Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a psychotherapy approach that has been found to be effective for treating PTSD.
What is PTSD?
PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) is an intense and prolonged response to a traumatic situation, and can manifest a long time after the triggering event.
PTSD can occur at any age, and the symptoms can vary. The usual symptoms include: anxiety, insomnia, intrusive thoughts, recurring dreams, flashbacks, inability to feel emotions, detachment, depression, etc.
EMDR Therapy
During an EMDR therapy session, the therapist guides the patient to focus on specific traumatic memories while simultaneously engaging in bilateral stimulation, such as eye movements, tapping, or auditory tones. This has been proven to help the brain process and integrate the traumatic memories in a more adaptive way.
More information about what you can expect during an EMDR session can be found here.
Research has shown that EMDR therapy can lead to a reduction in PTSD symptoms, such as flashbacks, nightmares, and avoidance behaviours. It has also been found to be effective in treating other mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression.
It is important to note that EMDR therapy for PTSD may not be effective for everyone and that it should not be used as a standalone treatment. When treating PTSD, EMDR should be used in conjunction with other forms of therapy, such as cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT).
If you are interested in exploring EMDR therapy as a treatment option, it is recommended that you speak with your GP first to determine if this is the right treatment for you.
A GP’s referral is required for any PTSD-related therapy with EMDR.
Ongoing stress can cause long-term health issues, and can even contribute to serious health conditions.
If you have a lot of stress in your life, and feel unable to get it under control, then hypnotherapy can help. Hypnosis helps put you in a deep state of relaxation, which can give your mind and body the much needed experience of ‘letting go’ of thoughts and worries. People usually feel refreshed, with a clearer mind and sharper focus at the end of their session. They feel so well and calm, that they look forward to their next session and to reaching this state of calm again.
I will teach you self-hypnosis, so you can create this state of calm whenever you need it.
I will use strategic psychotherapy to help you shift your perception to more resourceful ways of interacting with the world.
Anger
Anger is a natural response of externalising tension/emotions to a situation in which you feel like you are not acknowledged, heard, respected, etc. Also, in some cases, anger is caused by a chemical imbalance in the body (for example sugar imbalance), or can be linked to substance use and abuse.
Therefore, anger is not a ‘good’ or a ‘bad’ thing. It’s how you go about expressing it that determines its quality.
I use NLP to help you change perspectives and to gain insights into if/how anger is working for you.
I use strategic psychotherapy and clinical hypnosis to help you access your own resourceful states, your own way of creating calm and balance in your mind.
Sleep Problems
Having problems falling asleep, or do you wake up in the middle of the night and find it hard to fall asleep again. Or just wake up feeling un-refreshed in the morning?
Everyone has a bad night from time to time but, if you frequently sleep poorly, then it is time to do something about it. Research shows that poor, long-term, sleep can cause serious mental (eg. depression, mania, psychosis, etc), and physical health problems (eg. weight-gain, diabetes, liver disease, etc).
Hypnotherapy works very well in helping people get back to normal, healthy sleep routine. We will look at the external factors that may impact on your sleep and, also, at how you are ‘doing’ your sleep. The mental process you use for sleeping determines the result. People that sleep well are better at just switching the mind off when they put their head on the pillow. They are able to just ‘think of nothing’.
With strategic psychotherapy and clinical hypnosis I will help you learn ways to become aware of your mind and to be able to slow it down so that you can just fall asleep easily when you put your head on the pillow at night.
Low Self-Esteem
People that suffer from low self-esteem are most often very capable, smart and hard-working people that have come to believe the negative , or untrue, assessment that people around them have given them. Looking outside for validation, regardless of the context, is fraught with danger. We cannot expect to have an accurate and complete assessment of ourselves from someone else, no matter how well they know us. They have their own filters and emotions that might skew their perceptions.
All of us, even the most well-known and respected people, are a continuous work in progress. If you want to find your strong and well-grounded self, then give hypnotherapy a go.
Brain-Fog
Brain-fog can be a secondary effect of several physiological or neurological conditions, so it is recommended to confirm with your doctor if it is safe for you to undergo hypnotherapy for the brain-fog.
Whether or not people seek therapy for clearing brain-fog, hypnotherapy usually results in improved clarity of mind, increased ability to focus, better awareness of what is going on around, increased motivation, confidence and energy.
I use strategic psychotherapy, NLP and clinical hypnosis to help you, on a conscious level, distinguish between what works and what doesn’t work in the way you use your mind, and to help your unconscious mind develop thinking strategies that allow you to reach your goals.
Social-Anxiety
Do you feel uncomfortable when you are around other people, especially people that you don’t know? You are not alone. Feeling shy when meeting new people is normal for most people. If, however, this unease starts affecting your life, then it is time to do something about it.
Using strategic psychotherapy, NLP and clinical hypnosis I can help you: change the patterns of anxiety and generate new empowering and socially-adequate ways for social interaction.
Phobias
If you’re scared of spiders, of rats, of birds, of closed spaces, of heights, of elevators, of flying, or of anything else, then hypnotherapy is definitely for you.
A phobia is an unconsciously- learnt process that is being ‘played’ by default every time a particular ‘trigger’ is encountered. Usually, these phobic default-processes form at an early age and, as a result, the person comes in for therapy saying “I’ve always had this problem”… The reality is that they haven’t always had the problem. The problem appeared at a particular instant when the conscious mind was not able to grasp and make logical sense of what was happening to them in that moment, and the unconscious reverted to creating a drastic situation in order to create safe space between the person and the perceived threat. But what was perceived as a threat when a toddler would likely not be a treat in adult life.
Using strategic psychotherapy, NLP and clinical hypnotherapy it is possible to interrupt the neural pathways that are responsible for the problem, and to create new associations that are appropriate for the current context.
Many people experience a dramatic reduction in their phobia after the first session, but it is recommended to undergo 3 to 5 sessions to completely remove any underlying reasons for the phobia.
Anxiety
It is human to feel anxious from time to time. However, if the anxious feelings don’t go away, or if they happen out of the blue, without any particular reason, or they make your daily life difficult, you may be suffering from anxiety.
Anxiety is the most common mental health condition in Australia. On average, one in three women and one in five men experience anxiety at some stage in their life.
People that have a tendency towards anxiety often get caught up in their imagination about things or situations that have not yet happened (and may never, actually, happen). They tend to focus on future events, and feel uneasy about uncertainty because – in their mind – anything uncertain can go really bad.
With strategic psychotherapy and clinical hypnosis I help people:
Become more clear about their ways of thinking and how they process information: what is working and what is not working
Make a distinction between what is real (or a fact) and what is imagined
Find ways of being more at ease with uncertainly and the unknown
Develop a more positive expectancy and outlook
Become more grounded and self-reliant (as opposed to reliant on others)
Identify a better way of processing information, a better ‘mental process’ for how to respond to difficult situations
Smoking
Hypnosis has been shown to help people give up smoking for good, by addressing both the psychological and the physical cravings that are associated with the nicotine withdrawal.
You might think that you are addicted to cigarettes, but in fact you may be addicted to the feeling that the cigarettes are giving you. Perhaps you smoke to de-stress, or because of boredom, or at certain times during the day…
It is important to take note, to un-pack, to understand your smoking habit, as this is will weaken your unconscious link with it. The treatment is simple and straightforward, and most people quit smoking without difficulty. A commitment to undertaking 4 sessions is required, even if you quit smoking after the first session. This is to ensure that all the underlying factors that have contributed to smoking are addressed.
If you want to give the habit away for good, then call me to find out how this can be a permanent resolve for you.
Procrastination
Who has never put things off, especially if they were unpleasant? Like studying for an exam, or making that difficult phone-call, or cleaning up that shed, or room?
People usually put things off because they are trading in one unpleasant feeling for a more pleasant feeling. It is like getting some feeling of comfort in the present moment is more important that the likely feeling of discomfort later on. Therefore, people that tend to procrastinate, are usually more present-oriented, more inclined towards avoiding discomfort.
If putting things off is affecting your life, then I can help you with strategic psychotherapy and clinical hypnosis to:
Make a distinction between what is important ‘now’, and what is important ‘later’
Recognise what stays in the way of taking action (the incongruence, or resistance)
Take control over what is important
Come up with a process for taking action, and consistently follow through with it
Pain Management
If you have tried everything to manage your pain and nothing has helped, then it is worth giving hypnosis a fair go.
Pain management is the most empirically-validated application of hypnosis. Independent research, over the last 200 years has shown that hypnosis appears to be at least as effective as other non-physical approaches in the management of pain.
Hypnosis works by helping the brain dissociate from the pain and by changing its perception of it. Most of this takes place during the hypnosis session and happens at an unconscious level. It may, also, continue to happen after the session has ended. People often notice a positive change straight away, while sometimes the positive results become visible gradually over a period of time.
So, if nothing else has helped so far to remove, or reduce, your pain, or you are sick of taking pain killers, then you should consult with your doctor about whether clinical hypnosis may be the right path for you. Important to note that, for any pain-related hypnotherapy session, a referral letter from your doctor is likely to be required.
If you are unsure, or would like to discuss further, please contact me via the Contact Page.
Weight Issues
Want to lose weight? Are you feeling frustrated at how hard the diets are, or do you feel defeated by the repeated setbacks?
Diets offer quick fix solutions, and might even produce positive results in the short-term, but they often don’t work in the long-term, because they do not resolve the underlying issue that is at the root of the problem.
Problems happen when food becomes a way to emotionally-soothe, when eating in order to make an unpleasant feeling go away. When this is carried out for years, it becomes a habit and it ends up feeling like a dependency.
The best way to deal with this is by correcting, through hypnotherapy, the unhelpful and limiting beliefs that have caused the problem. Hypnotherapy has been shown to be more effective than dieting, at helping people lose weight.
I use strategic psychotherapy, NLP and clinical hypnosis to eliminate the psychological need that is linked to over-eating, and to regain a healthy relationship with food, that results in long-term/permanent success.
