Depression and Hypnotherapy

Whatever you are feeling right now, describing it as 'depression' is of no value except to a consultant psychiatrist. In fact just telling yourself you are suffering from depression may be making your situation worse!

This is not to say you should ignore your bad feelings, but simply be more specific and cautious about how you label these feelings. In doing so you can often access resources and help without having to resort to drastic action or medication. If you are already on medication please do follow the instructions carefully and fully consult with your doctor before making any changes.

Obviously, if you are seriously considering self-harm or suicide then consult your GP or go to an A&E department NOW.

For most people, however, 'depression' can mean anything from a mild sadness that lingers for a while right through to an unremitting sense of hopelessness and helplessness. The causes can also be highly varied including changes in season, eating habits, trauma, grief, chronic anxiety, poor working conditions, separation, physical pain, illness, hormonal changes and so on.

Hypnotherapy works well with depression when it is properly focused upon your own unique experience. Getting help sooner, rather than later is also important because depressive thinking can easily become habitual and self-perpetuating.

Hypnotherapy for Depression should be Specific to your Experience and Feelings

There are many approaches to dealing with depression but what is most important, in my view, is that individuals are treated as unique. I work hard to find out specifically what it is that you are experiencing and how you are creating and sustaining this experience. I then work with you using a combination of hypnotherapy, neuro linguistic programming (NLP) and cognitive behavioural techniques (CBT) to help you change the way you feel and crucially, to give you more control over your feelings. By starting with your own unique way of perceiving reality it becomes possible to make positive changes, often at a fairly rapid pace.

All People Think, Feel and Behave

The key to changing feelings and behaviours is to identify and modify thinking patterns. And whilst there are no magical solutions, beginning to develop a sense of being in control, is key to good mental health. By learning how to take control of your thinking at a conscious level, you can have a positive effect upon your mood. Hypnotherapy can speed this process up by allowing you to vividly experience the process of thinking in new ways and also by getting you back in touch with unconscious resources you have not accessed for a while.

We Provide More than Hypnotherapy for Depression

In a sense, the key antidote to 'depression' is learning to live resourcefully. There are many ways in which you can begin to feel better and to sustain such positive feelings. The good news is that if you have been able to think your way into depression, you must be good at changing your mood by thinking! This means you will be able to think your way back to good health again, perhaps with some outside help at first.

You may also benefit from some healthy life-style changes. The evidence is that people who exercise and go outside on a regular basis suffer less than people who live on a couch. People often accelerate their descent into depression with the aid of excessive junk food, cigarettes, alcohol and self-medication.

We indulge in unhealthy habits not because we do not know about the ill effects but because we want to feel good now. Developing simple, healthy and effective strategies for dealing with stress, grief, anxiety, problem solving and all the usual things that life throws at people will help you to minimse your dependence upon unhealthy behaviours and habits thus reducing your risk of chronic depression.

There is little doubt that some people are predisposed to being happy or sad. But with a little training and support, and of course, the right environment, I believe everyone can feel better, become more resilient AND enjoy themselves at the same time!

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