People Building
Health and Emotion Articles
Here are some articles we have written that you can find published on the web. If you would like to have one of your NLP or hypnotherapy articles published on our site, please submit it to articles@peoplebuilding.co.uk for the attention of Gemma.
IBS
One of the most major irritants of IBS is the quality and compatibility of the food that is fed to the body. For example, those that eat a healthy diet of fresh fruit and vegetables and cut out takeaways, fast food and fizzy drinks, are less likely to suffer from IBS.
There is also an increased likelihood that an IBS sufferer will have some food intolerances or allergies. Diary, wheat and gluten are amongst the most common food intolerances. It is relatively easy to have an allergy test to discover if there are any such causes and it is also worthwhile experimenting with foods that are known irritants. If these are cut from the diet for 1 month then the client will be able to establish what influence these foods have upon their IBS symptoms.
So diet has an enormous impact on the effects of IBS, and so does stress. Many people who suffer with IBS are already aware of the link between their stress levels and their IBS symptoms. In fact the feelings of fear, panic and anxiety can have an almost immediate impact of the workings of the stomach. Many people have had the experience of becoming anxious and noticing a fluttering or shifting feeling in the stomach area. Some experience their IBS in this way, and are actually in touch with the emotional feelings that are affecting their health and wellbeing. It is thought that the saying “follow your gut feeling” relates to the experience of noticing the emotions within the stomach region and establishing whether those feelings are positive or negative feelings, in fact many cultures believe that the stomach is the second domain of the emotions. It could therefore be presupposed that those who experience IBS in this way have some other issue that would cause them to experience these negative emotions in the first place. It could be trouble in a relationship or at work, or it could be related to a specific fear, phobia or some other problem that causes the client to feel stress.
Others are less aware of the emotions in their stomach, and instead may be experiencing stressful or negative thoughts that later cause their IBS symptoms.
The best way to pin point what causes the symptoms of IBS will be through the use of a diary. The client will be asked to write down everything that they eat and drink and at what time over a two week period. This diary should also include the times when the IBS symptoms are experienced. This will help the therapist to highlight and discuss with the client any obvious links between the foods in the food diary and the occurrence of the IBS symptoms. If there are no obvious links, the therapist can then also begin to explore reoccurring emotions and the circumstances that create these. Techniques can then be used to deal with these negative emotions, plus techniques for relaxation to combat stress can be taught to the client. Hypnosis can also be used to offer the clients suggestions for healing and eating more healthily in the future.
Defusing Panic Attacks
Having worked with a variety of people who have panic attacks on a regular basis, I have found that a large number of them also are outgoing, happy- go –lucky individuals at other times during their day to day life. Many of them are the “clown” or entertainer when in a social setting, or work in sales, for example. For many of them, there are very few people around them who are aware of their panic attacks and would never suspect a thing, because they just do not seem to be the “sort of person” to suffer from such a problem.
There are many different techniques that can be used to help those who suffer from panic attacks, and some therapies work better on some people than others. Personally, as a therapist I find EFT, Hypnosis and some NLP techniques such as anchoring are usually helpful to know, as it is likely that one of these skills will be suitable for the client. However, in the situation described above, where the person has this dichotomous character ("sometimes I feel very calm and extroverted, other times I feel blind panic") it is worth exploring the NLP technique known as a parts integration.
A “Parts problem” occurs when there is a significant emotional event that occurs, or a serious of mild emotional events that occur in which a client has failed to enforce a boundary. What is meant by boundary enforcement is context dependent- sometimes we fail to say “no, I don’t want to…” and do something against our will. Sometimes we do not or are not able to enforce physical boundaries. Sometimes our boundaries are violated because we are too young, or too trusting to be able to speak up and say what we really want or feel.
Imagine that all of the negative emotion related to that memory, are stored in your system. But rather than having those negative feelings floating all over your nervous system, your body houses them all together within a boundary, (in the same way that it might do with the poison from a cyst or blister for example.) The boundary with the negative emotion inside is called a part, and it is apart from the rest of the nervous system.
Whenever the nervous system “gets word from the outside” by seeing, hearing, feeling, recalling (and to a certain degree even tasting or smelling) some kind of trigger that relates to that parts existence; the part springs into action. This will have the effect of the person feeling all of the emotions, experiencing all of the behaviour and reacting with all of the characteristics associated with that parts existence without regard for the “normal” behaviour and character of that person.
Let say for example that the behaviour associated with that part is “blind panic.” It would go some way to explain the incongruence that the person who is usually confident experiences- “sometimes I’m really confident, sometimes I’m panicking about something insignificant…”
A parts integration works by establishing the highest intentions of both parts (the panic part and the confident part.) The highest intentions are almost always the same as each other and are simply using different behaviours in order to be met. Once they have been established as the same, and positive, the problem part can find new empowering ways of being met and the two parts can be re-integrated. This is a truly magic technique to witness.
Improving Athletic Performance
Practise makes perfect, that’s what my old Nan always used to say. However, what she failed to mention, is the importance of practising things going the way you want them to go, instead of considering what to do if it does go wrong. How many times do you ask yourself “What’s the worst that could happen?!”
For athletes though, it is imperative that they focus on achieving, on being the winner, first time, every time. Quite often, they only have one shot at their success. Being a bit off form at the crucial moment is simply not an option.
So the first thing I tell athletes who come to see me for help in improving their performance is to practice success. To actually visualise everything going well: scoring the perfect goal, making the longest jump or moving the fastest. From an attraction point of view, we know that you will attract more of what you are focusing on, so it’s important to focus in success. This helps to manifest the desired outcome, but more than that, when you focus on something in your mind, you are also accessing all of the same neural networks as if you were actually performing the act. Scientists initially believed that the neural networks existed only in the brain, but we now know that they are a network throughout your entire body. This mean that if for example, you think about running, as you are laying in your bed, you will be activating and accessing the muscles in your legs. It is quite likely that they will twitch unconsciously as you consider moving them. This was famously noted by Milton Erickson, the man largely responsible for bringing hypnosis to the clinical arena. When Milton was a child he was struck with polio and left paralyse. As he sat in a chair, longing to be outside playing with his
siblings, imagining running in the long grass and kicking the football, he noticed that his legs had begun to swing in the chair!
NLP utilises a techniques called anchoring. In this, the mind creates a link between an intense feeling and an external trigger. This can have positive and negative implications for our athletes. For example, there may be negative anchors (triggers that create a bad feeling) associated to past failures which are set off whenever the athlete is performing or due to perform. If the trigger for the bad feeling can be established, then the negative anchor can easily be collapsed. If an athlete need to tap into resourceful emotions, such as calm, focus or power, an anchor can be created with a trigger of, squeezing their fingers for example.
A simple way to become the best at what you do, is to find someone else who is the best at it, and find out how they do it. If you think that Thierry Henry is the best striker that the world has ever seen, it is possible to model the way that he thinks, feels and behaves to create the results he achieve. This is done using strategy elicitation which allows us to extract all of the conscious and unconscious components that create the behaviour, which lead to the excellent result. When the strategy has been extracted, it can be installed in someone else using rehearsal, metaphors or hypnosis. Hypnosis provides a deep state of relaxation which can be prolonged to maintain calm and alleviate anxiety, as well as installing positive empowering suggestions, such as being able to focus and concentrate with ease.
At a deeper level of understanding, NLP can be used to discover a persons values and uncover and resolve any conflicts here. For example, if a person has a value of success and a value of not being defeated, then there could be some problems here. For a start, nor being defeated is what we would call an “away from” value, in that the person is trying to move away from something, in this case, to move away from defeat. This means that their focus is on defeat, making it likely that this is the thing that is achieved. This is then also in conflict with success, which could mean that success is sometimes achieved, but is not sustainable.
After all, if sports or athletics is you life, it’s not the taking part which counts, but the winning.
Hypnotherapy for Asthma
Being a former asthma sufferer myself, I can completely empathise with those who live in dread the suffocating symptoms of an asthma attack.
My asthma was induced by dust and aggravated by intense exercise, however for others, the causes are less easy to avoid. Pollen, pollution, stress, colds, and cigarette smoke are just some of the factors that can aggravate asthma. Although there are many pharmaceutical treatments for asthma, the very young and very old can be particularly debilitated by the symptoms of asthma.
When an attack is on its way, it's important to keep calm, but when you feel physically unable to get suffiecient oxygen into your body (this is because the airways are constricting), calm is generally the last thing you are feeling, and no matter how many times you consciously remind yourself to keep calm, will power alone is not enough.
The good news is that most asthma suffers have some idea of when they are going to have an asthma attack, there may not be a lot of prior warning, but there will be some.
Using hypnosis, an asthma sufferer can be given suggestions such as remaining calm when they suspect that an attack is going to happen, visualising the tubes of their airways as being relaxed and wide, becoming disassociated from one's self so that they are able to look at themselves and how they look at this time just before the attack comes on. Or notice how a simple change in their own physiology can release discomfort or what it is that they are focusing on at that time… are they focusing on how tight and uncomfortable they feel, or how their socks feel on their feet? Wherever your attention is, you can expect to notice more intensely.
Imagining the lungs in a healthy normal state can encourage them to return to normal function, in fact as well visualising the self and how actual changes can be made to the body and it's parts, more covert techniques can be employed. A rubber band letting go offers suggestions of something taut becoming loose and limp (such as the airway), a stiff door that is oiled to that it can swing open easily can also make similar positive suggestions, or a slide window that allows a breeze to blow through. Simply the auditory suggestion of a slowing metronome can encourage a panicked racing heartbeat to slow down.
Hypnosis is one of the most effective ways to achieve a natural relaxed state. In this state the mind is more open to suggestion and the state of relaxation alone can ease the anxiety and stress that can cause an attack. This means that using auto suggestion, it may be possible for a person to abort the asthma attack before it begins.
How Does Counseling Differ From Cognitive Therapies Such as NLP or CBT?
If you are considering having some form of therapy it can sometimes be difficult to decide which therapy is best suited to meet your needs. Most people are aware of what counseling is, but nowadays there are other options such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Neuro Linguistic programming (NLP). I am a cognitive therapist providing NLP and CBT therapy. Often people contact me to discuss how CBT and NLP, differs from counseling therapy. This article will introduce you to how these therapies differ from traditional counseling approaches.
Counseling involves meeting with a counselor and having the opportunity to explore via talking, difficulties you may be having or distress you may be experiencing. The counselors role is to listen attentively to what you are telling them in order to begin to form an understanding of your perspective of the difficulties you may be experiencing. Counseling does not involve giving advice or guiding a client to take a particular course of action. Through the process of being listened to by a counselor, who is trained to reflect and help you to clarify your problem, counseling can be a way of enabling change, more choices or of helping you release strong emotion and feeling, which you have kept bottled up or have felt unable to share with family or friends.
During counseling you are able to explore and talk freely about any aspect of your life, be it past, present or in the future, in a setting which is confidential. Counselors accept and respect their clients and provide a safe environment for the client to explore their life, relationships and themselves. Counseling can be very useful for helping people to deal with distressing emotions associated with bereavement and loss. Counseling can be very useful for you if you feel you would benefit from being listened to or feel burdened by troubles.
Cognitive approaches such as CBT and NLP are both approaches used to promote positive change in individuals. Like counseling, the therapist will treat you with respect and provide a confidential environment for you to work through your problems. Cognitive approaches are effective at alleviating emotional distress and behavioural problems. Unlike counseling, cognitive techniques can be practised by the individual and are based on the philosophy that the content of our thoughts have a major influence on our emotions and behaviour. Through cognitive therapy, it is possible to learn ways to eradicate or manage the types of thoughts you have, which means that the state of mind they sustain, such as anxiety, can be resolved. CBT and NLP are solution-focused techniques that focus on the ‘here and now'. Unlike other talking treatments, such as counseling, the focus is not on trying to find the cause of your distress (the therapist will take a full history and discuss your past but practical strategies to promote well-being in the present is the main focus) rather you will learn to improve your state of mind right now. This involves learning which factors maintain your distress or problem and learning strategies to overcome your problem which you will practice in your own time.
NLP is an intimidating name for what is a common sense, practical and effective therapy. ‘Neuro' means brain, ‘linguistic' relates to how we use language both to communicate with others, and within our own brain and ‘programming' relates to how we create and use patterns of behaviour in everyday life in order to get results. We know that we experience the world through our senses and that this information is translated into thoughts. How you use this internal language in your own brain directly affects your physiology, emotions and behaviour. People tend to develop habits and patterns of using internal language that have positive or negative effects on their emotions and behaviour. NLP therapy, encourages new perspectives and options in thinking, giving you more choices about your behavior and emotions, enhancing your communication and relationships and generating lasting life skills.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy focuses on how you think about a problem (cognitive) and what you do about it (behaviour). CBT can teach you how to recognise and change faulty thinking patterns. This doesn't mean that you will always think positive thoughts. It is a way to gain control over racing repetitive thoughts, which feed anxiety and depression. CBT can help you make sense of overwhelming problems by breaking them down into achievable parts.
Both these therapy approaches are practical and focused on problem solving in order to meet your therapy goals. This means that unlike counseling, sessions are more structured and less free flowing as you move towards change with the support of your therapist. Often people will seek cognitive therapy such as CBT, or NLP, when they want solutions to their problem or to move on from limiting thinking, feelings or behaviour.
Cognitive Therapy and NLP Approaches to Combat Depressive and Anxious Thinking
Changing the way you think in order to improve the way you feel, forms the basis of cognitive approaches to mental-wellbeing. Cognitive therapies recognise that our thoughts can affect our understanding of the outside world. Depressed people (i.e. people that practice depressed thoughts!) experience the world in a different way to others. For example, they may perceive colours less vibrantly, food can seem bland and unpleasant, and safe everyday situations can seem threatening. They often predict bad outcomes from actions and events where others would expect positive consequences. A depressed persons world is likely to be experienced significantly differently to a happy person's. However, to an observer their circumstances could appear the same.
Cognitive therapy and related approaches such as NLP (neuro-linguistic-programming) are very effective at helping people recognise the thinking habits behind problems such as depression, anxiety, panic disorders and phobias. There are many cognitive techniques for testing negative thinking patterns and developing new more adaptive ways of thinking. If you are considering cognitive therapy, expect to commit to homework tasks and regular practise of these techniques.
Negative thoughts are usually fairly easily identifiable with the help of a therapist. In order to bring about a more global change, it's often necessary to go beyond the thoughts we have to the deeper levels of our cognition - our beliefs.
Most people rarely think about their beliefs, how they developed, their role in guiding your life or whether they are helpful and supportive.
That's because our beliefs have often been with us for a very long time. Very often we develop them in childhood. For example, a child may learn that ‘dogs are dangerous' or ‘dogs are friendly', depending on his experiences related to dogs. As that child grows up, it is likely that he will become more flexible in his belief about dogs, able to judge individual dogs for friendliness or dangerousness. This happens in most areas of our lives, as the more rigid beliefs from childhood, evolve and become more flexible as we develop.
However, this is not always the case. Sometimes negative beliefs develop due to trauma or consistent negative interactions or early life experiences. These beliefs often remain fixed in adulthood even though they hold the person back or negatively impact on their lives. Often they are taken as the absolute truth.
Beliefs form the core of your identity. Holding beliefs about yourself, your world and others that are unconstructive and not necessarily true, can be bad news for your self-esteem. Beliefs influence on your emotional experience and behaviour by colouring how you see the world.
Every belief you have is a generalisation or simplified way of viewing the world. Generalisations by their very nature are distortions. Often when I see clients for therapy it is possible to find a distorted belief behind the problem. For example ‘I am worthless' is a belief, which promotes depression.
Your beliefs can actually determine outcomes. This is because your beliefs effect what you focus on or pay attention too. So for example, if you focus on being un-likeable, your unconscious mind will be on the lookout for examples of people not liking you and will find various ways to bring this to your attention. Whilst this is going on, you are of course ignoring evidence that shows you are in fact liked by all sorts of people.
I practice NLP, CBT therapy and I am also a hypnotherapist. People often come to see me with difficulties, which can be traced back to limiting beliefs e.g. “I am unattractive”, “I am a bad person”. Of course, it is not always obvious to them that they are holding onto damaging beliefs about themselves and their world, which prevent them from growing and developing or doing things they want too.
NLP and CBT therapy and Hypnotherapy, has proven methods for empowering people to challenge and even eradicate illogical beliefs. The result can mean seeing the world in new and fresh ways.
Anxiety Treatment
If you are an anxiety sufferer, I am sure that you will have read plenty of literature, on and off the internet about what anxiety is, what causes anxiety, what anxiety symptoms are and also information about the current anxiety treatments available. Therefore, this article will not spend time talking about these issues.
Understanding about anxiety is the first step in you overcoming it. However, the next and perhaps not as easy step, is to begin to become good at techniques that will allow you to master your anxiety or panic. I say ‘not as easy step', because this is the feedback that I often get from clients during my first consultation with them. They often report to me that they have read so much about their problem that they know all there is to know. The difficulty, they find, is putting into practice the techniques. This is where the support of a therapist can be invaluable.
One of the more challenging, yet most effective techniques that a person with anxiety should know, is how to be mindful. What this means is being aware of the types of thoughts you have and the internal dialogue you hold with yourself. Being mindful means thinking about your thinking!! This article will discuss one way in which you can manage your anxiety by managing your thinking.
We know that the way we think can affect the way we feel physically and emotionally. People suffering from anxiety for several years or more can develop unhelpful thinking habits. Negative thinking habits have been found to activate the flight or fight response.
The trouble with negative thoughts is that they are very persuasive. Some of the characteristics of negative thoughts, is that they just ‘appear' in your mind, they are unhelpful and stop you mastering anxiety, they are seductive, so that its easy to fall into the trap of believing them and they can seem overwhelming and difficult to dismiss from your mind. Sometimes we are aware of these thoughts and sometimes we are not. They can take the form of fleeting images or pictures in our minds, occurring automatically and disappearing quickly.
One of the ways to deal with negative thoughts is to challenge them. First you have to identify them. This can be challenging itself! Particularly if they are automatic thoughts. Spend time noting your thoughts, the situation they occurred in and how you felt. Once you have begun to recognise when you are having negative or upsetting thoughts try the following one technique. It involves challenging your thoughts by asking yourself a series of questions. You will need to practice the process until it becomes a habit to not just accept your thoughts as truth.
Ask yourself the following questions:
1. What is the evidence
What evidence is there to support my thoughts?
What evidence is there against them?
Don't just assume your thought is true, record the evidence for both sides of the argument.
2. Objective perspective
How would someone else view this situation?
How would I have viewed this situation at times when I have been strong and calm?
3. Where does this thinking get me?
What is the effect of thinking the way I do? Does it help me or hold me back? How does it do this?
4. What types of thinking error am I making?
People with anxiety tend to display several common thinking bias, some of which are listed below. Try to identify the thinking distortions you may be making.
All or nothing thinking: ignoring the middle ground
Focusing on the negative: ignoring strengths or any positives
Jumping to conclusions/mind reading: predicting the future
Catastrophising: overestimating the chances of crises
Personalising: blaming self for something, which is not your fault
Living by rigid beliefs: fretting about how things ought/should/must be.
5. What can be done change my situation?
What solutions are being overlooked? Make a list of what you can do to change your situation.
6.What is the worst possible outcome?
What is the worst thing that would happen and how bad would that really be? Fantasy is usually much worse then reality!
A Burning Rage
We've all experienced anger at one time or another, it's in many ways a perfectly, natural and normal state, ranging from mind frustration to intense rage. When you become angry physiological and biological changes occur within the body- heart rate and blood pressure are elevated and adrenalin production increases.
For some people, there is a specific external stimulus that sets off their anger process; it could be the behaviour of another person for example. Or, there may be not external stimulus at all. It is of course possible for memories and thoughts to greatly impact on the emotional state- you can even make yourself angry just by thinking certain thoughts.
For many, the response to angry feelings is to react in a spontaneous and powerful way- this could mean physical aggression, verbal aggression, or general negative behaviour and reaction to others around them. This may lead us to question whether this emotion really is a beneficial one to have- from what we know so far, it seems to cause a lot of problems. Well, I'm telling you now that this anger that you have is a very important emotional skill. Your anger is there to serve you, it provides a vital function- it lets you know that something is wrong. Perhaps you haven't asserted yourself in the right way which led to frustration that built into anger, or perhaps you did not at sometime enforce a boundary where you should have. Maybe you're stressing yourself by thinking problematic thoughts, or you've got so angry for so long, you've hard wired yourself to go there at the drop of a hat, completely unreasonably and illogically. Whatever it is, your anger is there to tell you that something is not right and something about the way you're dealing with this situation, needs to change.
Some people believe that it's a good idea to expel angry aggression, by say, boxing, or doing some kind of physical activity. It is my belief that this simply re-enforces the anger behaviour pattern. It's a bit like keep putting out a reoccurring fire, without finding out how to stop it occurring in the first place.
I've said it before, so I'll say it again, the feelings exist within you- so guess where the changes need to be made- that's right. Things need to change in you.
We already know that hypnosis causes deep, deep, deep relaxation and the reason why this is essential for angry people, is because it calms you down- plus some positive suggestions for reacting differently in the future can be made and accepted by the unconscious.
Using NLP rapport building techniques helps you to discover how to use your communication effectively, so that you're able to get your point across, without becoming aggressive, or compromising your boundaries.
Learning how to plan better, will help you to feel more in control and at ease, and a specific NLP technique called anchoring can ensure that you have access to positive resourceful states, whenever your patience is tested.
Understanding how your mind works, how you represent the world to yourself and expanding your point of view, all help you to consider the other possibilities around you, so that what seemed like a dead end or problem, becomes something better. Suddenly there is light at the end of the tunnel, and you can even defuse the anger with a smile.
NLP and Hypnotherapy to cure allergies is not to be sniffed at!
How often do we accept a label and fully live up to it? Well the answer may be many more times than we should. The challenge that we have as human beings is that we have used words to identify things, but the words are never fully reflective of the true experience.
For example, lets say you go to the doctors one summers day because your eyes are sore and your nose is runny. The likely hood is that your doctor, whom you respect and trust will apply a label to your symptoms, in an effort to provide an explanation of your experience so that it can then be treated.
So your doctor tells you, have Hay fever. From that Summer onwards you grow to expect your Hay fever visitor. You know how you will feel, what your symptoms will be, when they will start, when they will stop. You even compare your suffering with other sufferers, to compete against who suffers the most!
When do you know to stop being a Hay fever sufferer- how do you know that you haven't grown out of it? Could your expectation of it be the sole reason that it is continually re-created?
How about stress? Is that a factor for allergy sufferers? For many asthmatics eczema and psoriasis sufferers it is a deciding factor in the severity of the condition.
So how can NLP and hypnosis help? Well as we know one of the major frames of NLP is the cause and effect frame. This moves the client out of “I suffer” and into “I create.” This in itself may not be enough to stop the allergic reaction, but does at least get the client away from relying on a treatment for the problem and looking more towards how they continue to cause it. Perhaps they can begin to notice how their diet affects their level of resistance, or to look for homeopathic and natural remedies to counteract the symptoms.
For those whose Symptoms are aggravated by stress, Hypnosis is especially beneficial at creating relaxation and relieving tension and suggestions for healing can be given to the patient.
Stress Management – A technique
Everyone knows that stress is bad for us and that it has all kinds of negative effects on health. In fact, it has been estimated that 80% of modern diseases can be linked to stress and that stress-related complaints account for a significant portion of G.P consultations. More and more people are seeking ways to manage their stress and you may have found that setting time aside to sit down and ‘do nothing' does not actually lead to you feeling relaxed as you still have thoughts and worries whirring in your head.
A non-drug method of achieving relaxation, which is widely advocated by healthcare professionals, is relaxation training. The aim of relaxation training is for the individuals to be able to achieve both a relaxed body, with muscles free from tension and also peaceful thoughts, so that the mind too is relaxed.
Relaxation training can work as a preventative measure (to protect the body from stress related damage), as a coping strategy (to be employed in times of stress and thus reduce the effect of stress) and as a treatment for stress related illnesses such as high blood pressure, tension headaches, Irritable Bowel syndrome and much more.
Relaxation training refers to learning formal techniques. These usually take two forms, physical and psychological. The physical techniques work directly on the body and aim to educate the individual to recognise and reduce muscle tension. The techniques differ and may involve stretching, tensing and releasing individual muscle groups, learning to breathe in a way that encourages relaxation, moving body parts out of defensive tense positioning into relaxed positioning, reviewing each muscle group in the body, identifying any tension and then releasing it, practising the posture of a relaxed person. Psychological techniques focus on relaxing the mind. Psychological techniques vary and may involve visualisation, meditation, guided goal directed visualisation, self-awareness, autogenic training and imagery. Since the body and mind are interconnected, techniques which encourage physical relaxation, also work on the mind and techniques which encourage peaceful thoughts, also result in the body being more relaxed.
Once you have learnt such techniques they are a life-long skill and can be applied both formally to achieve a deep state of relaxation and “on the spot' when you need to quickly release tension as you go about your daily life. Relaxation training is taught by various healthcare professionals, such as physiotherapists, occupational therapists, nurses, social workers and sports professionals such as exercise coaches. With a good relaxation book, it is also possible to teach yourself techniques. Like most things worth doing, learning to relax takes commitment and practice and it will only be effective if you practice it regularly and build it into your routine.
For now, why not try the following simple technique, known as peripheral vision. It's quick and simple to learn and is very effective at activating the part of the nervous system, which is responsible for helping us feel calm.
Get comfortable in a chair and find a spot on the wall, straight in front of you and slightly above eye level. Throughout this process just keep focusing on the spot. Just continue to look at that same point, perhaps in soft focus, after a while begin to broaden out your field of vision, wider and wider until your really paying attention to what you can see out of the corners of your eyes. Keeping your eyes on the spot, extend your awareness all around you, become aware of all the other things in the room that you can see by using your imagination. Perhaps, imagine a tennis ball hovering just behind the back of your head. What else can you see behind your head? You may have noticed that your breathing has slowed down and that the muscles of your face have relaxed.
Keep practising this technique; it may help to play some relaxing music at the same time. You will notice that is impossible to feel tense or worried whilst you are in peripheral vision.
CBT and NLP for Agoraphobia
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is considered to be extremely effective in helping people to overcome panic disorders, and this can usually be achieved within 8 sessions. I use CBT at my practice and have found it very useful in treating agoraphobia, particularly when used in conjunction with a newer cognitive therapy, Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). This article details some of the ways in which CBT and NLP are used during NLP to help clients achieve freedom from agoraphobia.
1. Cognitive Therapy – At NLP and CBT, people are supported to identify and change the distorted thinking patterns that maintain anxiety. Behind panic attacks and anxiety are negative thoughts. These thoughts alone cannot cause anxiety, but the belief that they are true does cause anxiety. The therapist works with the client to reduce belief in such thoughts, this in turn reduces anxiety.
2. Behavioural Therapy – This involves desensitizing your anxiety through gradual exposure to your feared situations. The therapist offers practical support and activities may be carried out in the community, during these sessions.
3. Learning cognitive techniques to beat your panic – clients that come for NLP and CBT are taught specific techniques that can be used and that must be practiced in between sessions. The challenge is using these techniques during times when you are experiencing panic and clients are supported to become competent at this. Of course, once clients are competent they become panic free!
4. Practising – You will get out of therapy what you put in and mastering your panic will involve you carrying out practice in between sessions. Typical practice assignments include keeping a ‘Beating Panic' Journal', carrying out practice related to your ‘going out and about' goal and creating a routine that involves empowering ‘calm' activities. You will also be required to practice any coping techniques taught to you by the therapist, such as using your anchors (see below).
5. NLP Communication Model – Clients are taught NLP clean language techniques. This means learning to think and communicate with your self in a way that supports being safe, confident, and relaxed.
6. NLP Change Techniques – NLP, which is an understanding of how we code experience in our brain, has a range of techniques, which can be used to reduce or eradicate the intensity of remembered experiences. Its possible to take an unpleasant memory, examine how it is coded and then make changes so that it is no longer unpleasant and the emotion can just drain away. If you suffer from unpleasant memories or fears, an NLP therapist can help you deal with this, via submodality work. These treatments are available from my therapy practice, where I use NLP. You can also learn to be aware of the impact of how you code experience yourself.
7. Anchoring For Emotional Balance - Anchors are naturally occurring associations between an external stimulus and a behavioural or emotional response. They occur because the human mind constantly seeks to make sense of the environment by looking for patterns and associations between things. People learn to make negative associations between things. In the case of agoraphobia this may be associating going for a walk to the corner shop with fear and panic. NLP deliberately makes use of anchors in order to empower people to have control over their emotional states. There are specific NLP techniques in which a stimulus is used to trigger and link an emotional state. The stimulus is usually external and may be a sound or touch. Through these techniques it is possible to for an individual to build up a resource of positive emotional states, which they can access in any situation in which they need them. It is also possible to completely collapse negative anchors so that external stimuli that cause you negative emotional states will no longer be a problem.
These are just some of the ways that NLP and CBT can be effective at empowering people to overcome agoraphobia and other panic disorders.
How can Occupational Therapy Help Me?
Occupational therapy is an allied health profession.This term is used to refer to the wide range of professional groups that work in mainstream health care. Other examples of allied health professionals include physiotherapists, radiographers, speech and language therapists, and podiatrists.Occupational therapists are required to train at degree level and register with the Health Profession Council, which was set up by the government to ensure the safety of the public and continuing professional development of its members.
Occupational therapists are concerned with human occupation in its widest sense.They believe that people have an intrinsic drive to be active and express themselves via occupations and activities.Occupational therapists understand that occupations contribute to a person's sense of identity and place in society.Take a moment to have a think about all the roles and occupations that make up your life, you may be a parent, or partner, you may be studying at college or working your way up the career ladder, you may be into exercising and keeping fit or you may be leading a hippy lifestyle!
Whatever, your life choices, it is likely that these roles and occupations give your life direction.For example, think about the range of activities that you do in any week, you will find that most of what you do, is related to your life roles and choice of occupations.This is because we do what is meaningful to us and what is necessary (ironing is likely to fall into the latter category!).
The body and the mind require activity in order to maintain functioning.Through the activities that you do, you develop skills and get to practice them, interact with other people, learn to adapt, meet basic human needs and convey whom you are.Activities are the things that you do in order to work towards your goals.
It is understood that if your routines are disrupted or you are deprived of occupation because of illness, stress or other problems your health and well-being will suffer.Occupational therapists help people whose usual and important routines are disrupted because of illness, stress or social problems. Their aim is to enable people to achieve as much as they can for themselves, so they get the most out of life. Occupational therapists work on any occupational difficulties and in this way are experienced life coaches.When people cannot do things which are important to them - such as getting dressed, giving a presentation at work, having a shower, working, socializing, feeling confident to go out into the community or undertaking a favorite hobby - an occupational therapist can help them in many ways, based on each individual person's needs and lifestyle.
Occupational therapy can help you to maintain a personally satisfying routine of activities.Occupational therapy, life coaching is available privately.I am an NHS experienced occupational therapist and have worked with people with mental-health difficulties of all types, using a range of mental health therapy techniques.Occupational therapists are skilled at empowering individuals with depression, anxiety and stress to become re-engaged with life and to feel confident again. Life-coaching will involve a combination of occupational therapy, NLP, hypnotherapy, and CBT techniques.
Philosophy and Mental Health
“I think therefore I am” – Renee Descartes (1640)
It is a beautiful summers day and you are walking in the countryside. In a clearing to your right you see a cherry tree, the red fruit peeping from under the lush green foliage. You walk up to it. You touch it, feeling the rough bark under your fingertips. You can hear the breeze rustling the leaves, and smell the odour of the fruit. You take a cherry and pop it in your mouth, savouring the sweet juice as it floods over your tongue.
But does the cherry tree exist? You can see it, hear it, feel it, smell and taste it's fruit – but this is not enough. You may be hallucinating, or asleep and having a particularly vivid dream. How would you know?
You wouldn't. All our experience of the world and “reality” is governed by our five senses (I leave aside any discussion of a “sixth sense”). These senses are our only connection with the world outside our selves. A blind person has no visual contact with the outside world; somebody with a severe cold has little taste or olfactory contact with the outside world. And these senses are basically biochemical machines designed to send information to our brain. For example, the eyes collect and focus reflected light onto the retina (at the back of the eye). Receptors in the retina convert this light into electrical impulses (this electricity is produced by chemicals in the receptors). These electrical impulses are then fired along a network of nerve cells to the brain. The brain, another very complex mass of interconnected nerve cells, analyses these impulses – their strength, their rate, their pattern and frequency – and generates an internal picture based upon them. It is this brain-generated picture that we “see”. It is a similar case with the sensation of touch. Receptors in our skin are stimulated by physical contact and produce electrical impulses that are sent to the brain – what we “feel” is the result of the brain's analysis of these impulses. And so on for taste, smell and hearing.
So the tree that we saw, felt, heard, smelled and tasted isn't actually “out there” in the world – it is in our brains. More accurately, it is the brains image or impression of the tree constructed from the impulses it receives from our senses. Whenever our brain received this particular pattern of impulses from the senses, it would construct an image of a tree – colour, shape, smell, taste, touch and sound – whether or not a tree was actually there.
There is little controversy in stating that our brains can be deceived. We can block the path of the electrical impulses as they pass from the sense receptors to the brain – this is the case with local anaesthesia, where a patient can watch as his appendix is removed without pain. Or we can interfere directly with the brains analysis of the sense impulses – a drunken person is aware that he has fallen over, but it doesn't hurt (until the next day!). And we don't need alcohol or drugs for this deception to occur – at some point, most of us have believed, albeit briefly, that we've seen or heard or felt something that has turned out to not be there.
It was this sort of reasoning that led Descartes to question the very existence of a world outside our selves. In light of modern science, Descartes is questioning the existence of a world outside our brains (our bodily sensations such as feeling hungry or having an aching leg are also mediated by our senses). In these terms, our own bodies are considered as part of the outside world. If all we see, hear, touch, feel and taste in the outside world is but a representation in our brains, and this representation is based on information from our senses, and these senses can be deceived, then we can never be sure that the outside world exists. Descartes talked of the possibility of us being hypnotised by a demon who is tricking us into believing we are moving around in a world with trees, houses, other people etc when in fact we're locked in a dungeon somewhere. The film “The Matrix” provides a technological alternative.
So we can't know if the outside world exists – it could all be in our brains. But in that case can we know that anything exists? Thankfully, yes. We can be sure our thoughts exist. How? Because we think them. There seems no way that we can be deceived about our thoughts existing – in the very act of having a thought, that thought exists. The thoughts may be based on deceptive information from the senses, but they are still real, they still exist. It is difficult to conceive of deceiving someone into believing they have thoughts when, in fact, they don't. You need to have thoughts to be deceived.
So we can safely say that our thoughts definitely exist! Descartes moved on from this “rock of certainty” and went on to “prove” the existence of the outside world. Unfortunately, this further “proof” is highly suspect and relies on the notion of a beneficent and all-powerful God – but then Descartes was writing on behalf of the Catholic Church! Most modern philosophers discount this extension of his theory, but they do still accept his earlier reasoning -“I think therefore I am” has stood the test of time. If we are being pedantic, Descartes quote is better rendered as “There are thoughts” – just because I experience thoughts doesn't mean they are mine! But this isn't as memorable as the original.
So what has all this got to do with mental health? Well, if the outside world doesn't exist as such and all we have is thoughts, then (potentially) the world is what we think it to be. I'm not saying we can change things dramatically. It would take a lot of effort to “create” a thought-world where trees can talk and people fly by flapping their arms – for this to be “real” one would have to interact constantly and consistently with trees and people as though they could do these things. Rather, I am talking about how our thoughts and feelings can “colour” our experience of the outside world (I am using the terms “thoughts” and emotional “feelings” interchangeably here). Depressed people (i.e. people with depressed or depressing thoughts!) experience the world differently to others. They see colours less vividly, food can seem tasteless and unpleasant, and harmless everyday situations can appear threatening. They predict bad consequences from actions and events where others see only benefit. A depressed persons world is very different to a happy person's, but to an observer they will seem one and the same.
A person with depressive thoughts who is looking to “get better” has three courses of action open to him.
Firstly, he can accept the “medical model” of mental illness and depression. This model sees the brain (rightly) as a complex neuro-chemical structure, and postulates that depression and other psychological illnesses are due to defects or malfunctioning in this system. The brain, when examined anatomically, consists of millions of various cells, each of which is in turn composed of smaller structures. When these structures are examined in turn, they are found to consist of chemicals (as does all physical matter). The medical model thus presumes that it is a defect or malfunctioning of these chemicals that adversely affect the brains cells, leading in turn to the malfunctioning of the brain and finally a “malfunctioning” of thinking – depression or whatever.
On this model, the course of action is clear – correct the malfunctioning of the brain. This is done using drugs that enter the brain and interfere with the cells chemical structure and functioning.
This all makes perfect sense. Unfortunately, there is a vast gulf between the theory and the practise. Medical science just does not know enough about the brain at present. There are numerous different cell types, numerous different chemicals in and around these cells, and numerous different interactions and connections between each cell and the others. No test has been developed that shows which chemicals/cells/connections are malfunctioning. The best that the scientists can do is make an educated guess as to those chemicals/cells/connections seem likely to be defective, and choose drugs that act on these. The initial guesses (based on drugs that were found in the 1950's - by accident!) are still the main focus of research today. The result is predictable – a large number of different drugs that work seem to work sometimes and not at others and have side effects (because they are also affecting perfectly healthy cells). This is likely to remain the case for the foreseeable future.
A second course of action for the depressed person is to change the outside world i.e. their circumstances. This makes perfectly good sense. If you are feeling depressed because you hate your job or your relationship, then change it. If you feel depressed because you're overweight, then diet. Of course, this is rather flippant. If it were that easy to do, people would just do it. And it must be acknowledged that depression often saps the will and motivation to change just these sorts of situations. Further, many situations cannot be changed by our own actions – the loss of a loved one, poverty, ill health, war, famine etc. The outside world can be very resistant to change.
The third course of action takes a leaf out of Descartes book. We are what we think – a depressed person is no more and no less than someone with depressed thoughts. If they stopped having depressed thoughts, then the depression disappears. It is possible for people to be happy, or at least content, even in the direst of circumstances. Most of us have known people face up to unpleasant and distressing events with resilience and even cheerfulness. We say they are “naturally happy” or are “positive people.” One can also say that they think “happy thoughts” or think “positive thoughts.”
Perhaps they were born like that. Or perhaps they learnt to think like that as they grew up (I believe this is more likely). Either way, though, they enjoy life a lot more than many of us. But this needn't be the case – if we can learn to think a little more like them, learn to think in a more pleasant, positive way.
It seems unlikely that depressed people are “born like that”, just as it is unlikely that happy people are “born like that.” Even the wackiest psychiatrist will hesitate to diagnose a baby as depressed! Young babies can't think as we do – and they can't have depressed thoughts. As they grow, their thinking abilities develop under the influence of their parents, siblings and peers. Patterns of thought are developed, ways of thinking, with each person having their own particular patterns, unique to them. By the time adulthood is reached, these patterns are likely to be “ingrained” in us, to the point where we're not even aware of them – we automatically process situations, events, and interactions with others in terms of these thought patterns. The thoughts we actually think (and are aware of) are the results of this processing. Therefore, if this processing is “set wrong” (e.g. if it constantly produces thoughts that are depressive), then psychological problems are likely to follow.
This is the basic theory on which are based the cognitive therapies for psychological problems. With the prompting and guidance of the therapist, an individual is taught to examine his or her thinking patterns, searching for maladaptive and detrimental ways of thinking. This is not an easy task – the patterns are usually “automatic” (like a habit) and the individual is likely to be unaware of them initially. An important task for the therapist is to elucidate these “faulty” patterns. These can then made explicit to the individual, and the first steps taken towards challenging these ways of thinking. The aim of the cognitive therapies is to minimise or remove entirely the identified faulty patterns, and for the individual to learn more adaptive and helpful ways of thinking in their place. A successful therapy can change a persons life forever – when a person no longer automatically thinks depressive thoughts, they are insulated and protected from becoming depressed in the future.
One of the original cognitive therapies developed is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). This is still widely used, particularly in the NHS. It has proven efficacy in a wide range of psychological conditions such as depression, anxiety, phobias, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Treatment consists of one-hour sessions with a therapist on a one-to-one basis, typically having one session a week for between six to twelve weeks. A more sophisticated therapy that has emerged over the past five years is Neuro-Linguistic Therapy, or NLP. In contrast to CBT, the psychological model on which it is based is consistent with the current scientific theories of language use, learning and memory. The therapy similarly consists of one-hour sessions with a therapist, although the total number of sessions is often fewer than with CBT, and improvements have been seen after a single session.
Both CBT and NLP are intensive talking therapies that require a significant commitment from the client. Aside from the actual sessions, they will often involve the client reading additional material and monitoring and recording their behaviour and thoughts in every day life. As with most things, the more the client puts in, the more he'll get out.
You Can Make A Change In A Day
As someone who has recently completed training in an NLP course, Hertfordshire, at master practitioner level, I wanted to share with you my experience of giving and receiving a Turning Point Session TM.NLP differs from most other therapies, in the sense that it claims to get results quickly, by focusing on the here and now, rather then taking a long time looking at the persons past and why they feel as they do.
How refreshing, but does it really work?When I first signed up to take part in an NLP course, Hertfordshire, with people building, I was aware that at master practitioner level, I was going to be expected to undergo and be able to give a Turning Point Session.Having experience of giving other therapies such as CBT and having worked as an NHS therapist, I was dubious that change can be achieved so quickly and also I felt uncomfortable about the amount NLP therapists charge their clients for these sessions.
What I found from first hand experience, having trained in an NLP course, in Hertfordshire, was very surprising to me.I now believe it is possible to achieve global change in one day and also the investment of the therapist's time, energy and emotion warrants the investment the client makes financially in the session.Turning Points TM can achieve much more quickly what psychotherapy would take years to.
How is global change achieved in a day? - The idea of such a session is that you work with the client intensely for up to six hours in one day, in order to achieve global change.What this means is that you are not just working on fixing discrete problems, such as a relationship issue, a limiting belief or a negative anchor.Rather, you grill, and I mean grill, the client, using NLP linguistic tools, in order to get to whatever it is (usually a significant emotional event) that is shaping and driving how they live and experience their life today.After dealing with the big driving emotional event, you are able to wipe out the gestalt of emotional events the person is hanging onto and then literally mop up whatever challenges the person is still facing, with the most appropriate NLP techniques.
People Building offers an NLP, course, in Hertfordshire, where you will learn to give and receive Turning Point sessions. As a therapist, the idea of sending a client on their way, knowing that you have had the time to deal with all their challenges is about as rewarding as it gets. I you are interested in an NLP, course, in Hertfordshire please visit www.peoplebuilding.co.uk.
A Cure For Depression
Bet you were hoping that I was going to offer some magic pill that you could take to make it all better, well sorry, it doesn't work like that. The thing is, there is nothing that can stop you from suffering from depression, except you. You might not like this much, but it's the truth, and that's why I'm going to tell it to you anyway.
Your depression isn't caused by the partner you have or the one you don't have or the one that left you. It isn't your job or your kids or the way you were bought up. It isn't caused by your abuse or your dysfunctional family or your weight. None of these are the cause of your depression. You are. Think about it, throughout your depression, what has been the one constant, remaining factor? You.
Have you ever caught a cold? I'm sure you have. Colds are picked up from outside of us, we inhale them, ingest them, then they grow and make us feel like crap. But you don't get depression in this way. Depression isn't something you get, it's something you do, it's a process. That tells you can, if you know how to, choose not to do it. Yes it's a choice. Sorry to all of you who were hoping that the answer would come from somewhere, a packet of pills or a doctor or a counsellor, it won't. It won't because you already have it, you already the expertise to cure yourself. You just have to know how to use it. And no amount of drugs, or talking about your “problems” are going to help you find it. You need re educating, you need to learn another way.
Yes it's a choice, I know you're questioning that part, thinking “well I obviously wouldn't choose to feel like this.” Here's the thing, you've done it so much, you've got good at it. Congratulations, you've become a master at depressing yourself. You're hard wired to go there now, it's automatic, like a habit, it's almost as if you have no control over it at all. But you can and you will.
I know you've tried to change, you tried to fight it, using all of your will power. But making changes to the unconscious using will power is not at all easy, it's a battle. However, making changes to the unconscious is in fact easy, when you know how to do it, or when you meet someone who's good enough to do it for you.
If you are absolutely committed to changing, I mean totally committed, you can change so quickly. You can change in a day. I promise you, it's true, I've seen it happen, I've experienced it myself. It wasn't cheap and it wasn't all that easy, but if you pay cheap you pay twice, if it's as easy to do, it's easy to forget. If you want to change and you are absolutely committed to doing it, you can do it, you can change in a day.
I don't know what you want from life, I don't know how your life will be different when you've stopped depressing yourself, but I can tell you that it will be completely worth the investment. How much money do you waste each year on warranties, that cost as much as the product you've bought, or paying fees that could have been avoided, or putting your money in the wrong savings account, or taking a holiday that you didn't enjoy? When would now be a good time to invest in yourself? Invest into who you are as a person so that you can grow and feel good about being the worthwhile person that you truly are?
Everybody has experienced the loss of someone or something that they care for, and for me, this highlights the necessity for us to live our lives to the full, to live happy and free. For every person that ever told you that you're not worth it, I'm here to tell you now that you are, to tell you that you can be and will be wonderfully happy and free, so what's the one thing you need to commit to doing for yourself to let yourself know you are worth it, you are worth ever penny of that change.
Someone once told me that success is the greatest form of revenge. Now I'm not saying that you have anything to prove to anyone, but when you change, when you do it for yourself in this way, you will surprise a lot of people who expected little else from you, and that's a really great feeling.
You can change in a day, make a turning point.
Who's who in the Mental Health Service
GPs,Psychiatrists, Psycologists,CPS's and Allied Therapists
When a person is experiencing psychological or emotional difficulties, they may well attend their GP. The GP will interview them and based on the nature and severity of the persons symptoms may either recommend treatment himself or refer the person on to a specialist. There can seem a bewildering array of such specialists, all with rather similar titles, and one can wonder as to why they've been referred to one specialist rather than another. In this article I give an outline of the qualifications, roles and typical working styles of these specialists. This may be of interest to anyone who is about to, or already seeing, these specialists.
The General Practitioner
Although not a mental health specialist, the GP is a common first contact for those with mental health problems. A GP is a doctor who possesses a medical degree (usually a five-year course) and has completed a one-year “pre-registration” period in a general hospital (six-months on a surgical ward and six-months on a medical ward as a “junior house officer”). Following this a GP has completed a number of six-month placements in various hospital-based specialities – typical choices include obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics, psychiatry and/or general medicine. Finally, a year is spent in general practice as a “GP registrar” under the supervision of a senior GP. During this period, most doctors will take examinations to obtain the professional qualification of the Royal College of General Practitioners (“Member of the Royal College of General Practitioners”, or MRCGP). Others qualifications, such as diplomas in child health, may also be obtained.
The GP is thus a doctor with a wide range of skills and experience, able to recognise and treat a multitude of conditions. Of course the necessity of this wide range of experience places limits on the depth of knowledge and skills that they can acquire. Therefore, if a patient's condition is rare or, complicated, or particularly severe and requiring hospital-based treatment, then they will refer that patient on to a specialist.
Focusing on mental health problems it will be noted that whilst the majority of GP's have completed a six-month placement in psychiatry, such a placement is not compulsory for GP's. However, mental health problems are a common reason for attending the GP and, subsequently, GP's tend to acquire a lot of experience “on the job”.
Most GP's feel able to diagnose and treat the common mental health problems such as depression and anxiety. The treatments will typically consist of prescribing medication (such as antidepressants or anxiolytics) in the first instance. If these are ineffective, alternative medication may be tried, or they may refer the patient to a specialist. GP's are more likely to refer a patient to a specialist immediately if their condition is severe, or they are suicidal, or they are experiencing “psychotic” symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions.
The Psychiatrist
This is a fully qualified doctor (possessing a medical degree plus one year pre-registration year in general hospital) who has specialised in the diagnosis and treatment of mental health problems. Most psychiatrists commence their psychiatric training immediately following their pre-registration year and so have limited experience in other areas of physical illness (although some have trained as GP's and then switched to psychiatry at a later date). Psychiatric training typically consists of a three-year “basic” training followed by a three year “specialist training”. During basic training, the doctor (as a “Senior House Officer” or SHO) undertakes six-month placements in a variety of psychiatric specialities taken from a list such as; General Adult Psychiatry, Old Age Psychiatry (Psychogeriatrics), Child and Family Psychiatry, Forensic Psychiatry (the diagnosis and treatment of mentally ill offenders), Learning Disabilities and the Psychiatry of Addictions. During basic training, the doctor takes examinations to obtain the professional qualification of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (“Member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists” or MRCPsych).
After obtaining this qualification, the doctor undertakes a further three-year specialist-training placement as a “Specialist Registrar” or SpR. At this point the doctor chooses which area of psychiatry to specialise in – General Adult Psychiatry, Old Age Psychiatry etc – and his placements are selected appropriately. There are no further examinations, and following successful completion of this three-year period, the doctor receives a “Certificate of Completion of Specialist Training” or CCST. He can now be appointed as a Consultant Psychiatrist.
The above is a typical career path for a psychiatrist. However, there are an increasing number of job titles out with the SHO-SpR-Consultant rubric. These include such titles as “Staff Grade Psychiatrist” and “Associate Specialist in Psychiatry”. The doctors with these titles have varying qualifications and degrees of experience. Some may possess the MRCPsych but not the CCST (typically, these are the Associate Specialists); others may possess neither or only part of the MRCPsych (many Staff Grades).Psychiatrists of any level or job title will have significant experience in the diagnosis and treatment of people with mental health difficulties, and all (unless themselves a consultant) will be supervised by a consultant.
Pychiatrists have particular skill in the diagnosis of mental health problems, and will generally be able to provide a more detailed diagnosis (i.e. what the condition is) and prognosis (i.e. how the condition changes over time and responds to treatment) than a GP. The psychiatrist is also in a better position to access other mental health specialists (such as Psychologists and Community Psychiatric Nurses or CPNs) when needed. They also have access to inpatient and day patient services for those with severe mental health problems.
The mainstay of treatment by a psychiatrist is, like with GP's, medication. However, they will be more experienced and confident in prescribing from the entire range of psychiatric medications – some medications (such as the antipsychotic Clozapine) are only available under psychiatric supervision and others (such as the mood-stabiliser Lithium) are rarely prescribed by GP's without consulting a psychiatrist first.
psychiatrist, as a rule, does not offer “talking treatments” such as psychotherapy, cognitive therapy or counselling. The latter may be available “in-house” at the GP surgery – some surgeries employ a counsellor to whom they can refer directly.
Psychologists and allied mental health staff typically provide the more intensive talking therapies. Some senior mental health nurses and CPNs will have been trained in specific talking therapies. It is to a Psychologist or a trained nurse that a psychiatrist will refer a patient for talking therapy. These therapies are suitable for certain conditions and not for others – generally, conditions such as Schizophrenia and psychosis are less appropriate for these therapies than the less severe and more common conditions such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, phobia(s) and addictions. In many cases, a patient will be prescribed both medication and a talking therapy – thus they may be seen by both a therapist and a psychiatrist over the course of their treatment.
The Psychologist
A qualified clinical psychologist is educated and trained to high degree. In addition to a basic degree in Psychology (a three year course) they will also have completed a PhD (“Doctor of Philosophy” or “Doctorate”) – a further three-year course involving innovative and independent research in some aspect of psychology. They will also be formally trained in the assessment and treatment of psychological conditions, although with a more “psychological” slant than that of psychiatrists. Psychologists do not prescribe medication. They are able to offer a wide range of talking therapies to patients, although they typically specialise and become expert in one particular style of therapy. The therapies a particular psychologist will offer may vary from a colleague, but will usually be classifiable under the title of Psychotherapy (e.g. Analytic Psychotherapy, Transactional Analysis, Emotive therapy, Narrative therapy etc) or Cognitive Therapy (e.g. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) or Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) etc).
The Community Psychiatric Nurse (CPN)
These are mental health trained nurses that work in the community. They will have completed a two or three year training programme in mental health nursing – this leads to either a diploma or a degree, depending on the specific course. They are not usually “general trained”, meaning their experience of physical illness will be limited. Following completion of the course they will have spent a variable amount of time in placements on an inpatient psychiatric unit – this time can range from twelve months to several years. They can then apply to be a CPN – they are required to show a good knowledge and significant experience of mental health problems before being appointed.
CPNs are attached to Community Mental Health Teams and work closely with psychiatrists, psychologists and other staff. They offer support, advice and monitoring of patients in the community, usually visiting them at home. They can liaise with other mental health staff on behalf of the patient and investigate other support networks available (such as the mental health charities).Some CPNs will be formally trained in one or more “talking therapies”, usually a cognitive therapy such as CBT (see “Allied Therapists” below).
“Allied” Therapists
Many “talking therapies” are offered by non-psychologists – for example, mental health nurses and mental health occupational therapists can undertake a training course in a cognitive therapy like CBT. After successful completion of the course, the nurse will be qualified and able to offer CBT to patients. The length and intensity of these courses can vary dramatically, depending on the type of therapy and the establishment providing the course. Some are intensive, full-time one or two week courses; others are part-time and can extend over months and years. Perhaps a typical course will be one or two days a week for two to three months. Formal educational qualifications are not necessary to undertake these courses, and they are open to “lay” people with little or no experience of the NHS mental health services. Of course this is not necessarily a problem - it may even be considered a positive point!
Some of those therapists thus qualified will offer their skills as part of their work in the NHS – for instance, a nurse, CPN,or occupational therapist, may offer cognitive therapy to a patient that has been referred by a psychiatrist. Unfortunately this is relatively rare at the moment, presumably due to the reluctance of the NHS to pay for such training for their staff. As a result these therapies are more accessible on a private basis.
Summary
An individual with psychological difficulties will normally attend their GP in the first instance. The GP will usually have encountered similar problems with other patients and can offer a diagnosis and appropriate treatment. If the condition is unusual or particularly severe, the GP can refer the patient to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist is able to access a wider range of treatments (medications and hospital care) and can, if necessary, recruit other mental health professionals to help the patient. This system perhaps works best with the severely mentally ill such as those with psychotic symptoms or who are suicidal.
The Mental Health Services in the NHS are generally less well suited to those with psychological problems of a less severe nature – the moderately depressed, the anxious, the phobic etc. The availability of “talking therapies” is limited in the NHS, with long waiting lists or even no provision at all in some areas. This appears to be due both to the cost of training staff appropriately and the time-intensive nature of these therapies.
For those with such conditions, the main option is to seek help outside the NHS. There are some voluntary organisations that offer free counselling for specific problems such as bereavement or marital/relationship difficulties, but more intensive therapies (such as CBT or NLP) are typically fee based. Your GP or local Community Mental Health Team may be able to recommend a local private therapist.
Stress Management – A technique
Most of us know that stress is bad for us and that it has all kinds of negative effects on health.In fact, it has been estimated that 80% of modern diseases can be linked to stress and that stress-related complaints account for a significant portion of G.P consultations.More and more people are seeking ways to manage their stress and you may have found that setting time aside to sit down and ‘do nothing' does not actually lead to you feeling relaxed, as you still have thoughts and worries whirring in your head.
A non-drug method of achieving relaxation, which is widely advocated by healthcare professionals, is relaxation training. The aim of relaxation training is for the individuals to be able to achieve both a relaxed body, with muscles free from tension and also peaceful thoughts, so that the mind too is relaxed.
Relaxation training can work as a preventative measure (to protect the body from stress related damage), as a coping strategy (to be employed in times of stress and thus reduce the effect of stress) and as a treatment for stress related illnesses such as high blood pressure, tension headaches, Irritable Bowel syndrome and much more.
Relaxation training refers to learning formal techniques.These usually take two forms, physical and psychological.The physical techniques work directly on the body and aim to educate the individual to recognise and reduce muscle tension.The techniques differ and may involve stretching, tensing and releasing individual muscle groups, learning to breathe in a way that encourages relaxation, moving body parts out of defensive tense positioning into relaxed positioning, reviewing each muscle group in the body, identifying any tension and then releasing it, practising the posture of a relaxed person.Psychological techniques focus on relaxing the mind.Psychological techniques vary and may involve visualisation, meditation, guided goal directed visualisation, self-awareness, autogenic training and imagery.Since the body and mind are interconnected, techniques which encourage physical relaxation, also work on the mind and techniques which encourage peaceful thoughts, also result in the body being more relaxed.
Once you have learnt such techniques they are a life-long skill and can be applied both formally to achieve a deep state of relaxation and “on the spot' when you need to quickly release tension as you go about your daily life.Relaxation training is taught by various healthcare professionals, such as physiotherapists, occupational therapists, nurses, social workers and sports professionals such as exercise coaches.With a good relaxation book, it is also possible to teach yourself techniques.Like most things worth doing, learning to relax takes commitment and practice and it will only be effective if you practice it regularly and build it into your routine.
For now, why not try the following simple technique, known as peripheral vision. It's quick and simple to learn and is very effective at activating the part of the nervous system, which is responsible for helping us feel calm.
Get comfortable in a chair and find a spot on the wall, straight in front of you and slightly above eye level.Throughout this process just keep focusing on the spot.Just continue to look at that same point, perhaps in soft focus, after a while begin to broaden out your field of vision, wider and wider until your really paying attention to what you can see out of the corners of your eyes.Keeping your eyes on the spot, extend your awareness all around you, become aware of all the other things in the room that you can see by using your imagination.Perhaps, imagine a tennis ball hovering just behind the back of your head.What else can you see behind your head?You may have noticed that your breathing has slowed down and that the muscles of your face have relaxed.
Keep practising this technique; it may help to play some relaxing music at the same time.You will notice that is impossible to feel tense or worried whilst you are in peripheral vision.
A Spring Clean!
We all feel better after a spring clean. To be able to enjoy the space that has for so long cluttered the corners, restores a level of energy to ones spirit.
As a hypnotherapist, some of the hypnotherapy work I enjoy most is empowering others to clear negative emotions from their past. These negative emotions are caused by past events which still cause unwanted feelings. When a person replays the past event in their mind, they create all of the bad feeling from that time. With the help of a vivid imagination (a form of trance in itself), they can even make the old event seem worse than it was at the time, and make themselves feel really bad!
Why would someone do this to themselves? The answer is simple. Sometimes we suffer hurts and injustices in life and we always deal with the situation to the best of our ability at that time. Yet how often have you thought in hindsight “If only I'd said/ done…….How might things have been different?” Most of the time these are small regrets that are forgotten. However sometimes, the regrets are big. Or the event was big but you were small, too small or immature to be able to resolve it. Then the event gets stored away as old baggage in your subconscious mind. It is repressed if your subconscious mind feels it is safer to keep it from you, re-presented when it feels you can deal with it and replayed if you don't deal with it the first time you are prompted. Then it will keep draining your energy levels until you make the decision to deal with it and get rid of it. Old problems can evolve into new problems: bad habits such as smoking, overeating that sabotages your weight loss attempts, reoccurring relationship problems, or affecting your levels of confidence and self esteem.
Hypnotherapy can be used to represent the past in more positive, empowering way. I use hypnotherapy to creating a different, healthier past in the persons mind. Where they can say and do the things they wish they had said and done at the time of the old event. This doesn't change the past (I haven't mastered time travel- yet!) But it does mean that if faced with a similar situation in the future, they do not automatically react in the they way they had reacted in the past. Hypnotherapy is about giving people healthy choices.
The result is that hypnotherapy gives you space in your mind to think happy thoughts. You will have more energy as a result of letting go of the old baggage you have carried around for so long. It can be as if everything is clean, clear and new and you are full of the joys of spring!
Make A Turning Point
Do you have emotional pain? Most of us do from some point in our lives. What is important is to not only move on, but to grow from the experience in such a way that we are not continuously represented with similar painful situations throughout the rest of our lives. When reoccurring pain is happening, it is the universes way of letting us know that we haven't yet got the lesson that we need to have. When we learn and change we then grow, and only then can you stop the reoccurring pain.
Feel unfulfilled? It can feel like the saddest thing, to have people around you and yet still sense loneliness on the edges of everything. Or perhaps you generally have much you should be grateful for- yet still a piece of you is missing. Everybody needs to feel that they are recognised and valued, that their existence has meaning. It can be a monotonous life when you feel like no one would even notice if you disappeared…
Is your past or present, obscuring your future happiness? Well of course it will. It's going to keep getting in the way until you deal with it. That can be a scary prospect if you don't know how to do it, and even if you did know, could you do it alone?
The great news is you don't have to. I am a fully qualified and experienced Hypnotherapist, NLP Master Practitioner and Trainer, and Life Coach. I also specialise in EFT and Stress Management. I work from my office in Hertfordshire and have helped many people overcome the obstacles that life sometime seems insistent on putting in the way. Not only do I offer a week by week coaching program, but also the option to change in a day.
For many, weeks of ongoing therapy is impracticable and off putting. How valuable would it be to be free of all of your problems in one session?
Turning Point is the opportunity to do just that. I will dedicate 6 solid hours of my time to you in which you can experience the full repertoire of my skills to create the Turning Point in your life, whatever the problem.
This exclusive agreement begins with a simple questionnaire that you will be asked to complete, we will then meet for a consultation lasting between 30 minutes and 1 hour. This service is completely free and without obligation. When we are both satisfied with the outcomes to be achieved, we will arrange your Turning Point session- then the magic begins! Throughout the turning Point session, I will use every resource available to me to facilitate the change that you need. When this is achieved, you will leave with, not only a new lease of life, but also tasks and activities to continue your growth after the session. I will keep in regular contact with you after your Turning Point session to ensure that you remain on the right track and are continuing to feel fantastic.
If it's time to make a change,
make a Turning Point.
How Are You Maintaining Your Anxiety?
Anxiety is a common experience and a reason that clients seek NLP in Herts. Worries and anxieties are normal and familiar to all of us.They are necessary to our survival as they prepare us for coping with stress and danger. When we perceive danger, changes take place in our body, in how we think and also in how we behave.These changes are triggered by the release of the hormone adrenalin and are crucial as they prime us for action.
Problems arise when the stress response becomes chronic, or excessive and symptoms of long-term anxiety include the following:
Muscular discomfort – headaches – difficulty swallowing –stomach cramps – ringing ears – nausea – dizziness – shortness of breath.
If you are experiencing anxiety symptoms, NLP in Herts can help you.
So what causes chronic anxiety?
The actual trigger for the stress response might be real or imagined, for example, a person with a social phobia may feel just as panicky at the thought of having to walk into a big party as actually walking into a big party.Whether the trigger is a real or imagined threat, the key to persistent anxiety is you and the cycle that you maintain.This usually takes three forms,
1. Bodily symptom cycles: worrying about the physical symptoms of anxiety so much that this worry re-triggers the stress response and the physical symptoms.
2. Biased thinking cycles: overestimating the threat of danger and underestimating your coping resources.Common thinking biases include; black and white thinking, catastrophising; exaggerating, ignoring the positive.Biased thinking can further increase distress and anxiety, which in turn enhances thinking distortions even more!
3. Behavioural response cycles: avoidance is a common response to anxiety, it is natural to want to escape to somewhere safe and comforting.The problem with this is that avoidance keeps the problem going, as you will never get to learn that you can cope.
Which of these cycles best describes how you keep your anxiety going?Once you have identified which cycle you tend to maintain you can begin to plan to break the cycle.
When clients come to see me at my practice in Aldbury, Hertfordshire, I use NLP in Herts in order to empower the client to break their anxiety cycle.I have a range of techniques in my toolbox that are useful in breaking the anxiety cycle the person is maintaining. An example of techniques include the following:
1. Bodily symptom cycle: controlled breathing, relaxation training, expanding awareness techniques, hypnosis, psycho-education, introducing exercise as a coping strategy.
2. Biased thinking: belief change process, thought challenging, distraction, teaching use of clean language, communication model, sub-modality work, and hypnosis.
3. Problem Behaviour: graded exposure, goal setting, swish process, fast phobia cure, and problem-solving strategies.
I also work using NLP in Herts to work with clients to develop coping strategies so that can be used in the longer term.If you are experiencing anxiety that is impacting on your functioning and well being it may be useful to see a cognitive therapist.Therapies that focus of changing negative patterns of thought are now considered key methods in overcoming anxiety, phobias and depression.A range of cognitive approaches are available from NLP therapy in Herts.
What's In Your Coping Toolbox?
Life consistently presents us with challenges and changes and at times this can lead to us feeling stressed.Planning how to manage and cope in various life situations, and finding out which coping skills work best for you, is the key to succeeding with stress rather then experiencing distress.When clients come to see me for NLP and CBT therapy in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, it is a big part of therapy that they develop and become confident in employing coping skills.This article contains ideas for coping with stress and also acute emotional crises.If you are experiencing stress or emotional imbalance, CBT and hypnotherapy is available in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire.
Here are some ideas for coping with stress:
1. Understand more about stress – this involves recognising your sources of stress and how stress affects you personally.Plan for stressful periods.
2. Problem-solve – what is the problem, be specific and break it down into realistic achievable components.Then set goals on how to deal with each problem.Make sure you include how to begin your plan of action.
3. Develop new behaviour – if you take on too much or have problems saying no, learn to be assertive.There are plenty of courses at local colleges or you may prefer to see a therapist 1:1.Learn to manage your time more effectively and delegate wherever possible!Avoid procrastination; whilst you are not doing it, you'll only be spending energy worrying about it.
4. Make sure you develop a support network – deliberately develop good supportive relationships.Ask for help when needed and accept it when offered.You must also be prepared to do the same for others.
5. Make time to relax and enjoy yourself – how many of us know we should do more of this but don't make the time?Set aside time each day to relax and build this into your routine.Develop hobbies and leisure activities that help you too switch off.
Can you imagine yourself doing any of these activities when you need to cope?
Asserting yourself - Contacting one of your supports - Listening to music
Exercising- Taking a break - Going to a movie -Reading a book -Laughing/crying - Taking a walk - Taking a nice long bath - Writing a letter or a journal - Learning something new - Eating something healthy – Helping someone else.
It is important to identify and practice using coping tools if you want to be able to deal with your stress successfully.Obviously, it is not always possible to plan for stress as situations can happen that we do not expect.If you find yourself experiencing a period of crises, or intense painful emotions there are still coping strategies that you can employ in that moment.
Ideas For Coping with Acute Emotional Distress
1. Use of distraction – the aim of this is to limit the time you spend in contact with the emotional stimuli, the things that are causing you to feel emotional.The stimuli could be anything from another person to the thoughts that you are having.Distraction involves doing something else to absorb your attention.
2. Imagery – think of safe and soothing images.This involves imagining images that make you feel good, it may be a favourite place, person, pet or scenes from nature.
3. Relaxation – learn a simple technique like using peripheral vision to induce relaxation.Peripheral vision is effective at switching on the parasympathetic nervous system, which is the part of the nervous system responsible for making us feel calm.It's not possible to feel anxious or distressed whilst fully relaxed in peripheral vision.
4. One thing in the moment – as adults we tend to spend much of our time stuck contemplating what went wrong in the past or what may go wrong in the future.Try and just focus on the ‘moment'.Perhaps this may involve thinking something like ‘I'm in my house in my favourite chair, I'm warm and comfortable and I have a good book to read'.
5. Exercise – physical activity can help to disperse the chemicals released in your body by the stress response.It also releases feel good chemicals known as endorphins.
6. Sooth yourself - do something to nurture your 5 senses.Be kind and gentle to yourself.