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!
Archive for Anxieties and Phobias
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.
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.
HYPNOSIS AND FEAR OF FLYING
An exaggerated fear that often turns into a phobia is the fear of flying. We have all been told that we are much safer flying than driving our car to work and we can understand this consciously. We may go along for years feeling just fine until a situation occurs, where we felt out of control and logic goes out the window. This is especially difficult if it is a pilot that has flown for over 20 years, and within six months developed a flying phobia. My client had flown in every type of weather for years, loved to fly, and always had felt in control whenever flying. Then six months before seeing me he experienced a problem while flying, started to feel out of control which led to his first ever anxiety attack. Over a period of six months he started to dread flying. Even thinking about flying caused him anxiety and the fear grew in intensity until he almost gave up flying. In the last year he was also extremely stressed with other personal issues which he had very little control over and this feeling of being out of control compounded his flying fear. His personal emotional state just fed into his fears when flying, the feelings of being out of control! In my first session with him I added logic and reasoning to his previous flying problems, added re-framing, positive visualization and suggestions also about his personal life. He went flying the next day, feeling more relaxed, confident and self-assured than he had in months. The next week he was flying out of a national airport, excited and confident once more to be doing something he loved to do. As I’ve mentioned before hypnotherapy can be extremely quick and powerful in alleviating fears, anxieties and phobias. Don’t let fear control your life!
HYPNOSIS AND PHOBIAS AND FEARS
All of us experience fear at some time in our life, and usually this fear is something that can actually threaten our well being. We are taught at an early age to be afraid of the hot burner, jumping off a roof, and things as simple as watching for cars crossing the street. Most fears do not interfere with our daily lives. But when a fear restricts and controls our actions during the day it has become a phobia. Many phobias come from childhood, when we were unable to add logic or reasoning to what was happening around us. Often times phobias are formed in adulthood after a very stressful situation in which the person felt out of control and not able to handle what was happening around them. Many times the phobia results from months or years of stress and then an incident happens that pulls the rug out and phobias are formed. Many of my clients that develop phobias in adulthood relate years or months of having to deal with high levels of stress, and feeling out of control in their life. The stress has to go somewhere, and many times it will present itself in illness, anxieties or phobias. It is not always important for the reason for the phobia to be identified for healing to occur. Although if the reason is known, logic, reasoning and re-framing is used in the hypnotherapy to change the way the experience is viewed. Anxiety and panic are almost always part of the phobia and the symptoms may manifest in many ways. We can have anxiety and panic attacks without phobias and I’ll talk about this later. If you have a phobia that is taking control over your life or interfering in things you want to accomplish, remember in many cases hypnotherapy can really help!
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