If you are experiencing anxiety and feel you have already “talked it through” you are not alone. Many people seek hypnotherapy for anxiety in Chester after realising that endless talking about the problem often does not resolve the problem.

You may know why you feel anxious

You may recognise your anxiety pattern clearly

Yet the anxious thoughts and physical sensations that you experience along with a loss of confidence keep returning. This is often because the anxiety you are experiencing isn’t created at a logical level of mind…..its learned and stored at a subconscious level.

Why Anxiety Can Feel So Hard to Manage

Anxiety is driven largely by the subconscious mind which controls automatic responses such as fear, stress and emotional habits.

This is why anxiety can:

Appear suddenly or without an obvious trigger

Affect your confidence in situations where you know you are safe

Persist even after reassurance or positive thinking

Show up physically ….racing thoughts, restlessness,increased heart rate, sweating, upset stomachs and insomnia.

Talk therapy can help you to understand your anxiety but hypnotherapy works at the level where anxiety is actually generated.

How Hypnotherapy Helps Anxiety

Hypnotherapy is an evidence based approach that helps calm the nervous system and retrains the subconscious respond to stress.

When working with hypnotherapy for anxiety clients often experience:

• Reduced anxious thoughts and over thinking. 
• A calmer response to previously triggering situations.  
• Improved confidence and a greater sense of control. 

Hypnosis is a natural focused state of attention, you remain aware and involved throughout. In a relaxed, focused and aware state your mind can become more receptive to positive change.

Hypnotherapy for Anxiety and Confidence in Chester 

Anxiety and confidence are closely linked. Repeated anxious experiences can gradually erode self belief and self trust. Low confidence can increase anxiety. Chester Hypnotherapy sessions are tailored to your specific experiences and goals. Rather than managing symptoms alone Hypnotherapy address

• Subconscious beliefs that fuel anxiety
• Learned emotional responses rooted in past experiences  
• Repeating and automatic patterns that keep confidence low 

Many clients notice that as anxiety reduces, confidence naturally begins to return.

When Talk Therapy isn’t Enough

Hypnotherapy may be particularly helpful if:

•  You feel stuck despite insight and self awareness 
• Experience anxiety that feels automatic or overwhelming
• Have tried counselling or CBT and want deeper longer lasting change 
• Struggle with confidence, self doubt or fear of judgment 

Hypnotherapy doesn’t replace talk therapy it complements it by working at different levels of the mind.

A Calm Supportive Space at Chester Hypnotherapy

Seeking help for anxiety takes courage , especially if you have already tried other therapies with limited success. At Chester Hypnotherapy  you are offered a confidential supportive and calm environment, where change happens at your pace without pressure to to relive the past or “push through” anxiety. Lasting change doesn’t come from fighting your mind, it comes from teaching it a new calmer way to respond.

Book Hypnotherapy for Anxiety in Chester if anxiety is affecting your confidence, well being  or your daily life. Hypnotherapy  may offer the help you have been looking for.

In person hypnotherapy sessions available now in Chester.

Get in touch today to arrange a a free no obligation discovery call.

Has the stress of your job made you feel like quitting?

Have one too many tasks been piled on top of you and you feel like you’re going to snap?

Or maybe your boss is just rubbing you up the wrong way and you’re not sure how much longer you can let it slide without exploding?

You are not alone.

As many as 1 in 3 people regularly feel like quitting their job. Amongst the biggest causes are workloads and management style.

But you don’t have to feel this way. There are different thoughts and different decisions that you can make if you want to change how you feel.

Have you thought about quitting?

Anger is typically a response to feeling threatened, criticised or frustrated in some way. Anger is a normal, natural and even healthy emotion. Mild forms include irritation and feelings of annoyance or dislike, this is a healthy reaction to some circumstances. Anger at times can be a secondary response to underlying feelings of inadequacy, loneliness, fear, stress and anxiety which can result in intense feelings of anger and rage. Anger can feel overwhelming, uncontrollable and frightening for the person experiencing the emotion.

Using mindfulness for anger management therapy enables you to develop the ability to stop for a moment before reacting. Focus on your breathing, making sure each in breath is slightly slower, longer more intentional. Focus  only on the process of breathing for a moment or two. As you focus on your breathing make sure that as you breathe in you are pushing your stomach out and not your chest. If your chest is moving and not your stomach then your breathing is too shallow. Anxious and angry breathing is shallow breathing.  Try Slower longer more intentional breathing pushing your stomach out as you do so will result in the release of calming chemicals in the brain. This deep slow breathing sends an automatic message to the brain to calm down and relax.

Counting mentally and silently as you breathe in also helps, try counting to 4 as you breathe in and 6 as you breathe out. Making the out breath very slightly longer will enhance the effect. Continue doing this at least 6 times.

Use this simple  tool as soon as you begin to feel anger rising. Imagine  a traffic light ….red light = STOP,

……amber light = BREATHE …..Focus on the breath

…….green light =THINK & CHOOSE

As you practice breathing you can say mentally and silently to yourself the word calm with each in breath. Any uncomfortable physical symptoms you may have any where in your body imagine breathing them out with each out breath. Breathe out the anger from your mind and your body.

Using mindfulness for anger management therapy regularly will help you to feel more in control, will improve your self esteem and confidence, increasing your ability to deal effectively with stressful situations. Leading to a greater feeling of wellbeing.

Download my free 8 minute breathing meditation to help get you started in mindfulness breathing https://www.chesterhypnotherapist.co.uk/product/breathing-meditation/

Try this new mindfulness meditation breathing audio download for free. Mindfulness meditation can help alleviate the symptoms of anxiety and stress, can improve sleep patterns and assist with concentration. This mindfulness meditation download used regularly can also help with managing pain both acute and chronic. Visit my new online shop for the free download or click here to listen via YouTube.

The new buzz word is ” gratitude” a phenomena that seems to be taking over from the craze for mindfulness as the ” new must have therapy to cure all ”  Although much hyped in recent years as the wonder  therapy, mindfulness does have a place and a very useful place for some people in helping to manage their unwanted thoughts and troublesome feelings.

Gratitude was identified by  the Roman philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero to be not only the greatest of virtues but the parent of all others. More recently the philosopher Dr Robert Emmons in his study of human emotions found in 2003 that being grateful can increase perceived happiness by 25%. Since then there have been further studies which conclude that grateful people experience higher levels of joy, love, happiness and optimism and are better protected from the destructive feelings of envy, resentment, greed and bitterness.

Interestingly we can literally produce feelings of gratitude at almost any moment and one place we can start is by being grateful for who we are. It is too easy to constantly focus inwardly at our negative traits and problems and easily avoid being grateful for ourselves and our lives. Focusing on the negative qualities in partners, children family and friends leads to unhappiness and general feelings of dissatisfaction. Simple as it may seem repetitive constant complaints about the weather will bring you down.Try instead to use gratitude, be grateful for the rain enabling us to live in this beautiful green land. Even when forced gratitude seems to have the same up lifting effect. The same principle applies to your relationships both personal and professional so when you feel irritated by some thing your partner, children, friends or work colleagues have done accessing feelings of gratitude will significantly improve your mood and the relationship. This does not mean you become a doormat or a pushover, if you need to address a problem then do so. It simply means not focusing on the negatives but finding something to be grateful for in your life.

In hypnotherapy the therapist  can use hypnosis, mindfulness and gratitude, incorporating suggestions of gratitude to improve feelings of well being, to identify inner strengths which you may have forgotten that you have. I always like to include phrases to encourage you to appreciate yourself and be grateful for who you are.  This enables you to change your focus and slowly alter your perceptions, so that whatever problems we have we can learn to reflect and accept the good things in our lives. Throughout the day you can consciously choose to stay present in this moment, accepting that life is a moment by moment process and one moment simply leads to the next, whatever is going on in your life you can be grateful for being you. Incorporating this into your daily life will bring an increased sense of well being.

Certainly I believe that gratitude is probably easier to practice and maintain than mindfulness meditations, it has the added advantage that you will focus more outwardly on the people and the world around you leading to much less preoccupation with any problems or ailments that you may have.

How Hypnotherapy can Help with Weight loss

During the first few weeks of any diet  you will most probably lose some weight and feel great about it. Then suddenly for some reason you will start putting the weight back on even though you have made every effort to stick to your diet. There is a very simple reason for this which is all to do with your subconscious and and the program that it has been conditioned with.

When I see my weight loss clients many of them when I ask what dress size they wish to be will say something like ” well I am a size 16 I would really like to be a size 12 but I don’t think that is possible now so I will settle for a size 14″ Fundamentally they do not believe they can lose weight so unless this facet of their believe system changes then they will continue to fail to lose weight. Many people mistakenly believe that because they are now aged of over 40 then for some reason they can not be the dress size that they were at 21, this is absolute nonsense. If you were a size 12 at 21 years of age then you can be a size 12 at any age, or in fact any dress size you wish to be bearing in mind that unless you have very small bones you are not realistically going to be a size 6.

One way of helping with reprogramming your subconscious mind to help with this entrenched belief is to use a positive mental imaging technique. This is often done during hypnosis but I always get my clients to consciously practice this first before I use it in trance. Find a photograph of yourself the body size and shape you wish to be, it does not matter how old this photo is, or you could find a picture of a body similar in bone structure and height to yourself and put a picture of your head on top of it. Spend some time observing this photo until you can see it when you close your eyes. For those who struggle to visualise then simply imagine yourself this size and shape, feel yourself this way, think of yourself this way. Repeat this exercise several times a day, most importantly at night before you go to sleep and as soon as you wake in the morning. See you self, imagine yourself , think of yourself the size and shape you wish to be…slimmer….. trimmer…..fitter..healthier. Make the image stronger every day, make it bigger, brighter, sharper. I would then use this in the Hypnotherapy for weight loss session, getting your conscious mind and subconscious mind working together to bring this image and belief into reality.

One of the most difficult times for many people when on weight loss programmes is how to manage when on holiday. Many people associate holidays with a sense of being able to throw off regular restraints and a time for being indulgent. This approach is part of the problem for those who suffer with weight problems especially if you associate it with a feeling of deprivation at not being able to eat excessively, and somehow feel that you are missing out on the pleasures.

So here are 7 Weight Loss Tips  Simple but effect to keep you on track during your Holidays

1.  Keep your overall objective firmly implanted in your mind. Your long term goal is more important than immediate gratification. It is more effective to have a clothing size in mind than a weight, so if your aim is to be 2  dress sizes smaller than you are now keep a mental note of it and repeat the size silently to your self whenever you are tempted to eat something that is not going to help you achieve your goal.
2.  Whenever you come to eat either a meal or a snack, do a quick body check and see if you truly are hungry. If you are not then foregoing a snack or even a meal will fill you with a greater sense of satisfaction.
3. When choosing foods in restraurants or hotels aim for foods that you enjoy but also nutritious foods that will help you achieve that goal…..keep your desired dress size always in your mind.
4. Fasting can help, after all you fast all night from tea until breakfast. Learning to over come the hunger pangs by using mindfulness is very effective. Each time you feel hungry you can say to yourself that you have eaten plenty in the past and now your body is using up some of that excess food.
5. Whenever you eat your meal or snack or ice cream then do so mindfully, placing your full attention upon it, so that you truly enjoy what you are eating.
6. Create and image of yourself the size and shape you desire to be. Make this image really strong, vivid and keep creating it. If you struggle with visualisation then feel yourself the size and shape you desire to be, think of yourself  as slimmer, thinner and fitter.
   
7. Remember it is not about will power but it is about persistence,  having an intention and a deep desire to be the body shape and size that is correct for you when you are at your healthiest weight, size and shape.

Good luck and have a fabulous holiday

Lose weight FAST  finally and forever join our January weight loss course. Imagine never having to diet again? Imagine feeling in control of your reaction to food? because many of the people I see tell me that they  feel totally out of control and some would go so far as to say that they feel totally controlled by food. Hypnosis for weight loss can enable you to end your senseless struggle with food and it is not about will power or deprivation because they don’t work but it is about listening to your body, becoming aware of how you eat and changing your relationship with food.  After all eating is a normal natural human activity it is very enjoyable, but when you eat for comfort or relief of an uncomfortable emotion then you do not enjoy your food, you eat more but enjoy it less. With Hypnosis for weight loss, there are no forbidden foods, no deprivation, no weighing scales. You will learn that you can eat whatever you want to and when you want to because as you learn to listen more to your body you start to respond to its natural signals. Recognise when you are hungry and being aware when you are satisfied, you simply stop eating so that this feels normal and natural, so normal and natural that you don’t even think about it. You will eat less, you will lose weight and you will feel good about yourself. You can be fitter, slimmer, healthier. We use mindfulness to manage cravings and we use hypnosis to reprogramme your subconscious minds so that eating less and choosing nutritious foods becomes normal and natural for you. Join our lose weight fast hypnosis group, have fun and support, make new friends and know that you will succeed. Read our great reviews on google plus and facebook.

Our next 6 week course where you can start to lose weight is starting on Monday 12th January at 6.30pm until 8pm at Leaf Day Spa In Tattenhall. Total cost of the four weeks is £90 that is only £15 per week,  attendees also have the opportunity of booking indivdual sessions either for further weight loss or Hypno Gastric Band with 20% off the normal price. Please see the website for details. www.chesterhypnotherapist.co.uk or call Fiona on 07968258113 now to reserve your place.

As far as traditional western medicine is concerned there is no known treatment or cure for Multiple Sclerosis and no predictable pattern for the progression of the disease for any individual. Effectively this  allows each person suffering with MS to become an expert in their own care, you can through your own experience learn what works best for you and what doesn’t. Many sufferers do know that stress exacerbates symptoms, the key here is to avoid panic and to maintain hope in the midst of a disease with no known cure. I have found with my clients suffering from MS that a combinaion of Mindfulness and Hypnosis is especially useful. Whilst meditation is known to calm the mind and create a sense of peace, people overwhelmed with feelings of fear and distress struggle to achieve a state of being calm in their minds and can find that trying to meditate becomes stressful in itself. Here mindfulness meditations I feel are far more beneficial for they help to focus the mind in much the same way that we do with hypnosis, especially The Body Scan and Mindfulness of Breath( Jon Kabat-Zinn et al). These techniques are so easy to learn and the benefits are immediately felt.

Various studies have suggested that Hypnosis can offer MS sufferers significant pain relief and that the pain relief can be maintained long after the treatment has finished. The benefits of hypnosis may not be restricted to pain relief alone, a case study by JR Dane (1996) described “significantly improved control of pain, balance and diplopia along with a return to ambulatory capacity within two weeks of begining treatment with hypnosis” so it appears that there may be neuro muscular rehabilitaion gains too. Recent research has shown that there can be neuronal growth in adults so bearing this in mind balancing techniques are particularly useful. Maybe engaging the services of a physiotherapist to help with this, some people get a  yoga teacher or personal trainer this can help to retrain the nervous system thus enabling you to fully use the intact neurological function that you do have and learn to neurologically compensate for those that have been lost. The three factors which enhance neuronal growth are enrichment , novelty and physical exercise.  Maintaining your social life and contacts is imperitive as well as continuing to engage in new experiences and learning, whether this means completeing the daily crossword or learning something new it doesn’t really matter as long as you continue to exercise your brain.

In my own practice I use a hypnotherpeutic approach incorporating mindfulness for relaxation together with practising balancing techniques, visualisation for healing and direct suggestions  for confidence and self esteem building.  Encouraging you all the while to explore the question of how will you  stimulate your nerves to build new connections? trusting  that the nerve stimulation will in turn stimulate the muscles.

All those that come to see me for hypnosis for whatever problem, trauma or illness that they are suffering including MS have one characteristic in common, they all believe that their lives can on some level be better, they have an optimism and hope for a better way of being. Hypnotherapy enables you to feel more in control of your emotions, your behaviours and feelings and ultimately empowers you to feel more in control of your own destiny whatever that may be and where ever it may lead you.

In the words of Paramahansa Yogananda ” One cannot tell when he is going to be healed, so do not try to set an exact time. Faith , not time will determine when the cure will be”

A brief update for those interested in joining our Hypnosis for weight loss course. Imagine never having to diet again? Imagine feeling in control of your reaction to food? because many of the people I see tell me that they  feel totally out of control and some would go so far as to say that they feel totally controlled by food. Hypnosis for weight loss can enable you to end your senseless struggle with food and it is not about will power or deprivation because they don’t work but it is about listening to your body, becoming aware of how you eat and changing your relationship with food.  After all eating is a normal natural human activity it is very enjoyable, but when you eat for comfort or relief of an uncomfortable emotion then you do not enjoy your food, you eat more but enjoy it less. With Hypnosis for weight loss, there are no forbidden foods, no deprivation, no weighing scales. You will learn that you can eat whatever you want to and when you want to because as you learn to listen more to your body you start to respond to its natural signals, recognising when you are hungry and being aware when you are satisfied so that you simply stop eating and that feels normal and natural, so normal and natural that you don’t even think about it. You will eat less and you will begin to make new choices because you can choose to be choosy, then you realise that your preferences have begun to change. So you may find that the foods you may have chosen yesterday are not always the ones you will choose today.

Can you imagine freeing yourself from your current response to food so that you eat only when you are hungry, choosing foods that are enjoyable and nutritious, savouring every bite as you place your full attention on eating your food, stopping when you feel satisfied and feeling good about yourself all the while? because all of this is possible when you use hypnosis for weight loss.

Our next 4 week course where you can learn all these skills is starting on Monday 15th September at 6pm until 7.30 at Leaf Lifestyle In Tattenhall. Total cost of the four weeks is £60 that is only £15 per week,  attendees also have the opportunity of booking indivdual sessions either for further weight loss or Hypno Gastric Band with 20% off the normal price. Please see the website for details. www.chesterhypnotherapist.co.uk or call Fiona now to reserve your place.

Many years ago I suffered with an ectopic pregnancy which was not picked up until it nearly erupted, the whole experience was very traumatic and being left with only one fallopian tube caused me to feel panic stricken about the possibility of being able to concieve again. I was newly married and although I already had one child I very much wanted another baby with my  husband. Naively I thought this would just kind of happen although in retrospect I now believe I was holding onto some pretty negative thoughts following the ectopic and probably was filled with fear also.

When I failed to fall pregnant again within my own time scale I started to experience all the typical panicky ” what if” types of thoughts and emotions, feeling tearful each month as I realised I was not pregnant and spending an exhorbitant amount of money on pregnancy tests when I knew full well each month that I was not pregnant. What made the whole thing worse was that I was working as a CBT therapist at the time in the health service, spending my days helping other people to manage their irrational thoughts that were leading to thier emotional distress and yet could not mange my own which were getting significantly out of hand.

So what helped eventually? One of my colleagues was also trained in Hypnotherapy so she took me one side one lunch time and suggested I gave it a go, although I taught mindfulness and meditation to my clients I had been unable to free my self of my negative thoughts and my emotions kept getting the better of me.

So during the only quiet time of the day in our busy mental health office we found a corner and my colleague using hypnosis put me into a trance, we were able to find an empty office once a week for about three weeks and I found that I could begin to use my own mindfulness skills again and started to meditate in the evenings. My sense of peace and calm returned pretty quickly and I felt far more up beat and optimistic than I had since the ectopic and these feelings continued to grow so that I was no longer totally preoccupied with getting pregnant.

The out come? well  I now have 4 children so for me totally successful ….one of the reasons I suppose  now I am a full time Hypnotherapist that I feel so passionately about working with couples who have fertility issues. Not that there are ever any guarantees, I know this and really don’t think I was expecting too much when I first allowed my colleague to hypnotise me but since then my  experiences  of the power of the mind and the wonderous changes that can occur has amazed and at times astounded me. So to any one suffering from difficulties in concieving I would say find a local hypnotherapist with some specialist knowledge of hypnotherapy for fertility, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Author of Eyes Open Sex available on kindle, a guide for women and couples who want to improve their sex life in long term relationships

Click on the link to go to amazon  Click Here for Eyes Open Sex

Most Helpful Customer Reviews 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful 5.0 out of 5 stars

The Best ‘How To’ Sex Book I’ve ever come across.
28 April 2013 By Jonathan Amaz Format: Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book has a lot of great information. I thought it might be a bit ‘heavy’ as it’s written by a psychotherapist… in fact quite the contrary. It’s succinct and easy to read. I sent it originally to my partner for fun, after reading it though I realised there were a couple of useful things which I was unaware of. Looking forward to putting them to practice. Highly recommended reading!

5.0 out of 5 stars Must read 8 Aug 2013

By Mr R. K. Rodger Format: Kindle Edition.

Absolutely loved this, helpful informative and sexy but not smutty. Tried out the sensual massage this weekend and we both found it a real turn on. I liked it being aimed at older women/couples and found it an easy and entertaining read. Recommended !! 5.0 out of 5 stars great read 17 Jun 2013 By Sharon jones Format: Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase I enjoyed reading this book as it was very informative and gave very good suggestions on how to improve my relationship. Will recommend to all my girlfriends.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com: 5.0 out of 5 stars  2 reviews 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Tells it like it is.
14 May 2013 By Karen G. Harrill – Published on Amazon.com Format: Kindle Edition.

Lots of information and advice packed into this book. It explains from the male and female; first-timers to experienced; and includes a chapter for the change of life where what was working goes crazy and so does the loving couple dealing with hormones AGAIN, and no kid at the end of the troubles. Matter of fact, the kids are moving out at the same time. Seriously, there is information in here that could be useful to anyone old enough to be in a physical and emotional relationship (you have to want to improve things…and a good deal of that requires talking!) or wants to expand the boundaries a bit more. Above all, be willing to laugh with each other, give lots of hugs, kisses and remember RICE rest, ice, compression, elevation…for sprains, strains, bruises, rug burn and assorted bumps. Otherwise fluids and cuddling along with rest are all you need