Anger and why it is important to do something about it now

Anger its consequences

Anger its consequences and how to get help

Anger can have many physical and mental consequences. Although anger is a primary and natural emotion that we all experience at times it is there for our survival and losing control of this emotion on a regular basis can have severe consequences.

Anger results in a loss of control of the mid brain and an increasing sensitivity to stress. As the stress continues it then becomes easier and easier to activate this part of the brain thereby leaving one less able to activate the prefrontal cortex, the rational, reasoning part of the brain. Anger over activates the sympathetic nervous system and we lose the ability to control the balance required with the parasympathetic nervous system. This floods the system with adrenalin and an inability to control one’s emotions. Spending one’s life with “a short fuse” and the “fight or flight” system turned up full is a recipe for some very unpleasant experiences emotionally, physically, professionally and in one’s relationships.

If you think you or someone close may have anger problems check this list and see if you recognise some of the symptoms.

  • Do you have periods when you refuse to speak to people or will not help them?
  • Are you angry about something that happened in your past?
  • Does anger affect your life and the lives of people around you?
  • Is anger affecting your health?
  • Do you experience actual physical outbursts making you feel out of control?

Any one of the above can take a big toll on health, endanger one’s career and harm your relationships.

To help yourself:

  • Talk about it. Bottling things up only makes it worse.
  • Try relaxing therapies such as massage, yoga and meditation.
  • Start to recognise situations when you can feel it coming on and immediately take yourself out of those situations.
  • Learn healthy breathing techniques.
  • SEEK PROFESSIONAL HELP before things get worse.

I have successfully worked with many clients with anger issues. Hypnosis and EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) are ideal techniques to help bring the trigger responses down to a controlled and comfortable level. Both EFT and Hypnosis work by relaxing the sympathetic nervous system and engaging the parasympathetic nervous system. When the sympathetic and the parasympathetic (relaxation) systems are in balance then we can deal much more comfortably with our work, our relationships and with ourselves. When they are out of balance it becomes very hard to control our emotions and actions.

With the techniques I use, three or four sessions will often be all it takes to turn this around and begin the process of engaging with and enjoying life in a much healthier and relaxed way than before. If you would like more information please call me on 07970218451 or email rogerfoxwell.therapy@gmail.com and I will be happy to help you. If you are unable to see me personally you can always book a session over Skype which can be an equally effective way to work.

Need help with depression? Try EFT

Need help with depression?

Using EFT to help with depression

EFT or Emotional Freedom Technique is an Energy Psychology technique that has it’s roots in Chinese medicine and acupuncture. In this technique the client will tap with their fingers on acupressure points at the same time as verbalising their issues.

Emotional Freedom Technique is a technique that anyone can use at home to help alleviate a wide range of emotional problems but when working on more serious issues such as depression it is wise to work with an expert and qualified practitioner.

Helping clients with depression is not a simple exercise in the therapy room but when one has a technique such as EFT available it is amazing how quickly it can release negative feelings and past traumas that could normally take months if not years to even partially resolve. This for me is why EFT is such a valuable tool to be able to use when helping clients suffering from depression. So often it is not necessary to go digging through traumatising experiences from the past and if there things that do need addressing then it is often the case that clearing one past experience will free the client from many of the remaining discomforts around their past with so much less intrusive and upsetting work that may be needed when using other therapies.

If you are not familiar with EFT the idea of tapping around various meridian points on the face can seem a little strange at first so I will often just “drop” it into the session and ask my client to instantly just tap on the points that I show them. In most cases they are surprised at the sudden relaxation they experience and when this happens the client will immediately know that something important is happening.

Another important factor with EFT is that it is a technique the client can take home with them and use whenever they feel confronted by any difficult feelings thereby giving them some control over their daily experiences.

If you have emotional issues such as depression which have resisted any previous attempts to free yourself from, then EFT is a very powerful technique that could help you get your life back on track.

As a hypnotherapist and EFT practitioner I specialise in helping people with issues that seem not to respond to other treatments. My many previous clients know that it is possible to make remarkable changes and I see EFT as one of the keys to helping achieve those changes.

For more information 07970218451 or rogerfoxwell.therapy@gmail.com me and I will be happy to help you. It could make all the difference.

Does smoking help those with mental health issues?

Smoking

Smoking, stress and mental health issues.

There is an interesting recent article from Stanford School of Medicine relating to research into smoking and it’s effects on patients who are in mental health care. Contrary to the long held assumptions that smoking can help some psychiatric patients with their recovery new research comes to the conclusion that this is not necessarily a valid assumption.

The article Psychiatric patients given smoking-cessation treatment less likely to be rehospitalized, scientist finds is worth reading and some of the points it raises show very much the thinking going on in every smoker’s minds before they quit.

  • It was interesting that the research showed that patients who quit smoking using the programme were actually less likely to be hospitalised again for their psychiatric conditions. What I see here is that smokers often say that without cigarettes they would not be able to cope with life yet here we have people with serious mental health issues actually coping better without cigarettes.
  • It was noted that the long held view that patients would not be able to cope with their stress without cigarettes did not hold true and in fact the daily cycle of nicotine and withdrawal actually caused even more stress. This is what a smoker does on a daily basis. They are on a constant cycle of stress/relief/stress that takes a real toll on the body’s physiology and nervous system.
  • Perhaps not surprisingly the tobacco companies have supported this “smoking whilst in therapy” idea and sponsored their own research into it!
  • The idea that smoking calms the nerves holds up only when a smoker is in a state of withdrawal. However this only lasts momentarily and the smoker is back on the destructive highs and lows that do nothing for the long term health of psychiatric patients or for that matter anyone else.
Help for Stopping Smoking

 

If you are ready to Stop Smoking my unique programme has given hundreds of clients the freedom from cigarettes that they always wanted. For more information or to book an appointment just call or email and I will be happy to help.

Hypnosis for Blushing & Anxiety Disorders

Does Blushing Embarrass You?

Does Blushing Embarrass You?

Blushing is generally triggered by a perceived embarrassment or anxiety. When we blush (and we all do at some time or other) it is an involuntary experience triggered by the Sympathetic Nervous System. When we are embarrassed or under stress the nervous system opens the blood vessels below the surface of the skin causing reddening of the face. For some, once an episode of blushing has occurred then there can be a constant worry it will happen again. Of course by now the nervous system is on full alert and looking for any situation that might trigger the blushing again. It then becomes a habitual response leading to even more anxiety and loss of confidence.

Fortunately Hypnotherapy is one of the most effective and rapid ways to treat blushing. In my experience in just one or two sessions clients will often have this under control.

Here are some ways you can help your body and mind desensitise to blushing:

Allowing it to happen may seem contradictory but trying to stop it happening only makes things worse. It is the body’s automatic response and by using whatever ways we can to let go of any anxiety around the situation your body will find this response less and less near the surface. In other words however uncomfortable it may seem at first just let it happen with no self recriminations. This is a big step towards breaking the cycle.
Check your breathing. Learn some simple abdomen breathing to help settle any anxiety around this and help you to feel more comfortable in day to day situations. Breathing deeper into the abdomen will help the nervous system balance itself in a healthy way.
Remember blushing does not diminish you as a person and virtually everybody has had blushing experiences in their life.

Help is at hand, there really is no need to continue your life with this uncomfortable experience.

To find out more information about how hypnotherapy and EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) can help virtually anyone release the intensity and anxiety around blushing  just call or email and I will be happy to help with any questions you may have or to book an appointment for you.

Brief History of Hypnosis

Brief History of Hypnosis

Hypnosis – a brief history

The history of hypnosis dates way back to at least Egyptian times. Early records show that the Egyptians would have a temple where someone with a particular ailment would take certain herbs and be given a form of hypnotic chanting to put them into a trance or sleep state. Once in this state the client would sleep after the ceremony and would dream of a cure to their illness.

Also in ancient Greece specific “Sleep Temples” were built to help people in much the same way and give them the opportunity to dream of a cure. The interesting thing here is that the idea that we can dream of something to find an answer to a problem is really not at all far fetched and in a state of trance it is often surprising how things long forgotten or seemingly random thoughts and ideas can just seem to “pop” into the mind when we are in a hypnotic or trance like state.

We have all heard the phrase “being mesmerised” and this comes from the eighteenth century physician Franz Anton Mesmer who hypnotised his patients using what he termed “Animal Magnetism” by having his patients sit in a tub fitted with iron rods holding hands and thereby seeming to promote this strange energy.

Mesmerism became very popular for a while and later appeared in India in the nineteenth century when the Sottish surgeon James Esdaile witnessed some amazing operations performed with no anesthetic. Esdaile continued studying this technique and became known in his time as the leading expert in pain free surgery.

Another nineteenth century Scottish surgeon James Braid also witnessed this technique called mesmerism but decided eventually to use the term hypnosis and was the first to bring hypnosis closer to the form that we recognise today.

Later that century Sigmund Freud had been studying with one of the flourishing French schools of hypnosis and decided to use it in his practice although he soon gave it up as he developed his own form of psychoanalysis. Interestingly this new “psychoanalysis” became the mainstream form of treatment for emotional disorders and hypnosis was side-lined as an Academic study. It is argued that but for this hypnosis would have become even more mainstream than it is today.

Hypnosis has often been seen as a directed form of communication until the twentieth century when the father of modern hypnosis Milton Erickson developed his own innovative techniques and language patterns that helped the patient in effect make their own unconscious decisions and choices. Erickson first used hypnosis on himself to help relieve his pain and discomfort from polio and much of his work and techniques still form a strong basis for the study that hypnotherapists have today.

The work of such experts as Erickson, Elman, and the co-founders of NLP Richard Bandler and John Grinder and many others has helped bring hypnosis into the twenty first century as a respected and powerful modality. Modern hypnotherapy is now recognised as an extremely effective modality to help resolve a wide range of issues.

Help pass your driving test with hypnotherapy

Driving Test

Hypnotherapy can help you pass your driving test

Taking a driving test can be quite daunting especially when it may have been many years since taking any kind of exam or test. The modern driving test is rigorously marked (but not as tough yet as for instance in Germany) and over 50% of entrants will have more than one attempt before they get a pass.

Of course a good instructor is most important. Obviously the instructor must be good at their job but you must also feel comfortable with them and feel you are learning better skills each time you go for your lesson. If you don’t feel confident with your instructor then it may be wise to try another. Part of the job of any tutor, teacher or instructor is to help the student feel at ease so they can learn in the best environment. However, even with a good instructor inner confidence and belief may not come so easily when learning to drive on our busy and fast paced roads. And this is when people may need some extra help especially when the driving test is coming up.

Hypnosis is a wonderful way of finding a balance of confidence, focus and relaxation and is an ideal technique to help anyone who has any fear of driving or is about to take a driving test. We may be feeling confident with our instructor but when it comes to the test the mind can easily go off uncontrollably at a tangent just at those precise moments when we need focus and complete attention.

So in what ways can hypnosis help you? Recently I was working with a young man in the motor trade who had a very nice BMW which he loved but he was becoming increasingly nervous each time he had to drive it anywhere. One of the amazing things about hypnosis is that we can imagine pretty much whatever we want and feel almost as if it is happening in the therapy room. On this occasion he closed his eyes, I put him into a pleasantly relaxed state (a light trance) and took him for a wonderful drive all across the UK in the space of twenty minutes! Now of course he didn’t put any extra miles on his car but by the time he “arrived back” he had, in his mind, traveled so far in this relaxed and focused and attentive state that he was really quite excited about getting back into his car and actually driving it immediately to Edinburgh! The next time I saw him he was really enjoying driving his BMW at every opportunity he could get.

So if you have a driving test coming up and would like to feel more in control and confident and able to use all the skills that you have learnt with a focused and alert mind then just call me or email and we can discuss how I can help you achieve that valuable state of mind. Many of my clients have taken the driving test previously on numerous occasions without success but just one or two hypnotherapy sessions later they have come away with the pass they had been looking for. And so could you.

High Performance Sport Challenge

High Performance Sport Challenge

High Performance sport and some must have deal breakers

Are you a professional sports person looking for that extra something to make all those hours, days, weeks and months of training and practice develop into results that could bring the results that you feel your talent deserves? Perhaps you compete to a high standard or on an amateur level yet experience that same level of disappointment that all your hard work does not quite seem to equal the results or pleasure you feel you could achieve in your performance.Is it really just technique that will bring the cream of the contestants to the surface or is there something else that can bring that extra ingredient that adds sparkle, intuition and focus to a performance whether on the football pitch, the golf course or the athletics meeting? This is an interesting question because modern training methods have reached a new peak over the last few years and nothing is left to chance. Physical fitness, nutrition and all the mind game training methods that can help with that performance edge required to reach peak performance are all available to contestants at virtually all levels. If you look on the golf tours virtually every player has what looks like a perfectly honed swing plus a strong physique that has been crafted through many hours in the gym. Thirty years ago every golf swing looked different and individual but now with modern technology we are able to compute from a multitude of angles, speeds, spins and trajectories all this information, collate it on a computer and come up with the optimum sequences and physical adjustments required for the perfect swing.So what is it that makes the difference between the front runners and the pack that seems to help a few rise to new heights in their chosen discipline?
Training, attention to detail, dedication are just a few of the “must haves” one must use to achieve success in any walk of life but the real difference that makes the extra difference is going on in the mind. So what are some of these differences that count for that something extra?• The ability to hold ones nerve when in the most intense performance situations • The techniques to help let go of past unconscious negative conditioning • The ability to rapidly release disappointing experiences when they occur • To be able to learn from these experiences. (And they will happen but there is no place for self recrimination) • To have access to mind tools that can be used at the drop of a hat that can deal with any situation as it arises. (We don’t have the choice in competition to sort it later. We must have tools to sort it now!) • To have an inner vocabulary that matches your goals and achievements. (Listen to the way Andy Murray has upped his self talk and see the difference it has helped make for his results) • The ability to have a self belief that actually generates results in performance. (Only when you believe results are coming with a deep inner conviction can your mind and body generate the technique that brings those results) • To develop a mindset that misses nothing in your quest and that can draw every nugget of information that is of value in your aims from every source around you.These qualities are just the sort of qualities that top performers use instinctively. That is why on the outside the results they achieve often appear to be ridiculously easy and their technique miraculously simple. But you can learn this as well with the right knowledge and understanding of how these internal techniques work. Think what a difference that could make to your results and enjoyment of the sport you love. Yes, just think of it now because if you want to find a new pathway to greater achievement and unlock that extra nugget of technique that you know you surely have there are simple yet extremely powerful tools available to do just that. I have helped many top professionals from many areas of competition achieve more of their goals by helping them unlock these hidden qualities. If you would like to know why many of my techniques take the inner psychology of performance to another level and how they really could help you reach the next level in your performance you can contact me by email or phone and I will be ready to tell you more. I not only work one to one but also with Skype so distance is no problem.

Photo Credit : www.ebikeshed.com

Skype Therapy

Skype being used to provide therapy

Using Skype for therapy has been around for quite a while although not everybody is familiar with the concept. With a video link it is a great way to communicate and work with clients. I have done many therapy telephone sessions in the past but with clients enquiring about my work from as far afield as the USA, Australia, India and Cyprus it is proving to be a wonderful way to work with clients who would otherwise be unable to see me on a one to one basis.

Other reasons that Skype can be an invaluable way to communicate with clients is for people who have physical or emotional reasons that mean they are unable to leave the house. In these cases I can work with agrophobia issues, chronic anxiety and many other problems even when a client, who may be local or in another part of the country cannot come directly to my office.

NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) and EFT (EmotionalFreedom Technique) lend themselves very well to this medium and since we are in a light trance regularly during the day I often use an “eyes open state” of hypnosis even when working in my office on a one to one basis. This works very well with Skype and the client is in always control and fully consciously aware throughout the session.

So if you are local or thousands of miles away and are interested in learning more about how a Skype session could help you make significant changes in your life you do contact me and do look at my website. All you need is a computer with a webcam, a decent broadband connection and a Skype account which is very easy to set up. The rest is just the same as answering your telephone but through your computer.

Does depression make you feel helpless and hopeless?

Does depression affect you?

Does depression affect you?

Anyone who has experienced depression knows what a debilitating state it can be with seemingly uncontrollable feelings of sadness or anxiety, loss of interest in life and feeling hopeless and helpless.
There are many reasons people can suffer from depression. It could be bereavement, loss of something important in their lives or it may just appear out of the blue for no apparent reason at all.
When someone is feeling this way they probably know that they should be doing something about it but even that may be just one step too far for them to take. For some medication will help and for others even this may not get them to where they would like to be.

In talking therapy one of the primary aims is to help the patient share their feelings with someone outwith friends and family and hopefully over a period of time perhaps discover the cause of their feelings and help them to move on. Of course no amount of “just snap out of it” or “get a grip”, however well meaning is going to help and will probably make things worse. When someone is in that state of mind the inner resilience is just not there to light that spark of positive reconnection with life that the depressed person would so love to experience. However there are ways if one can summon up the mental energy to help oneself. Just a small step could help rekindle the neural activity in the brain that helps to switch on the states we desire and switch off those we don’t. This article by Dr Mercola http://bit.ly/16Isvnq has a range of possible ways to kick start the process and safely re engage in the pleasures of life that everyone else seems to be enjoying.

I work with a lot of clients with depression and in my experience an important factor, as the above article points out is finding methods to help turn the switch that can take us to a place in the mind where it is possible connect with the pleasures and quality experiences of life. Using Hypnosis, Emotional Freedom Technique and NLP with a qualified practitioner are powerful ways to safely release underlying issues and help move forward in life.
However just as important in my treatments are using simple tools that can be used on an everyday basis to help regenerate and bring back the pleasures, and positive experiences that are available to virtually everyone if we are ready to find them. I always tell my clients, “I don’t know what you will be thinking or experiencing at, for example, 5 o’clock this evening any more than I know what I will be experiencing but if you have the tools to deal with and in some small way adjust that experience to your advantage you yourself will have made a change and begun to learn that you can bring back some control in your life.”
(To ensure you are getting the safest treatments always seek medical advice first)

For more information please contact me and I will be happy to help.

IBS. Irritable Bowel Issues

Irritable Bowel Issues

Do you have IBS

IBS is an issue that I regularly help clients with. Recently I saw a young man who had just left college and was now working in a local supermarket. Unfortunately he had been suffering from IBS since he was a teenager at school and it had become a more and more chronic issue that was not only very painful at times but had begun to restrict many of his activities socially and professionally.

Every journey away from home had to be calculated in advance and longer periods away and travelling long distances had become out of the question. He was finding the stress hard to manage which obviously exacerbated the symptoms so things like holidays and family reunions, unless they were close by, were becoming increasingly difficult to attend. His girlfriend was supportive but obviously she would have liked them to be able to spend more time out together and be able to go on holidays so this was also a restriction for her.

Now anyone suffering from IBS symptoms will most probably recognise what I am saying and working as a clinical hypnotherapist the story people give me is very much the same every time. They have probably had it for quite a few years and the discomfort and restriction in their lives is wearing them down and depressing them. The interesting thing is that I really can’t think of a client that I have worked with who has had IBS symptoms who has not experienced real change within the first session and after just two or three sessions has not returned to a virtually normal life style.

For IBS sufferers even the NHS website says that there is no cure for it. However there are many qualified professional hypnotherapists who are achieving really good results with their clients so if you are suffering from this it is well worth finding a hypnotherapist in your area who will be able to help you. It could make a big difference to your life and help free you from the restrictions and discomforts that are part of living with IBS.

Roger Foxwell is a Clinical Hypnotherapist, EFT and NLP practitioner. Contact Roger for more information and help.

[In the case of any physical issue always seek medical advice and get a professional medical diagnosis before embarking on any other treatment]