How sf hypnotherapy helps with life

How Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can help with...

AddictionAngerAnx ietyBruxismBedwet tingConfidenceDiab etesEatingdisorders EczemaExamnerves FertilityFibromyalg iaFrustrationHappi nessHypertensionIr ritablebowelsyndro meInsomniaIntervi ewstressJealousyLo wmoodsMildphobia sObsessivethoughts PanicattacksPainPu blicspeakingSleepS portsperformanceS tagefrightStopsmok ingStressmaagement Weightmanagement andmuchmore...

LIFE Penelope Ling

BA(hons) DHP, SFBT(hyp), CBT(hyp), SFBTSUP(hyp), AccHypSup MNCH(Acc) CNHC(reg) AfSFH

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Contact the author: http://www.oxford–hypnotherapy.co.uk first edition 2015.

Copyright Penelope Ling 2015.

Penelope Ling asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanically, by photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers or author.

Acknowledgements I’d like to thank all the clients who have enabled me to exercise, enjoy and improve my therapeutic abilities. All names of clients, as well as locations have been changed to keep confidentiality. I would like to thank Dr Clare Stephenson - GP and author of “red flags for complimentary therapists” - who works at Beaumont Street Practice for taking her time in reviewing this e-book to make sure it was correct from a medical perspective, to David Newton and Susan Rodrigues at the Clifton Practice for their expertise in training a new breed of hypnotherapist for the C21st. And finally Michael Hughes and Susan Ritson as continued support as supervisors.

Penelope Ling, 2015

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Index 3 4 7 9 10 13 15 16 17 18 21

About Penny Introduction Addiction Anger management Anxiety Bed wetting Bereavement Bruxism Cancer Confidence Depression

22 25 26 27 28 29 31 35 37 38 40

Eating disorders Eczema Fibromyalgia Fertility & childbirth Hypertension Irritable Bowel Syndrome Obesity Phobias PTSD Sports Performance Stop Smoking

About the Author Penny Ling, is a solution focused psychotherapist who uses hypnotherapy to help many problems. She initially trained with the Clifton Practice in Bristol in 2007. From 2010 to 2015 she was also the editor of Hypnotherapy Today, a magazine about solution focused hypnotherapy. Her expertise has helped not only clients with problems, but other hypnotherapists as she supervises for the Association for Solution Focused Hypnotherapy and National Council for Hypnotherapy.

She is also a solution focused relationship coach and a brainworking recursive therapist, working from clinics in Oxford, Abingdon, and Faringdon, as well as internationally via Skype. She regularly appears on BBC local radio talking about all kinds of mental health issues, especially phobias.

Penny used SF hypnotherapy to cure herself of a 13 year old driving phobia, a dental and needle phobia and arachnaphobia. Plagued by phobias from a very young age, she realised she was making matters worse for herself before using SFH and CBT to get her back into the driving seat.

Penny has produced this e-book to help people understand how hypnotherapy could be helpful to them in their life.

Research into hypnosis has been largely carried out in the area of pain management and reduction in anxiety/stress, but it is the reduction of stress in particularly that can help manage lots of health problems, from cancer to multiple sclerosis. It’s not that hypnotherapy cures these health problems, but that stress will exacerbate the symptoms and influence one’s immune system.

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Introduction It is a shame that the majority of the public’s only experience of hypnosis is from TV or stage. The assumption is that all it takes is a couple of minutes of swinging a watch to make someone behave completely different.

It is much more than that, and this booklet has been put together to help people understand how hypnotherapy helps with a whole range of problems. In some cases it can cure people of certain problems, in others it can help manage symptoms, or inhibit them.

What is Solution Focused Hypnotherapy?

The Association for Solution Focused Hypnotherapy describes it thus: Solution Focused Hypnotherapy uses practical, modern, and well-researched strategies to help people make significant, positive changes in their lives in a relatively short period of time.

With Solution Focused Hypnotherapy, we look at what the client wants to achieve (the solution) rather than at whatever prompted them to visit us (the problem).

The approach focuses on the present and future and not on the past. The Hypnotherapist asks the client to consider their preferred future, for instance, what would be better if the problem had improved? What would have changed? This enables the client’s possible solutions to become more obvious and gives the client a goal to work towards.

Hypnosis itself reduces anxiety, and this is done very simply through relaxation and visualisation, allowing the client to focus on the positive aspects of their life that encouraging a shift in perspective.

Through working with the client, Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can help with confidence and self-esteem problems. It can also help (if necessary in conjunction with medication) in the treatment of depression and anxiety, including panic attacks, agoraphobia (fear of open spaces) and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Minor phobias such as spiders, water, flying, and public speaking can also be minimised, along with painful memories and traumatic experiences.

History of Solution Focused Hypnotherapy Hypnotherapy has been around in some shape and form for hundreds of years. Dr James Braid (19 June 1795 – 25 March 1860) was a Scottish surgeon, and a significant influential pioneer of hypnotism and hypnotherapy. He is regarded by many as the first genuine “hypnotherapist” and the father of modern Hypnotism. Originally it was used as a form of anaesthesia, carried on today by many modern dentists.

Much confusion by stage hypnosis has meant that many people dismiss hypnotherapy as a sham treatment, but there has been a great deal of research done in the last 20 years that backs up the claim that Hypnosis is a form of altered state of consciousness. The Times,

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back in 2002 reported on the work of Professor David Spiegel. In the study, details of which were presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference, Professor Spiegel’s team used PET Scans to examine the brains of eight people who had been hypnotised.

The volunteers, all of whom were highly hypnotisable, were shown a coloured grid similar to a Mondrian painting and were asked to imagine the colour draining from the picture to leave only black and white. The PET scans, which measure blood flow and activity in the brain, showed that the subjects started to see the image in black and white. Blood flow and activity were noticeably reduced in the parts of the brain that deal with the perception of colour, while the areas that process grey-scale images were stimulated.

When the experiment was reversed, with the hypnotised subjects asked to see a grey-scale grid in colour, the scientists saw similar results: the PET scans showed a clear stimulation in the colour centre of the brain, even though the image was black and white.

“Under hypnosis, believing is seeing,” Professor Spiegel said. “When people believe there is colour in the picture, their brains process the colour even if it isn’t there. They are not just telling you what you want to hear: the way their brains respond to the information is actually being changed.”

Traditional hypnosis was based upon Freudian and Jungian beliefs that problems are all rooted back from childhood.

Today we know that suggestion can cause false memories, so in solution focused hypnotherapy we do not regress, only work with what we are presented with at the current time and work towards a positive outcome.

Solution focused therapy was developed in the USA by Steve De Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg of the Milwalkee Brief Family Therapy Center. In the 50’s and 60’s a lot of therapy was analytical in origin and clients could be in therapy for years. Steve and Insoo developed brief therapy which would cut down the number of sessions needed so people would only need up to 6 months instead of years and years.

Solution focused brief therapy was born, and later this idea was extended by hypnotherapists like David Newton, who realised the need to find a positive psychology to mix with hypnosis as all the research in neuroscience pointed in that direction. This idea that we all have the resources within us to solve problems and to build solutions is at the heart of the SF family which also includes personal coaching and business coaching. It’s not about talking about Penny Ling Solution Focused Hypnotherapy - www.oxford-hypnotherapy.co.uk

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feelings and digging up past events, which is why both sexes are drawn to this therapy as women enjoy exploring problems and men enjoy finding solutions.

So what would happen in a hypnotherapy session and what does hypnosis feel like?

The first 25 minutes of any session concentrates on the Solution Focused part of the therapy, looking at what’s been better, what signs of improvement would mean to the individual, when have there been times when the problem has not been happening etc. There may be techniques taught to help cope with stressful situations or unhelpful thoughts.

The hypnotherapy itself can take place standing up, sitting in a chair or lying on a couch.

It’s often thought that it’s like sleep and you won’t remember anything. The truth is it’s focused attention; we are aware the whole time unless you fall asleep. The conscious mind may go wandering and you might find yourself realising you’ve spent the last 10 minutes somewhere else, but it is the subconscious mind that is being addressed by subtle suggestions and questions weaved into enjoyable visualisations that help the relaxation process, such as being on holiday at the beach or floating on a lake.

Part of the hypnosis may also include scrambling the bad memories of an incident or visualising how you want things to be. Our brains reduce anxiety by being subjected to an experience, so the more we do something the more we become used to it. By visualising that experience we can achieve things which we may have been afraid of doing before.

An example of this is my own experience of appearing on BBC Radio Oxford. At first I was nervous that I would run out of things to say, by the second time I was much more relaxed because I knew the drill. After the third appearance I was used to the whole thing and found ways of improving the experience even more. Now I don’t bat an eyelid at the prospect of speaking on the radio.

Finally we use metaphors to address the subconscious mind in stories. Think about how children make sense of the world through stories, many of the stories are rehearsing situations so they learn what to do in a given situation. The same goes for the unconscious which is the equivalent to about 7 years old.

It is our Pre-Frontal Cortex at the front of our brains - just above the eyes - that plans and comes up with ideas to change, but the limbic system - deep inside the brain - that controls the fight, flight or freeze response, which has no ability to innovate. So stories help the person see situations from a different perspective.

Finally once the person open their eyes they are asked to fill in outcome ratings which help build up a picture of how the therapy is progressing.

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How solution focused therapy can help with...

Addiction

Any addiction is driven by a need. This motivation is part of our genetic brain make up: we are in pursuit of the good feelings and the rush of dopamine we get in anticipation of the substance or activity. The purpose of our brains doing this originally is to motivate us to hunt, eat, procreate and survive. The down side is that our subconscious, when it creates that short cut, can includes substances that can be highly dangerous, (1) or our actions can create crisis in our lives such as porn and gambling addictions.

There is a lot of research done in the area of addiction that has found that it’s not the substance that is addictive, it’s the environment in which you live. (2) Not the built environment but our emotional environment. We need to build a system that is designed to help addicts to reconnect with the world, and so leave addictions behind. (3) Some people drink to forget a problem, to mask pain or stress. Some may have noticed that there are times when they have decided not to drink alcohol any more, or maybe cut back on socialising. They may have noticed that as soon as they have decided to make changes, the urge to drink just seems to get worse. Again this is the subconscious mind controlling the habit. Using a mix of Solution focused therapy we can look at the times you don’t need to drink and work towards reducing the amount drunk, or to stop altogether.

Using hypnosis can help reduce the stressful situation that alcohol is either masking or creating - as it often affects relationships with everyone around you.

There is also the problem with sleep. Drinking alcohol disrupts your sleep, especially the REM cycle, the time during sleep that the brain processes emotions and memories. Years of drinking can severely impair one’s memory and can lead to dementia later in life. (4) In order for hypnotherapy to serve a meaningful role in overcoming addiction, it is essential that the person receiving treatment be sober. Deep concentration is the cornerstone of hypnotism, and the toxins and dulling effects of alcohol limit the effectiveness of a hypnotic trance, and reduces the activity in the right part of the brain.

So if you have a problem where you cannot leave the house without drinking, you may need to seek help through your GP first. Chronic alcoholics will experience symptoms that will need medical help to control once the alcohol is removed. In these cases I would insist that the client has full medical support before using hypnotherapy to close the compulsive habit down.

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Many weight issues are made worse by the inability to give up a bottle of wine a night.

Indeed many people who do drink too much don’t even realise they are. They believe an alcoholic to be a person that has to have a drink the moment they get up, but if you can’t change the habit of drinking a glass of wine with your dinner, you too have a problem.

Many drinkers who have successfully managed their situation through hypnotherapy have been women. Many have just created a habit of having a glass of wine with their dinner, then feel compulsion to finish the bottle. Trying to change this without help has been a struggle because it’s often a subconscious response, so their conscious decisions make little change.

Case Study 1 Sharon came to me for weight loss. This is a classic example of how hypnotherapy works with losing weight. She was working part-time and in session 1 she admitted the problem was alcohol related. She was coming home from work and having a glass of wine while she cooked her dinner and she couldn’t stop. The one glass while cooking turned into drinking the whole bottle every night.

It gradually unfolded that she had been widowed the year before, had moved house and landed herself a part-time job which she thought would bring her in touch with more people (and bought a dog). It was obvious she felt lonely and she was trying to get the balance right, but it was becoming evident that the work in particular was not fulfilling the role.

We discussed her doing volunteer work in an area where she interacted with a lot more people. She decided to join a local group of women who were in the same boat, and to take up evening classes in the subjects that interested her. By Session 6 she had decided to retire.

As soon as she made this decision her general happiness score started to rocket. She was starting to have control over the drinking. She was at first hiding the bottle, so it wasn’t there right in front of her when she went to the fridge. She put in it’s place a bottle of diet tonic and fruit juice. She found she had halved her intake doing this and even put some wine back on the shelves in the supermarket.

By session 9 she had lost half a stone in 3 weeks, and was feeling better for getting control of her eating as well as her drinking. She knew she could do it and had the tools to carry on. By session 11 she was telling me she had to go on a shopping spree to replace her clothes and she was going away with friends. She’d lost over a stone and was over the moon.

References 1) http://alcoholrehab.com/drug-addiction-treatment/hypnosis-as-an-addiction-treatment/ 2) http://elitedaily.com/news/world/scientists-may-discovered-real-cause-addiction/915030/ 3) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/the-real-cause-of-addicti_b_6506936.html 4) http://www.agingincanada.ca/Seniors%20Alcohol/1e3-1.htm

Also Tramontana, Joseph. (2009). Hypnotically Enhanced Treatment for Addictions: Alcohol Abuse, Drug Abuse, Gambling, Weight Control, and Smoking Cessation. Norwalk, CT: Crown House Publishing Limited.

Jayasinghe, H. B. (2005). Hypnosis in the Management of Alcohol Dependence. European Journal of Clinical Hypnosis. Vol 6(3), 12-16.

Potter, Greg. (Jul 2004). Intensive Therapy: Utilizing Hypnosis in the Treatment of Substance Abuse Disorders. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis. Vol 47(1), 21-28 Kirsch, I.; Capafons, A.; Cardeqa, E.; Amigs, S. (1999). Clinical Hypnosis and Self-Regulation: Cognitive-Behavioral Perspectives. Washington, D.C: American Psychological Association.

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How solution focused hypnotherapy can help with..

Anger management Anger is a response by the brain as part of the fight or flight mechanism when confronted with a threat.

Instead of stepping back and making controlled choices about how we respond, anger will often flare up to confront the issue. It’s when that anger gets out of control and the recipient of that anger is bullied or physically attacked that it becomes a problem. Anger is natural but it’s how it’s managed that is the main issue here.

When an individual becomes angry, their heart rate and blood pressure increase as chemicals such as adrenaline are pumped through their body. They become tense, fists clench, jaws clench. Some may slam the door, break plates, punch a cushion.

However some individuals may not release this tension and suppress their anger. This can lead to a build up of emotions causing them to ‘explode’ when it all becomes too much.

People experience anger in different ways and for different reasons. Something that makes you furious may only mildly irritate someone else. This subjectivity can make anger difficult to understand and manage. It also highlights that your response to anger is up to you Every day, we can experience things that could make us angry. Common causes include feelings of:      

Injustice, regardless whether real or perceived.

Requests or criticisms that we believe are unfair.

Threats to people, things, or ideas held dear.

Frustration.

Hurt.

Harassment.

It’s wrong to think it only effects men, anger issues in women can often lead to addictions and self harming, because the overwhelming emotions are not being dealt with. Sometimes this will stem from childhood, as parents who have problems showing emotions themselves will inflict their own behavioural problems onto their children.

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Case Study 1 GW came to me as he was having problems containing his anger towards his partner and child. Though they hadn’t manifested violently, he was afraid it was going that way. Problems with work were also making things worse. After an argument, he had an accident driving, so knew he had to do something about it.

Understanding the mechanisms that were driving the anger and how the brain / body connection works, made him aware of when it was beginning to happen. He then tried References: a number of different ways of defusing the Dowd, E. Thomas. (2006). Cognitive Hypnotherapy and tension and found running, cycling and mindful the Management of Anger. In Chapman, Robin A. (Ed), meditation were the most useful to him.

The Clinical Use of Hypnosis in Cognitive Behavior Therapy: A Practitioner’s Casebook, (pp. 189-211).

New York, NY: Springer Publishing Co. .Zarren, Jordan I. (2006).

Utilizing Hypnosis in Addressing Anger Issues in Treating Depression. In Yapko, Michael D. (Ed), Hypnosis and Treating Depression: Applications in Clinical Practice, (pp.

121-140). New York, NY, US: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.

It took about 9 sessions in total, though there was a bit of a break in the middle due to unforeseen circumstances. After this he came back pretty stressed, so we just worked on lowering the stress for one or two sessions. He then felt much more able to take a step back and consider his position without over reacting. His family life also improved steadily and he realised what an impact it was having on other members of his family.

How solution focused hypnotherapy can help with...

Anxiety is defined as “A feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease about something with an uncertain outcome”. (Oxford English Dictionary) In the brain, our amygdalas are responsible for alerting us to possible danger. They are part of our oldest brain system which works on instinct and habits to keep us safe from predators, to find food and reproduce. We respond to a threat by the fight or flight response, rather than making rational decisions using our pre-frontal cortex.

This system works well in protecting us from predators, such as lions, but in modern life the unconscious can perceive threats everywhere, as it misinterprets our negative thoughts.

Our unconscious minds use past experiences to match similar experiences and projects future outcomes without us necessarily being aware of the process involved. It was scientist Benjamin Libet who found our subconscious response happens 350 milliseconds ahead of us being aware of it, so hypothesised that there was no free will, as our subconscious motivates us to act quicker than our conscious minds can act.

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The difference between Stress & Anxiety Stress is a response to specific external circumstances. Having a moderate amount of stress can be an advantage as it can help motivate us. Anxiety is often persistent and sometimes a person may be even unaware they are anxious until some major problem like IBS (Irritable bowel syndrome) occurs.

Using Hypnosis for Anxiety Hypnosis has long been used for fears and phobias (1), A recent review of randomised controlled trials concluded that the use of hypnosis as a sole treatment for anxiety (2) worked best with the addition of talking therapies such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Solution Focused Therapy.

The addition of hypnosis helps the patient in several aspects of therapy, such as the preparation for real life exposure ( such as handling an object which caused fear before), imagery exposure, developing coping skills, and cognitive restructuring. Moreover, patients using hypnosis effectively develop a better sense of self-efficacy, which is known to enhance self-regulation and is linked to lower psychological distress and better quality of life.

In 2006 a study was carried out into the anxiety suffered before operations. On entrance to the operating rooms, the hypnosis group reported a significant decrease of 56% in their anxiety level whereas the attention-control group reported an increase of 10% in anxiety and the control group reported an increase of 47% in their anxiety.

In conclusion, they found that hypnosis significantly alleviates pre-operative anxiety. Future studies are needed to examine the effects of pre-operative hypnosis on postoperative outcomes - but as there is evidence that pre stress levels determines one’s health risks post operation - and that stress has an effect on one’s immune system, it is highly likely that hypnotised patients recover much quicker.

The most common problems that SF hypnotherapy can help with are:  Fears and panic  Exam nerves including driving  Mild phobias such as spiders, rats, flying and driving  Pre birth nerves  Stress at work  Irritable Bowel Syndrome  Improving focus & attention  To help come off anti-depressants  Help solve relationship problems

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Case study 1 Simon was a professional in the IT industry. He’d been on holiday when he was struck down by a nasty virus that hospitalised him for 2 months. He finally recovered but the trauma of the events and the realisation that he wasn’t immune to serious health problems meant he developed panic attacks - mostly when driving to work. He lived about 45 minutes from work and was having to stop the car, get out and walk until he calmed down, virtually every day. He came for SF hypnotherapy in a bid to stop this from happening.

Simon’s case is common, in the last 7 years I have had many people who have developed driving anxiety due to conflicts at work, conflicts at home, ill health and over work.

Often they are puzzled as to why it manifests in the driving, but as it’s an activity that can be stressful in itself, our capacity to operate past a given amount of stress leads us to giving in. It’s often called spare capacity, and can be part of burn out. When loaded with too many stressful situations any additional stress can result in a break down or a phobic response.

In Simon’s case we initially worked on tools to stop him panicking such as breathing techniques, NLP, mindfulness and visualisation. We then looked at other things he could do if caught in a traffic jam, and reframed the journey by visualisations on the drive to work being positive experiences.

We worked over a period of 3 months and once he completed the programme was able to get back to a normal life again.

Case study 2 Liane was in her second year at The University of West of England, She was having problems focusing and found the stress of having to keep at the top of her class was so bad she could no longer function. She had been for counselling but didn’t find it helpful, she also had been for CBT and mindfulness which were more useful but hadn’t tackled the feelings of panic.

She wasn’t sleeping and she was missing deadlines as she became such a perfectionist in her work she couldn’t do the work needed in time.

As we worked week by week she was able to control the anxiety, her sleep improved and we were able to work out a plan of time tabling, where she could be more mindful about how long she was taking on her work. As fashion design student a fair amount of her work was being creative and this creativity was drying up.

She also was taking too much time on her appearance as confidence in this area was low.

She agreed to a number of experiments to see if leaving off her make up and wearing different clothing lead to any negative remarks, which they didn’t. She was able to feel more confident in the company of others, and took up a number of hobbies which would mean she interacted with others in a social setting. She also started to eat more regular meals. Up to now she would often skip meals because of time and because her anxiety was making her feel slightly nauseous. Gradually as the anxiety reduced she was able to start eating breakfast, and she noted it improved her concentration and focus.

By session 10 she was feeling a lot better, her eating had improved and she realised how 12

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easily she could have developed an eating disorder. She took better care in her appearance and said others had noticed how withdrawn she had been, and she was balancing her life work out more easily. She had time tabled her revision and had 3 weeks until her exams and she felt really good.

References

1) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9469526 - Stress reducing strategies are useful in patients undergoing surgery. Hypnosis is also known to alleviate acute and chronic pain. Plus http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16632816 2) Alladin A. Handbook of cognitive hypnotherapy for depression : an evidence-based approach. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2007. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00207140601177897#.VLPxadKsWYc 3) Coelho HF, Canter PH, Ernst E. The effectiveness of hypnosis for the treatment of anxiety: A systematic review. Primary Care & Community Psychiatry.

2008;12(2):49-63.

4) Kirsch I, Montgomery G, Sapirstein G. Hypnosis as an adjunct to cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy: A meta-analysis. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 1995;63(2):214-20.

Also: Bryant, Richard A. (2008). Hypnosis and Anxiety: Early Interventions. In Nash, Michael R. (Ed); Bamier, Amanda J. (Ed). The Oxford Handbook of Hypnosis: Theory, Research, and Practice, (pp.535-547). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Kraft, Tom; Kraft, David. (Nov 2006). The Place of Hypnosis in Psychiatry: Its Applications in Treating Anxiety Disorders and Sleep Disturbances, Australian Journal of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis, Vol 34(2), 187-203,

How solution focused hypnotherapy can help with...

Bed wetting

Bed-wetting or nocturnal enuresis is the unintentional passing of urine at a time when the bladder should already have control. Standard treatment through the NHS is through GP surgeries which use specialist nurses. These usually are there for really young children and are limited use to older ones who know they have a problem but just don’t know how to control it.

The condition as solution focused therapists see it lies not with the bladder control, but the sleep pattern. The person is sleeping too deeply, which means the signal being sent from the bladder to brain to wake up and empty is not being detected.

This sleep behaviour appears to fall into two categories from my experience: Late sleep cycle wetting When the person may wake after 2 or 3 cycles and goes back to sleep deeply again and has ignored the full bladder message. This condition can be related to symptoms of depression.

Just the continuous cycle of bed wetting can spark this depression, so focusing on what helps, relaxation and working through how they feel about things can often help. Along with body alarms that you can set to a clear sleep pattern, can alert the person to getting up and emptying the bladder before going back down into the deep sleep.

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Early sleep cycle wetting This is when the person is bed wetting in the first 90 minutes. This is often linked with sleep walking condition in the slow wave sleep cycle, called NREM parasomnia disorder. American research has found that activity during this cycle is linked to lack of self esteem, and cases I have seen have been mostly in young men on the verge of puberty that find fitting in with the “in crowd” to be difficult. Watches that vibrate the person awake can be still helpful here, but focusing on building self esteem appears to be more effective.

One key element here is blame. No one is to blame, it’s just one of those things. Older children and adults who are bed wetting are not doing it for fun, or spite and all would happily wish it away. So the things you can try yourselves before going to bed are:        

Make sure you’re winding down for the day.

Don’t watch TV as you go off to sleep, the blue light from the TV can have an effect on melatonin - the chemical released in your brain that helps regulate sleep cycles.

Read a book or a magazine to help you drift off Listen to relaxing music or a relaxation CD Wake yourself up properly when you come out of a sleep cycle and make sure you go to the toilet - the signal can take time so making the trip can help things along.

You could use a vibrating watch to wake you if you’re away or sharing a room.

Have a warm bath an hour or so before bed time.

Keep a journal to find times when it’s better and times when it’s worse. Quite often being very energetic and tiring oneself out can add to later bed wetting.

Start to feel better/good about yourself, this will help change the brain chemistry and help make the sleep patterns lighter.

Over work and exhaustion When I was at junior school we did very few activities after school, but nowadays both parents often have to work, so after school clubs have become very popular in the last 20 years. Although these clubs can be helpful in bringing children together to learn, play sport and to socialise, they can cause extreme tiredness in a child who is not very robust. This can lead to exhaustion and bed wetting.

Before deciding on the form of treatment your child may prefer, it is well worth assessing the causes of the sleep crisis before taking action.

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How solution focused hypnotherapy can help with...

Bereavement is a perfectly normal response to loss of a loved one, whether they have died or have just left the person’s environment for good.

There are many different takes on bereavement, depending on the society you live in. It is often broken down into stages such as:  denial – belief that the person is not dead or absent.  anger – at self or at the person for not being there.  bargaining – wanting to be the one who has died  guilt – feeling guilty that they are left behind.  acceptance - final stage where they are able to feel reconciled with what has happened.

It is a complex set of emotions, but using solution focused questioning a person can start to look at doing things for themselves that will help them come to terms with the absence. The hypnotherapy can help reduce the emotional pain and to understand on a much deeper level the healing process. If the death of the other person was traumatic, we can use the same methods as the fast phobia cure. This helps scramble the fear response and can help reduce the negative thoughts going through the person’s mind

Case Study Clare had suffered a bereavement of a family member who had committed suicide. She was trying to be strong for other members of the family but was finding it hard.

She had previously had a fear of death, and this had brought back all the awful memories of that time. She was experiencing all the feelings of denial, anger and guilt. Her goal for therapy was to feel OK again, to accept that it happened and no one could change that fact.

Each week we looked at what had been better, the days when she was coping well. She realised that when this had started she had stopped going down the gym. She had moved recently too so her normal circle of friends were miles away. She decided to look at activities she could do on her days off and chose to join a zumba class.

Over the next few weeks she started to feel more in

Research:

Ho, Salina. (Nov 2007). Hypnosis in Handling Unfínished Business in Bereavement. Australian Journal of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis, Vol 35(2), 220-233.

Iglesias, Alex; Iglesias, Adam. (Oct-Jan 2005-2006). Hypnotic Treatment of PTSD in Children Who Have Complicated Bereavement. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, Vol 48(23), 183-189. 20 Journal of Heart-Centered Therapies, 2010, Vol. 13, No. 1 Hawkins, Peter; Polemikos, Nikitas. (2002). Hypnosis Treatment of Sleeping Problems in Children Experiencing Loss.

Contemporary Hypnosis, Yo\ 19(1), 18-24.

Savage, George. (Jan 1995). Bereavement and Hypnosis: A Case Study. Journal of Projective Psychology & Mental Health, Vol 2(1), 29-40.

Savage, George. (1993). The Use of Hypnosis in the Treatment of Complicated Bereavement: A Case Study. Contemporary Hypnosis, Vol 10(2), 99-104. -

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control, she had started to make new friends and acquaintances, her moods improved as she upped her exercise regime.

Christmas came and went and we had reached session 6. She was rating herself now as a 7, to make sure she kept at this rate I saw her 2 more sessions. In that time she realised she was letting things slip in the way of planning outings and having time together with her husband, so she bought herself a year planner and was looking forward to some holidays and weekends away seeing friends.

How solution focused hypnotherapy can help with...

Bruxism comes from the Greek ebryxa (to gnash) and is the medical term for involuntary teeth grinding or jaw clenching, typically during sleep. Experts say it is an unconscious way to release stress or anger, while bruxism in children is often linked to breathing difficulties caused by adenoid and tonsil problems.

Bruxism puts hundreds of pounds of pressure on the teeth. Typically, chewing exerts 20lb to 40lb, but the pressure from grinding or clenching can be 250lb or more. U.S. studies suggests there is a hormonal link, although experts are not sure why. Dr Carter of the British Dental Health Foundation says it’s common for women to get bruxism around the menopause, pregnancy and adolescence or certain stages of the menstrual cycle.

In rare cases bruxism can be a reaction to certain medication such as antidepressants and other causes can be alcohol, tobacco high levels of caffeine and recreational drugs.

Treatments range from sedatives, to help relax the jaw, to herbal remedies and even electric shocks. Only three are recognised by the Bruxism Association as being effective: mandibular advancement devices (MADs), hypnosis and occlusal splints (brace-like device) or mouthguards.(1) Although one can find many case reports of hypnotherapy for bruxism, there is a paucity of scientific research on the subject. One study (2) done recently describes the use of suggestive hypnotherapy and looks at its effectiveness in treating bruxism. Eight subjects who reported bruxism with symptoms such as muscle pain and complaints of bruxing noise from sleep partners were accepted into the study. An objective baseline of the bruxing was established using a portable electromyogram (EMG) detector attached over the masseter 16

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muscle during sleep. Hypnotherapy was then employed. Both self-reports and post treatment EMG recordings were used to evaluate the hypnotherapy. Long-term effects were evaluated by self-reports only. The bruxers showed a significant decrease in EMG activity; they also experienced less facial pain and their partners reported less bruxing noise immediately following treatment and after 4 to 36 months.

Essentially it’s all about lowering one’s anxiety and changing the way you think about situations. Often connected to worrying, being able to separate what you can do about a situation and what you can’t can help lower that stress and reduce the clenching.

Case Study 1 Cheryl was diagnosed with Bruxism by her dentist and was told it would cost her a considerable amount in dental work if she carried on grinding her teeth. She was puzzled as I explained about stress to something in her life driving this behaviour. I was expecting something like 6 to 8 sessions and other case studies have shown this number of sessions are often needed.

During session one it became evident that she was indeed under a lot of stress, but most of it was of her own making. She was a personal assistant to a university professor and she had very black and white views on what her job should be and how her boss was always changing the goal posts. We had to work on the premise that her boss was always going to do this, so she needed to work on ways to change how she felt about it.

By session two it also transpired that her elderly father was causing her a great deal of anxiety, and she felt obliged to be at his beck and call the whole time. By session three it was also evident that she was lonely and she wanted someone to share her life with. All these things were adding to Research her stress and she wasn’t even aware of it. So in the 1)Bruxism Association, www.bruxism.org.uk next 4 sessions we carried on working through these 2) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2024617 issues until she was able to put a care plan in place 3) http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/ for her father and joined an on-line dating site. She 00029157.1991.10402942?src=recsys#.VM9M0NKsWYc started to feel less stressed about her boss and as she improved her stress, so her teeth grinding became less and less.

How solution focused hypnotherapy can help with...

Hypnotherapy cannot cure or prevent cancer, but research has found that hypnotherapy can be utilised effectively to help with the stress of having cancer and the procedures, to reduce pain, and to reduce anticipatory nausea, vomiting and hot flushes (1) Research in the States has found that despite advances in anaesthesia, procedures such as lumbar punctures and bone marrow aspirations are two of the more distressing interventions.

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Hypnosis helps in the management of pain and changes in perception, thoughts and experiences. (2) For the reduction in the anticipation of the nausea and vomiting caused by the chemotherapy, studies done mainly on children found statistically significant results. (3) And in an American trial in 2008, women having breast cancer treatment were found to have fewer hot flushes, better sleep and have less anxiety when using hypnotherapy. There is currently a trial taking place (2015) at Cardiff hospital into the uses of solution focused hypnotherapy in the treatment of anticipatory nausea and vomiting lead by Dorothea Read.

Although Hypnotherapy is not recognised by the NHS as a preventative tool for Cancer, it can be used to change habits and make lifestyle changes.

The increase in cancer due to increased alcohol consumption, obesity and smoking tobacco can be pre-empted by using hypnotherapy to change habits in eating and tackle weight loss, and evidence in the States has found that hypnotherapy is an effective tool to stop smoking. (4) Other factors in recovering from medical treatments shows that the lower a person’s stress, the quicker the recovery process will be. The biobehavioral influences on tumour biology shows that experiments done on mice indicate that increased stress can influence the susceptibility to developing cancer, with a 1.5 to 3 fold increased effect observed, as well as a more invasive type of cancer being dominant. (5)

References

1) http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/cancers-in-general/treatment/complementary-alternative/therapies/hypnotherapy#evidence 2) http://www.rccm.org.uk/node/87 3)http://www.rccm.org.uk/node/85 4) http://www.hypnotherapyboard.org/research-statistics-on-the-effectiveness-of-hypnosis-with-citations/ 5) Dr Ken Murray 2009 – lecture Impact of hypnosis on disease.

How solution focused hypnotherapy can help with...

What is confidence? How do we measure it?

A dictionary definition might say:“It is the feeling or belief that one can have faith in or rely on someone or something”.

When it comes to ourselves it’s about having faith in our ability to do something. We will 18

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often feel unconfident in doing something we haven’t done before, so the more we do something the more we build that confidence. Confidence is the key to success in our lives, because it allows us to do the things we need to do or want to do to make our lives richer and more meaningful.

When we lack confidence, we find it difficult to engage with people, or to pursue something we love, such as a sport.

It is a subjective feeling; you can only measure it by your own standards and often people mistake confidence for arrogance and there is a huge difference between the two. Someone who is confident will be aware of other people and take their presence into account, whereas arrogance is self centeredness and the person will ignore other people’s feelings.

Examples of lack of confidence may include:  Thinking you are ugly, you have no worth, people judge you.  Your grades are suffering as you think everyone else is better than you, despite the evidence so far has said the opposite.  Your sport has become a chore which you don’t enjoy any more despite you loving it before.  You used to drive everywhere, but after an incident you’re nervous all the time.

These are all examples of confidence being overtaken by anxiety. The moment your thoughts turn negative your mind is working from anxiety. There is also low self-esteem - which is low self worth - the value you place on yourself.

Solution focused hypnotherapy can help in two ways; teaching tools to focus on what we do want, married in with deep relaxation, mindfulness and visualization.

It can help the person develop a greater sense of worth, a greater power of self actualisation which helps the individual to do things and change the way you see yourself. We become empowered, and when we achieve that we are much more able to reach out and help other people, this in turn builds our own self-esteem and so on in a cycle.

Research shows us that elderly people in particular lose their confidence and this can often lead to isolation. By doing so it decreases the positive neurotransmitters produced in their brains and they can become anxious and depressed. Elderly people who have a greater circle of friends and family often live longer because of their interaction with others.

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Case Study 1 Judy wanted to have a better social life. She lived at home with her parents and wanted to meet others her age. She found that her mind went blank whenever she met someone new.

We discussed what she wanted to achieve and I explained about how the brain works.

Using the free CD to help relax her she felt calmer, we then focused on the kind of activities she could do and get to know people without feeling pressure. We started on her colleagues.

She felt as she had something in common she would spend at least 5 minutes every day just making small talk and gradually build that up to 30 minutes at lunch time.

We worked on calming her down and what to do when she felt panicky. Using positive visualisations we used the NLP technique called “ring of confidence”, getting her to recall something she felt confident in doing – riding her bike – and then using that sense of confidence to visualise her socialising.

4 or 5 weeks in she was able to go out with her colleagues for a drink where she started talking to someone she didn’t know. We had worked on her asking a set number of questions and getting the other person to do all the talking, and she found it easier to listen to the answers and respond.

Finally Judy went on a speed dating event and felt confident enough to start expanding her horizons.

Case Study 2 Jessica had been retired for a number of years, but was finding it difficult to walk. She had been tested for a variety of physical problems, even Parkinsons disease but all had come up negative. The doctor suggested it was a psychological problem, so she decided to try hypnotherapy, as she thought it might be a subconscious response.

Having seen retired people with confidence issues in the past that had manifested as shaking, I was confident that I could help her improve her walking.

The limit of her walking was indoors, out in the garden she was unable to walk without the help of sticks or her husband to hold her steady. Stairs too were a problem and at the initial consultation she was very slow as she gingerly climbed the stairs to the therapy room.

The walking had become worse after retirement and it was hampering her going out and enjoying herself. It was worse after drinking and so with help of the explanation of how the brain works she decided to cut out wine altogether and just have a few beers.

We worked over a period of 5 weeks and the changes were nothing short of miraculous. I taught her some mindfulness and confidence building tools, and each week she set herself goals to achieve, starting with being able to walk across the road, to visiting a town she’d never set foot in before. Her husband too was ecstatic about her new found mobility as it meant she could have some independence.

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How solution focused hypnotherapy can help with…

We need to understand here the extent of the depression for solution focused therapy to work. Experience has shown that CBT (1) has a few more advantages for this issue if it is deep.

So before deciding on hypnotherapy for depression it needs to be assessed by a GP and / or a psychiatrist. The reason being that some deep depression will respond to medication or even ECT better than talking therapies.

Michael Yapko, has proposed that hypnosis has relevance to the treatment of depression because hypnosis can help build positive expectancy regarding treatment, address numerous depressive symptoms which includes insomnia and rumination, and modifies patterns of thinking that contribute to depressed moods. (2)

Depression - the symptoms There are degrees of depression from the mild to the severe or chronic. It can be that you just feel aimless, helpless, hopeless, anxious, and indecisive, lack concentration or have poor self-esteem. Your sleep may be disturbed you may feel tired all the time and have a sense of humour failure. These feelings can last from a few minutes to weeks at a time.

Case Study 1 December is a common time for people to contact me about feeling low. Lack of light and the stress of Christmas can be major contributors to losing your motivation and looking back over a year you’d rather forget about. However Sarah contacted me in high summer. She originally came to see me for nightmares but it was obvious that at the root of all this was depression.

She was on anti depressants; she had tried a variety of different ones. One type made her feel even worse so she was desperate to try and find an alternative.

Her nightmares were about her ex husband that drank too much and would assault her. She never felt safe in her own house, so after 5 long years she took out an injunction and moved back with her parents. Now in her late 20s, she was seeing someone from work, but the deeper she moved into the relationship the worse the nightmares became. She was terribly insecure and would text her boyfriend for reassurance all through the day.

Gradually over a period of months we managed to change her response to stressful situations by instead of texting, she would exercise. I explained to her the difference between how men and women respond to certain situations, so the response she hoped she’d get from her boyfriend wasn’t the one she got. In fact the needier she became, the more distant her boyfriend became. I also explained that exercise helps with the production of the positive neurotransmitter dopamine, which helps motivation and makes us feel better. She realised she had to stop texting her boyfriend, instead she texted her friend and received a more positive response. She also started using her exercise bike in the morning before work.

Slowly but surely her moods improved, although still suffering with bouts of extreme tiredness linked to the depression. She also connected her hormone cycle to the days she became more upset, so she decided to keep a diary and to make sure she didn’t commit Penny Ling Solution Focused Hypnotherapy - www.oxford-hypnotherapy.co.uk

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to too much around that time. We also explored the nature of dreams, as they are often metaphors helping us to understand our emotional life and did not necessarily represent the present. She realised that transferring her ex husband’s behaviour to her current boyfriend, was just something she was afraid might happen, but when we looked at all the evidence to counter that, she understood it was not going to happen that way. After 6 months and 12 sessions she was off anti-depressants and was house hunting with her boyfriend and she couldn’t have been happier.

References

Alladin, Assen. (Dec 2009). Evidence-Based Cognitive Hypnotherapy for Depression. Contemporary Hypnosis, Vol 26(4), 245-262.

Hypnosis and Treating Depression: Applications in Clinical Practice. New York: Routledge; 2006. pp. 3–24.

How solution focused hypnotherapy can help with…

Around 1.6 million people in the UK are affected by an eating disorder, with 14 -25 year olds most at risk of developing this type of illness, and girls and women ten times more likely than boys and men to suffer from anorexia or bulimia, though recent research into male eating disorders found that men thought only women suffer with it and so weren’t aware they had an eating disorder(1). Associated illnesses and diseases include high blood pressure, type two diabetes, osteoporosis, blindness, high cholesterol leading to stroke and heart attack, and limited life expectancy.

Issues that clients experience including:  control  fear of being hungry or fear of being too full  feeling unfulfilled  negative self introspection  bottling things up  low self worth  low self-esteem Common symptoms for dysfunctional eaters include:  food planning dominating your life  denial  low energy  dreadful dietary habits  fear of shopping  comfort/emotional eating and bingeing especially on sugary foods  withdrawal from food/meal skipping  food anxiety  buying the same foods  being over or underweight  anxiety about carbohydrates

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The road to eating disorder recovery starts with admitting you have a problem, putting yourself first and asking for help from a specialist. This can help you to gain an understanding that your beliefs drive your behavioural habits and that these can be changed, so you can focus on building your self-esteem through accepting yourself and achieving your healthy goals, which motivate you and give you a life purpose. Hypnotherapy can help in assisting the other therapies - improving self esteem, motivation, self confidence and self image so that the individual is able to view themselves differently. The solution focused approach can help move towards the preferred behaviour, as shown in the next case study.

Case Study 1 Sarah came to me with a phobia of food. She had just come back from holiday abroad with her boyfriend and her phobia had been so bad she hadn’t eaten for nearly two weeks and on top of that she’d caught a bug and had lost over a stone in weight.

Having grown up around family with a similar problem, I explained about phobias. The brain and goals she wanted to conquer. She didn’t like meat very much, more the texture than anything else, and part of the problem as she saw it was that she lived with her parents and had not been subjected to a wide range of international food types.

She felt her social life had ground to a halt as she couldn’t eat in restaurants and she couldn’t eat in front of her boyfriend. Tensions between them had come to a head as he couldn’t understand why she was being so difficult.

Session one, she said she wanted to be able to go out and eat more, she wanted to try and find a chicken recipe she liked, as she didn’t like the way her mother cooked it. By session 2 she had split with her boyfriend and was feeling down. He couldn’t cope with her phobia and said he didn’t need the stress. She started to focus more on what she wanted to try and eat, and we spoke about fruit cocktails being one of the easiest ways of trying new fruit. I asked what was the worst thing that could happen, and she said, spit it out – nothing ventured nothing gained. She said a friend had invited her out to dinner, who knew about her problem, and was planning to go next week.

By session 3 she was in a more positive mood, she was back in contact with her boyfriend, she was eating more both in quantity and variety. She’d eaten chicken and a hamburger without thinking about the food or where she was.

She was feeling positive about so many things by week 4. She discovered she didn’t like bananas too much but other fruit like strawberries and raspberries were now in season and she found herself grazing on them and really enjoying it. She was no longer putting off going out, and she had gone out with her boyfriend to a pub and had managed to eat in front of him, which had always been difficult in the past. She even wants to cook for him and wanted to try new meats. Knowing she like strong flavours I recommended pulled pork in a barbecue sauce.

By session 5 she was loving a wide variety of foods, she’d loved the pulled pork and added turkey and duck to her list of meats she was going to try. Her colleagues at work had noticed she was now eating in the restaurant instead of eating just crisps. She was instigating going out eating in restaurants with her friends. She felt she needed to sort her routine out and to organise her breakfast and lunch. I suggested she cook for her parents once a week, to get Penny Ling Solution Focused Hypnotherapy - www.oxford-hypnotherapy.co.uk

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used to trying out recipe books, she liked that idea. By session 6 she was almost there, but realised there wasn’t enough time in a week to try all the new foods, so she decided to slow down a bit and to just concentrate on the positivity.

We decided to leave it a few weeks for her to catch up on the new foods and by session 7 she was nearly a 9. She said she was going away with her boyfriend and 2 friends in September to Turkey and he’d said never again after Thailand, so that was a great achievement.

We discussed the type of foods she might encounter in Turkey and she sounded pretty confident that she would like it. She had put on 7lbs since seeing me and needed about another 4lbs left to gain. She was very happy

References

1)Greenberg ST, Schoen EG. Males and eating disorders: gender based therapy for eating disorder recovery. Prof Psychol Res Pract 2008;39:464 “Hypnotherapy has been determined to be an effective approach for treating bulimia nervosa,” (Spinner, 2008, p, 3279) Walsh, Bart J, (Apr 2008), Hypnotic Alteration of Body Image in the Eating Disordered. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, Vol 50(4), 301-310, Spinner, Sarah, (2008), Integrative Hypnotherapeutic Protocols for Treating Bulimia Nervosa: A Treatment Manual, Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering. 69(5-B), p. 3279, Degun-Mather, Marcia. (2003). Ego-state Therapy in the Treatment of a Complex Eating Disorder. Contemporary Hypnosis, Vol 20(3), 165-173.

Segal, Robert. (May 2001). Hypnosis in the Treatment of an Eating Disorder. Australian Journal of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis, Vol 29(1), 26-36.

Culbert, T. P., Kajander, R. L., Kohen, D. P., Reaney, J. B. (1996). Hypnobehavioral Approaches for School-Age Children with Dysphagia and Food Aversion: A Case Series. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, Vol. 17, 335-41.

Kirsch, Irving (1996). Hypnosis in Psychotherapy: Efficacy and Mechanisms. Contemporary Hypnosis, 13(2), 109-114.

Griffiths, Rosalyn A.; Hadzi-Pavlovic, Dusan; Channon-Little, Loma. (Mar 1996). The Short-term Follow-up Effects of Hypnobehavioural and Cognitive Behavioural Treatment for Bulimia Nervosa. European Eating Disorders Review, Vol 4(1), 12- 31.

Griffiths, Rosalyn A. (Nov 1995). Two-Year Follow-up of Hypnobehavioural Treatment for Bulimia Nervosa. Australian Journal of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis, Vol 23(2), 135-144.

Phillips, Maggie. (Oct 1995). Our Bodies, Our Selves: Treating the Somatic Expressions of Trauma with Ego-State Therapy. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, Vol 38(2), 109-121.

Young, Delia. (1995). The Use of Hypnotherapy in the Treatment of Eating Disorders. Contemporary Hypnosis, Vol 12(2), 148-153.

Covino, N. A., Jimerson, D. C, Wolfe, B. E., Franko, D. L., Frankel, F. H. (1994). Hypnotizability, Dissociation, and Bulimia Nervosa. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Vol. 103,455-9.

Coman, Greg J. (Nov 1992). Hypnosis in the Treatment of Bulimia: A Review of the Literature. Australian Journal of Clinical <&. Experimental Hypnosis, Vol 20(2), 89-104.

Torem, M. S. (1992). The Use of Hypnosis with Eating Disorders. Psychiatric Medicine, Vol. 10, 105-18.

Vanderlinden, J., Vandereycken, W. (1990). The Use of Hypnosis in the Treatment of Bulimia Nervosa. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, Vol. 38, 101-11.

Torem, M. S. (1987). Ego-state Therapy for Eating Disorders. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, Vol. 30, 94-103. Hartman; Literature Review for Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy 37 Hall, J, R,, McGill, J. C, (1986).

Hypnobehavioral Treatment of Self-Destructive Behavior: Trichotillomania and Bulimia in the Same Patient. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, Vol. 29, 39-46, Torem, Moshe S. (Oct 1986). Dissociative States Presenting as an Eating Disorder. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, Vol 29(2),137-142.

Pettinati, H, M., Home, R, L., Staats, J. M. (1985), Hypnotizability in Patients with Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia, Archives of General Psychiatry, Vol. 42, 1014-6.

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How solution focused hypnotherapy can help with…

Philip D. Shenefelt, a research dermatologist at the University of South Florida School of Medicine, has identified two dozen dermatologic conditions that have shown response to hypnosis in the literature, with varying degrees of evidence. These include successful results in controlled trials on verruca vulgaris, psoriasis, and atopic dermatitis.

A 2005 review in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings stated that, “A review of the use of hypnosis in dermatology supports its value for many skin conditions not believed to be under conscious control”.

The most comprehensively studied skin conditions in relation to hypnotherapy are psoriasis and warts.

Hypnosis may have positive effects on dermatological conditions in both adults and children. (1) Skin conditions can be the result of contact with Research substances which irritate the skin. Soap can do this if 1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnodermatology used too readily as it upsets the natural PH balance of http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.

CD004054.pub2/abstract the skin. However often skin problems can come about by increased body temperature due to hot flushes, or stress. Treatment is often with emollient or steroid cream, however this does not tackle the root cause. Lowering stress and changing how you react to situations helps in this process

Case Study 1 Nina came to see me with Eczema covering a large part of her body, particularly joints, hair and hands. I assured her that hypnotherapy could help, as I used it for the condition myself and in all the years I’ve been practising it, I have cleared up all the Eczema apart from one tiny patch on my palm, which is irritated by chemicals and soaps. She came out in hives when hot or in close contact with her partner.

At the first session she found that listening to the CD had not only helped her sleep, but she had not broken out in hives from that moment onwards. There was improvement in her skin condition at every session.

We had a few blips due to Nina being involved in a number of stressful situations, which she recognised and so was able to change the way she approached certain tasks.

The last dip came about as she stopped listening to the CD at the end of the therapy and realising that she had to carry on for a long time yet. By her eleventh session she had very little reddening of the skin and she was very happy.

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How solution focused hypnotherapy can help with…

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic widespread pain condition linked to central sensitisation.

Altered excitability of sensorimotor cortex has been proposed as an underlying pathology.

This means the brain is misinterpreting the pain message making it stronger than it actually is. (1) There is also some evidence to show there is abnormal activity in parts of the brain that process pain signals and link them to other regions. (2) It is more common in women and symptoms range from pain at certain pressure points, to problems sleeping, feeling tired all the time and anxiety about going out due to management of symptoms. “Brain fog” has often been spoken about, with the person’s mental abilities being reduced. There has also been found an increase in anger and frustration (understandably) in people with the condition. There has also been a link made to the personality of the sufferer and possible perfectionism. (3) The condition has been managed up to now with a mix of pain killers and steroid injections.

Some patients find that specially adapted beds that massage can help. Weather also affects the patient.

In a controlled study, 40 patients with fibromyalgia were randomly chosen to have either hypnotherapy or physical therapy for 12 weeks with a follow up at 24 weeks. Compared with the patients in the physical therapy group, the patients in the hypnotherapy group showed a significantly better outcome with respect to their pain experience, fatigue on awakening, and sleep pattern. A following assessment at 12 and 24 weeks, showed a significant decrease in patients symptoms when treated by hypnotherapy compared with those who had physical therapy, where they remained abnormally strong in many cases.(3)

Case Study 1

References

1) http://www.prohealth.com/library/showarticle. cfm?libid=19544 2) http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/283346.php www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2023202 3) http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/287529.php

Shirley is a lady in her 70’s and was diagnosed with fibromyalgia nearly 10 years ago now, she first approached me in 2008 to help her build confidence so she could travel to her son’s wedding, and she found that the relaxation helped her with sleep and had some effect on her pain.

We started to see each other on a weekly basis to start with, and after 6 weeks we spread it out to once a month. It helped her to build confidence in going out, to have dental work done, and to go over and baby-sit her granddaughter. Being focused on a new member of the family helped boost her mood, and having regular therapy helped her keep on top of any negative moods.

There may have been an element of secondery gain, as she used to have different therapies, a hairdresser and chiropodist all come to her house. We worked together for 4 years until I moved in 2012.

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How solution focused hypnotherapy can help with…

Planning to conceive?

If yes, you should start making sure that you are living a healthy lifestyle.

Vast researches have shown that several factors affect our health and fertility. They include stress management, good nutrition and regular exercise. (1) A study published in 2005 in the journal Fertility and Sterility suggests that stress may play a role in the success of infertility treatments, including in vitro fertilization (IVF). Later research published in the journal Human Reproduction, found that pregnancy is more likely to occur during times when couples reported feeling “good”.

Reducing stress boosts your immune system, and means that your body as well as your mind is fit for the purpose of carrying a baby. Learning to reduce stress before conception can help manage the stress of morning sickness (2) and the run up to the day of birth, the most famous case being Kate Middleton using hypnosis for morning sickness. Being less stressed at birth then can have a more beneficial effect on the first few months of motherhood and can drastically reduce other psychological problems further down the line such as post natal depression and post partum OCD. Hypnotherapy can help enormously, reducing stress, teaching management techniques and understanding the mind/body connection.

Stress is often at the core of vaginismus anderectile dysfunction and these can lead to problems conceiving. Learning self-hypnosis can help retrain the mind to relax and enjoy the process. (3)

Case Study 1 Tracy was experiencing problems with vaginismus, she was resorting to bottles of wine to relax her enough, but it was having a very negative effect on her functioning. The problem had started with being sexually assaulted by her uncle as a teenager. We worked on self hypnosis to help her relax, then we scrambled the memories of the assault, then worked on what she wanted and her needs.

After a few months of therapy, she was able to stop drinking and enjoy her relationship with her husband. Not only that, as she was more relaxed and in control she received a boost at work by being promoted - which she swore was the result of her learning to relax and take control of every situation.

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Case study 2 Daniel was experiencing erectile dysfunction due to the pressure his girlfriend was placing him under to conceive. She had been trying for a baby for some time, and although I suggested she would benefit from having the hypnotherapy, she was too busy working. We worked each week on focusing on being relaxed. It was clear that his life was quite hectic, which was adding to the stress. They were in the process of buying a house, moving from another county and commuting backwards and forwards from their current house to work locally.

He confessed he wasn’t very experienced with women, which was why he was nervous, and when we discussed the idea of something like Viagra, he said he’d tried and it hadn’t worked.

Over the next few weeks I taught him self-hypnosis and try and visualise an experience he felt happy about.

By week 8 he had an excellent announcement - she was pregnant! He was also feeling more motivated about lots of other things going on in his life.

References

1) Perry, B J, (Sep 1980), Control of Physiological Phenomena via Hypnosis with Special Reference to Contraception. Australian Joumal of Clinical Hypnotherapy, Vol 1(2), 73-77.

2) Iancu, I., Kotier, M., Spivak, B., Radwan, M., Weizman, A. (1994). Psychiatric Aspects of Hyperemesis Gravidarum. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Vol. 61, 143-9.

3) Fuchs, K, (1980), Therapy of Vaginismus by Hypnotic Desensitization. American Joumal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Vol.137, 1-7.

How solution focused hypnotherapy can help with…

High blood pressure can be the result of either lifestyle choices or disease. The lifestyle choices can easily be managed with solution focused hypnotherapy, concentrating on areas such as a change in diet, stress and anger management, alcohol consumption and smoking. Where high blood pressure is the result of disease, it could be a problem in the part of the brain that regulates blood pressure, or the kidneys. This would have to be treated by standard medication. It is essential to find out from your GP which type you have before taking any steps for recovery.

High blood pressure and hypertension causes 62% of all strokes but almost half of all people with high blood pressure don’t realise they suffer from the condition and are thus at greater risk for stroke. It can also lead to vascular dementia, so sorting out hypertension early is a must.

80% of all strokes are preventable and controlling blood pressure is a key to cutting the risk of stroke. The Hypertension Programme was developed for those with high blood pressure in mind. The programme carefully determines the individual needs of each client and a treatment is devised for that client to provide the most effective method of controlling high blood pressure.

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We look at how your lifestyle choices are affecting your physical health and help by  Cutting down stress  Looking at diet  Looking at exercise  How much alcohol a client drinks  How overweight a client is  Dealing with anger and frustration more effectively.

At each session we will address one factor, and finally you would have about 15 minutes on the couch with the hypnotherapy - which is very relaxing and helps the subconscious mind take in everything we’ve talked about and make the right decisions for you.

The Hypnotension Programme is an important new tool in the fight against hypertension and stroke. Considering that a reduction of just 2.5/1.4mmHg using hypnotherapy could lead to a 12-15% reduction in the risk of stroke and a 9-10% reduction in the risk of heart disease.

References

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17135064 Gay, Marie-Claire. (Jan 2007), Effectiveness of Hypnosis in Reducing Mild Essential Hypertension: A One-Year Follow-Up. International Joumal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, Vol 55(0,67-83, Borckardt, Jeffery J. (Apr 2002). Case Study Examining the Efficacy of a Multimodal Psychotherapeutic Intervention for Hypertension. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, Vol50(2), 189-201.

Raskin, Richard; Raps, Charles; Luskin, Frederic; Carlson, Rosemarie; Cristal, Robert. (Oct 1999). Pilot Study of the Effect of Self-hypnosis on the Medical Management of Essential Hypertension. Stress Medicine, Vol 15(4), 243-247.

How solution focused therapy can help with...

Hypnotherapy is recommended by NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence) for Irritable bowel syndrome. Up to 8 million people throughout Britain suffer from IBS, with symptoms including diarrhoea, pain, wind and bloating. The condition can seriously effect a sufferer’s quality of life with some people virtually becoming housebound for fear of having accidents.

Part of the body’s natural fight or flight system clears out the bowels when faced with a serious stressor, so IBS becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. If a person has a stomach problem and perhaps hasn’t made it to the toilet in time, then the worry of going out causes it to occur next time.

Back in 2008, Professor Peter Whorwell of Manchester University published his 2 year research on 250 patients suffering from IBS. For the 2 years patients underwent 12 sessions of hypnotherapy and explanation of the gut/brain connection. The treatment had a success rate of about 70% and was more effective and significantly more cost effective than medication.(1) Before making the decision to use hypnotherapy to help you with your irritable bowel, it is advised to have any other causes to be first rules out. An appointment must be made through your GP for a consultation with a specialist who can rule out diseases such as cancer, coeliacs Penny Ling Solution Focused Hypnotherapy - www.oxford-hypnotherapy.co.uk

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disease, allergies to food, stomach ulcers, gall bladder problems, menstrual problems.

It may be that food does not pass through the digestive systems of people with IBS properly because the signals that travel back and forth from the brain to the gut are disrupted in some way. An increase in serotonin levels, which can occur after eating certain foods or during times of stress, is also thought to affect the normal functioning of the gut.

The following foods and drinks may also contribute causing bloating - alcohol, fizzy drinks, caffenated drinks such as cola, tea, coffee, taurine - found in energy drinks - and yeasts & sugar fermenting in the gut.

Intense emotional states such as stress and anxiety can trigger chemical changes that interfere with the normal workings of the digestive system (2), and this is where hypnotherapy can help by:   

Reducing stress by positive visualisations Working out what the stressors are and using cognitive skills to overcome those thoughts Visualising the pain dissipating and the body’s natural healing processes taking control.

Case study 1 Ray works in the construction industry. He has had IBS for over 20 years and travelling was difficult. It took so much time planning every trip and going on holiday was a nightmare. He also had it bad when having to do courses or speaking to colleagues at conferences. He was diagnosed with IBS and was given some medication but it didn’t have much success.

When discussing the brain and how stress affects the gut, he identified with what was being said and was willing to try to defeat it using his mind.

At the first session Ray was slightly worried about the therapy and maybe wanting to use the toilet on the way, during and on the way home, but he soon relaxed and settled down. I taught him mindfulness of breath and relaxation on the couch. He scaled himself as a 2.

At the second session he was a 4, he felt so much better, the CD was working well, he felt more confident and positive. He was using a toilet less during the day and had stopped worrying about his journey to and from work altogether.

By session 4 he had improved to a 6 and was actually looking forward to his holiday, he had a course to go to and wasn’t worried about that either.

By the final session 6, he’d been away and had been on the course where he was able to stand up and talk to members of his industry with no problems at all, he was totally confident on controlling it in the future.

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Case Study 2 Maggie worked as a PA for the local fire service, her job was quite stressful, in that there was a lot of administrative work and she was the only woman in an office of men. She was experiencing irritable bowel every time she went away, especially when flying. After explaining a bit about the connection between the brain and the gut, she agreed she needed to do something about it otherwise she’d be confined to coach travel for the rest of her life.

Her son lived in Scotland and she would regularly fly up to see him, but she was spending the weekend in the toilet, as well as in the airport and on the plane.

3 weeks in and she was noticing her IBS was better generally. Going shopping had previously brought on occasional bouts but these were now subsiding. She was sleeping better and actually enjoying work for a change. By week 5 she was over the moon, her work had improved, her sleeping had improved and she finally had control over the IBS, she just relaxed more. She was consistently an 8. We decided at this point to go to seeing each other on a fortnightly basis.

By the end of therapy she was doing really well and felt that she could maintain it. She’d been on another journey, this time to see an old friend, and she’d had a fantastic time. We saw each other another 2 sessions 4 weeks apart. About a year later I learnt she too had trained in hypnotherapy for her own interest and development.

References

1) http://www.mhs.manchester.ac.uk/about-us/press/medicine/ibs/ 2) http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Irritable-bowel-syndrome/Pages/Causes.aspx Also 1) Galovski, Tara E.; Blanchard, Edward B. (Dec 1998). The Treatment of Irritable Bowel Syndrome with Hypnotherapy. Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, Vol 23(4), 219-232.

2) Blanchard, Edward B. (2001). Hypnotherapy Treatment Manual for Irritable Bowel Syndrome. In Blanchard, Edward B. (Ed.), Irritable Bowel Syndrome: Psychosocial Assessment and Treatment, (pp. 277-302). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

How Solution focused hypnotherapy can help with...

The solution focused approach looks more at what drives the compulsion to over eat or drink.

I don’t believe in quick fix solutions to weight issues. Often we have created a habit of eating or drinking and that habit needs to be replaced with a healthier one.

Being able to self regulate is one way to change one’s eating patterns. Psychologist Walter Mischel - a professor at Stanford University - set up an experiment whereby a child was offered a choice between one marshmallow provided immediately or two marshmallows if they waited for a short period, during which the experimenter left the room and then returned.

It was then followed up years later and researchers found that children who were able to wait longer and therefore get two marshmallows, found that they had higher educational attainment, lower body mass index (BMI), and had gone on to get better well paid jobs.

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The purpose of the original study was to understand delayed gratification. This means that adults who have this ability often have an idea of their future selves and can access resources to get themselves there.

This means they are less likely to take up smoking, or if they did they were able to stop easier because they kept in mind what would happen if they carried on.

Shoppers for example, realised when they needed to cut back on spending as income is limited don’t spend extra on “making themselves feel better”.

So what were those children who were able to delay doing?

It was found that these children were distracting themselves from the temptation. If you watch the videos of these kids, you can see them placing their hands over their eyes, shutting out that stimulus. They played with toys, read books - in other words, they occupied themselves with things that took their focus away from the temptation.

No having that focus or level of awareness often means that when they open a packet of biscuits, they end up eating the whole packet, not just one or two biscuits. Once a client understands this process they are urged to come up with their own solutions to this problem. One started making greetings cards every time she felt the urge to snack between meals. Another one went out in the garden and dead headed her flowers, another went for a ride on his exercise bike. Another distraction you can practise is mindfulness. Mindfulness can be introduced to every aspect of life from washing up, walking, listening to music, knitting, building something in the garage etc.

So where does that leave hypnosis?

In order to get you to the state of mind that can distract you effectively, hypnosis can be a huge help. The instant reaction to grab something (often the highest in fat or sugar content) comes from the limbic region of the brain. The part that is emotional. The part that allows us to plan, to see into that future, and to have control is our pre-frontal cortex.

In solution focused hypnotherapy, our aim to get people into this part of the brain as quickly as possible. That’s why when someone comes to see me, I explain to them what’s going on in the background of brain and gut before we do anything else. Often sorting out the emotional needs of a person allows them to regain control over their behaviour. And this also includes sleep.

Snoring and Sleep Apnea especially is often a chicken and egg situation. People who are obese tend to carry a lot of weight on their necks, and this in turn causes Sleep Apnea.

When a person has this they are not getting good sleep, and often fall asleep during the day.

They have little energy to exercise and this causes more weight to be gained. Plus it creates Cortisol which will make you gain weight too. If you or a family member have Sleep Apnea, then it is important to address it at a sleep clinic first.

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Sleep allows is to take short-term memory and make it long-term memory. It allows our cells to repair and so makes us stronger and fitter. It also down regulates emotions, so we are more able to control those negative emotions.

The route to weight-loss is not always about just reducing the amount we eat, but getting other areas of our life right too. Recent research into weight loss has shown us we all fit into one of three categories when it comes to losing weight.  The Feasters, once they start, they find it difficult to stop, due to the signals from gut to brain weakening or reducing in some way.  The Cravers, they continually feel hungry through out the day  The emotional eaters, when upset they will binge on sweet or fattening foods.

Understanding the effect of stress and tiredness on the brain and what happens to our choices of food can also help the client to be more mindful and plan a lot more. Hypnotherapy can help in building motivation, strengthen one’s self-esteem and boost confidence. Getting back control is number one priority. You may have misguided habits from childhood such as clearing your plate, not wasting food etc. Getting back in control means that you can plan every meal, make sure you don’t fall back into your old ways and understand what might be driving the over eating. It’s also about finding recipes that appeal to you. Losing weight doesn’t have to mean you live on rabbit food. If you learn which kind of eater you are there are different ways of dealing with diets.

Case study Susan came to see me about losing weight. When we looked at what it was she was doing, she admitted that she had very little self control.

She had been widowed just over a year and had moved house, found a job to keep her occupied, bought herself a dog to keep her company and tried to get some exercise. In the first couple of weeks she realised that her lack of will power was due to feeling tired, and that her job had not lived up to her expectations. She thought it would let her meet people but she was on her own most of the time.

She didn’t need to work, but did not like the idea of just giving it up either. Over the next few weeks she was also able to put together strategies when buying her shopping to be more mindful to the types of food to purchase, and to cut back on wine. Instead she decided to fill the fridge with low calorie tonic water, fruit juice and low calories snacks.

By week 5 she had decided to leave her job, and she was also feeling more in control. She’d

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been to see friends and had decided to join some evening classes to meet people and pursue her interests. She also joined a widows lunch group.

By session 9 she was back in control and was coping much better with organising her time and her diet. She chose the 5:2 diet plan because there was only herself at home and all she did was to eat a salad or soup on those days. She lost over a stone and by her last session she was looking forward to buying new clothes and going on holiday with friends.

References:

Sapp, Marty; Obiakor, Festus E.; Scholze, Steffanie; Gregas, Amanda J. (Spr 2007). Confidence Intervals and Hypnosis in the Treatment of Obesity, Australian Journal of Clinical Hypnotherapy and Hypnosis,Yo\28(2),25-33.

Anbar, Ran D.; Savedoff, Aaron D. (Oct-Jan 2005-2006). Treatment of Binge Eating with Automatic Word Processing and Self- Hypnosis: A Case Report.

American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis,Vol 48(2-3), 191-198.

Hutchinson-Phillips, Susan; Gow, Kathryn. (Sep 2005). Hypnosis as an Adjunct to CBT: Treating Self-defeating Eaters. Journal of Cognitive and Behavioral Psychotherapies, Vol 5(2), 113-138.

Theoharis, Dimitra. (2004). A Comprehensive Program DesignUtilizing Hypnosis in the Treatment of Obesity. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering, 64(8-B), p. 4067.

Kirsch, 1. (1996). Hypnotic Enhancement of Cognitive-Behavioral Weight Loss Treatmentsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Another Meta-Reanaiysis. Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology, Vol. 64, 517-9.

Johnson, D. L., Karkut, R. T. (1996). Participation in Multicomponent Hypnosis Treatment Programs for Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Weight Loss with and without Overt Aversion. Psychological Reports, Vol. 79, 659-68.

Vanderlinden, J., Vandereycken, W. (1994). The (Limited) Possibilities of Hypnotherapy in the Treatment of Obesity. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, Vol. 36, 248-57.

Cochrane, G. (1992). Hypnosis and Weight Reduction: Which Is the Cart and Which Is the Horse? American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, Vo). 35, 109-18.

Stanton, H. E. (1989). Ego-enhancement: A Five-step Approach. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, Vol. 31, 192-8.

Cochrane, G., Friesen, J. (1986). Hypnotherapy in Weight Loss Treatment. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Vol. 54, 489-92.

Bolocofsky, D. N., Spinier, D., Coulthard-Morris, L. (1985).

Effectiveness of Hypnosis as an Adjunct to Behavioral Weight Management Journal of Clinical Psychology, Vol. 41, 35-41.

Morris, D. M., Nathan, R. G., Goebel, R. A., Blass, N. H. (1985). Hypnoanesthesia in the Morbidly Obese. Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 253, 3292-4.

Bolocofsky, D. N., Coulthard-Morrris, L., Spinier, D. (1984).

Prediction of Successful Weight Management from Personality and Demographic Data. Psychological Reports, Vol. 55, 795-802.

Cancellario, M. (1983). [Considerations on the Use of Special Diets in Association with Hypnosis Therapy of Psychosomatic Disorders]. Minerva Medica, Vol.

74, 2995-8.

Gross, M. (1983). Correcting Perceptual Abnormalities, Anorexia Nervosa and Obesity by Use of Hypnosis. Journal of the American Society of Psychosomatic Dentistry & Medicine, Vol. 30, 142-50. Buckingham, C. W. (1980).

Hypnotherapy and the Behavioral Aspects of Obesity. Occupational Health Nursing, Vol. 28, 20-2.

Davis, S., Dawson, J. G. (1980). Hypnotherapy for Weight Control.Psychological Reports, Vol. 46, 311-4.

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How solution focused therapy can help with...

Phobias develop as a response to the brain remembering traumatic experiences to keep us safe. When we were living out in the wild, we needed a way to stop us being killed by venomous snakes and poisonous spiders so our genetic memory has retained those creatures as the most likely candidates for a phobia(1). But the part of the brain that sends us the warning signals (the amygdala) is not logical, which is why we can develop phobias of odd things like buttons, chimney pots, or bananas.

What’s the difference between a specific phobia and a non specific phobia?

A specific phobia is triggered by one thing, like the sight of a spider, whereas a non specific phobia is not triggered by anything in particular. So Emetophobia (fear of sickness) can be triggered by feeling queasy as the anxiety at the prospect that something might end in being sick. Or Agoraphobia (fear of open spaces) the person hasn’t left the house, just the thought of leaving the house will trigger the fear.

Specific phobias are dealt with by scrambling the fear trigger using a variety of techniques such as the rewind, by eye movement and by gradually exposing yourself to the thing you are afraid of. Non specific phobias usually take longer. It usually consists of lowering anxiety generally, then maybe using some CBT to challenge some thought processes, and using visualisation to focus on what you want to achieve.

When a specific phobia is non specific Driving phobia can be both, when someone’s trauma has been caused by an incident then that’s specific, but if it comes out of nowhere it could be any number of things that contributes. (3) I have had clients who developed it after giving birth as a part of post partnum OCD, another had to confess an affair to her husband before being able to drive again. Another had to sort out her problem with her son living at home before being able to tackle the driving, and another had to sort out her relationship with her family as the stress they were under was manifesting in this way.

My own driving phobia was kept very active as I battled with the stress in my job (4), hypnosis helped calm me down and the NLP techniques helped me to not react to the situation.

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Phobias are severe psychological disturbances but that doesn’t make them any less subjective in nature to other psychological problems. Recent studies at Stanford (2) and elsewhere show that people with such disorders also tend to score high on hypnotic susceptibility scales and to respond favourably to hypnotic intervention.

Alternatives to hypnotherapy - which may take 2 - 5 sessions - is brainworking recursive therapy (BWRT), which can stop the panic in one session. The use of CBT and exposure (as suggested by the NHS) can take between 12 to 24 sessions to achieve a positive outcome.

Case study Ellen was living in south west France. Her husband had bought a barn for conversion a few years previously and although they had managed to move in, it was over run with mice.

Having a severe phobia meant that if a mouse entered the house she had to leave it. She was desperate for a quick fix. The beauty of hypnotherapy and NLP meant that she could overcome the problem in a few weeks. She flew over to see me, staying with family close by and we worked over a period of 3 weeks.

Week 1 I asked Ellen to find something related to mice that made her laugh - Tom and Gerry, or Danger mouse, that type of thing. During the first session which was just a relaxation session she was able to come up with the song lyrics - “I saw a mouse - where? - there on the stairs - where on the stairs? - right there, a little mouse with clogs on, well I declare going clip cliperty clop on the stairs.”

Week 2 Doing the rewind this week, Ellen was able to choose two incidents which she was able to scramble, then using the mouse with clogs on to help add the humourous element certainly helped, the thought about how she reacted before had her laughing each time.

Week 3 The week before Ellen had written out a scenario of how she would like things to be. She acknowledged that she still may jump when a mouse ran across the room, but instead of panicking and running out the house she had thought of a variety of ways of dealing with it - having humane traps and being able to pick them up and release the mice in another place was high on what she wanted to happen. The reframe suggested all this to Ellen, and she felt really motivated when we finished. A few weeks later I received an email telling me she had managed to use the humane trap.

Research 1) http://www.pnas.org/content/108/52/E1470.abstract 2) https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200910/the-trouble-hypnosis 3) Hill, Robert; Bannon-Ryder, Glynn. (2005). The Use of Hypnosis in the Treatment of Driving Phobia. Contemporary Hypnosis, Vol 22(2), 99-103.

4) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/road-safety/9750647/Fear-of-driving-and-how-toovercome-it.html 36

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How solution focused hypnotherapy can help with...

Hypnosis is associated with the treatment of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for two reasons: (1) the similarity between hypnotic phenomena and the symptoms of PTSD, and (2) the utility of hypnosis as a tool in treatment. Hypnosis provides controlled access to memories that may otherwise be kept out of consciousness.

New uses of hypnosis in the psychotherapy of PTSD victims involve coupling access to the dissociated traumatic memories with positive restructuring of those memories. Hypnosis can be used to help patients face and bear a traumatic experience by embedding it in a new context, renormalising memories such as efforts of self-protection, or the ability to control the environment at other times. In this way, hypnosis can be used to provide controlled access to memories that are then placed into a broader perspective.

Case Study 1 Stuart had a mountain bike accident that hospitalised him. Although he’d managed to get back in the saddle he just couldn’t ride the near vertical drops that you find on mountain bike courses. This meant he couldn’t compete anymore. A similar thing had happened snow boarding too and he was losing confidence in his sporting ability.

I explained about how the brain creates and holds onto trauma, and it was a form of PSTD he was experiencing. As we worked on relaxing and scrambling that trauma, we explored his history of anxiety. 10 years previously he had worked as a doorman in a nightclub and so he’d learnt to always be up for confrontation even if there was no need. This accident had happened due to an argument he’d had with his girlfriend on the way to the tournament and that was on his mind instead of the biking.

Gradually over a period of about 4 weeks we worked at calming responses to difficult situations. We also worked on confidence building, which not only got him back in the saddle but also gave him the courage to go for his dream job.

By week 8 he had tested the vertical drop at a mountain bike track in Wiltshire and was pleased with the results. A further 3 sessions worked on the snow boarding and he tested it by going on holiday to the French Alps. The week after our last session he reported he’d got the job, all with help from myself.

Research

1) Spiegel, D., Cárdena, E., (1990). New Uses of Hypnosis in the Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, Vol. 51 Suppl, 39-43; discussion 44-6.

2) Spiegel, D. (1993). Hypnosis in the Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorders. In J. W. Rhue, S. J. Lynn & I. Kirsch (Eds.), Handbook of Clinical Hypnosis, (pp.

493-508). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

3) Zimberoff, Diane; Hartman, David. (Fal 1998). Insidious Trauma Caused by Prenatal Gender Prejudice. Journal of Prenatal & Perinatal Psychology & Health, Vol 13( 1 ), 45-5 4) Cárdena, Etzel; Maldonado, Jose; van der Hart, Onno; Spiegel, David. (2000). Hypnosis. In Foa, Edna B. (Ed); Keane, Terence M. (Ed); Friedman, Matthew J. (Ed), Effective treatments for PTSD: Practice guidelines from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, (pp. 350-353). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

5) French,. Christine. (Nov 2000). The Meaning of Traunna: Hypnosis and PTSD. Australian Journal of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis, Vol 28(2), 188-199.

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How solution focused hypnotherapy can help with…

Sports psychology is the study of human behaviour in sport; it is the intersection between brain psychology – what we think – and brain physiology – what we can train the brain to do. Sports hypnotherapy uses visualisation skills that not only helps a sports person to improve their physical bodies, it helps them manage their emotions and self talk.

When most people think about hypnotherapy, they think in terms of a disability or something needs healing; but it is common to use these tools in order to prevent problems occurring in the first place. Often applying these methods of thinking and working improves mental ability and the way we deal with issues right across the board.

It is better therefore to undertake some kind of psychological training right at the beginning before any set backs occur, rather than after an incident has taken its toll on performance.

This helps keep motivation levels on track to reach your goals too, so you can deal easily and readily with any potential setbacks, which may arise.

A great deal of research has been done into the use of the mind in sports performance.

Imagining an act and performing it light up the same regions in the brain. Drs Guang Yue and Kelly Cole set about a very interesting experiment involving 2 groups. Group A did physical exercise and Group B imagined doing the exercise. The experiment exercised a finger, Monday to Friday for 4 weeks. Group A did 15 contractions with 20 seconds rest between. Group B imagined the same number and time intervals, but with an added voice shouting “harder” between each flex.

At the end of the study, Group A had increased their muscular strength by 30%, as one would expect, but Group B who had just visualised it found their muscular strength had increased by 22%, with no movement just imagination. The reason is that part of the strength comes from the motor neurons that program the movements. During these imaginary contractions the neurons responsible for stringing together the sequences of instructions for movement are activated and strengthen, resulting in increased strength when muscles are contracted.

Sports hypnosis has been used by British Middleweight champion Glenn Catley, Olympic athlete Mary Lou Retton, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, the Russian Olympic gymnastic team, plus many amateur sports men and women.

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Case Study Kay felt happy playing singles matches with her husband, but when it came to doubles she kept making mistakes and allowing her partner to take centre court. She felt frustrated and worried that the other players would think she wasn’t a competent player.

We started off the sessions with building solutions - looking at a variety of NLP tools such as the Swish, and the Ring of confidence to help her get her focus back on playing well. I then with her help started to create scripts describing exactly how she wanted her game to be like.

She wanted to love the game instead of fear it.

Over the course of about 5 sessions we did really well and she started to win both singles and doubles games and even her opponents noticed she played so much better and wanted to know what she was doing differently. Even spectators didn’t bother her anymore, she was so much “in the zone” they just faded into the background.

The people who intimidated Kay before just didn’t matter any more as she went from one fantastic game to the next. She found herself loving the game more, she found it easy to get into the flow, she found preparation before a game came easier as she wasn’t worrying all the time about how it might turn out.

Case Study 2 I received an email from a mother worried about her daughter Lucy. She was now at highschool and was a member of the local gymnastics club, but she hadn’t made the team for a competition in May because she couldn’t do any of the backwards moves. Whether it was a somersault at the end of a tumble routine or backwards flip on the high beam, she just had a mental block.

By session 1 Lucy had slept very well since seeing me for the consultation, and she bounced in announcing she could already do more moves. Her mother also said she was happier at home and that her gym instructor had already realised something had changed and asked her mother what was going on!

I used the rewind to help Lucy scramble her bad experiences and I did a bit of confidence building so she would be more adventurous. Although she wriggled quite a bit on the couch, I knew from experience that wouldn’t be a problem.

One week later she came back beaming. She had achieved a backwards somersault in the tumble. I introduced Lucy to her virtual gym - her mind! We rehearsed the moves she wanted to achieve, slowly at first, but then over and over again feeling relaxed.

At her last session Lucy came bounding in with the widest grin on her face - she had done all she needed to do to make the team, she said she was a 10 and she had the confidence to do anything now. We agreed she should carry on listening to her CD and that if anything changed or something new came up she could come back for us to work on it. We did a bit more confidence building and she went on her way a very happy girl. 6 weeks later her mum emailed me to say she had won a silver medal.

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Research

Vemon, David. (2009), Human Potential: Exploring Techniques Used to Enhance Human Performance. New York, NY: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.

Morgan, William P,; Stegner, Aaron J. (2008), Hypnosis in Sport: Cases, Techniques and Issues. In Nash, Michael R. (Ed); Bamier, Amanda J, (Ed), The Oxford Handbook of Hypnosis: Theory, Research, and Practice, (pp, 681-696), New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Grindstaff, Jason S.; Fisher, Leslee A. (Sep 2006). Sport Psychology Consultants’ Experience of Using Hypnosis in Their Practice: An Exploratory Investigation.

The Sport Psychologist, Vol 20(3), 368- 386 Morton, Priscilla A. (Jul 2003). The Hypnotic Belay in Alpine Mountaineering: The Use of Self-Hypnosis for the Resolution of Sports Injuries and for Performance Enhancement. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, Vol 46( 1 ), 45-51.

Wooten, H. Ray; St. Germain, Noëlle R. (2001). Heart-Centered Hypnotherapy in Sports Counseling. Journal of Heart-Centered Therapies, Vol 4(\), 57-65.

Taylor, Jim; Horevitz, Richard; Balague, Gloria. (Mar 1993). The Use of Hypnosis in Applied Sport Psychology. The Sport Psychologist, Vol 7(1), 58-78.

How solution focused hypnotherapy can help with...

There has been a lot of research done in the USA about smoking cessation and one report showed hypnosis the most effective, 3 times as effective as patches and 15 times as effective as willpower. Hypnosis is the most effective way of giving up smoking, according to the largest ever scientific comparison of ways of breaking the habit. A meta-analysis, statistically combined results of more than 600 studies of 72,000 people - from America and Europe - to compare various methods of quitting. On average, hypnosis was over three times as effective as nicotine replacement methods and 15 times as effective as trying to quit alone. (1) Many people find that they quit with one session, others may find they go back to smoking after a few months. Quite often this is because of the environment they find themselves in, namely at a party, or in the pub. Alcohol usually inhibits our ability to take control of the situation and we’re back to square one.

If someone is in the right place to stop, they have no stresses and they have all the motivation and incentive, then hypnotherapy works in one session. If someone is sent for therapy it is highly unlikely they will give up.

Hypnotherapy works on many levels with smoking cessation, often looking at other things the person can do to empower them, change the habit and the benefits of health and financial reasons. Looking at the main reasons for giving up can give the hypnotherapist a insight into what someone holds dear.

Case study 1 Dave came to see me to stop smoking. He admitted he smoked most when he was at his most stressed out. I asked him how stressed he was at the moment and he was very stressed.

His wife had told him he had to stop or she would leave him, this of course would send anyone’s stress levels sky high.

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The other source of stress was his work, he was in charge of a department, but his work meant he was out of the office most of the time, so when he came back into the office he had to catch up. The department was going through problems, everyone was grumpy, negative, there was a lack of motivation.

When I asked him the question “If tonight when you go to bed a miracle happens, but because you were asleep you don’t know a miracle has happened, what would the first signs be at work, that something special has happened?”.

From the answers he gave it was quite evident that he needed to sort it out and soon. I suggested to him that I could help him coach his staff, so he agreed and for the next 3 weeks I taught him the Solution focused approach. Over the next 3 weeks he reported back to me that it was working. The mood in the office was much improved. He had off loaded some of his own work onto one of the admin staff, and everyone was doing a fairer share.

We then worked with the SF approach in psychotherapy to improve his relationship with his wife. After a couple of sessions he realised he had to stop being so selfish, that the independence she was looking for came in the form as starting up her own business. Dave now realised how stressful this was for her, so started to pay more attention and being more interested in her venture.

By week 6 Dave found he was much improved in his stress, so I carried out a stop smoking session. He stopped, was happier about his relationship and his work life.

Sometimes you need to sort out your lifestyle, relationships and job, as the level of stress can impact on your habits.

Research

1) University of Iowa, Journal of Applied Psychology, How One in Five Give Up Smoking. October 1992. (Also New Scientist, October 10, 1992.)

Also 2) Hypnosis for Smoking Cessation: A Randomized Trial. Nicotine & Tobacco Research, Vol 10(5), 811-818 3) Elkins, Gary; Marcus, Joel; Bates, Jeff; Rajab, M. Hasan; Cook, Teresa. (Jul 2006). Intensive Hypnotherapy for Smoking Cessation: A Prospective Study.

International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, Vol 54(3), 303-315.

4) Banyan, Calvin D. (Spr 2006). Two Treatment Groups Hypnosis Smoking Cessation Program. Australian Journal of Clinical Hypnotherapy and Hypnosis, Vol 27(2), 5-16.

Other health issues hypnotherapy can help with are:  Getting back movement after a stroke.  Pain management  Jealousy  Interview & exam nerves  OCD  Body Dismorphia  Stage fright  Stress Management  Insomnia  Menopause In fact anything that helps change the subconscious response. call Penny on 07508 658934 or go to www.oxford-hypnotherapy.co.uk for more details Penny Ling Solution Focused Hypnotherapy - www.oxford-hypnotherapy.co.uk

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