The definition of a phobia is an extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something. You may have a strong fear of flying for example, and in your day-to-day life this isn’t a problem, but as soon as you wish to go on holidays overseas or have to travel for work it can have a huge negative impact on your life, impeding your ability to live life to the full. Or you could have a fear of public speaking, and so are in a constant state of anxiety at work just in case you have to speak up in meetings or present to a group, whether this is about to occur or not. As you can see in this instance it could greatly impact your happiness and state of mind during your entire working day.

In the moment a phobia is created, you are generally under extreme stress and your anxiety is at an unmanageable level. So to cope with this your mind looks outside itself as to what the cause of this stress is, decides (subconsciously) it is flying, spiders, public speaking, enclosed spaces, vomiting, needles, heights etc. and so a phobia is formed. The list of phobias is extremely long – in fact there are thousands of named phobias! So from that point on you avoid what you believe to be the cause of your misery, or if you have no choice but to come in contact with it you suffer varying levels of psychological and physical distress. The good old fight, flight or freeze response!

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy is a fantastic way to deal with these phobias, as we use a method whereby we remove the unhelpful template (the phobia) that has been created, and replace it with a positive image of how you would like to respond going forward. This method has had great success and has helped many people.

More common phobias are:

• Animal Phobias - for example snakes, spiders, dogs, birds and other creatures
• Aerophobia - fear of flying
• Claustrophobia – fear of enclosed spaces
• Acrophobia – fear of heights
• Agoraphobia - fear of open or public spaces, travelling on public transport, leaving home
• Social Phobia - involving fear of embarrassment and humiliation in social situations and interactions, such as in crowds, parties, at work, using public facilities, meeting strangers, talking in groups, talking over the phone, eating and drinking in public
• Medical / Dental Phobia - fear of procedures and/ or medical places
• Fear of Germs – including fear of contracting illnesses
• Blood and Needle Phobia
• Emetophobia - fear of vomiting

Hypnotherapy can help with all of these and more!

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A panic attack is when the body goes into extreme fight or flight mode, which sets off certain physiological responses such as heart palpitations, sweating, trembling, crying, shortness of breath and nausea. It is a very frightening experience and people may even feel they are suffocating or dying. This can occur because a person’s anxiety has reached unmanageable levels and so the mind perceives there is danger all around, activating the fight or flight (or freeze) area of the brain.

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy is fantastic in that it allows greater access to the subconscious mind, helping to reduce the symptoms of anxiety and stress and building more constructive calming thought patterns. This will allow the positive intellectual area of the brain to take back control, thus alleviating symptoms of anxiety.

Motivation is that desire you have within to achieve the goals you set for yourself, whether they are big goals, such as in career, relationships, sporting goals like running a marathon, or whether they are small goals like deciding to eat well today, go to bed on time, or exercise like you promised yourself you would.

Lack of motivation prevents you achieving your goals, which can then lead to low self-esteem, negative self-talk, or unhelpful behaviours such as procrastination, excessive eating or drinking, and staying up late. We then get into the grip of a vicious cycle and the negative spiral can get worse and worse.

Thankfully Hypnotherapy can help with motivation and goal achievement by firstly using relaxation and trance techniques to reduce your stress levels and get you thinking more positively. We help you focus on the future and what you want your life to be like, helping you to break down your goals into more achievable chunks. And the more small things you achieve the more you build positive thoughts in your mind, creating enthusiasm and energy to help you achieve all that you choose to.

The human mind is the most amazing tool, and with Solution Focused Hypnotherapy we can harness your mind to make that wonderful decision to stop smoking a reality. With Hypnotherapy we help you create your vision of a non-smoking future and leave behind those destructive beliefs that have allowed you to associate smoking with any feelings of relaxation or happiness or addiction. It will help you recognise and squash any thoughts that may lead to smoking, allowing you to have a smoke free future.

The most important thing though is your desire to want to quit – the decision has to be yours. As long as you are prepared to change then Hypnotherapy is a very good tool to help you stop this habit, which can happen in one double session, with the inclusion of a relaxation CD/MP3 download to assist you in your journey.

We all generally know what we have to do to maintain a suitable weight, so the question is, why don’t we do the things we know will help us? Solution Focused Hypnotherapy believes that each of us has a reservoir of intelligence that allows us to make the best decisions and choices at any given time, but various things stop our access. Our stress levels get too high, and so we start thinking negatively. We may think of all the times we failed in the past; that we’re hopeless; we have no willpower. We can also experience feelings of low self-esteem. We may start to sabotage ourselves, tapping into the negative beliefs and habits we may have had within us for a long time.

Hypnotherapy is a fantastic tool to help you with your weight management journey. Using relaxation techniques we can help you to shift previous patterns of behaviour and think more positively, which will help you make the right decisions for you. By you focusing on your preferred future we can help you break your goals down into achievable steps, making your goals a reality.

It is important to note that Hypnotherapy is not a magic wand – you need to be committed to do the work and to expect incremental change. Remember, sustained change takes effort and dedication, but with that you can live life to the full.