Drug addictions - physical or psychological?

July 28th, 2010

When Steve (name changed for confidentiality reasons) decided to deal with his drug addiction, he made probably the best decision of his life. He was recommended to myself here at Cambridge Hypnotherapy by one of my previous clients, a heavy drinker who had successfully regained control over his alcohol consumption using Hypnotherapy. However, even though he knew it was the right thing to do for himself, he was aware as how much of a struggle it would be, how the HARD work started now, and that it would most likely be an unpleasant process. So taking this into account, you can imagine how it took him by surprise when during our initial consultation I broke all of his beliefs down, told him it would be easy to do, and that there be no hard work at all.

During our first session, using lots of NLP we started to reprogram how his mind perceived heroin, changing what it meant to him so that whenever he saw it or it was mentioned, his reaction would be completely different. Together we started to realign his unconscious mind, getting it to understand that all those positive intentions such as protection, and escapism, could never be achieved, and that it was actually doing the opposite, hurting him and ruining his relationships with his girlfriend and his own family.

At the start of the second session, Steve reported amazing changes. He had only thought about heroin once that he could remember, and when he did he had this huge urge and determination to NOT take it just flood his mind and body. He did however feel guilty about all the hurt he’d put his loved ones through, so it was time for some TimeLine Therapy to let go of this emotion. We also went into lots of future building in a state of hypnosis, where he could allow his unconscious mind to go ahead and find all the beliefs, resources and behaviours that he needed to make sure his future was exactly how he wanted it to be.

When it came to the third session, Steve contacted me a few days prior and informed me that he would not be attending and I’ll be honest, I was quite confused. What could have happened that would make him not want to continue? Well it was quite simple really. The day after his second session he woke up, and it was as if something had switched inside him. He just KNEW 100% that he would never take heroin again, and no matter what ever happened to him in the future, he had realised his potential. He had accepted responsibility for everything that he had done and will continue to do, therefore if he was responsible for his behaviours, he could just say no!

So there you have it, if you use the full potential of your mind I believe you can achieve anything that you aspire to achieve, you are your own limit!

Is there anything in your life that you want to achieve but just can’t find a way to approach it? Cambridge Hypnotherapy can help you too.

NLP and Sports Psychology

May 21st, 2010

Recently I was contacted by someone looking for some help for his son using sports psychology. His son James (name changed for confidentiality reasons) was a 12 year old moto cross rider, who was in the top 10 in England. Last year he was at the top of his age group, and was very much full of confidence and enjoying his riding.

However at the end of the year it was time for James move up to the next category, the 12 – 16 year old age group, where he was now riding against older, more experienced, bigger and stronger riders. Even taking all this into account, James’ lap times in practice and training were quicker than most of these other riders, so he should have been brimming with confidence, and in practice he was!

However, come race day there was a huge shift in James’ mindset. He became nervous, anxious, worrying that all the other riders were quicker and faster (even though consciously he knew they weren’t), and seemed to resign himself to losing against a select few, even to the point where he would let the bigger names ride off in front of him and just stick himself in with the safer group, where he would be able to beat some people.

So how did I help? Well, to start with I focused on getting him into his training mindset, where he excelled and was confident in his own ability, and where he ALWAYS enjoyed riding his bike. I then used lots of anchoring techniques so that we could reprogram how his mind saw race days, and that would allow him to take this confident training mindset into race days.

There was also lots of generating new behaviours, finding ways for James to instantly change his state, into a state of confidence and relaxation.

So how did it help? I spoke with James’ father the week after who said the change was immense. Even on the way down to the venue for the weekend James seemed so much more relaxed. He slept better the night before, and when walking the track before qualifying James was seen laughing with his friends. During the second race, James had a problem with his bike that made is go slow and lose power, something that beforehand would have made him give up. This time however, he took it all in his stride, focused and just got on with the job in hand.

To find out how easy it can be for you to make changes so easily, why not contact us now for a FREE initial consultation at Cambridge Hypnotherapy. We also have a specific page dedicated to Sports Improvement using Hypnosis on our website.

Our Cambridge NLP, Time Line Therapy(tm) and Hypnosis practice group

May 17th, 2010

Well, we had our second practice group on Saturday and had 20 people attending, half being practitioners and half interested guests. It was great to spend a whole day together sharing our thoughts and experiences together with ‘real life‘ practicing.

The great thing is that everybody learnt things about themselves.
Practitioners remembering what they thought they had forgotten and the confidence to show that it was still there, ‘in the muscle’, to our guests.

Our guests got quite a surprise to find out we were going to teach them some basic tools of NLP that they could take away with them and use them to change the way they feel and the real surprise ~ that they would learn a hypnotic induction and put a practitioner in trance and bring them back again!

What was nice for me was that having lunch together, our guests could ask questions freely, meet new and interesting people and it was a chance to hear how many different things our practitioner were achieving in both their social and business lives.

A great day for everyone and all for less than £20!

If by chance you have stumbled onto this posting and are interested in coming along either:

as a guest, that is someone interested in finding out more about NLP, Time Line Therapy(tm) and our Real Hypnosis
or
as a practitioner who wants to meet and practice. You don’t have to have been to one of our NLP trainings or certified by Joseph or myself. Whatever your skill level you will be made more than welcome.

then give Joseph or myself a call 01223 720 120
or email me paul@josephcloughtrainings.co.uk our training email or here at Cambridge Hypnotherapy

You might even want to sign up for our NLP news letter which has videos, downloads and information all F’ree just go to Joseph’s website josephclough.com and sign up for the downloads and you will start to get the newsletter every two weeks.

More about the news letter in a separate post

Hopefully see you on one of the practice days

Paul

A ‘Lifting Success’ (Cambridge Hypnotherapy one session phobia success)

March 26th, 2010

When Lindsay approached me here at Cambridge Hypnotherapy, asking for help in getting rid of her phobia of lifts (elevators), I couldn’t wait to get started. Working with someone you know, and have known for many years, really gives you a great sense of trust and excitement.

Being a nanny meant Lindsay was often required to take the children she looked after shopping, and you can just imagine how hard it would be to carry two children, a pram, AND all your shopping bags up the stairs or even on an escalator. It was a nightmare, but as much as she wished she could step inside the elevator…. she just couldn’t bring herself to do it!

For the week before our session, Lindsay was adamant that she was not going to test her results and actually get inside an elevator, but would just be happy knowing that if she REALLY had to, she could!! However, this was not even an option for me, I told her that she would have to go to the shopping centre, get inside that lift, and notice how comfortable it was. Even the thought of this used to bring her out in a cold sweat!

At the beginning of the session, she was petrified of elevators still, and even remembering times when she got inside one as a very young child was enough to send her into a state of huge fear and terror.

However, using some wonderful NLP and TimeLine Therapy approaches, after no more than 30 minutes, thinking about the same memories bought back no fear whatsoever, just a feeling of nothingness, which was an amazing experience.

By the end of the session, Lindsay felt so charged and confident it was incredible. She actually said she “wanted to go and find a lift”.

Waving her goodbye, I knew it had been a great session, and when my phone rang 40 minutes later, and I heard her voice on the other end, I just knew what she was about to say. “I’ve just been in a lift!!! I stood and read a poster inside it without even thinking about it!!”, and as if this wasn’t proof enough for her, her next comment certainly was….. “ I want to find another one, this is FUN”.

Another wonderful success story, so if you too have a phobia or fear that is affecting your life, don’t wait any longer…. Call me on 01223 720 120 or email us NOW!

NLP practice group in Cambridge

March 23rd, 2010

Last Saturday saw the re-surfacing of our NLP practice group.
Previously we met once a month, in the evening, but that seemed to restrict those who had to travel a distance. So we (Joseph & I) decided to change this to a Saturday and make it a whole day. This allowed us more time to refresh our knowledge in a particular area of NLP & Hypnosis and then do something completely new.

So what did we do last Saturday?

Firstly with some traveling over an hour to get here we had time to catch up and find out what we’d all been doing in the field of NLP etc. Just listening to all the different things we’d been doing and experiencing was really inspiring to do more and gave us all different ideas & things we too could do.

We went on to master our skills in questioning with a live project, a real person and based on a real issue.

After lunch we decided to find what would be some of the best states, behaviours and beliefs of being the best practitioner or therapist. Having refined this to something we could install in ourselves it was time for hypnosis and we installed all these wonderful and empowering resources into each other. So not only were we practicing inductions, installations we were creating change - real change.

In the next practice group we hope to bring along friends so they to can experience NLP, Time Line Therapy and Hypnosis and we can all learn. It’s also hoped we can find someone we can model. Someone who does something really well so we can learn how to do it too.

Who knows what exciting things we can find to do next?

Maybe we’ll see you there too.

Email me if you want to find out more paul@josephcloughtrainings.co.uk (our NLP, Time LIne Therapy and Hypnosis training)

I’m looking forward to the next one

Paul

Fear or Phobia ~ who cares it’s the result that matters

March 22nd, 2010

How old do we need to be before we learn to be scared or even have a phobia?

You see, a recent client of ours, we’ll call her Brian because that wasn’t his name, came with what was a phobia of dogs but had it had generalised through to other animals. And that’s what can happen, in order to keep us safe and protected our best friend, our unconscious mind, decides to make sure nothing will harm us and creates a ‘good old’ fear for other things.

So now we not only spend our time thinking of the first thing that scared us but all the other things and times where can be scared. The problem is do we feel safe and protected now with all these thoughts and pictures in our head? Absolutely NOT!

This is a problem but the good news is, whilst we can learn to have a phobia in a millisecond, trigger it without thinking and generalise it to other things we can do the reverse easily. That is ~ learn how not to react in the old way, in fact act in the way you want, trigger it that way without thinking when to and generalise this new, desired way into other areas of your life.

Brian created her phobia really young, about 2 years old, when a dog tried to bite her face. It didn’t but the fear and the need for protection was learnt there and then. The thing is -  are all dogs the same? Would all her life experiences of being okay between now and then be a better resource than the fear and panic created by seeing a dog, way over there?

Of course all dogs are not like that one and of course our whole set of life experiences would be a better resource and that’s what we did when we worked together, I’ll explain  a little more in a minute.

Because this also reminded of one of my first clients, she had a phobia of spiders (notice the use of the word ‘had‘). She was convinced she first experienced this about 7 when she was chased by someone with a spider at school. Not sure what the spider was trying to learn at school? Anyway, with skillful questioning and empathy (well I am writing this and you weren’t there) we discovered this wasn’t the start of this phobia it actually occurred when she was about 3 and seeing her big, lovable Grandad coming down stairs as white as a sheet so scared because he had seen a spider. Her unconscious mind thought if my big lovable Grandad is scared of spiders then I have to be too!

So are these people still afraid are they living their life constantly thinking about what scares them?
You can guess the answer ~ of course they’re not, no way.
We’ve developed through  hypnosis and NLP together with Time Line therapy (tm) Oh! I nearly forgot with ’skillfull questioning and empathy‘ brilliant ways to let go of fears and phobias and, I know it may seem hard to believe, with a lot of laughter. Who says it’s a rule we have to be serious about creating great changes without a bit of fun and feeling good as you do it?

The thing is, when we let go of anything that holds us back we can use what we learn to pleasantly affect other areas of our life. We become more confident, at ease some may say be the real me and it never amazes me how far the ripples of our clients change spread because we know it will.

You are allowed to have the life you dream of.

Paul

A day devoted to back care in Cambridge

February 22nd, 2010

A great friend of ours, Denise, is creating a day devoted to back care. Something I think most of us could benefit from. Denise is a really well known and respected professional yoga teacher.

It’s being held on Saturday 6th March 10 am to 4 pm at Cottenhan Primary school, Lambs Lane, Cottenham.

Staying flexible, strong & pain free with careful back maintenance and sensible body awareness.

As well as Denise taking you through yoga practise for backs, unwinding and relaxation she has organised guest speakers in Osteopathy, acupuncture and Hypnotherapy & Time Line Therapy. (Guess who’s speaking about Hypnotherapy and Time Line Therapy?)

If you would like to find out more or to book a place, it only costs £36.00 per person, you can directly with Denise via email denise@sibleymooreyoga.co.uk or by calling her direct 01954 202 235.

 

 

Learning Self Hypnosis in Cambridge

February 5th, 2010

WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO LEARN SELF HYPNOSIS?

Imagine what it would be like to enter a deep state of relaxation whenever you choose, or being able to completely switch off and “chill out” after a long, hard day.

 

Being able to enter a state of self hypnosis on your own is an amazing tool to have. 

How or what could you use Self Hypnosis or?

  • Improve health issues
  • Improve your memory
  • De-stress & De-clutter
  • Problem solving
  • Improve studying, revision
  • A better nights sleep
  • Improve skills and pleasures
  • Pain control

Luke and I want to share our thoughts and personal techniques on self hypnosis and have organised to do this over 2 evenings. We’ll also be giving our specially designed Audio self hypnosis CD which will ensure you can practise until you become a custom to the process plus a backing track of our own copyrighted hypnosis music to use too.

We also intend to keep the classes restricted to 12 people so we can ensure we can create a bespoke traching where everyone can get what they specifically want.

There’s details on our Learn Self Hypnosis website http://www.learnselfhypnosisincambridge.co.uk plus if you go there you can download a relaxation Hypnosis audio with our compliments.

Enjoy

Paul

 

Dealing with Anxiety & Confidence (A Cambridge Hypnotherapy report)

January 14th, 2010

When Amanda contacted us at Cambridge Hypnotherapy towards the end of 2009  enquiring into whether Hypnotherapy would work in letting go of her anxiety, and becoming more confident, I couldn’t wait to get in contact with her. I’d seen first hand the things people could achieve and, the way they could become after only 2-3 sessions.

During the initial consultation that we offer to all of our clients, it became apparant that Amanda’s self belief system was severely limiting her behaviours. Over the years I’ve been working with clients, a negative self belief has been the most common cause of most of the issues that have been presented. From alcoholism,
weight management, confidence or anxiety, deep down there is quite often a belief of not being good enough, or not feeling worthy.

Within NLP there is a presupposition that states “All behaviour has a positive intention”. Now I know what you’re thinking….. ” How can not feeling good enough be a positive thing?”

Well, quite simply, this belief acts as a protective barrier, and limits what people do and who they interact with. By keeping them inside their comfort zone, the unconscious mind does its best to ensure that the individual does nothing that they could fail at, or look silly doing. (If this sounds familiar, as if we’re talking about you, why not contact us to find out how easy it is to change now!)

So how did Amanda change, what did she get out of it?

Well to start with there used to be a huge fear of being judged, and a fear of failure that was hugely irrational to the situation she was in. Only 2 sessions later, she had become free form any irrational anxiety, and generally more relaxed. she was sleeping better and waking up feeling fresh and energised. In regards to the old fear of being judged, that had disappeared to a level beyond belief. 
 
Not only has she felt more relaxed in social situations, and feel like things are worth trying, but she actually decided to start writing poetry again, something she hadn’t done for years. As if this wasnt enough of a change in itself, she decided to release them online, for the whole world to see and read.

Click here to read them yourself

Not bad for someone who used to fear being judged, I think you’ll agree.

Luke

‘Weight Loss Made Easy’ in Cambridge

December 15th, 2009

 

We have spent the past few months designing and putting together a powerful brand new one day seminar

‘Weight Loss Made Easy’

and at the moment are restricting this to only friends of Cambridge Hypnotherapy.

You may have heard of Paul Mckenna’s “I can make you thin” programme.

Well we have been using the same techniques and methods way before it was brought into the mainstream.

By enrolling, we will teach you how to regain control of your eating behaviours.

So if you want to learn and experience new ways to be healthy in mind & body and kick start your year

 

click here for much more information

 

We want to make this day an enjoyable interactive day so we are restricting numbers

so…………………………

if you really are interested in getting healthy, changing weight or just want to experience more go to this link here

 
look forward to a great 2010.