Hypnotherapy in Cambridge & London for Anxiety

What is hypnosis, lack of sleep and expectations need to be determined

2009-03-10T18:31:00.002Z

One of the most common questions put to hypnotherapists is that of some third-party 'proof' that hypnosis actually works.

Hypnosis can best be described as a 'soft-science' , parcelled perhaps with mainstream psychology and psychiatry. In fact is more often - unfortunately and negatively- described as an alternative therapy,and as such , most of us face the “Texas Sharpshooter” criticism.

Like the Texan cowboy who blasts away with his handgun at the barn wall and then draws the bulls- eyes around the holes,we are often accused of explaining away any less-than-perfect therapy outcomes by insisting either that in fact the change has happened and the patient has been cured-they just haven't noticed;or, by saying that its the patient's fault that the cure was not effected-they were at fault. They either didn't believe sufficiently in the process or they failed to adequately articulate their real problem-as opposed to the problem that was treated.

Now we know that patients often do seek help for symptoms rather than for the causative problem. In the same way that you go to see your GP with a sore throat ,and he gives you antibiotics to treat the bacteria rather than to actually treat the pain in your throat,so too,a competent hypnotherapist will sometimes seek to discuss the real reason behind your consultation.

In truth,results that are quoted in the media and to new patients are only ever anecdotal. It's very difficult to obtain quantitative research in any non-pharmacy-based mental health.
And whatever any individual therapist might say,hypnosis is at its base,about providing a better quality-of-life to the patient,about enhancing their human experience,about making the patient feel better,about them achieving more with their life, about re-gaining the locus of control that they have unconsciously given away to the fear, or to the cigarette or to the bottle of wine.
If you're messing around with someone's emotions by in fact altering neural pathways in their brain, then you are , de facto,providing a mental health experience.
There have been a number of papers looking at pain control and hypnosis , but even here, the results are anecdotal and empiricial .'Yes' the pain is abated . 'Yes',we can explain,using current neurophysiology why the hypnotherapy works,but,like the penicillin for the sore throat,it doest always work...and unlike your throat,we can't swab your brain!

Most therapists work within some or other paradigm,explicit or implied,ranging from a medical model to some model based on crystals and chanting at the moon.
Personally and professionally I am a psycho-analytic therapist and I see the role of hypnosis as fast-therapy. So , lets agree that there are hidden motivators that have caused the behaviour that you want to change,-and if you so desire we can explore that event in hypnosis-but perhaps , like most modern therapies , we will simply concentrate on the behaviour.

Nevertheless, all of the results have to make sense to you principally. Its your understanding of your life and your emotions and how you wish to proceed that is important. We are clearly not ,on a day-to-day basis dealing with profoundly disturbed patients who require sectioning!

I was reminded of this recently with a patient who sought treatment for insomnia.
Mrs Jones,a woman in her '50's who had taken early retirement and whose partner had unexpectedly died from a short and aggressive cancer. She went from being someone who routinely slept for 8 or 9 hours a night,to someone who just wasn't sleeping.

After a brief chat I did one of my routine insomnia scripts and added some general health comments. She came out of the trance relaxed and reported that she felt more in control of herself. She said that her mind had wandered quite a lot during the trance and that she didn't remember me saying anything about sleeping. She also seemed to have resolved several other issues. I assured her that this was normal and asked her to contact me if she had any further problems.

She contacted me within the week to say that the therapy had not worked. At all.
I immediately arranged to see her that evening to discuss the lack of progress and asked her to explain what was or wasn't happening when she went to bed .She said that she was going to bed at her 'normal time' about 11pm and then sleeping until about 7am the following day.
In fact ,she was sleeping for about 8 hours a night!
Slightly perplexed ,I asked her what was the problem with having slept for 8 hours. Her response was that -usually,normally- she slept until about 8am!
For Mrs Jones , the fact that she was waking up at 7am meant that the treatment was a failure.
I put her back into trance,and advised her that she would sleep until 8am every morning-but, that if she awoke earlier than 8am,having had more than 6 hours of sleep during the night,that she would awake feeling absolutely refreshed ,relaxed and eager to get out of bed to start her day.

I contacted her later,and she was generally waking at about 8am.And if she awoke earlier she felt rested and refreshed.

The point is that in terms of her understanding of her life and what she needed to move forward, her personal definition of “a good nights sleep” was from whatever time the night before until 8am.It transpired that 8am had been the time when her partner would have brought her a cup of tea as he left to go to work.
So for this patient , the proof was self evident , once I had adequately clarified her real expectation. In truth,we can only offer you anecdotal results. But if you ask enough people you will,sooner than later,find someone who has benefited from hypnotherapy.

Panic Attacks

2008-09-12T10:31:00.003+01:00

Panic attacks are common and can exist as a symptom on its own or they can present as part of another condition. Sometimes Panic attacks just develop, or panic attacks can develop as a learned behaviour from family, times of severe stress at work, or specific seeding events.

Hypnotherapy for panic attacks can be used to combat the symptoms, listed below. To break habitual behaviours. Desensitise the sufferer from stressors. Once under control look back at the original seeding event in a dispassionate calm environment. Although therapy can take several sessions a course of 3 sessions will alleviate of major symptoms.

The symptoms of Panic Attacks are;
Shortness of breath and smothering sensations.
Choking sensations.
Palpitations and elevated heart rate.
Chest discomfort or pain.
Sweating.
Dizziness unsteady feelings or faintness.
Nausea or abdominal distress.
Depersonalisation or de-realisation.
Numbness or tingling sensations.
Flushes or chills.
Trembling or shaking.
A fear that the patient is dyeing, having a heart attack or stroke.
A fear the patient is going crazy or they are about to do something uncontrolled.

In order for a doctor to make a diagnosis of panic attack four or more of these symptoms must present, develop quickly and reach a peak in 10 minutes.

Information about Anxiety

2008-09-10T10:06:00.002+01:00

To start with, let's define what we mean by anxiety. Are we talking about performance anxiety , when a person begins to feel nervous or stressed when thinking about a specific activity, e.g. making a presentation at work or perhaps a social occasion, or are we talking about general anxiety where a person goes through their day with a general sense of unease, not related to any particular activity or occasion?

In terms of treatment it is important for us to be clear what we are dealing with. At the risk of appearing flip, not being sure what you are anxious about can in itself generate more anxiety and the situation perpetuates itself.

Anxiety is basically caused by poor stress-coping strategies. Many people suffering from anxiety don't actually realise that they have stress-triggers in their lives. Thinking about what makes them anxious makes them even more anxious, so there is a tendency not to think about the root cause of the problem. In fact, anxiety and poor stress-coping strategies lead to a sort of mental paralysis, which in turn helps to accentuate and perpetuate the problem.

Let's just look at what happens to a person who encounters a stressful or anxious event. In physiological terms, the body is prepared for fight or flight. Chemicals and hormones are produced which are released into the bloodstream. These cause the heart rate to increase, the breathing rate to increase and an increase in muscular tension. This happens to all intents and purposes instantaneously and the purpose is to get the individual into a physiological state where they can literally either run away from danger or turn and fight to physically defend themselves. The important thing for us to appreciate in the context of what we are discussing is that the chemical release is designed to produce immediate physical action. That physical action dissipates the chemicals in the bloodstream and the body returns to a normal chemical balance. The analogy might be to imagine dropping a coin into some acid; there is a lot of bubbling and quite violent activity on the surface of the coin and when it's clean, it's taken out of the acid. If the coin were left in the acid, it would corrode and become damaged. The chemical/hormonal release is a bit like that acid, it's designed to produce an immediate effect and once that has happened it's done it's job and the physical action, in a sense, 'dilutes the body's acid'. If that physical action does not occur (i.e. the person does not either physically run away or physically turn round and fight) the chemical hormonal mix remains in the bloodstream, circulating around the vital organs and over a period of time can cause actual physical damage. Obviously, our bodies work in such a way that there has to be quite a build-up before there is any lasting damage, but what happens at work. Say you work in an office and one of your co-workers or managers really annoy you. When you are annoyed (or upset) by something, the body automatically goes into preparation for fight or flight. If there is no physical activity, which generally speaking in a work situation there isn't, there is a daily build-up of potentially harmful chemicals and hormones and the bloodstream which can and does begin to cause internal damage.

So, how can we alleviate this situation? It's the autonomic nervous system which stimulates the production of the chemicals and hormones which produce the fight or flight reaction and we can't actually prevent that from happening because the reaction evolved so that we could survive in what was a physically hostile world, however what we can do is to neutralise the effect of the chemical/hormonal secretion. You've probably read or heard that when we are relaxed or happy our brains produce certain chemicals which cause the pleasant feelings. Hypnotherapy/hypnosis can help get the brain to produce these chemicals, which counter and neutralise the effect of the fight or flight chemicals. You've probably experienced the situation where you've woken from a bad dream in an anxious state, a state where physically you're ready to run or fight ~ you're breathing heavily, your heart is beating faster and you're experiencing a certain tension in the muscles. As you realise that you were having a bad dream, so you begin to relax and as you begin to relax so the body returns to a more restful state. What has happened is that the fight or flight chemical reaction has been shut down by the autonomic nervous system, without any physical activity, because the perceived danger has passed.

The anxious or stressed person, however, continues to experience the physical effects of the fight or flight chemicals, continues to experience an unpleasantly aroused state and begins to confuse this aroused (anxious)state with a normal state, which in turn leads to more anxiety as they begin to experience the physical effects of having a 'corrosive' chemical/hormonal imbalance.

If we can get the brain to produce the neutralising chemicals then we can avoid the unpleasant physical effects caused by the chemical/hormonal imbalance. We can do this by a series of visualisation exercises. This is not quite as simple as going through life and thinking happy/pleasant thoughts (although it is true to say that people who are more positive in their approach to life don't suffer from prolonged anxiety) but with practice it is possible to 'get things into their true perspective' which in turn alters a persons outlook on life.

If you are suffering from anxiety or are generally pretty stressed-out by life and would like to change this give Dr Jim Rutherford a call on 0779 210 82 72.

Anxiety Disorders

2008-09-09T10:23:00.001+01:00

Anxiety and Panic Attacks - Hypnotherapy in Cambridge

Anxiety can be a dead weight just hanging over you all the time. Anxiety can be present from the moment you wake, anxiety is exhausting, anxiety drains you physical and emotionally, anxiety means you wake up exhausted and you go about your work or social life in a permanently anxious and exhausted condition.

Anxiety typically involves an emotional component (e.g. fear, nervousness), a physical component (e.g. trembling, dry mouth, heart racing, stomach churning) and a cognitive component (frightening thoughts, e.g. I'm going to fail/make a fool of myself/loose control). These can then affect our behavior, for example by putting off or stopping work, avoiding people, not sleeping, or drinking too much.

For anxiety treatment using Hypnotherapy in the Cambridge and East Anglia region,
Dr Jim Rutherford operates his anxiety practice out of the Frank Lee Center on the Addenbrookes Hospital Site and for London and Essex at The Joseph Clinic, South Woodford

For a discussion on your anxiety issues and an appointment call 0779 210 8272.

A short number of sessions are all that are needed to make anxiety and panic attacks a thing of the past. Each session is 90 minutes and each session will leave you calm relaxed and in control.

Anxiety can be brought about by specific (work, colleagues, presentations, fear of illness), or non specific issues, just a feeling of impending anxiety or pressure.

Hypnotherapy works rapidly on your unconscious mind to amplify your will power to feel calm and relaxed. It can alleviate anxiety by direct suggestion and by behavioral training both in trance and using self hypnosis can alleviate anxiety and help break mind loops of anxiety.

Hypnotherapy gives you back control of how you feel, behave, perceive and react to your environment.

Hypnotherapy can remove anxiety triggers and be used to dissociate you from these anxiety causing problems. Helping you regain motivation and move forward to a higher quality of life.

Extreme Anxiety can cause panic attacks.

Work related stress Hypnosis can elevate the stress concerning, performance, targets, a person or people at work who just demotivate you, or just change totally that journey to work which is currently wasted time. more information

The experience of anxiety can range from mild uneasiness and worry to severe panic. At a reasonable level, short bursts of anxiety can motivate us and enhance our performance. If anxiety becomes too severe or chronic, however, it can become debilitating.