Hypnotherapy has been used by famous athletes to improve their sports performance and although some may scoff, many swear by it.
This seems to be backed up by a new Australian study, whose results suggest that the faster speed achieved by athletes when they take performance-enhancing drugs is in their mind.
The research compared athletes on a placebo with those given a growth hormone drug.
Those who had taken the dummy pills ran faster, jumped higher and managed to lift heavier weights than those who were on the hormones.
The results suggest what hypnotherapists say is true – if you think that you will perform better, then you will.
Many professional athletes have used creative visualisation to boost their performance for years and one of the methods that hypnotherapists use is visualisation. However, visualisation in hypnosis is much stronger, because the person is completely relaxed and is focused on the visualisation that they are doing with the hypnotherapist so they concentrate harder and the memory is stronger.
The director of mental training in sports medicine from the University of Pittsburgh, Dr Aimee Kimball, said:
“If you visualise being stronger, running faster or winning, you are priming your nervous system to do just that. Studies have found that the method can enhance physical performance significantly, sometimes by 20% or more.”
Many people find studying or revising for an exam a chore and quite boring, so it could be difficult to imagine being able to change that perception so that we enjoy learning and revision.
Hypnosis can be used to develop effective study habits by increasing your motivation and helping you to enjoy studying. The average focus time is around twenty minutes but you must be really focussed to retain that information.
Those who have seen memory experts on television should know that the memory can be trained. We have all seen the TV shows where a memory expert trains a contestant to use a memory game to enhance their memory and pass a test. Hypnotherapy can help to train your memory to retain information more easily.
Your memory is also dependent upon state, so hypnotherapy helps to enable deep concentration and activate the memory recall ability.
It is importantly to study regularly in small chunks and hypnotherapy can help you to become more motivated to do this. Naturally, it will always help if you study somewhere quiet without distractions as hypnosis is not a miracle, although it may seem like it at times!
In the current economic climate, as large banks and financial institutions are struggling and the value of shares and pension funds tumble, causing redundancies and interest rate increases, it is no wonder that stress is spreading like wildfire across the UK.
For many city employees, stress is an everyday hazard but even for those who are used to a high level of stress, the recent events are taking their toll.
The problems of stress and depression are beginning to show in clinics across the country, as psychiatrists and hypnotherapists alike are starting to see people who are being driven to the brink, afraid of losing their jobs and having added stress to their relationships.
Experts say that the pessimistic doom and gloom in the newspapers influences everybody, even those who are not yet feeling the financial burden.
For anybody feeling anxious, stressed or depressed, it is best not to panic and remember that there is always a way out. These feelings only make things worse, and if you are not sleeping or eating, or are feeling suicidal or particularly depressed, then do visit your doctor who can prescribe treatment, available on the National Health Service.
The right treatment, such as hypnotherapy, cognitive behavioural therapy or simply talking to a professional can help you to see things differently and stop the vicious circle. The worries of everyday life can look much better by taking advantage of different approaches such as stress management, hypnosis, psychotherapy or CBT.
Is it really possible to hypnotise a dog? Many people, when asked this question, would emphatically declare the answer to be no. After all, a dog cannot understand the words of a human, so how would he be hypnotised?
According to a hypnotherapist in America, however, the answer is an emphatic yes.
It is certainly easier to train and work with a dog when they are quiet and calm, but that state is often difficult to achieve when they are running round in circles, panting and jumping up and down.
Without having tried the doggie hypnosis techniques, it is difficult to judge whether this is really something that will work on all dogs, however, it is certain that hypnosis does work on humans.
Many people worry that hypnotherapy won’t work for them, but so long as you are of sound mind, capable and willing to concentrate on what the hypnotherapist is saying, then there should be no reason why you cannot be hypnotised. Hypnosis is a perfectly natural state of relaxation, and one we enter into every day. It has worked for so many people for so many different issues that are affected by the mind-body connection that we are only just beginning to comprehend, and so many people consider it worth a try.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, has helped many people since its introduction to the public. The cognitive part means changing thinking patterns that have been supporting the person’s fears and the behavioural part helps people to react differently to anxiety-provoking or problematic situations.
CBT helps people to confront the problem situation and to desensitise themselves so that they are no longer anxious.
For example, CBT can help those with a social phobia understand that they can get past their belief that others are judging or watching them. Those with a fear of germs or dirt are encouraged to get their hands dirty and wait a little while before washing them. The waiting period is gradually increased. Once they have done this a few times, the anxiety reduces.
It can also help with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) by asking the client to recall their traumatic memory in a safe environment, reducing the fear it brings.
CBT therapists also teach relaxation methods and relieve anxiety. Often, it can take some time for a person to feel relaxed enough to encounter the situation or object and they may have to begin firstly through only tapes or pictures.
To be effective, CBT must be tailored to the individual’s needs. It is drug free, there are no side effects and therapy often lasts about 12 weeks.
As regular readers will know, hypnosis is a powerful tool and can be used for many things. Hypnotherapy is a way of using hypnosis for therapeutic purposes, but many people still associate hypnotherapy with stopping smoking and curing fears and that is all.
Hypnotherapy can be used for so many different things that the list is almost endless and hypnotherapists are finding new uses for it all the time. Hypnotherapy can be used for almost any problem or situation where the body and the mind are both coming into play on some level.
Here are just a few of the issues that hypnotherapy has been used to help:
Sports – improving performance, anxiety, coaching, overcoming concentration problems and increasing focus
Business – stress management, assertiveness, motivation and direction, problem solving and communication
Education – increasing concentration and focus, improving memory, exam nerves, study techniques, improving memory skills
Personal – increasing confidence or self esteem, curing phobias and anxiety, depression, addictions or other unwanted behaviour, sexual or relationship issues, eating disorders and pain management
Hypnotherapy promotes better health, well being and better life. For years, it was helped thousands of people in their every day lives.
Bulimia nervosa is characterised by binge eating, i.e. eating unusually large amounts of food, and then purging oneself, usually by making oneself vomit or by using laxatives or diuretics.
Unlike anorexia, where the weight can fall dramatically, those suffering from bulimia can have a normal weight for their age, however, they do have a similar fear to those with anorexia – they fear gaining weight and are unhappy with their size. Their behaviour is often done secretly because they feel disgusted or ashamed, and hence bulimia can be difficult to spot.
Also like amorexia, bulimics often have psychological issues like depression or anxiety. Bulimia nervosa often results in physical problems such as oral or teeth-related problems, or issues with electrolyte imbalances and gastrointestinal issues.
Psychotherapy has proved effective in handling bulimia nervosa, especially cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT. CBT can be tailored to treat bulimia in an individual case and can change the binging and purging cycle, slowing it down and eventually removing completely as a result of changing the person’s attitude to eating.
From an early age as young children, we are often encouraged not to cry, to bury our problems and to ‘be strong’. However, these temporary solutions can have great drawbacks and result in problems for years to come. Instead, we should learn to identify our feelings, deal with and release them; otherwise these problems can result in baggage that we will carry for the rest of our lives.
Sometimes we are not even aware that our issues stem from childhood issues, or even from an experience later in life. This is partly because by our teenage years, we are often in the habit of burying our problems and feelings and do not even realise that we are doing it any more.
Our unconscious mind is then programmed to help us steer clear of the warning signals for these situations that we wish to avoid, in order to protect us from the buried hurt. Sometimes, particularly in relationships, we realise how we are acting, for example, if something causes us stress, yet we do not realise how to stop ourselves from behaving this way.
This is where therapies, such as psychotherapy and hypnotherapy, can help because they help us to deal with our unconscious mind at levels we cannot access easily on a day to day basis. As we learn to deal with our feelings and problems, we learn more about ourselves and become a more rounded person.
A study from Bangor University presented their findings on the 11th September at the University of Bath to The British Psychological Society’s Division of Health Psychology Annual Conference.
They stated they found that those suffering from arthritis can help to alleviated their pain by using both hypnotherapy and mental imagery.
Rheumatoid arthritis is progressive and a disabling disease affecting just under 1 per cent of the adult populated in the UK. It is very painful and can affect a person’s ability to do everyday tasks. Despite medical treatment, many still suffer with high pain levels and often turn to alternative treatment to lessen their fatigue and pain.
Arthritis sufferers can alleviate their pain by using mental imagery and hypnotherapy.
The study from Bryan Bennett and colleagues at Bangor University asked 42 patients to visualise their pain and attempt to manage it. Their results showed that the imagery techniques and hypnosis were effective at reducing the pain and tiredness.
Bryan Bennett commented: “All the participants were asked to identify what areas of their life were important to them but were negatively affected due to the RA. By doing so they were taking an active part in their own therapy. By employing the techniques they were taught, they were able to self-treat when necessary – allowing them to control their pain and enabling them to get on with enjoying life.”
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, otherwise known as CBT, is a type of psychotherapy. According to a recent study reported in Reuters, it seemed to improve the quality of sleep in dialysis patients.
CBT is a non-drug therapy and the investigators from the study said that it seemed to be quite effective with dialysis patients suffering from sleep problems.
Dialysis is the procedure to remove toxins from the bloodstream when a person’s kidneys are failing to do it sufficiently for them.
According to the study chief, Dr. Hung-Yuan Chen from National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, told Reuters:
“Sleep disturbance in dialysis patients is a “puzzling and prevalent complaint. However, only hypnotics are available for clinicians to solve this problem at present.”
CBT has proved effective in the past for insomnia in the elderly and also cancer patients and those with chronic pain.
The study included 24 patients, with 14 randomised to have one hour per week in a psychiatrist-led CBT session.
Almost 80 per cent in the CBT group had improved changes in sleep patterns, and also had a decline in a blood protein called interleukin-1-beta, which has been linked to inflammation. The results after 4 weeks, although impressive, were not statistically significant according to the American Journal of Kidney Diseases.