Irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS is the most common gastrointestinal disorder. After medical testing has been completed and all tests are normal, then IBS is often listed as the cause of the gastrointestinal problem. It may present with mild to severe symptoms including abdominal pain, gas, cramping, bloating, constipation and diarrhea. The symptoms of IBS can be devastating and can occur at any time. Sometimes symptoms are related to food, alcohol, and stress. Stress can play a big role in IBS. Some people have had IBS since childhood and it started during a time when they were unable to cope with situations around them. People can experience IBS just with present day stress, and even experience more stress based on the anxiety of the unpredictability of IBS. Many articles have been written on the benefits of hypnosis in IBS. Hypnosis can help in relaxation and stress reduction.Using visualization of normal functioning in the abdominal area can help create healing and health to the area of dysfunction. Remember our thoughts have tremendous power in self healing, what is in the mind is in the body. How we think affects how we are!
CHILDREN AND HYPNOSIS
Children are very easy to hypnotize, as they are in unintentional hypnosis until about eight years old. Then they start to develop their conscious mind and they begin to add logic and reasoning to what is happening around them. Even after the age of eight or nine they continue to go in and out of hypnosis easily until their teenage years. If the child is in a stressful situation or home life they will stay in unintentional hypnosis even longer. Before they develop their conscious mind what they hear, see or react to is true for them. They have no way to protect themselves emotionally. Many children will begin to exhibit unwanted habits and behaviors to help them deal with stress. This could include nail biting, hair pulling, nightmares, bed wetting, weight problems, low self esteem, and exaggerated fears and anxieties. Hypnosis can help with these problems and much more including attention and behavioral difficulties. Children are a joy to work with and the results can be extremely powerful for them and those around them.
CYCLIC VOMITING SYNDROME AND HYPNOSIS
Cyclic vomiting syndrome can be devastating for anyone who has it. Nausea, abdominal pain, and excessive vomiting are the main symptoms. Children and adults can experience these symptoms. Many times the client will come to me after all medical tests have ruled out any other disease or dysfunction and they have been diagnosed with cyclic vomiting. Most clients have gone through medications that don’t work and other modalities that haven’t helped. The vomiting in most cases has completely upset their lives; job loss, isolation from the family, and other related health problems due to the excessive vomiting. They experience a loss of control in every part of their life. Their world revolves around the vomiting. Stress and anxiety are known to play a large role in bringing on more episodes of vomiting, and many times a stressful episode started the cyclic vomiting in the first place. The stress can be a happy event or unhappy event. It is still stressful and anxiety producing. Most clients can remember the first time the vomiting started and what happened prior to the episode. During hypnosis logic and reasoning can be given about the events which deal with the emotional aspect. Followed by direct suggestions about the physiological aspect of the vomiting and health in the total gastrointestional tract. Clients can experience an immediate stop to all symptoms with hypnosis, and in other cases a lessening of the symptoms. Remember, what is in our brain is also in our body. Change the way you think, change the way you become.
Hypnosis for Cheerleading and Gymnastics
Hypnosis can be used as a wonderful tool in sports performance. The first thing that comes to mind is golf and tennis because many books have been written for these sports, many times referring to “being in the zone”. So what about other sports situations. Using hypnosis for cheerleading and gymnastics in children and teens can be extremely powerful and helpful for the child. Many times the child is doing great in the sport for months or years and then has a fall or trips up and that may actually take the stuffing out of them or in some cases cause a minor injury. Depending on the stress at the time they either get back up and start over or in many cases their confidence begins to erode and fear sets in. They find themselves more and more unable to complete the activity, even though they have successfully completed the activity hundreds of times. Thoughts of fear of injury, low self confidence and self doubt begin to get stronger and more powerful even as the child continues to try and try again to complete the activity and usually ends up failing over and over again. I have worked with many children and teenagers on just this problem. Hypnosis (especially with young people) can be a very quick and powerful tool to help them get past the fear and move towards their goals once again, renewing self confidence and self esteem.
WEIGHT LOSS AND HYPNOSIS
You have all heard the old saying, “You are what you eat.” This statement is true in the sense that it relates to what each of us chooses to put in our mouth. But before you choose what you eat, YOU ARE WHAT YOU THINK ! The choices we make in our eating habits everyday are what keep us overweight, unhappy and unhealthy. You may wonder why you continue behavior that leads you down the same path of losing and gaining, and many times gaining more weight back than before. Your weight loss is seldom permanent because you haven’t found the cause of your eating habits. The choices you make are related to earlier behavior and programming.
Some of the most common reasons you don’t lose weight and maintain weight loss are directly related to childhood experiences, behaviors, thoughts, and feelings. These include, but are not limited to: eating as a reward, eating to make yourself feel better, eating to keep people from noticing us,( this usually occurs from a traumatic event as a child), eating as self love,( which of course does just the opposite), and eating when we are stressed or afraid. Many times we eat too much because we were literally starved as a child, and we are still trying to fill ourselves. Other reasons that interfere with normal eating are being on the run, grabbing fast food, coming home from work exhausted and grabbing whatever is available. So we also develop unhealthy eating patterns based on our lifestyle.
To have permanent weight loss it is important to find the cause of the overeating. All the information is stored in the brain. Your subconscious mind is constantly reading what is stored in your brain and telling the brain what to do based on what it is reading. It is reading a continual loop of previous thoughts,
