnosis, desensitisation and imaginal rehearsal to develop patterns of thought and behaviour which enable us to deal with anxiety-provoking situations in a positive way.
Phobias
A sub-class of anxiety, phobias are when the anxiety relates to a very specific stimulus which triggers extreme sensations of panic and fear. Common phobias are often of animals such as dogs, birds, mice and spiders. Or they can be situational, such as fear of heights, flying or using lifts.
The psychological treatment for phobias is the well-established use of desensitisation. This therapy has proven to work very well in conjunction with hypnosis.
Stress
'Stress' is a word that has become very prevalent in the modern world. Originally, used as an engineering term to describe forces exerted upon materials, it is now used to describe the phenomena of appraising that we are unable to cope with situations, particularly when they
appear outside of our control.
Stress often leads to worry or rumination with constant thoughts about the future. It can trigger anxiety, insomnia and self-medication such as using drugs or alcohol. The cognitive behavioural hypnotherapy (CBH) approach to stress involves understanding and changing behavioural patterns, cognitive reappraisal of the situation and using tools to develop resilience.
Insomnia
It can be so frustrating when you are desperate for sleep but unable to do so, or when you wake up regularly in the early hours of the morning with your
mind churning away. Insomnia is often related to stress and anxiety as mentioned above.
Cognitive behavioural Therapy (CBT) is an acknowledged treatment for insomnia and research has shown that it has a high success rate. The Focused Attention approach involves self-hypnosis, relaxation, restructuring thoughts about sleep and changing conditioned behaviours. Insomnia ranges from a short term acute insomnia to long term chronic insomnia, which is usually combined with obsessive rumination over sleep and sleep quality.
Perfectionism
In these modern times, with pressures from social media, it can be all too easy to fall for the myth that we can have the 'perfect' life. Pressures of work or academia can also lead us to having unrealistic standards that cannot be maintained.
Perfectionism is normally related to anxiety and can manifest itself in a variety of behaviours including avoidance or even procrastination.
The stoic philosophy roots of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) lead us to realise that this is not a new phenomenon. Combined with hypnotherapy, this therapy approach can enable us to reappraise such unhelpful behaviours and allow us to build better relationships with ourselves.
Chronic Pain
Its analgesic (pain relief) applications, are one of the things many people find most impressive about hypnotherapy. Clinicians have never found a way to measure pain objectively so it remains, ultimately, a subjective experience for each of us. The phenomenon of chronic pain is even more perplexing as this often persists long after an initial injury has resolved.
British Pain Society estimates that two fifths of the adult UK population suffer from this 'silent epidemic'.