Sports celebrities and hypnotherapy
The benefit of hypnotherapy in sport is outstanding and includes helping athletes to stay calm, maintain focus, get rid of distractions in their minds, improve their mental stamina and increase their motivation. Here are just a few sports celebrities who have used hypnotherapy to help their career:
Tiger Woods has used hypnotherapy regularly and was introduced to it at just 13 years old. He has said:
"We worked on a way to visualize the target and pull it back into my hands and body and let my subconscious react. That’s what’s best for me. It is inherent in what I do now."
WBC heavyweight champion Frank Bruno has used hypnosis to perform at his peak.
In 1996, Steve Collins defeated WBO Super Middleweight title champion Chris Eubank, which he said was due to using hypnotherapy in his mental preparation work. He said he had worked on his mental attitude to programme himself to throw two punches to every one punch from his opponent and statistics from the fight show around 300 punches from Eubank versus more than 600 from Collins.
If you want to be at the top of your game, whether sports or business, hypnotherapy can help you get the results you want, making you a winner.
30/11/2008 | Posted in Hypnotherapy,
Caesarean section under hypnotherapy
In Iran, obstetricians have recently performed the country’s second ever caesarean section operation using hypnotherapy instead of anaesthesia. Obstetrician, Roya Khodai, said:
“The patient was subjected to hypnotherapy upon entering the operation room and was ready to have the C-section after 30 minutes.”
Khodai said the c-section took around 30 minutes and the baby was born without any notable complication. She also added the mother’s vitals were controlled throughout the surgery, although an anaesthesiologist was available in case of any unexpected issues. The only complication reported apparently was a small amount of blood loss that was brought under control immediately, and both mum and baby are in good health.
Khodai also commented that hypnosis is considered effective as an alternative to anaesthesia for patients in minor surgery - caesarean sections are classed as a major operation - and is ideal to overcome complications relating to the use of anaesthesia.
Hypnotherapy is being used more frequently in operations, and is also successful in helping people to overcome emotional and physical problems such as quitting smoking, weight loss, phobias, and many more. Many women are turning to hypnosis for a natural, pain free labour without medication.
26/11/2008 | Posted in Hypnotherapy, Hypno-birthing,
How does hypnotherapy help with the menopause?
For many women, the menopause is a particularly difficult phase of life. Some turn to hypnotherapy to relieve symptoms such as anxiety, insomnia, hot flushes, stress and more.
It works because hypnosis helps people put mind over matter. Because the mind is capable of telling the body how it should and should not feel, it can help alleviate symptoms.
For example, in the case of hot flushes, oestrogen has been proven to play a part in setting the temperature of the body in the brain. So, when oestrogen levels are low, the brain believes the body is getting hot and starts to cool the body down through sweating and releasing that heat. As hot flushes are just a small malfunction in the brain, hypnosis can help train the mind to influence the body to cool down the hot flush.
As reported recently in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, a group of 51 women took part in a trial. For the 26 (half the group) who received hypnotherapy, they had a 68 per cent decrease in hot flushes and most of them also foundthey had fewer uncomfortable side effects f(such as loss of sleep and difficulties in social interaction). The study's lead investigator, Gary Elkins, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor, said:
"This study validates that this type of treatment is effective in decreasing hot flushes. There is a real need to study emerging mind-body interactions to treating these ailments because many times, medications are not an option".
After the success of this research, the researchers now intend to recruit 190 post-menopausal women to take part in a five year study so that they can analyse the physiological response to hypnosis.
23/11/2008 | Posted in Hypnotherapy,
Hypnotherapy and eating disorders
Many people who have had eating disorders say that hypnosis helps them to find out how to deal with the psychological and emotional part of the illness. Clients learn new eating habits and gain control over their life again. Binge eaters and those with bulimia feel more in control and those with anorexia learn how to see themselves and feel better about themselves. Comfort-eaters learn how to deal with their emotions instead of turning to food.
A common method in hypnosis, used for many things, is mental imagery. Hypnosis is when your mind is in a heightened state of concentration, with the hypnotherapist guiding the client towards helping themselves. Mental imagery is used to allow the client to envisage themselves improving throughout the hypnosis sessions.
Often, self hypnosis is helpful, too, and the hypnotherapist will teach the client how to use self-hypnosis so the client can use it whenever needed, when the hypnotherapist is not there.
Clients often need four to eight sessions, though some might benefit from more depending on the severity of their eating disorder. Each session lasts around 50 minutes. Before having hypnotherapy for an eating disorder it is best to seek advice from a medical professionals - to ensure that a client is doing what is good for them. There are no side effects with hypnosis.
20/11/2008 | Posted in Hypnotherapy,
CBT for OCD
Later this month, many health professionals and members of the public who have been or are affected by OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) will meet at the Imperial College London for the 2008 OCD Conference. This annual meeting, organised by OCD Action, a UK charity, helps to inspire and educate its attendees and give an opportunity for people to realise that they are not alone.
An estimated 1.8 million people in the UK are affected by OCD and public awareness has increased recently when public figures such as Justin Timberlake and David Beckham discussed its effects on their personal lives. OCD is just one of the areas where CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) can help. CBT can help to control OCD and help people to face their fears and help them to understand their anxiety. Many people have found they can cope with obsessive compulsive disorder using medication and/or CBT.
OCD Conference 2008: Saturday 22nd November; 09.30 - 17.00; Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ Fee: £75 (health professionals), £30 (public), £20 (members of OCD Action and supporting charities) To register: visit http://www.ocdconference.org.uk or telephone 0870 360 6232
12/11/2008 | Posted in CBT,
CBT for anxiety disorders
Occasionally, it is normal and indeed healthy for a person to experience a certain level of anxiety. However, when this becomes excessive or an irrational fear that interferes with that person’s daily life, then it has become an anxiety disorder and needs treatment. Indeed, an anxiety disorder will last at least six months and may become worse if not treated as soon as possible.
Anxiety disorders are often treated with medication or psychotherapy, and occasionally a combination of both. Psychotherapy will involve talking to a professional, such as a counsellor or psychologist to discover the cause of the problem and how to treat the symptoms. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is useful when treating anxiety disorders according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Techniques from CBT can focus on changing current patterns and ways of thinking or beliefs that are associated with the anxiety.
CBT can include self talking, attention training, challenging how we think and what we fear or believe. One component of CBT is exposure, which means purposely facing the fear to allow desensitisation to take place, although this is only ever done once the client is ready. CBT is known for being a relatively quick therapy.
11/11/2008 | Posted in CBT, Psychotherapy,
How does hypnotherapy help childbirth?
Every pregnant woman wants a comfortable birth, swift recovery and a healthy baby - and many consider hypno-birthing. Here are the main ways that hypno-birthing can help with childbirth:
- relaxation – hypnotherapy will help the woman to relax and this gives greater bloodflow to the womb which helps birth.
- overcome fear – pregnant women hear a lot of horror stories about what can happen and this can cause increasing anxiety. Fear can really change a birth as it causes tension, restricts blood flow and hence increases pain; so hypnosis can help a woman to stop being so fearful and have a more natural birth.
- relaxes the baby – if mum is relaxed so is baby; on the other side of the coin, a tense mother releases adrenalin and hormones into her blood stream which distresses the baby - and, if the baby is distressed, medical staff are more likely to intervene.
- postnatal recovery – if mum is relaxed and blood flow is increased, then the blood flow will help tissue recovery and give a good milk supply; stress is known to restrict milk production so a mother who has had hypnotherapy has a headstart.
Hypno-birthing is becoming more popular with women having weekly sessions leading up to the birth.
06/11/2008 | Posted in Hypnotherapy, Hypno-birthing,
Blackpool man has hypnotherapy after acomplia
A Blackpool man was featured in the Blackpool Gazette recently as he told the paper how he had suffered suicidal thoughts after he had been prescribed a controversial weight loss diet drug, Acomplia, otherwise known as rimonabant. Gordon Pothecary came off the medication two months ago and, after reading of the worrying side effects in the papers this week, was shocked to discover the drug had been linked to suicide. The drug has now been banned in the UK.
Mr Pothecary, of Hornsey Avenue, said: "It did make me have suicidal thoughts. I would never have acted on them but it did make me think I would be better off not being here anymore. I felt I couldn't see a way out. I'd been taking another drug called Oralstat for about two-and-a-half months and I lost about 1.5lbs to 2lbs a month, but didn't suffer any side-effects. I went to see the nurse and she said they were changing my medication on to this new one. I lost about 12 or 13lbs in the first few months. It gradually got worse and worse, my stomach felt all tensed up, I was short-tempered. My moods were terrible. I would fly off the handle at the smallest things. All those side-effects I read about sounded very familiar: low mood, depression, anxiety, irritability, nervousness and I couldn't sleep."Mr Pothecary is now having hypnotherapy to help him to ease the symptoms and to get back to his old self and will shortly be starting counselling.
He commented: "After I came off it and started having hypnotherapy, I did feel better. Now I am gradually getting back to normal.”Hypnosis can help to ease both physical and mental symptoms and many people use it for weight loss.
04/11/2008 | Posted in Hypnotherapy, Counselling,
Mark Owen has hypnotherapy
Mark Owen, of Take That stardom, is having hypnotherapy, to help him quit smoking, as he is desperate to give up his smoking habit before his second child is born. Mark, aged 36, has smoked since his teenage years but now wants to stop smoking for his two year old son Elwood and his unborn child with his fiancée Emma Ferguson. After 20 years of smoking, Mark has found it very difficult to give up. Mark said:
“I was on 15 a day, more when I was working. The first two days were the hardest [but] I keep getting angry and snapping for no reason. I keep eating too, anything, just so I can put something in my mouth.”
Hypnosis is one of the best ways to give up smoking as it can help you at a subconscious level. Many stars have turned to hypnosis for help with phobias, weight loss and to quit their smoking habits. For the change to work, you must really want it and sometimes a life-changing event such as the birth of a new child can give you the incentive you need.
03/11/2008 | Posted in Hypnotherapy,
