I offer a free, no-obligation consultation on the telephone, giving you the chance to talk with me and find out more about how I can help you.
For appointments or more information about the therapies I offer, please call me on
01794 884038.
Alternatively you can contact me by e-mail at admin@inspiringchanges.co.uk
Therapies Used
There are a wide range of psychotherapy, hypnotherapy and NLP techniques that have proven to be useful in helping people make positive changes to their thoughts, feelings and behaviours.
At Inspiring Changes, I use a combination of therapies to suit you and the issues affecting your life. I will work directly with you to help you become more flexible in your thinking and to stop you engaging in unwanted automated thinking, feeling and behaviour. This is done by retraining your mind so that you can think, feel and behave the way you want to.
Please use the links below to find out more about each of the following:
HypnotherapyBrief psychotherapy
Solution-focused Counselling
NLP
EMDR
Hypnotherapy
Hypnosis is a completely safe and natural process in which you can allow yourself to relax completely. It is a totally natural state of mind which utilizes naturally occurring states of altered awareness. We go in and out of these 'altered states' many times a day without necessarily being aware of having done so. As an example, we may have a momentary distraction or 'absence' such as when we're day-dreaming. A more enhanced state of relaxation would be similar to that just before we fall asleep and then there can be very deep states of inward focus and awareness.
A hypnotherapist is able to guide you into this relaxed hypnotic state or 'trance' in an almost unnoticeable way, which then allows for effective communication with your unconscious mind to take place. This communication or hypnotherapy, is used to bring about the beneficial changes you would like to see in your life. During hypnosis, positive changes that might previously have seemed difficult or impossible, now seem achievable as your unconscious mind becomes more receptive to new ideas and feelings. These changes in your thoughts, feelings or behaviour are retained once you come out of hypnosis and carry on with your day-to-day life.
Trance is not essential for effective change; it simply speeds up the therapeutic process.
Hypnotherapy originates in procedures and practices discovered around three hundred years ago. Nowadays there are numerous techniques used in this field to treat habits and phobias, through to deeper rooted emotional and psychological problems.
Brief Psychotherapy
Brief psychotherapy is a fast, effective approach to help you change your behaviour and alleviate any personal difficulties. It helps you to learn about how you think, feel, and act in ways that are unhelpful, unwanted or dysfunctional and find new ways to think, act, and feel that will serve you better. Through the use of words, the power of your imagination and a personal, professional relationship, rapid and lasting changes can be made.
Although much psychotherapy is based upon procedures which originated from Freud, different approaches or 'modalities' are now used, all of which involve talking to someone.
The different modalities include:
Cognitive and Behavioural therapies - cognitive therapies are based on the belief that our thoughts are directly connected to how we feel, whilst behavioural therapies are based on the premise that primary learning comes from experience. These therapies include Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Rational Emotive Therapy and Transactional Analysis. These psychotherapies work together to identify and understand problems in terms of the relationship between thoughts, feelings and behaviour.
Humanistic and Integrative therapies - these include psychotherapies such as Gestalt that approach the individual as a whole person including body, feelings, mind and spirit.
Experiential constructivist therapies - we all construct a picture of our world based on our experiences and beliefs. If someone has had several bad experiences in life, their world may not seem such a good place to be living in, whereas for someone who has been treated kindly, it may appear a pleasant and enjoyable place. This therapy helps you to clarify the models you use, consciously or not, to represent the world to yourself.
Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic therapies - these help to identify the connection between events which happened in early life (which may be unconscious) and the problems you currently experience.
Systemic therapies (including family, couple and sexual) - these therapies share an assumption that your problems can't be fully understood without considering the wider relevance of the impact of your family and other groups, both on your past and present.
Hypno-Psychotherapy - this differs from other forms of psychotherapy insofar as it deliberately uses altered states of awareness to help communicate with your unconscious mind, as the main technique for effecting change. For further details please refer to the section on Hypnotherapy above or click here.
I use a combination of some of the above therapies, an eclectic-integrative approach in which techniques are drawn from several different schools of thought. Eclectic therapy is a flexible technique that allows me, the therapist to adapt to your individual needs.
Brief Psychotherapy encourages you to use your own resources to resolve your issues and view your problem from different perspectives. It is more concerned with understanding people as a whole and with changing attitudes than eliminating the symptoms directly. It does not require a lengthy analysis of your past issues, hence termed ‘brief’ therapy and is solution-based rather than problem–orientated.
Solution Focused Counselling
This form of counselling assists in identifying what changes you would like in your life in order to reach your goal and helps you find objectives or ways to achieve those changes and resolve the problems.
Lengthy analysis of your past is not required. Instead we look at what’s happening in the present and what sort of changes need to be made to enable you to have the future you desire. It works on the basis that change is occurring all the time and that small changes lead to big changes. You have all you need to solve your problems. The therapy will enable you to focus on solutions rather than the problems themselves and as such, will highlight your strengths and competences instead of any perceived deficits, weaknesses and limitations.
Clearly defined goals are identified at the start so that we both know what you intend to achieve and can therefore identify when counselling is no longer necessary.
NLP
NLP stands for Neuro Linguistic Programming and is a form of psychotherapy.
A number of empowering methods and techniques are used to help people change how they think, feel and behave. This can be achieved through the use of visualisation techniques, adapting the way your mind perceives the world and detaching it from unwanted or painful memories. It differs from hypnosis in that no formal trance is induced.
Neuro – refers to how the mind and body interact. Physical changes are linked with emotions. For example, we may experience ‘butterflies’ in the stomach when we’re nervous or blush if we're embarrassed. Some people may have a dry mouth when they feel anxious. In essence, all behaviour is physiological which means it has its origins in the neurological processes; sight, smell, taste, hearing and touch.
Linguistic – refers to the insights into a persons thinking. We use language to order our thoughts and communicate with others. The cognitive or thinking part of your brain relies on language to make sense of our experiences and to interpret our world.
Programming – refers not to the activity of programming, but to the study of the thinking and behavioural patterns or ‘programmes’ which people use in their daily lives; how we organise ideas and actions. When we respond to a situation in a certain way, this response becomes a template for the future and is repeated when other similar situations are encountered. This pattern is learned by the brain and will continue to be used until something different is programmed or learned.
EMDR
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a form of psychotherapy originally developed to assist in resolving symptoms resulting from traumatic events. The approach addresses the past, present and future aspects of the traumatic or dysfunctional memory and transforms the emotional, sensory and cognitive components so that it is no longer distressing.
It is therefore extremely beneficial for those who have experienced or witnessed traumatic events, and as a consequence may be suffering from recurring flash-backs, nightmares, thoughts and beliefs, such as those who have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Over the years, EMDR has been increasingly used as a therapeutic intervention for other issues such as phobias, grief, anxieties, pain, panic and many other experientially based disorders.
This therapy involves bi-lateral stimulation which is done by undertaking a number of sets of eye movements whilst the client simultaneously focuses for short periods of time on the trauma or subject of anxiety. This can also be done by tapping or using bi-lateral auditory tones.
The whole session is carried out in a completely safe environment and the client can choose at any time to stop the process if and when required.