Changes Welcome to motivate New Year’s Goals

The most successful people from all walks of life, be that young, old, academic, professional, business, sportsmen etc. are usually those who are the most motivated.  There are many theories of how we can develop motivational skills, but one in particular and which is beyond doubt is that we need goals.  Somebody who has a clear goal is more ready for action than somebody who doesn’t, whereas without goals there can be little if any action at all.

It therefore follows that if you are constantly looking for new alternative sources of motivation, then your goals may not be well enough defined.  A goal of becoming simply more motivated won’t really do.   But if you have a clear and positive defined goal of achieving something specific, then the motivation usually takes care of itself - the more specific, the better.  Here motivation is simply the end product of a clearly focused mind.

So what should we focus on if not the motivation itself?  For instance, instead of focusing on weight loss, we can focus on feeling and looking healthier, fitting into our favourite clothes, or feeling more accepted etc.  Equally, we need to stay away from ‘don’t - e.g. ‘I don’t want to be this size’.  Whilst we are thinking that we ‘don’t want something’, we are inherently off track.  Instead we need to learn to naturally focus on what we DO want, the deeper goals, rather than what we don’t want, which includes no goals at all.

By helping define deeper goals, Solution Focused Hypnotherapy (SFH) for example is an extremely valuable resource.  It supports these ideas perfectly in helping people to clarify their intentions and move beyond psychological blocks and procrastinations towards achieving the strong self-motivational skills they are capable of.  It helps on a deep level by supporting people to redefine their self-image and gain confidence in what they can achieve.

Whether it’s managing weight, keeping fit, maintaining a tidy house, dealing better with emotions, gaining qualifications or improving work/life balance, hypnotherapy can help you achieve your goal.

SFH therapists at ‘Changes Welcome’ employ techniques specifically designed to help people visualise their ‘preferred future’.  By asking specially formulated questions, the support is provided to help people describe how their future will be when they have achieved their goal.  People are encouraged to provide as much detail as possible so that they can create a vivid and clear mental image.

When this is followed by a session of hypnosis, a relaxed state of trance is achieved in which the sub-conscious mind is more receptive to ideas and suggestion, which in turn serves to embed the ideas more firmly.  People do not need to be creative or artistic to be able to visualise a scenario.  For those who may not be very creative and feel unsure of this, it is for example as simple as describing their wedding day, or describing what their kitchen/ garage looks like. Visualisation is no more difficult than that.”

It is important for people to understand, however, that SFH is not a magic wand that can change a person’s behaviour without any effort on their part.  Willpower and determination are still needed, but this therapy can be enormously helpful in maintaining a people’s motivation.

Most New Year’s resolutions involve changing ingrained habits. We may habitually eat more than we need to be comfortably full, we may leave the dishes on the draining board until morning, or we may believe that we can’t leave work until we’ve dealt with all the emails in our inbox.

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy works by helping clients to see an alternative behaviour, one that benefits them. We know that habits are created through repetition. The more we employ a new behaviour, the more automatic it becomes. By helping clients to imagine having achieved their goal, SFH therapists are actually helping them to create healthier habits of thought.

This is not without scientific background.  Neuroscience demonstrates that when we imagine doing something, changes take place in the brain, which are similar to when we are actually doing it. So we can accelerate the formation of new habits by simply thinking about the way we want to be. And repetition of this in the deeply relaxed state achieved during hypnosis helps the mind to absorb the positive mental image more quickly.

Anyone who feels they need help to set specific goals or to maintain motivation can give me a call or drop me an email and I’d love to help you achieve your worthwhile goals.

By Liane Ulbricht-Kazan

Changes Welcome

Tel: 07825 286 550

Email: Liane@changeswelcome.co.uk

 www.ChangesWelcome.co.uk

Support at Christmastime

As the holiday season approaches, a local hypnotherapist ‘Liane Ulbricht-Kazan’ is highlighting how hypnotherapy can help people who might be anticipating a less than happy Christmas.

Depression and anxiety are on the increase in the UK and for some people, the festive season exacerbates this.  Typical sources of holiday stress can include trying to balance all the demands of family with shopping and the social engagements, unrealistic expectations, financial worries, relationship tension, bereavement and missed loved ones.  There’s been a lot of talk in recent times of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) too.

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy (SFH) can help by assisting people to overcome negative thinking styles while in a safe, supportive environment.  It uses practical, modern and well-researched strategies to help people make significant, positive changes in their lives in a relatively short period of time.

SFH therapists look at what the client wants to achieve rather than on the problem(s) that prompted them to seek change. The approach focuses on the present and future and not on the past. This enables the client to identify possible solutions themselves and work towards them.  Hypnosis itself reduces anxiety and this is done very simply through relaxation and visualization, allowing the client to focus on the positive aspects of their lives that encourages a shift in perspective.  Contrary to popular myth, Hypnotherapy won’t make you do anything you do not really want to.

Liane practices in Bristol (Clifton) & Gloucestershire (Naiolsworth & Berkeley).  For further information about Hypnotherapy, or to book a free initial consultation, please call 07825286550 or visit Liane’s website www.changeswelcome.co.uk.

Hypnotherapy can help overcome sleepless nights

Hypnotherapy can help insomnia sufferers by dealing with underlying factors that contribute to the condition.

Around a third of people suffer from some form of insomnia at some point in their lives, including difficulty falling asleep, waking up during the night or waking up too early in the morning.  The effects of prolonged sleeplessness can range from fatigue, lack of motivation, irritability, reduced problem solving skills, inability to cope with stress, reduced immunity and weight gain.

Local Hypnotherapist Liane Ulbricht-Kazan explains “Anxiety is a common cause of insomnia, and of course worrying that you’re not sleeping only makes the problem worse.  It’s not long before a vicious cycle sets in and the harder you try, the more elusive sleep becomes.  It can be really debilitating and can seriously impair a person’s ability to function normally or enjoy life.”

Practitioners in the field can help insomnia sufferers by addressing the underlying anxiety, which may for instance be caused by work, relationships, health or financial worries.  Ruminating on problems serves to amplify their significance and even small issues can get out of proportion in the middle of a sleepless night.

Hypnotherapists work with clients to alter their habitual responses to problems and develop more helpful coping strategies.  By changing unwanted patterns of behaviour, clients’ anxiety levels reduce and sleep often improves naturally.

- Here are a few tips which commonly help:

- Avoiding too much alcohol

- Go to bed at the same time each night

- Avoid having a TV in the bedroom

- Get moderate exercise as a daily routine

- Try a milky drink before going to bed

- Avoid drinking or eating a lot late at night

Try relaxing with hypnosis or listening to music or yoga & meditation

You can also try Solution Focused Hypnotherapy with Liane.  She offers a FREE OF CHARGE hour long initial consultation either online via SKYPE or FACETIME, or face to face in Bristol (Clifton), Nailsworth or Berkeley.

Hypnotherapy provides support for those who suffer from SAD

Local hypnotherapist Liane Ulbricht-Kazan is focusing on how hypnotherapy can help those who suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) as the summer draws to a close and people who suffer from this condition start to feel the initial impact.

 SAD has hit the headlines many times in recent years as awareness grows, but it’s not a new phenomenon. The Royal College of Psychiatrists suggests that for thousands of years, people have noticed that the seasons can affect our mood. It was not until the 1980s, however, that the term Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) first appeared. It is used for people who, although they sometimes become depressed in the summer, regularly become depressed in autumn and winter. 

Liane explains, “SAD has symptoms much like depression, but it has a clear pattern, starting in Autumn or Winter and stopping in the Spring and Summer. The kinds of things that people might experience include loss of energy, low mood, which is often worse in the morning than later in the day, wanting to socialise less, a kind of need for hibernation, feelings of exhaustion for no real reason, loss of libido and so on.”

There are some subtle differences though. In depression, which isn’t related to SAD, people often sleep and eat less; with SAD, they often sleep and eat more. This can make people feel even worse.

So who gets it? SAD is more common in women – about three times more common – and the further away you live from the equator, the more likely you are to suffer. It’s common enough that many of us can relate to these symptoms, but if your symptoms are bad enough to interfere with your life, you may well have SAD. In the UK, about 3 people in every 100 have significant winter depression.

So how can hypnotherapy help with SAD? Local hypnotherapist Liane Ulbricht-Kazan explains about the approach she takes with her clients:

“Solution Focused Hypnotherapy (SFH) can help with many conditions that affect our mental wellbeing, and this includes SAD. During the (free) initial consultation we explain in detail about how the brain works and why it might ‘behave’ with some people in the way it does during the winter months. The Solution Focused approach encourages people to think in new and more positive ways. By means of imagery as well as suggestion, hypnotherapy also helps people who have SAD to change aspects of their behaviour, and refocus their thoughts in more positive ways.”

“Clients are often relieved to learn that there are different ways that the symptoms of SAD can be managed and actually enjoy the process, which often works quite quickly, as well as the results! I have been able to help clients reduce their SAD symptoms; it is such an amazingly powerful technique.”

Liane is keen to stress that hypnotherapy is not a cure or replacement for medical intervention and that outcomes do vary.

Hypnotherapy Keeps You Young

Hypnotherapy Keeps You Young

Changes Welcome Hypnotherapy is turning its attention to a nationwide problem as it focuses on National Stress Awareness Day on 6^th November 2013.

Twelve million adults see their GP with mental health and stress related problems every year, according to MIND 2012 statistics, and many more struggle on without seeking medical help.

Claire Brigg, Research Officer for the Association for Solution Focused Hypnotherapy (AfSFH) points out “It’s already known that chronic stress can affect our health adversely in many ways.  What is not so well known is that it can also lead to premature ageing and the health problems that are associated with getting older.”

“Latest research suggests that these age related diseases occur at different rates in different individuals, and ‘psychological distress’ appears to be an important factor in how quickly the onset of these diseases occurs.”

Stress brings about imbalances in the body, such as high cortisol, glucose and insulin, and low growth hormones, and these may lead to unwanted responses in our bodies, potentially impairing the normal cell ageing processes.

Premature ageing can also occur as a result of a lifestyle that includes the sort of behaviors that we associate with stress, such as smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, a sedentary lifestyle, a high fat diet and sleeplessness.  These have all been linked to DNA damage due to a process called oxidation.

Claire remarks, “It doesn’t sound great, does it? But the good news is that these ageing mechanisms can be reversed.”

“Research suggests that individuals can help themselves by reducing their perceptions of stress, along with increasing healthier behaviors, such as sleeping better, drinking less, and stopping smoking.  These changes may promote subtle but important improvements in premature cell ageing.”

“In addition, hypnosis may contribute to stress reduction and health promotion. A study in 2010 showed that during and after a hypnosis session, heart rates were reduced and breathing rates were lower.  So the state of relaxation induced by hypnosis could well be beneficial and lead to stress reduction, thereby minimizing the risk of premature ageing.”

Solution focused hypnotherapy (SFH) can help people manage their stress levels.  SFH is a modern research based combination of hypnosis and psychotherapy, which promotes relaxation and helps clients to make beneficial lifestyle changes.

The AfSFH’s primary aim is to promote the benefits of the Solution Focused approach to improving mental well-being, thereby helping to ensure the public are more aware of this valuable resource.

Local Hypnotherapist, Liane Ulbricht-Kazan is a member of the AfSFH and is very enthusiastic about the efficacy of SFH in the management of stress. “We know that too much pressure can lead to stress and a range of physical and mental health problems, including, it now transpires, premature ageing.  Stress affects the way you think, feel and behave, impacting every area of your life at any age.  Hypnotherapy offers powerful techniques and strategies to enable you to deal with stress, helping you to think and behave in a more positive way, and that has many health benefits”.

Liane explains how it works: “We encourage clients to focus on how they want things to be. We avoid problem talk and instead help our clients to visualise their preferred future. By encouraging clients to think and express themselves positively, we can help to improve their response to life’s stress.

Liane is a Solution Focused Hypnotherapist practicing in Bristol (Clifton) & Gloucestershire (Nailsworth & Berkeley).  Call 07825 286 550 now to book a free consultation, or visit www.ChangesWelcome.co.uk.