Latest Hypnotherapy News

Win a free course of therapy at The Life Makeover Show on Saturday 26 November at Hove Town Hall. We will be exhibiting at this show. If you visit thespencepractice stand you can enter our free competition to win a course of therapy up to the value of £350. Every entrant will receive a free copy of thespencepractice motivation and stress busting CD.

The show starts at 10 am and closes at 5 pm and includes free workshops, free tasters, free demonstrations, free advice, competitions, deli/cafe, champagne & seafood bar. Admission is £5 on the door (save up to 50% by booking on line at www.lifemakeovershow.co.uk)

We tend to associate bullying with the school playground bit it doesn’t stop there unfortunately. A survey* by The Samaritans has revealed that over 80% of workers have been bullied during their careers and a third of people are so stressed they have dreamed of quitting for a life abroad.

The figure of 80 % is hard to believe and it could be that bullying may be difficult to define and one person’s take on bullying might be viewed by someone else as ‘office banter’. It’s also interesting that we tend to think that living somewhere else will eliminate stress.

Some people appear to thrive on pressure and stress whereas others ‘buckle’ under it. Whatever contributes towards creating stress in your life it is the way that you react to it that will determine the outcome.

When we work with clients suffering from the emotional, physical and psychological effects of stress we help you to regain control over your emotions, behaviours and thoughts and make the appropriate changes in lifestyle that will improve the quality of your life.

Other findings from the Samaritans survey included: 

• Over a third of people identify work as being the main cause of stress.
• Half a million people say their work is so stressful that it is making them ill .
• Five million people feel very or extremely stressed by their work.  Workloads and relationships with colleagues and management are cited as the biggest contributing factor, and to make matters worse managers feel that they don’t have the skills to deal with it.
• 12.8 million working days were lost to stress, depression and anxiety in 2004 at a cost of 3.8 billion.
• Absence from work due to sickness, costs UK business nearly £11 billion a year, but the estimated cost to society is nearer £23 billion.
• 49% of people are worried about the effect stress is having on their health.
• 32% of workers feel their employers turn a blind eye to the problem of stress.
• 83% would rather say they were sick with flu or other problem than admit they were stressed.
• 40% of IT workers, retailers, caterers and engineers feel unsupported at work and over half unable to deal with stress.

* Stressed Out: A study of public experience of stress at work, December 2007.

For more information go to www.stressdownday.org

At last, the book that smokers have been waiting for. ‘Stop smoking easily and Transform your Life for good’! is a new book by Elliott Wald founder of the ‘EasyStop’ stop smoking method which helps you (1) To make your mind up to stop. (2)To stop and (3) Stay stopped for good.

The first section of the book is about making that all important decision to stop and committing to that decision. You have to really want to do it for yourself and not because you feel you ought to for the sake of your partner or children or because a medical professional is advising you to stop or because you are being ‘nagged’ or made to feel like a pariah by government bans and anti-smoking advertising.

The second section of the book focuses on how to go about stopping once you have made your mind-up to do it. There are many methods/approaches available to help you quit but the problem is that most don’t deal with both the physiological and psychological aspects of smoking. As Elliott says “it’s like cutting off the tops of the weeds and leaving the roots intact. When you stop in the right way, which involves a change in your ‘mindset’ and attitude towards smoking it can be easy, by pulling up the roots so that you can stay stopped for good. Staying stopped is dealt with in the final section of the book.

You can obtain a copy of the book from http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stop-Smoking-Easily-Transform-Your/dp/1934266051/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198359405&sr=8-1

The smoking ban has now been in force for 7 months and we would be interested in your views on whether or not it has made your life better or worse or not made any difference at all. We welcome views from smokers, non-smokers and from publicans on how it has affected business since it was introduced.

Whilst exhibiting at The Wellbeing Fest in Lewes at the weekend i was surprised at how few male smokers came to visit our stand and how many women, whose partners’ smoked, stopped by for a chat. I shouldn’t have been surprised because i have seen it happen many times before. For example, a couple will be walking past our stand and the male smoker will be looking away to avoid eye contact and his partner (smoker or non-smoker) will be pulling him in our direction.

I hadn’t given too much thought to the gender differences in the smoking habit before until i read this article http://www.articlecity.com/articles/health/article_6948.shtml on a blog this morning. Men have always found it more difficult to seek help for psychological, behavioural and emotional problems than women do. As problem solvers we men think that we should be able to find our own solutions to problems and don’t want to be dictated to by our partners, the government, medical profession and therapists etc. However, how many men will take their car to the garage when it breaks down or have a computer fixed by an IT expert when the computer crashes. Perhaps that’s the aswer for many smokers. They have to wait until the body starts to breakdown before they will seek professional help. It might be a regular morning cough or difficulty breathing when climbing the stairs or something more serious like a heart attack or emphasema.

What is clear is that a ‘nagging wife’ or a ’nanny state’ government banning smoking is more likely to strengthen a smokers resolve and encourage their rebellious streak.  Even the french have now banned smoking from bars and restaurants from the start of this year. “I will stop when i want to stop” is often the response from a male smoker. The sad part of this stubborn response is that it can and often does lead to a premature and harrowing death. Prevention is always better than cure and if you do it the right way with our help you are much more likely to succeed.

Need some inspiration to get 2008 off the ground? Then i suggest you visit, The Lewes Well-Being Fest this weekend (Sat 12 & Sun 13 Jan) at The Corn Exchange (Town Hall) & Assembly Rooms in Lewes.

You can experience the best in Alternative & Holistic lifestyles, live music, free workshops, talks, demonstrations, organic food and a children’s area. For more information visit www.starcommunities.com

We will be exhibiting again this year so don’t forget to come along and visit us. 

Happy New Year from everyone at thespencepractice!

Having reflected on what happened last year you may feel it was a good year, a bad year or just mediocre, but what can you learn from it that will help make this year a better one?

Traditionally, at this time, people make New Year resolutions and usually they tend to be about changing a habit or behaviour. A time when you might decide to ‘give up’ smoking or go on a diet to ‘lose weight’ and/or attempt to cut out alcohol. Whilst these changes are sensible and responsible lifestyle choices they often result in failure within weeks and sometimes days. This is because the focus tends to be on deprivation which most human beings are not very good at in the long-term. Motivation is usually triggered by a desire for pleasure or the avoidance of pain.

How many times have you resolved not to do something at the start of a new year but failed by the end of January because you felt deprived, missing out on pleasurable activities and in no less pain than you were before? Perhaps this year could be the time to change your approach, because ‘if you always do what you have always done you will always get what you always got’.

You could set yourself some positive and meaningful goals this year and enjoy the pleasure from achieving them and focusing your mind on the benefits and the pleasure the changes bring. For example, if you want to stop smoking for financial reasons decide to use the money you wasted on cigarettes on something healthy and pleasurable instead.

Whatever changes you want to make in 2008 don’t hesitate to contact us if you need some professional help.    

Do you have a problem in controlling your weight? Are you always on a diet? Do you eat for emotional reasons? It’s an easy trap to fall into. We believe there is a way out of this trap. Your brain is a learning machine and if you continue to do what you have always done it is likely that you will continue to get the same results. If you want to find out How to think yourself thin you can contact thespencepractice today and book a free initial consultation or you can visit The Feel Good Show at Brighton Racecourse on Saturday 6 th October and attend Andrew Spence’s one hour workshop where you will learn 10 things you must do to lose weight and keep it off permanently.

The workshop is FREE and starts at 4 pm. Places are limited so make sure you contact us now to reserve your place. Freedom could be just a phone call away. Call 01273 509793 now!

DO YOU SUFFER FROM THE WINTER BLUES?

As we approach the end of summer (”what summer?” I hear you cry!) are you actually looking forward to Autumn, followed by the winter months or do you suffer from something called SAD (seasonal affective disorder) resulting in feeling depressed in winter? Many people choose to leave these shores for a sunnier climate all year round. Personally, I would miss the changing seasons and actually enjoy the unpredictability of the British Weather.

SAD is a type of winter depression which affects an estimated half a million people in Britain every winter between September and April, in particular during December, January and February. It is caused by a biochemical imbalance in the hypothalamus due to the shortening of daylight hours and the lack of sunlight in winter. For many people SAD is a seriously disabling illness, preventing you from functioining normally without continuous medical treatment. For some of you it is a mild but debilitating condition, causing discomfort but not severe suffering, sometimes referred to as ‘winter blues’.

Change can be something you fear or you can embrace it. If you have suffered from the ‘winter blues’ for many years maybe it is time for a change. Part of the reason you suffer may be due to your expectation, you anticipate that you will feel sad and so you do. I know someone who started to dread the long nights and short days from the 21st June (longest day) onwards because he had felt depressed for the previous 5 winters. With my help he learnt to challenge that belief so that he could look forward to winter and enjoy it.

So how do you go about making those changes?

Ten tips:

• Decide on your goal. ie. How do you want to feel in winter?
• Think about what you like about the winter and have enjoyed in the past, (however trivial) perhaps sitting in front of a warm fire on a cold night, the Christmas festivities or watching winter sports like football for example.
• Make a plan to do more of the activities listed above.
• Ensure a steady supply of ‘feel-good chemicals’ by being active and releasing beta-endorphins into the body. Boost your levels of serotonin by eating protein and complex carbohydrates.
• Eat healthy nutritious food little and often to ensure optimum blood sugar levels.
• Avoid over-indulging in alcohol, nicotine and caffeine.
• Challenge your old negative thoughts, feelings and emotions and replace them with positive thoughts, feelings and emotions.
• Learn to talk to yourself in a positive manner and be an optimist.
• Believe that change is possible.
• Work towards achieving a healthy life/work balance.

If you need help to make these changes contact thespencepractice today and find out how we can help you.

Just over 1 month to go before pubs and workplaces become smoke free zones. As we said in our last blog this will create an opportunity for you smokers to stop. In fact some of you only smoke in social situations anyway, so unless you are happy to smoke outside the pub whilst your non-smoking friends will be inside in the warmth this could be the time to end your habit for good.

Many of you will be undecided about whether or not to stop smoking. The internal conflict between the rational part of your brain and the emotional part continues. To help you make that decision EasyStop has produced an informative CD called ‘Make Your Mind Up’ which deals with the myths and illusions around smoking and ‘giving up’. It does not preach to you about how bad smoking is for you and everyone else around you, that’s because you already know this.

We are smoking cessation experts and we understand the psychological, behavioural and emotional issues surrounding tobacco smoking because we have been helping thousands of smokers to stop since 1996. The CD has not been designed to help you stop (although this sometimes happens) but to get you into a position where you decide to stop smoking or to carry on smoking. Once you are in that situation you can then decide which is the most appropriate method to achieve it. If you decide that EasyStop is your preferred option you will find a voucher for £50 off the cost of the EasyStop programme enclosed with it.

Organisations are snapping up this CD in order to help their employees as they see it as an effective Step 1 in the stopping process.

If you would like a copy of this CD before it’s available in the shops or on-line send a cheque for £12.99 (includes £3 p&p) to thespencepractice at 22 Elizabeth Avenue, Hove, BN3 6WG and provide your name, telephone number, email and home address. Please make the cheque payable to A Spence.

The CD makes a great gift for any smoker in your life that you care about!

Is the 1st July 2007 more evidence of the so called ‘nanny state’ or is it in fact a great opportunity to help more smokers quit an extremely destructive habit? We think it is both.

The ban on smoking in enclosed public places comes into effect in England on 1st July and has already been implemented in Scotland. Ireland and Wales.

The National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence have recommended that employers allow their smoking employees time off work (up to 14 hours) to attend NHS stop smoking services which are available during work hours only. It is understandable that organisations will be reluctant to allow staff up to 14 hours off work over a 6 week period to attend NHS stop smoking support groups with no guarantee of success.

If you or your organisation want a quicker and more effective approach, 2 hours over a 7 day period followed by a 12 month guaranteed support programme, which can be achieved outside of normal working hours without Nicotine replacement therapy you really should contact thespencepractice now to find out how.