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Psychotherapy and Counselling are talking therapies. Just telling a therapist how things are affecting you can really help to lift the weight of worry, stress & anxiety. It is not for me to give you advice on your situation - in fact we will work together to help you find your own solutions. This is achieved by giving you space and time to reflect on what you really want. We have lots of options, including working with the 'parts' of your personaility to ensure that all of your needs are heard and fulfilled. I use various techniques to help you explore your inner values and beliefs, so that you can find the cause of your issues and work them through to a resolution. I will explain any technique used and the theory behind it, so that you remain in control of the direction of the therapy.
The Rewind Technique for Trauma is a way of separating the horrible feelings from a traumatic memory, so that the memory no longer triggers distress. It is quick (2-4 sessions for a single event trauma) and popular, because there is no need to discuss the incidents with me if you prefer not to.
I use it for phobias and traumatic stress. Rewind Technique for Trauma involves imagining watching a film of the event, from beforehand, when you felt safe & calm, through to the end. Then you imagine going into the end of the film & rewinding it very quickly, in seconds. Ongoing research suggests that this may work due to 'memory reconsolidation', which is where a memory is stored & therefore reacted to differently. In the case of trauma, rather than a memory being stuck on loop, in the area of the brain responsible for survival - where it triggers the fight, flight, freeze response, it can move to the storage area, filed under something like: 'unpleasant memories from the past', where it no longer causes distress when remembered.
Hypnotherapy is very different from stage hypnosis. In therapy we use hypnosis to access a wonderfully relaxed state. This can help with psychotherapy as it allows you to engage with the apsects of yourself which may be holding you back, yet remain out of your daily awareness. You are always in control and aware of what I'm saying. Only once you've experienced it, will you realise that there's no such thing as 'mind control'. When you really want something, for example to notice less pain, suggestions work because they are in line with your wants & needs. Once you trust the process, you will find yourself able to go deeper into hypnosis, paying little attention to my suggestions, as you drift into enjoying the rest & peace that comes with hypnotherapy.
Eye Movement Desensitisation & Reprocessing (EMDR) is the practise of recalling traumatic events while the brain is stimulated side to side, with eye movements, physical stimulation (with hand held buzzers, for example), or sounds in each ear. This technique is widely used to treat traumatic stress & PTSD and removes the link between the event & the distressing feelings that come up when it is recalled. Science is yet to confirm the exact way that it works, but there is plenty of evidence that it does. Theories include memory reconsolidation, as described above, in the rewind technique. You will be taught ways to moderate and control any anxiety as part of the EMDR process, so that you are able to tolerate accessing the memories as part of the process.
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Neurolinguistic Programming is the practise of working with the patterns or 'programmes' that operate in your mind. If you have a programme that isn't working for you - for example a phobia, then we can change this by working out exactly how you 'do' your fear. We would firstly discuss how your phobia works physically - how you feel, what you see, hear, taste etc. and then I'd take you through a reprogramming technique where we interrupt the phobic response and replace it with a much more resourceful state. Exactly which technique we use depends on you, and this would be decided once we've had our first session.