Redefining the Definition
In modern medical terms, when the word ‘disease’ is used, we typically shudder with a fear of a lifelong diagnosis, picturing crippling and debilitating outcomes, and potentially resulting in medical, chemical and even surgical interventions. Mortality flashes before our eyes!!
However, thanks to the incredible insights of Louise L. Hay, a new definition was coined. “Dis-ease” by many, is now seen as something causing a sense of dis-comfort within the body. Where “ease” of the body and within the body has been replaced by “dis-ease” bringing an entirely new interpretation to this word.
If you are experiencing any of the ‘dis-eases‘ below, it is possible to reframe your perspective, essentially being able to use your own untapped resources of resilience to reach your desired outcome of relief and recovery!! By shifting negative expectations that traditionally occurred when a diagnosis of a disease was received, or accepting this is now your ‘burden to bear’, the transition from ‘disease’ to ‘dis-ease’ has led to far greater levels of positive expectation occurring.
“Every cell within our body responds to every single thought we think and every word we speak.
Continuous modes of thinking and speaking produce body behaviors and postures and “eases,” or dis-eases.
The person who has a permanently scowling face didn’t produce that by having joyous, loving thoughts.”
Author: Louise L. Hay
Depression
Depression is a mood disorder characterized by persistent feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and a lack of interest or pleasure in most activities. It can affect thoughts, behavior, feelings, and sense of well-being. Unlike Grief, it is much heavier and longer lasting. Sometimes, depression can go undiagnosed for years, often preceding other more complex mental health issues, if left untreated.
How Hypnosis Therapy Can Help: Hypnosis therapy can help address underlying causes of depression by promoting relaxation, enhancing self-awareness, and enabling the individual to reframe negative thoughts and beliefs. It can also help improve mood and increase motivation, contributing to overall emotional well-being.
How Strategic Psychotherapy Can Help: Many people who have lived with depression have also been receiving treatment for many years (once diagnosed). Strategic Psychotherapy has a different approach to treatment, rapidly getting to the very heart of the problem by addressing the underlying negative beliefs and thought patterns supporting the negative self-talk, poor self-esteem, and how much untapped power the client naturally has, which has yet to be recognised or utilised. In investigating those patterns and belief structures that limit the ability to find hope, Strategic Psychotherapy can bring depression to an end.
It is always important to recognise the client’s role in achieving success.
“You have to believe it’s possible to make it probable!!
Author: Unknown
Stress and Anxiety, Including Performance Anxiety
Stress is the body’s response to any demand or challenge, while Anxiety is a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome. Performance anxiety specifically refers to the fear of performing in front of an audience or in high-pressure situations.
How Hypnosis Therapy Can Help: Hypnosis therapy can reduce stress and anxiety by inducing a deep state of relaxation, helping individuals manage their responses to stressful situations. It can also increase confidence and focus, reducing performance anxiety by helping individuals visualize success and manage fear. Clients often find that when in trance, their fears and inhibitions can be resolved, with many having their own personal ‘aha’ or ‘ahh-haa’ (as we like to say) moment, using their own natural, untapped ability to recognise their potential.
How Strategic Psychotherapy Can Help: Strategic Psychotherapy strategically goes about addressing what habits the client is unknowingly using to limit them from achieving their desired outcomes. Stress, more often than not, is simply a response to circumstances where it is believed that a solution is unachievable or that the client is not capable of attaining. Every day of our lives we face challenges, but our confidence in dealing with those challenges is what determines the outcome. Strategic Psychotherapy enables the client to recognise their own unique solution, uncovering hidden potential and revealing the client’s true capacity.
“We all do better, when we know better”
Author: Maya Angelou
Insomnia
Insomnia is a sleep disorder characterized by difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or getting restful sleep, leading to daytime fatigue and impaired functioning. Ensuring no underlying medical condition exists (such as thyroid) is essential before treatment can begin. Once all medical conditions are ruled out, treatment for Insomnia can commence. Many people experiencing insomnia typically find themselves re-running events of the past, or fearing events that haven’t yet occurred. Learning how to maintain focus, staying in the present, which is the only true place that change can immediately occur, puts the client back in control of their life!
How Hypnosis Therapy Can Help: Hypnosis therapy can promote better sleep by addressing underlying stressors and anxieties that contribute to insomnia. It can help establish a routine for relaxation, promote positive sleep habits, and teach techniques for calming the mind before bedtime. Becoming familiar with your own circadian rhythms is just like learning to surf – it’s about knowing how to catch the next wave. Hypnosis is a great tool for learning how to achieve a thorough sense of peace internally and externally, and combining this with good sleep hygiene practices, success is entirely possible.
How Strategic Psychotherapy Can Help: We all run behaviours which we build up over time. Some are wonderfully helpful, but others not so helpful. Many professions require shift work hours, inhibiting the natural rhythms of the body. And yet some people manage this so very well. “So, what are they doing differently?” I hear you ask. By using Strategic Psychotherapy, it is possible to analyse the patterns of behaviour that are limiting chances of sleep.
“If it can be learned, it can be unlearned”
Author: Alvin Toffler
Pain Management
Pain Management is what we do to manage Pain, and involves techniques and treatments aimed at reducing or controlling chronic or acute pain, which can significantly impact quality of life. Pain in its many forms, can be significantly reduced by learning techniques to deal with the consequences of a physical injury such as surgery, or an emotional injury such as heartache resulting in physical symptoms. Regardless of the source of pain, recalibrating the perspective improves overall outcomes.
How Hypnosis Therapy Can Help: Hypnosis therapy can help manage pain by altering the perception of pain and increasing pain tolerance. It can teach individuals techniques for relaxation and distraction, helping to reduce the intensity of pain and improve coping mechanisms. With the wonders of modern science, it is possible to witness the many ways in which people demonstrate incredible levels of resilience and recovery, through engaging the powerful and untapped skills of the mind.
How Strategic Psychotherapy Can Help: By strategically addressing the ways in which thoughts are connected and beliefs are developed to frame and support the negative experience of pain, the client can learn what patterns they are running that uphold the condition. Often people are unaware of how their own perspective is playing a part if the levels of pain they are experiencing, and how they can disengage that part of their mind and body and regain control over their experience.
“There are two sides to every coin”
Author: Thomas Jefferson
Phobias
Phobias are intense, irrational fears of specific objects, situations, or activities that lead to avoidance behavior and can interfere with daily life. Fear of spiders isn’t a problem unless you yearn to go bushwalking; fear of lifts or small spaces isn’t a problem if you live on the ground floor and never need to go anywhere that a lift might happen to be. Phobias really only become a problem when they negatively impact the quality of a person’s life. If you find yourself throwing salt over your shoulder, or checking that you locked the door repeatedly you may be running some form of irrational fear, however the consequences may be insignificant – what’s problem is a little extra salt on the floor going to cause? But if you find the fear is all-consuming, that it is impacting your ability to lead a healthy and normal life, then seeking help may be long overdue. What may have started out as an insignificant phobia, if left unaddressed can become OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), germaphobia, agoraphobia and more.
How Hypnosis Therapy Can Help: Hypnosis therapy can help individuals confront and manage phobias by desensitizing them to the feared object or situation. It can also help reframe negative thoughts and associations, reducing the emotional and physical response to the phobia. A client can be exposed to their phobia in a state of trance, with the clear understanding that “IT, is not happening NOW” and through gentle but persistent revisiting, it is possible to recognise their own strengths in the situation, empowering them to take back charge of their life.
How Strategic Psychotherapy Can Help: Analysing strategically what beliefs a client has that would cause them such extreme and irrational terror, is how the therapist is able to untangle the self-defeating and destructive behaviours that support a phobia. Phobias often run in families and have been learned by exposure to behaviours learned at a young age. In other circumstances, it may be a process being run to avoid a deeper, underlying issue. Strategic Psychotherapy deconstructs how the client is running the behaviour, giving them awareness of their own strengths in the situation.
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”
Author: Franklin D Roosevelt
Addictions (Smoking, Drinking, Online Shopping, etc.)
Addictions are compulsive behaviors or substance dependencies that are difficult to control and can lead to negative consequences in various areas of life. Often, they have come about as a way to cope with a situation that caused discomfort either within the mind or within the body. It is an attempt to cope by soothing oneself, however the relief is usually short lived, resulting in increased need for relief and the original fear or pain becoming dwarfed by the addiction itself. Some examples of Addictions include drugs (both legal eg smoking and illegal), alcohol, gambling, online shopping, sex, and high levels of risk taking for the thrill.
How Hypnosis Therapy Can Help: Hypnosis therapy can address the underlying psychological factors contributing to addiction. It can help individuals break unhealthy habits by promoting positive behavior changes, increasing motivation for recovery, and reducing cravings and withdrawal symptoms. Hypnosis provides the opportunity for the client to reach safely into the past to review life experiences, and into the future to perceive possibilities with and without behavioural changes.
How Strategic Psychotherapy Can Help: When strategically approaching addictions, the un-discovered and yet to be discovered solution lies in determining what skills are lacking for the client, and what the addiction is replacing that the client presently believes they are unable to do for themselves. The therapist strategically and sympathetically approaches the client’s behaviour looking to see what patterns they are running that support their problem space. Dismantling these negative beliefs – often developed in childhood – brings the client into a state of self-awareness, empowering them with a deep ahh-haa moment….”So that’s why I do it!!”
“Addiction is giving everything up for one thing,
Recovery is giving up one thing for everything”
Author: Tim Allen
Relationships
Relationship issues can arise from communication problems, conflicts, lack of trust, or emotional disconnection, affecting the overall health and happiness of the individuals involved. It’s when we get out of sync, and unable to recognise or communicate perspective that relationships break down. Often a strong opinion or feeling lies behind the behaviour that negatively impacted the relationship. Improving understanding through a shift in perspective can strengthen ties in a marriage, friendship, or work relationship.
How Hypnosis Therapy Can Help: Hypnosis therapy can improve relationships by enhancing communication skills, fostering empathy, and helping individuals address and resolve underlying issues. It can promote positive behavioral changes and improve emotional connection and understanding.
How Strategic Psychotherapy Can Help:
“Perspective is Everything”
Author: Joni Earackson Tada
Procrastination and Goal Setting
Procrastination is the act of delaying or postponing tasks, often leading to stress and decreased productivity. Effective goal setting involves defining clear, achievable objectives and developing a plan to reach them. Procrastination can easily be denied simply by stating that more important things needed to be done instead. Not until it reaches total discomfort are people forced to face the issue/s they have been avoiding. And most often, the issue is usually a lot worse because of the avoidance.
How Hypnosis Therapy Can Help: Hypnosis therapy can help overcome procrastination by increasing motivation, focus, and self-discipline. It can aid in goal setting by helping individuals visualize their objectives, develop a positive mindset, and create a clear action plan for achieving goals. The perceived fear can be addressed whilst in hypnosis and doing so in the safety of trance, often delivers unexpected and enlightening solutions, freeing the client to move forward again.
How Strategic Psychotherapy Can Help: Clients may not always recognise that procrastination is the reason for their problem state. Procrastination can manifest due to perceived fears and as a result of depression or anxiety. It is a state of mind that leads the client to dismiss any consequences, remaining in the moment of pleasure. It often fits within addictions also, with many addicts who avoid facing the possible consequences of gambling, drinking, or using drugs. It is possible to break through the patterns that uphold the thoughts, and the therapist will bring light to these patterns using strategic questioning and reflection.
“Avoidance is the best-short term strategy to escape conflict, and the best long-term strategy to ensure suffering”
Author: Brendan Bouchard
Post-Surgery Recovery
Post-surgery recovery involves the process of healing and regaining strength after a surgical procedure, which can vary in duration and intensity depending on the individual and the type of surgery. Family and/or community beliefs can strongly affect recovery either hindering or improving them. Personal beliefs are the same. Focusing on the pain and suffering, switches on the body’s auto-immune system increasing inflammation and reducing healing. It has been long recognised that post-surgical outcomes vastly improve with a strong and positive state of mind.
How Hypnosis Therapy Can Help: Hypnosis therapy can support post-surgery recovery by promoting relaxation and reducing stress, which can enhance the body’s natural healing process. It can also help manage pain, reduce anxiety about the recovery process, and improve overall well-being. It is possible to train the human brain about how to heal its own body. A deep transitive state enhances and strengthens immunity, creating a heightened level of healing.
How Strategic Psychotherapy Can Help: Any pain that continues to cause distress that pharmaceutical therapies are unable to reduce or remove can be greatly improved using strategic analysis on the part of the therapist. Belief structures can underpin and keep the client stuck, often occurring subliminally, and therefore unconsciously, leaving the person with a great deal of pain which they believe is untreatable, resolving themselves to a lifetime of agony. Uncovering these negative beliefs and helping the client see that it is possible to have positive expectancy and regain control (sometimes in part or sometimes fully) depends entirely on the client’s willingness to let go of these beliefs.
“The biggest wall you have to climb is the one you build in your mind”
Author: Unknown
Weight Loss
Weight loss involves reducing body weight, often through a combination of diet, exercise, and behavioral changes, to improve health and well-being. A holistic approach will ensure long-lasting results and should involve checking in with a GP to ensure no underlying health conditions exist, such as diabetes or thyroid, as part of the overall approach. Although simple math tells us that it is about ‘calories out and calories in’, the body also responds to calories in its own way, when stress or depression are involved.
How Hypnosis Therapy Can Help: Hypnosis therapy can support weight loss by addressing emotional and psychological factors that contribute to overeating or unhealthy habits. It can promote positive changes in eating behavior, increase motivation for physical activity, and help individuals develop a healthy relationship with food. By aiding the body to reach a calmer state, through addressing the mind, a whole-body approach will ensure success. Anyone who has lived with long-term stress levels, people-pleasing, and undervaluing their own needs will benefit enormously through recalibrating their place in the world.
How Strategic Psychotherapy Can Help: Unconsciously eating plays a big part in weight gain. Building mindful practices about eating habits is part of the strategic process used to dismantle destructive eating processes. It is not always about how much, or what you are eating, and can even be when you are eating. But what is most critical is recognising how you run these processes that are keeping you stuck in that uncomfortable body suit of fat. Any success will not be gained from a quick fix but will come from a full commitment to the process, AND your place in it.
“Your personality creates your personal reality”
Author: Joe Dispenza
