Stress Management • Retreat • Perth, Scotland
Counselling and Psychotherapy
Emotional Health Therapy
Emotional Health Therapy is a combination of Human Givens Therapy, Hypnotherapy, Neuro-Linguistic programming (NLP) and Emotional Freedom Technique(EFT) and offers a powerful and rapid, yet gentle means of helping clients make lasting changes. This therapy helps clients achieve their full potential by overcoming lifelong difficulties and/or current concerns. Indeed, beneficial changes are often experienced after only one session.
As a therapist I can help...
Reduce Anxiety & Panic Attacks
Anxiety can take many forms, from a vague uncomfortable feeling to a full blown disabling anxiety that may lead on to panic attacks, fears, phobias and lack of confidence. Anxiety is made up of three elements: the physical sensation you experience, the emotions you have while experiencing them and the thoughts that go through your mind. There are two major causes of anxiety - chronic stress and the misuse of our imagination. To understand anxiety, we also need to Understand Stress.
Symptoms of Panic Attacks: When someone experiences a full blown Panic Attack it is extremely terrifying. A person may experience a pounding heart, copious sweating, dry mouth, shallow breathing, nausea and a sense of needing to go to the toilet. This is followed with a sensation of shortness of breath or choking. The person then starts gasping and panting, (hyperventilating) and the fear of panic and dying exacerbates the process which actually makes the problem worse. The symptoms that occur are in fact the fight-or-flight response that is unconsciously set in motion when we feel under threat. However, most people experience panic attacks in shopping centres or supermarkets where there is no real threat as there is no-one to fight and nowhere to run. These places just happen to be the place a person is in when an intolerable load of stresses, put together, suddenly rise above a level they feel they can cope with.
As the first time this happens it is very frightening, the brain remembers this for future pattern-matching purposes. Our brain (the amygdala) wants to protect us from harm, so the next time you are in a similar place, the amygdala using our senses does a pattern match and, low and behold you have a panic attack. A panic attack that occurs when there is no real emergency is like a smoke alarm that is so sensitive that it goes off when there is not a real fire. The person involved may wonder what is happening, then realises there is no fire so they can turn off the alarm. Nothing dire happens as a result. The Rewind Technique, which is so successful in resolving symptoms of post traumatic stress, is also highly effective in bringing down the emotional arousal associated with past panic attacks.
Overcome Fears & Phobias
It is possible to develop a phobia about anything such as: spiders, snakes, cats, injections, hospitals, flying, heights as well as social phobias such as talking or eating in public. A phobia is an irrational fear that is so strong that it induces enormous anxiety, panic or panic attacks. For example, agoraphobia (a fear of crowded places) is a self-protective response to the fear of panic attacks. Most people with agoraphobia have experienced seemingly inexplicable panic attacks whilst out somewhere. So, as a consequence, they want to stay at home to avoid it happening again, or if they do go out, they feel the need to have someone with them – to keep them safe.
If you suffer with a phobia you may be aware that your fear is unwarranted and out of proportion to the situation, but you are unable to control it. In some situations this can stop you from living a normal life. It is at these times that professional help is required. There are several ways that this can be achieved from simple breathing exercises, specialist phobia treatment and EFT. Please click on The Rewind Technique to find out more.
Resolve Trauma & Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Trauma can be caused by a single traumatic event or be the accumulative effect of experiencing repeated events or incidents. It can develop into post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Symptoms of Traumatic Stress may include: Flashbacks; Nightmares; Hallucinations; Bad Memories; Disturbed Sleep; Social and Emotional Withdrawal; Hyper-vigilance; Inability to Concentrate; Outbursts of Anger; Avoidance of people, places or activities; A Sense of having a fore shortened future.
Symptoms can show immediately after a traumatic incident or take a long time to develop. If left untreated, individuals are likely to develop depression, anxiety, panic attacks and phobias. They may start excessive drinking, smoking or drugs as they feel increasingly isolated and unable to cope, with possibly suicidal thoughts.
The effects can therefore be overwhelming and have long lasting consequences, disrupting and disabling people’s lives. This trauma will not heal untreated, and over time will cause great physical and emotional stress to the victim as well as family, friends and colleagues.
Human givens therapists can treat post traumatic stress disorders effectively and quickly by using ‘The Rewind Technique’. This treatment is carried out using relaxation and guided imagery and has several benefits:
- The client does not have to talk about their traumatic experience
- It is totally safe – no risk of embedding the trauma
- .It is fast - A person often feels dramatically better after only one session
This technique reprocesses the traumatic event so that it becomes stored as a normal memory, albeit a bad or sad memory, rather than one that causes flashbacks and other symptoms.
Break the Cycle of Depression
No one is immune from depression, but some people have more of a tendency to sink into depression than others. People who are depressed tend to worry and ruminate constantly. They dwell on anxious, angry or guilty thoughts that make them miserable and keep them emotionally aroused.
Cycle of Depression: After a setback, someone who reacts with too much emotion, and with an essentially pessimistic outlook, begins to catastrophise. This leads to black and white thinking – and generates more emotion by turning on the fight or flight response, which makes us angry (fight) or anxious (flight). There is too much worry and unexpressed emotion released during the day.
The brain cannot discharge it during its dream sleep. It either wakes up early to avoid exhaustion or attempts to stay asleep for an excessive period. Either way.... the person wakes up exhausted. There is therefore an increased likelihood that there will be too much emotion again...... and so the cycle continues.
Symptoms of Depression: The brain becomes exhausted by all this emotional arousal and a combination of symptoms can emerge such as feelings of guilt and hopelessness, disturbances in sleeping and eating, lethargy, low mood, difficulty in thinking and concentrating as well as physical aches and pains. This may lead to panic attacks, fears, phobias, stress, addictions, obsessive compulsive disorder, low self-esteem and lack of confidence.
Depression is a common illness, which affects many people in their lifetime. There is no need to fear it as using Human Givens Therapy even chronic depression can be lifted quickly, and the meaning, purpose, joy and happiness returned to life. Therapy focuses on current problems and is aimed at symptom resolution and includes calming techniques to enable the client to get back a sense of perspective. It consists of a blend of cognitive, behavioural and interpersonal approaches that are proven to be effective.
Stop Addictive Behaviour
An addiction is a habitual indulgence in any substance, activity or practice that is beyond your control and affects your life for the worse. It occurs in people who are not getting their emotional needs met. These people turn to substances to mask their distress – for example: to make them feel strong, sociable and on top of the world. Of course this is an illusion as eventually they become controlled by their addiction.
All forms of addiction or unwanted habits can be helped - alcohol, drugs, smoking, gambling, eating disorders, nail biting - providing the person wants to make the effort to stop. However this does have to be their individual decision, and, only when they reach the point that the addiction or habit gives them more pain than pleasure are they ready to change their behaviour. When that person really feels the disgust, guilt, shame, fear and pain caused to themselves and others, they will want to kick the habit.
When people kick a destructive addictive habit they go through a process known as ‘the wheel of change’. Some people succeed the first time around, but for others there may be many attempts before they succeed. This is because the more times you hit an obstacle, the more you learn about what works and what doesn’t with your addictive activity. So you are acquiring a set of skills that will eventually enable you to beat the addiction. Remember, past attempts can be seen as stepping stones to success.
Understanding what drives your addictive behaviour is an important part of the process of getting it under control.
There are three essential steps to beating addiction:
- Knock out the positive expectations that an addiction will generate
- Create a lifestyle in which all your needs are healthily and satisfyingly met
- Anticipate high risk situations and have a range of coping strategies in place
Release Anger
Expressing aggression by fighting, screaming or pounding walls is a myth.
The fact is that this only encourages further aggressive outbursts.
Angry outbursts, both verbal and physical are on the increase in our society. This can cause enormous misery among relatives, colleagues and innocent bystanders.
Anger, excessive rage or aggression can result from a build up of stress, lack of negotiation skills, chronic low self-esteem, addiction, brain damage, fear, traumatic experience or conditions related to what is known as ‘the autistic spectrum’.
Anger used in the right context is a resource that nature gave us to defend ourselves, our families and our territory. It is part of the fight or flight response, which evolved to help our survival. This stress response prepared us to fight (anger) or flee a dangerous situation. So, by whatever action was taken our bodies would automatically burn up the stress hormones and then return to normal functioning. This is fine when it occurs occasionally. However when the fight or flight response is being fired continually due to excessive anger, this can have serious consequences for our health, including:
- Hypertension – (high blood pressure)
- Increased cholesterol levels
- Damaged or blocked arteries
- Aggravated heart disease
- Increased susceptibility to infection
- Longer recovery from major trauma to our body (such as operations and cancer
All people, including children, only suffer from excessive anger if something is not working in their lives. Therapy therefore focuses on finding out what is missing or malfunctioning, and then helping that client get their life back on track. The first step is showing the client how to calm themselves down by using breathing techniques, relaxation and visualisation. Next the client is encouraged to develop an awareness of negative, hostile and resentful thoughts that are churning around in their head – their own ‘self-talk’. This is achieved by applying the following:
- ABC technique: Awareness – Block - Challenge these thoughts
With practice this eventually enables the client to take a new perspective on a situation that previously would have resulted in an angry out burst. This is called reframing and is one of the most powerful psychological techniques for changing behaviour.
Overcome Grief & Loss
Grieving after the loss of a loved one is always painful. Some people get ‘stuck’ in the process and need help to reinvest in life again. Losing something (i.e. our health, marriage, career, home,) or someone (i.e. death of a parent, partner or child) challenges our values and the meaning which we attach to life, to people, objects and ideas. The fact is that a loss is really only seen as a loss because it is not chosen, is significant. When we choose to do something or be with someone, we have a certain control over the situation. When this is absent we feel threatened and the meaning we give to life is questioned. A loss also demands of us some kind of response in the form of physical and emotional adjustment. Individuals may experience shock, denial, anger and depression whilst attempting to adjust to traumatic circumstances. So often ‘anger’ is seen as a failure to adjust. However, anxiety, fear, anger, and crucially, depression are all strong emotions which put people into a trance, or in other words an internal state of locked attention in which no other view is possible. These strong emotions prevent the individual from thinking issues through in a way that will enable them to make sensible decisions.
Effective therapy focuses on calming the client down so they can access their ‘observing self’ which breaks the trance state. The observing self is that part of us which is always outside the content of our experiences, able to observe and analyse from different viewpoints. Standing back from our concerns also enables us to separate our concerns from our core identity. Realising that we are not our cancer, our kidney failure, our mental illness – is critical for people who are identified or labelled as their impairment. Learning how to engage the observing-self enables individuals to generate or listen to a wider range of options. Other effective interventions include ‘The Rewind Technique’, a painless method of helping individuals overcome severe trauma or the breaking of bad news, and visualisation techniques to rehearse the success of any strategy the client desires to put in place.
Harmonise Relationships
All couples have problems that can raise the stress levels in either partner and trigger so much emotion that they can’t think straight. Invariably these problems are due to three things:
- Emotional or physical needs not being met
- Social conditioning that has created unrealistic expectation of the relationship
- Lack of understanding about the difference in the male and female approaches to thinking and emotions
Therapy will initially focus on identifying where the problems are arising from and then, by accessing the resources of each client, empower them to make the necessary changes in their life. This is achieved through relaxation and visualisation and can be done individually or as a couple. This helps to break the negative trance state that the couple are in with respect to each other and is an essential step before generating the momentum for change. Once the clients’ confidence in their ability to make life changes is increased, the next step is agreeing the strategies for change. Strategies may include: Behavioural approaches such as a joint activity that the couple previously enjoyed doing together; Cognitive approaches such as challenging faulty thinking; Reframing - helping the client to see the positive in the negative, the good motive in the bad behaviour. Reframing is a powerful technique that takes the venom out of a relationship, as it becomes clear that a seemingly uncaring partner, in fact cares a lot, but is going the wrong way about showing it.
Control Weight/Eating Habits
Are you fed up with endless dieting that only results in you regaining the weight (and often more) as soon as you return to your regular patterns of eating?
Discover how to control your weight without obsessive dieting, forbidden foods or starvation by changing the responses from your brain. Learn how to enjoy your relationship with food by eating less.
Bad eating habits and weight gain can often happen as a response to a difficult period in someone’s life such as bullying at school, sexual abuse, traumatic stress, marriage breakdown or loss of health. It also happens in everyday life when we are bored, sad, angry or stressed. People then comfort themselves with food as a way of meeting their emotional needs. This is called emotional hunger which is sudden urgent and different to physical hunger that comes on gradually and is felt in your stomach as hunger pangs. Emotional hunger is caused by the negative feelings that people have about themselves – self-hate, low self-esteem, low confidence, worthlessness, unlovable, hopeless etc. As the mind and body are connected, this in turn has an effect on the individual’s health and well-being.
Therapy focuses on helping clients change their feelings, moods and beliefs, and to be more positive about themselves. This means changing their negative self-image which is achieved by a variety of techniques such as relaxation, visualisation, and Hypnotherapy. Any underlying traumas will be treated with The Rewind Technique.
Whether you want to lose a stone or more in weight, this weight loss programme will help you to succeed easily and enjoyably without hunger and diets. I will help you to re-programme your mind and shrink your stomach. You can lose 2-5lbs each week without any diets.
Hypnotic Gastric Banding: For individuals who want or need to lose an excessive amount of weight, Hypnotic ‘Gastric Banding’ is the ultimate and affordable way to reduce weight without the risks of surgery. As therapy works with the mind and the body, individuals are successful in losing weight (and keeping it off), as their passion for high calorie junk food diminishes. Therapy looks at the root cause of the weight issue. The cause is often locked or suppressed somewhere in the subconscious mind and by using various techniques it can be released or reframed. This is the key to success and is what stops people from going back to old habits and putting the weight back on again.
To follow this weight loss programme you will have 4 or 5 two hour sessions with your therapist (depending on the individual) followed by a few appointments at monthly intervals for band adjustment and reinforcement of good work.
There are three options available:
- Individual sessions with or without Hypnotic ‘Gastric’ Banding
- Group Weight Loss Course (Consists of four 1 ½ hour sessions – Cost £15 Per Week) available at different locations in Fife & Perthshire.
- A Weight Loss Workshop (All day – Cost £95 per person) Ideal for a small group of family, friends or colleagues, day or weekend arrangements to suit your requirements.
Increase Confidence & Self-Esteem
When a person has adequate confidence and self-esteem, they are unaware of the fact as they do not give it a second thought. It is only when that person experiences a problem that makes them feel inadequate, not good enough, clever enough or incompetent that they become aware that all is not well. Low self-esteem and lack of confidence can also arise from childhood or from any abusive relationship in which a person is constantly told they are un-loveable, bad, useless, ugly, clumsy or stupid. They then take in these false messages and become conditioned by them to think they are true.
When your self-esteem is low, you are your harshest critic. You are blind to your good points. You are haunted by your past mistakes, and the possibility of making future errors. Anxiety and depression are kept alive by negative thinking and worrying. So the negative commentary running in your head such as “No one likes me, I must be a bad person”, destroys your confidence and belief in yourself.
Therapy focuses on lowering the emotional arousal and breaking the pattern of negative thinking that is causing the low self-esteem and anxiety. A variety of techniques are used that are aimed at empowering the client to take a more powerful perspective on events. This enables them to explore new possibilities and options instead of their current narrow interpretation of events. As the client’s confidence increases so does their ability to take on the larger task of making the necessary changes in their life.
Resolving emotional distress
As your Therapist I will:
- Help you think about your problems in new and more empowering ways
- Help you to build on your own resources
- Increase your self confidence
- Give information and advice as needed
- Not dwell unduly on the past
- Be supportive when difficult feelings emerge, but not encourage you to remain in an emotionally aroused state
- Understand depression and how to lift it
- Give immediate help with anxiety, panic attacks, fears and trauma
- Use a wide range of techniques as appropriate
- Teach you to relax deeply
- Take as few sessions as possible
- Make sure you feel better after each consultation
Please Contact me for more details.