Hypno Conditions

Weight Loss
The reason most people fail at weight control is that the approach that they use is just too simplistic. Dieting alone will end in failure for most people. How you eat and how it affects your body weight depends on many factors. For example:
- Feelings and emotions
- Habitual eating
- Knowledge about food
- Exercise level
Programs that do not take a number of these factors into consideration are going to have only limited success. Limited in either the amount of weight you lose or how long you can keep it off. Controlling your weight is a matter of a lifestyle change.
Using hypnotherapy we can ask the subconscious to modify your lifestyle without undue stresses or distress. Factors such as old behaviours, feelings and emotions, habits and exercise level can be altered during the hypnotic process. We will do this through the use of hypnotherapy and teaching you self-hypnosis so that you can continue to succeed for the rest of your life.
Most people who come to me have tried diets and have failed. They have tried exercise programs too, and have also failed. My role is to remove the subconscious programming that is getting in the way of their success to enable the person along with exercise and correct diet to lose weight effectively and for good.

Smoking Cessation
Smoking cessation therapy takes only one session of approximately 1 ½ hours.

This therapy works by using the power of your subconscious mind to change your thinking processes, making it very easy to stop.
Normally people will try to use their will power stop smoking however this can often creates irritability, mood swings, bad temper, cravings and possible weight gain.
How does it work?
Using a combination of positive suggestion and visualisation I can make it easy for you to give up smoking without craving cigarettes. In fact you will be surprised to find that you feel confident and relaxed not only after the session, but continuing throughout the following weeks.

What about putting weight on if I give up?
The possibility of forming any alternative habits is taken care of during the very carefully worded session.

The benefits of quitting smoking
Some smokers, especially those who have smoked for years, believe that the damage to their health is irreversible. However you should be aware that it is never too late to stop smoking. In fact the benefits of quitting start immediately:

Time after quitting	Benefits
8 hours	Blood oxygen levels return to normal. Chances of a heart attack start to fall.
24 hours	Carbon monoxide is cleared from your body.
48 hours	Sense of taste and smell begins to improve.
72 hours	Breathing becomes easier. Energy levels increase.
5 days	Nicotine addiction for your body is over
2-12 weeks	Circulation starts to improve, walking becomes easier.
3-9 months	Coughing, shortness of breath and wheezing problems will improve.
1 Year	Risk of a heart attack falls to about half that of a smoker.
10 years	Risk of lung cancer falls to about half that of a smoker.
15 years	Risk of heart attack falls to the same as someone who has never smoked.

Stress
Stress results from a psychological and biological reaction to a perceived threat. A stress response includes an increase in blood pressure, pulse rate, energy levels, mental activity and muscle strength. The body is ready for action as it goes into "fight or flight" mode.
Stress is a natural part of life. Without stress, you would not be motivated to eat, work, have relationships, or get out of bed in the morning. It is when the amount of stress builds past the point of being comfortable, that most people start suffering from the symptoms of over stress. If stress is not dealt with while it is at a low level, the symptoms of stress can escalate to cause other problems such as anxiety and depression.
Everyone reacts to stress in different ways and to different degrees. Some people have more stress than others. Some people handle stressful situations better than others. Each person is triggered by different stressful situations, depending on their own make-up. What may bother one person may not affect another person. This does not negate your stress, it merely points out what situations you react to in a stressful manner.
Symptoms of Over Stress

If you have several of the above symptoms, it is possible that you are suffering from stress. Stress is one of the biggest threats to people's health, happiness, and well being. The symptoms of stress are sometimes insidious and undetectable, until one day you feel overwhelmed with life. Everything bothers you, from your work to your favourite pet at home. This can result in the feeling of being out of control.

Coping with Stress
The first step in handling stress is evaluating each separate stressful situation in your life and deciding what kind of action to take. Sometimes we have no control in a situation, and we must learn to simply let go of what is bothering us and redirect our attention elsewhere. Other times we have much control, and simply need to change our attitude and/or behaviours to effect a positive change.
Since stress affects every area of your life, a variety of coping techniques seem to work better than just one technique. Some of these coping strategies include: deep breathing, relaxation, deep and restful sleep, taking breaks, removing yourself from the stressful situation, exercise, change in diet, journaling, and learning to recognize your own inner dialogue and thoughts which contribute to stress and then controlling your thoughts and emotions.
Hypnosis & Stress Management
All stress is triggered by an event or episode. Once you learn to recognise your stress triggers, then you can learn to introduce new, alternate behaviour when you first experience a stress trigger, thereby stopping the cycle of building triggers that contribute to high stress. Hypnosis not only helps you to recognize your stress triggers, but while in the hypnotic state you are better able to see alternate perspectives and behaviours in stressful situations. You can learn to reprogram your thoughts and actions while in a trance state to help you develop new behaviour in the waking conscious state.
By experiencing the deep relaxation of a hypnotic state, your body learns to relax. You will feel more rested, energetic, and you will find your sleep becoming deeper and more peaceful. As you begin to feel better physically, your thinking will become clearer, and you will react to stressful situations in a more calm manner.
As you learn to control your response to stress triggers, your emotions will be more controlled as well, and you will begin to experience a greater sense of peace and serenity no matter what circumstances in which you may find yourself.
Life is full of change. It never stays the same. Learning to cope, change and adapt to whatever situation may arise in your life is the key to successful stress management.

Hypnotherapy has been proven to be highly effective in alleviating IBS symptoms. Over 15 years of solid scientific research has demonstrated hypnotherapy as an effective, safe and inexpensive choice for IBS symptom alleviation.
Hypnotherapy routinely produces long term positive results in over 80% of the people who use it.
Hypnotherapy is often thought to be therapy that only affects the mind, but as mind and body are inseparably joined, hypnosis can also help physical ailments.
For Irritable Bowel Syndrome, one of hypnotherapy's greatest benefits is its well-established ability to reduce the effects of stress. Your state of mind can have a direct impact on your physical well-being, even when you're in the best of health. If you're struggling with IBS, the tension, anxiety, and depression that comes from living with an incurable illness can actually undermine your immune system and further compromise your health.
Hypnosis can reduce this stress and its resultant negative impact by placing you in a deeply relaxed state, promoting positive thoughts and coping strategies, and clearing your mind of negative attitudes.
Irritable Bowel Syndrome in fact is almost uniquely suited to treatment by hypnosis or self-hypnosis, for several reasons. First, as just noted, stress-related attacks can be significantly reduced. Second, one of the most impressive aspects from hypnotherapy, and of tremendous benefit to IBS sufferers, is its well-documented ability to relieve virtually all types and degrees of pain. Finally, because IBS is not a disease at all but a syndrome, if you can relieve and prevent the symptoms, you have effectively cured yourself of the disorder, and you will be living an IBS-free life. This outcome is a definite possibility from hypnotherapy treatments.
As with other alternative therapies, though there is solid evidence that hypnotherapy can provide lasting health benefits for many patients, there is uncertainty about precisely how and why the treatments work. Most scientists believe that hypnotherapy acts upon the unconscious, and affects the body's regulation of involuntary reactions that are normally beyond a person's control. Hypnosis puts these autonomic responses under the patient's power. Happily, treatment is suitable for people of all ages, for males and females, and there are no risks or side effects.

What is an Irritable Bowel?

Medically, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is known by a variety of other terms: spastic colon, spastic colitis, mucous colitis and nervous or functional bowel. Usually, it is a disorder of the large intestine (colon), although other parts of the intestinal tract -- even up to the stomach -- can be affected.

The colon, the last five feet of the intestine, serves two functions in the body. First, it dehydrates and stores the stool so that, normally, a well-formed soft stool occurs. Second, it quietly propels the stool from the right side over to the rectum, storing it there until it can be evacuated. This movement occurs by rhythmic contractions of the colon.

When IBS occurs, the colon does not contract normally. instead, it seems to contract in a disorganized, at times violent, manner. The contractions may be terribly exaggerated and sustained, lasting for prolonged periods of time. One area of the colon may contract with no regard to another. At other times, there may be little bowel activity at all. These abnormal contractions result in changing bowel patterns with constipation being most common.

A second major feature of IBS is abdominal discomfort or pain. This may move around the abdomen rather than remain localized in one area. These dis-organized, exaggerated and painful contractions lead to certain problems. The pattern of bowel movements is often altered. Diarrhea may occur, especially after meals, as the entire colon contracts and moves liquid stool quickly into the rectum. Or, localized areas of the colon may remain contracted for a prolonged time. When this occurs, which often happens in the section of colon just above the rectum, the stool may be retained for a prolonged period and be squeezed into small pellets. Excessive water is removed from the stool and it becomes hard.

Also, air may accumulate behind these localized contractions, causing the bowel to swell. So bloating and abdominal distress may occur. Some patients see gobs of mucous in the stool and become concerned. Mucous is a normal secretion of the bowel, although most of the time it cannot be seen. IBS patients sometimes produce large amounts of mucous, but this is not a serious problem.

The cause of most IBS symptoms -- diarrhea, constipation, bloating, and abdominal pain -- are due to this abnormal physiology.

IBS is not a disease. Although the symptoms of IBS may be severe, the disorder itself is not a serious one. There is no actual disease present in the colon. In fact, an operation performed on the abdomen would reveal a perfectly normal appearing bowel.

Rather, it is a problem of abnormal function. The condition usually begins in young people, usually below 40 and often in the teens. The symptoms may wax and wane, being particularly severe at some times and absent at others. Over the years, the symptoms tend to become less intense.

IBS is extremely common and is present in perhaps half the patients that see a specialist in gastroenterology. It tends to run in families. The disorder does not lead to cancer. Prolonged contractions of the colon, however, may lead to Diverticulosis, a disorder in which balloon-like pockets push out from the bowel wall because of excessive, prolonged contractions.

Causes

While our knowledge is still incomplete about the function and malfunction of the large bowel, some facts are well-known. Certain foods, such as coffee, alcohol, spices, raw fruits, vegetables, and even milk, can cause the colon to malfunction. In these instances avoidance of these substances is the simplest treatment.

Infections, illnesses and even changes in the weather somehow can be associated with a flare-up in symptoms. So can the premenstrual cycle in the female.

By far, the most common factor associated with the symptoms of IBS are the interactions between the brain and the gut. The bowel has a rich supply of nerves that are in communication with the brain. Virtually everyone has had, at one time or another, some alteration in bowel function when under intense stress, such as before an important athletic event, school examination, or a family conflict.

People with IBS seem to have an overly sensitive bowel, and perhaps a super abundance of nerve impulses flowing to the gut, so that the ordinary stresses and strains of living somehow result in colon malfunction.

These exaggerated contractions can be demonstrated experimentally by placing pressure- sensing devices in the colon. Even at rest, with no obvious stress, the pressures tend to be higher than normal. With the routine interactions of daily living, these pressures tend to rise dramatically. When an emotionally charged situation is discussed, they can reach extreme levels not attained in people without IBS. These symptoms are due to real physiologic changes in the gut -- a gut that tends to be inherently overly sensitive, and one that overreacts to the stresses and strains of ordinary living.

Diagnosis

The diagnosis of IBS often can be suspected just by a review of the patient's medical history. In the end it is a diagnosis of exclusion; that is, other conditions of the bowel need to be ruled out before a firm diagnosis of IBS can be made. Diagnosis of IBS should be confirmed by a qualified medical practitioner.

A number of diseases of the gut, such as inflammation, cancer, and infection, can mimic some or all of the IBS symptoms. Certain medical tests are helpful in making this diagnosis, including blood, urine and stool exams, x-rays of the intestinal tract and a lighted tube exam of the lower intestine. This exam is called endoscopy, sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy.

Additional tests often are required depending on the specific circumstances in each case. If the proper medical history is obtained and if other diseases are ruled out, a firm diagnosis of IBS then can usually be made.

Treatment

The treatment of IBS is directed to both the gut and the psyche. The diet requires review, with those foods that aggravate symptoms being avoided.

Current medical thinking about diet has changed a great deal in recent years. There is good evidence to suggest that, where tolerated, a high roughage and bran diet is helpful. This diet can result in larger, softer stools which seem to reduce the pressures generated in the colon.

Large amounts of beneficial fibre can be obtained by taking over-the-counter bulking agents such as psyllium mucilloid (Metamucil, Konsyl) or methylcellulose (Citrucel).

As many people have already discovered, the simple act of eating may, at times, activate the colon. This action is a normal reflex, although in IBS patients it tends to be exaggerated. It is sometimes helpful to eat smaller, more frequent meals to block this reflex.

There are certain medications that help the colon by relaxing the muscles in the wall of the colon, thereby reducing the bowel pressure. These drugs are called antispasmodics. Since stress and anxiety may play a role in these symptoms, it can at times be helpful to use a mild sedative, often in combination with an antispasmodic.

Physical exercise, too, is helpful. During exercise, the bowel typically quiets down. If exercise is used regularly and if physical fitness or conditioning develops, the bowel may tend to relax even during non-exercise periods. The invigorating effects of conditioning, of course, extend far beyond the intestine and can be recommended for general health maintenance.

As important as anything else in controlling IBS is learning stress reduction, or at least how to control the body's response to stress. It certainly is well-known that the brain can exert controlling effects over many organs in the body, including the intestine.

Patients with IBS can be assured that nothing serious is wrong with the bowel. Prevention and treatment may involve a simple change in certain daily habits, reduction of stressful situations, eating better and exercising regularly.

Perhaps the most important aspect of treatment is reassurance. For most patients, just knowing that there is nothing seriously wrong is the best treatment of all, especially if they can learn to deal with their symptoms on their own.

What happens during the treatment?
I have received specialist training in treating IBS using hypnotherapy and am a member of the UK Register of IBS Therapists. I am also a fully qualified and experienced Psychotherapist, Advanced Hypnotherapist, NLP Life Coach and a Licensed NLP Master Practitioner. I have trained with some of the best hypnotherapy and NLP trainers, including Paul McKenna, and by Dr Richard Bandler - the creator of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). I combine all my skills and experience to produce a treatment that is tailored to your needs. So that I can help you to treat your IBS in the quickest and most effortless ways possible.
I use the OPSIM (Gut-Specific) method of treatment, which will require 5 one hour sessions with daily practice at home between the sessions. The 5 sessions are spread out over a three month period.
Over the course of the treatment:
You will become familiar with the hypnotherapy process, allowing you to learn that it is safe and pleasant, and that you are in complete control at all times. You will begin the process of reducing anxiety and developing calming thoughts, which in turn reduces the negative thought patterns which trigger your IBS.
We will address the thoughts which create and stimulate the symptoms of IBS and teach you ways to control the speed of the peristalsis (movement of your digestive system) allowing a more normal bowel movement. You will also learn ways to reduce or eliminate pain and discomfort caused by the IBS.
You will release old unresourceful thought patterns that have been triggering or maintaining your IBS symptoms and develop new enhancing positive thought patterns.
Consultation Fees
The following prices are for the complete IBS hypnotherapy treatment which includes 5, one hour hypnotherapy sessions, CD's and hand-outs.
Before booking it is very important that you get your symptoms diagnosed by a medical practitioner or doctor, as many of the symptoms of IBS can also be symptoms of more serious conditions.

Below is a comprehensive, but by no means complete list of issues that Hypnotherapy can help with: