COLUMNIST – PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
Who am I….? Judith Hanson ■ Control your own thoughts and feelings ■ Manage your emotions and express them in a socially acceptable way ■ Receive criticisms positively and benefit from them ■ Forgive, forget and move on rationally Now as you read through the list you may have spotted some areas where you could improve. I, for example, am not great at receiving criticism positively and this is something I have to work on.
Don’t panic, this isn’t going to be an existential review of the meaning of life! I just thought it would be good to introduce myself in this first of my monthly columns and talk about what I do and, more importantly, why! But firstly, thank you to Paul Green for the opportunity to share my thoughts and ideas about topics that are of particular interest to me (and hopefully you) in my area of expertise.
You may struggle to manage your emotions or find
I help people with anxiety, fears and phobias
it difficult to read the emotions of others, whatever
to make changes to improve their mental health
it is we can all work to improve our skills. Well, the
and, more importantly, bring the joy back into
good news is that unlike IQ which remains static or
their life. Stress, feelings of overwhelm and being
declines EQ can be developed and increased at any
out of control can have a devastating effect and
age as long as you are prepared to learn and change.
my aim is to help people with whatever is going
To help us to break it down further, Daniel Goleman, a psychologist, science journalist and author of the best-selling 1995 book: Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ – defined the 5 key components of emotional intelligence as listed below:
on right now and to teach them techniques to maintain good mental health. So why did I decide to move from a successful training business into running a hypnotherapy practice? The answer is quite simply that, although my business was going very well, I wasn’t in such a good state, mentally or emotionally and…not
■ Self-awareness – the knowledge of what we feel
physically either! We are one system and our
and why we feel so. Understanding yourself –
mental and emotional state affects our physical as
how and when you react to certain triggers and
well as our mental health. I realised that, despite
how others see you are all invaluable abilities and
the fact that I had “escaped”, my experiences
essential for great leadership.
during my last years in the corporate world had
■ Self-regulation – the ability to express our feelings in the right way. When you understand
done significant damage. So it all started with finding help for myself
yourself and your emotions you can begin to
with no plans to turn it into a business. I had some
adapt and adjust your behaviours to make sure
counselling and coaching, learnt self-hypnosis
you get the best responses.
and then embarked on extensive training in
■ Motivation – the internal drive to change the way we feel and express. When you are selfaware and self-regulated you should feel the motivation to improve and to continue to get more from your communications.
NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) and coaching. I saw and experienced some amazing transformations in peoples’ lives so, having got those qualifications, I decided to train to be a clinical hypnotherapist and start a new business and, as they say, the rest is history!
■ Empathy – the ability to relate to others’ emotions and see the world from their perspective. Being able to put aside your own perspective and to be able to feel what someone else is going through is a very powerful ability. ■ Social skills – the power to communicate effectively and build strong connections at home or in the workplace. To be effective you must be able to take your skills out into the world socially and connect with people to help yourself and
Therapies for the mind
others to communicate better. 07881620586 judith@judithhanson.co.uk judithhanson.co.uk
