Linda Flanigan Hypnotherapy

Anxiety, Stress and Panic Attacks

Stress can be beneficial, for example in keeping us motivated, but when stress becomes all-consuming and negative it often leads to many problems. These include, amongst others, insomnia, lack of concentration, irritability and anxiety. Hypnotherapy can help you to relax and I will teach you various techniques to calm you down, recognise warning signs, identify the underlying negative thoughts and behaviours and help you to access positive, relaxing thoughts and feelings whenever you need them. This will increase your confidence and your ability to regain control.

Children's Issues

Children respond really well to hypnotherapy as they have fewer preconceptions than adults and are very imaginative. As a safe, non-invasive and non-intrusive way of dealing with issues, hypnotherapy can be an ideal solution to children’s problems such as bedwetting, anxiety, coping with school, thumb sucking and other habits, learning and exams, nightmares, fussy eating, phobias and much more. Call me to find out how it could benefit your child. I work with children from the age of 5 upwards and am CRB checked. Children under the age of 17 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

Confidence and Self-Esteem

Do you get nervous or think you can’t do something or worry about what others think? Lack of confidence and/or low self-esteem is problematic for many people. Hypnosis, NLP and EFT allow you to take control and feel confident in so many ways, for example they can help you to:

• Be motivated to achieve the things you want to achieve
• Be positive and change any negative thoughts or behaviours
• Pass your driving test
• Relax and enjoy your wedding day
• Study easily, without distraction and cope with exam pressure
• Look and feel confident at interviews
• Overcome blushing or sweating
• Make a speech, give a talk or present your work, looking confident and feeling relaxed
• Concentrate more easily and stop putting things off
• Feel comfortable and less self-conscious in social situations
• And much more…

Contact me to find out how I can help you with your confidence or self-esteem issues.

Grief, Loss or Separation

All of us suffer loss of some kind at some point in our lives and we go through a natural process to get through it. For some of us the effects of that loss are longer lasting and can be all-consuming because of underlying issues that get in the way of the natural process. Hypnotherapy can help you cope with the symptoms and reactions associated with loss and help you move forward and function better, whilst never forgetting or erasing any precious memories.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)

Whilst many people live comfortably with mild symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome, for some the symptoms can be much more severe and can start to interfere with their daily lives and cause greater psychological stress. Hypnotherapy can help with the stress and anxiety which aggravate IBS.

NICE (the National Institute for Clinical Excellence that decides the drugs and treatments available on the NHS in England & Wales), recommends hypnotherapy as one of the psychological interventions that should be considered for referral by Doctors “for people who have had IBS for at least 12 months and who have not responded to first line therapies and who develop a continuing symptom“.

Professor of Medicine and Gastroenterology (University Hospital of South Manchester School of Medicine) Prof. Peter Whorwell, has been researching the use of gut-directed hypnosis for over 20 years. Whilst he acknowledges that it is not suitable for everyone he has reported “IBS is ideal for treatment with hypnosis as there is no structural damage to the body” and that “during the hypnotherapy sufferers learn how to influence and gain control of their gut function and then seem to be able to change the way the brain modulates their gut activity“.

Infertility Anxiety

Hypnotherapy is a safe, non-intrusive, non-invasive, complementary addition to medical treatment of infertility. How many times have you heard that couples have fallen pregnant once they decided to give up trying? Trying to get pregnant causes a great amount of stress which then indirectly interferes with the very thing you are trying to do. It’s a vicious circle.

Hypnotherapy works to reduce the stress that infertility and IVF treatment can bring – stress on you and your partner, stress on your love-life, blame, frustration and anger, intrusive thoughts, negative thinking, constant reminders of babies, family pressures and so on. While stress is not a direct cause of infertility it can, along with other factors such as smoking, weight, poor diet and heavy alcohol intake, increase the risk of infertility. Hypnotherapy and NLP can help with all of these risk factors.

Professor Levitas et al. of the Fertility & IVF Unit of Soroko Medical Centre, Israel, carried out a study* of 185 women undergoing IVF treatment and found that there was a 28% implantation rate where hypnosis was used, compared to a 14.4% rate in the control group. The study concluded that the “use of hypnosis in embryo transfer may significantly improve the IVF/ET cycle outcome in terms of increased implantation and clinical pregnancy rates. Furthermore, it seems that the patients’ attitude to the treatment was more favourable“.

*Levitas, E et al, 2006 Impact of Hypnosis during Embryo Transfer on the Outcome of In vitro Fertilisation-Embryo Transfer: a case-control study. Fertility Sterility 2006 May; 85(5): 1404-8.

Overcoming Habits, Addictions and Compulsions

Are you addicted to smoking, chocolate, crisps, fizzy drinks, alcohol, shopping? Are you a nail-biter, knuckle-cracker, teeth-grinder, clock-watcher, finger-drummer, thumb-sucker? Do you constantly check for emails, check that the doors are locked or that the iron is turned off? Do you put things off, avoid commitment or do things in excess? Do you avoid things or obsess about order, tidiness or dirt and germs?

All of the above (and many others) can soon become unconscious bad habits and interfere with your daily life. Using hypnosis, NLP and other psychological approaches I can help identify the underlying cause of your behaviour and help you replace those unconscious negative habits, behaviours, thoughts or beliefs with positive ones.

Phobias and Fears

There are many hundreds of different phobias, from a fear of heights to a fear of the colour purple and they affect 1 in 10 people. You may be consciously aware that your phobia is irrational but it’s your subconscious mind that holds onto the fear. It’s natural to experience fear and it can be for your own protection. However, when the fear starts to impact greatly on your personal or work life, preventing you from doing the things you want to or from leading a normal, happy life, then hypnotherapy and NLP can be an excellent way forward; and usually produce pretty fast results.

Pain Management and other Physiological Issues

Please be aware that I am not medically qualified nor does hypnotherapy provide any ‘cures’. As an ethical therapist I advise you to consult with your GP on any medical issues before seeking help from a hypnotherapist. It is very important that you have a proper medical consultation if you are experiencing any pain or discomfort so that your GP can rule out any underlying medical conditions. Do not self-diagnose – pain is an important warning signal!

Hypnosis and other therapeutic approaches can be very useful in the management of pain and other medical conditions. Most conditions result in a certain amount of fear, anger, anxiety and tension, self-doubt or helplessness and can dominate your life and add to your distress. Hypnotherapy teaches you effective techniques so that you can cope with the stresses and triggers and how your mind perceives the pain and thus helps you to manage and reduce your pain – bringing you some welcome relief!

So if you’ve received a full medical assessment and need some help to cope, or if you are awaiting or recovering from an operation, then call me to find out how hypnotherapy, NLP and EFT could help you.

Sleeping Difficulties

Do you have trouble either falling asleep or staying asleep or do you wake up early and can’t get back to sleep? The more you try, the worse it is? Perhaps you are constantly worrying about something, have difficulty switching off, are going through some kind of change, are suffering pain or some other condition that keeps you awake?

There are many triggers and causes affecting sleep. Hypnotherapy, NLP and other psychological approaches I use can help you to identify and manage these triggers and causes, and to relax and change any negative behaviours, emotions or thoughts to break that cycle of insomnia.

Smoking Cessation

It is well-known that smoking and passive smoking have a detrimental effect on health. According to research analysis by the University of Iowa*, hypnotherapy was found to be the single most effective treatment for smoking. The only thing that was more effective was people being told they had serious cardiac disorders.

Many smokers want to quit but just can’t seem to manage it. Despite all their conscious efforts to stop, their unconscious minds keep that desire for a cigarette. A powerful combination of hypnotherapy, NLP and cognitive therapy is very effective in changing unconscious behaviours in clients who are motivated to give up smoking. Just think what you could do as a non-smoker that you can’t at the moment as a smoker – in financial terms if you smoked 20 cigarettes a day at £6.00 you could also save £2,190 in one year! So, if you are determined to stop smoking and want to improve your health, save money, be in control or for any other reason, try hypnosis.

I offer a 2 session package to help you become a non-smoker. I follow it up with free telephone support and a free hypnosis session for up to one month after if required, so that you have the best possible chance of stopping smoking once and for all.

*Meta-analysis of 600 studies and 72,000 people, Viswesvaran, C. and Schmidt, F. (1992) ‘A meta-analytic comparison of the effectiveness of smoking cessation methods‘ – Journal of Applied Psychology, 77: 554-61 and New Scientist 31/10/92.

Weight Loss

Why do many people fail when they try to control their weight? They tell themselves that they want to manage their weight for many reasons – for better health, to feel better about themselves, to have more energy. But no matter what they say something seems to get in the way and they either can’t lose the weight or they pile it straight back on if they do, or alternatively they develop body image problems and eating disorders.

Does that sound like you? This is because your unconscious mind holds on to the reasons underlying your thoughts, feelings and behaviours towards food, unconsciously de-motivating or sabotaging your conscious efforts. Hypnosis, EFT and NLP techniques address those unconscious barriers and put you back in control. No more diets or fads, but getting to the causes behind your weight issues and not just dealing with the symptoms.

Weight Loss with Virtual Gastric Banding

In addition to the above techniques for controlling weight, I now also offer the Sheila Granger method of Virtual Gastric Banding for weight loss. This works by convincing your brain that your stomach is full after you’ve eaten a certain amount.

Click here to read more about Virtual Gastric Band hypnotherapy, and see if this amazing method may be right for you.

More Information

The list above is not exhaustive, so if you need any more information about your own particular issue I am here to help

Please call me on 07866 360 359 or email linda@lfhypnotherapy.co.uk for a no-obligation chat to find out if hypnotherapy is the right choice for you.