Hypnosis For Writing and Inspiration

When I started my hypnotherapy diploma at LCCH I was working as a freelance tutor, writer and alternative health practitioner. I was already aware that hypnosis could get rid of fears and phobias, and break unwanted habits like nail-biting or smoking; however, I was much more interested to know if it could unleash my hidden creativity. Could it, for instance, improve my ability to play diifficult Chopin pieces on the piano? Or even help me to write a book?
Like many writers I had mysterious blocks that prevented me from getting down to it. I started a lot of writing projects but never finished any of them. I found it easy to write short pieces for publication but impossible to get even halfway through writing a book. I was convinced that if only I could stop dithering about I would be able to accomplish my goal, but nothing I tried (writing groups, writing courses, books about how to write) seemed to make any difference.

Until I tried hypnosis.

In one of my course books I discovered a short section with suggestions for enhancing creativity. Using this as a guide, I wrote and recorded two 15-minute tapes to use in my self-hypnosis sessions, telling my unconscious mind what I wanted to achieve and how this would happen: for example, breaking the work down into easy segments that would fit the time I had available; being able to finish what I started; having a steady stream of inspiration even when I was busy doing other things.

For a couple of months I listened to my writing tapes two or three times a week while in a hypnotic trance. After that I put them aside, becoming busy with other things, and eventually I forgot all about them. One day, out of the blue, I sat down at my desk and started writing, but this time it felt different. The usual "itching and twitching " was strangely absent, replaced by a new focus and concentration that enabled me to tune out distractions. Three months later I had written my book!

No, it isn't the next great Novel Of Our Time. Actually it's a textbook for use in my classes, but it fills a gap in the market and I already have good indications that it will sell. The strange thing is that I wrote it during one of the busiest times of my life, sitting down to type whenever I had a spare half hour, and somehow it just flowed. I am convinced that the tapes had a profound effect, removing whatever had been holding me back. Nor was it necessary to figure out exactly what was causing the block - hypnosis is about change rather than analysis. In my work as a hypnotherapist I now have a special interest in helping my clients release their own creativity, whether it be writing, painting, music - or simply searching for the way to a more fulfilled life. I believe the unconscious mind is raring to go, full of inspiration and brilliant ideas, if only we can reach into it and get to the treasure. Hypnosis is the key to overcoming our inhibitions. As the author Anne Lamott says, "...writing is about hypnotizing yourself into believing in yourself, getting some work done, then unhypnotizing yourself..."

Meanwhile I have started work on my next book.www.blissfulbaby.co.uk

http://www.lcch.co.uk/hypnosisarticles/hypnoticwriting.htm

VIDEO Genie: Secret of the Wild Child

Treating Victims of Crime With Hypnosis

By Angela Elliot

Everyone likes to think that crime happens to other people, and that's fine until the day comes when you're mugged for your mobile phone, or you return home one night to discover you've been burgled. Straightforward crimes such as these can unexpectedly turn you into a 'victim' and you may feel a range of emotions: be angry, shocked, hurt, and often frightened. Imagine then if you are victim of a serious crime: rape or sexual assault, domestic violence, any kind of physical assault, homophobic or racist crime, aggravated burglary, or bereaved through homicide or manslaughter. Imagine the range of emotions you might go through then. Crime doesn't just happen to 'other' people, it happens to everyone.

I trained as a hypnotherapist with the LCCH and intended treating patients with anxiety disorders and phobias. I had been a phobia sufferer for years and I figured I knew what it felt like and that, because hypnotherapy had worked for me, I could show others how it could work for them too. Life, though, took me in different direction.

Early in the year I qualified, I spent a day on attachment with the Metropolitan Police Force in Brixton. They gave me a bulletproof vest, an extendable steel cosh and a radio and told me if they went down I had to call for back up. The first call we attended was a raid on a crack house. From that moment I was hooked on learning more about the effects of crime. But there was something else driving me: I too had once been a victim of a serious crime.

One day in 1985 my car broke down on a motorway and a stranger stopped to 'help' me. His form of 'help' was to rape me. I was terrified and didn't have the courage to fight back. To my shame, but like the majority of women, I also didn't report it. It wasn't until ten years later that I told someone what had happened. The day I spent with the Brixton Police showed me that the time had come to fight back. I volunteered as a Case Worker with Victim Support and it was the best decision I've ever made.

As a matter of course, the Police refer all victims of crime to Victim Support, which is a charity organization partially funded by the Home Office. I was given thorough training to cover general crime, homicide, domestic violence, racial and homophobic crime, and rape and sexual assault; offering both emotional and practical support. I was introduced to the Family Liaison Officers from the Serious Crimes Squad at Scotland Yard and spent time at Enfield Magistrates Court talking to witnesses.

For over a year I spent one day per week working voluntarily for Victim Support at my local office in Haringey, making home visits where necessary. Recently they asked me to work for them full-time as their Manager, with a special interest in Domestic Violence. My remit does not include using formal Hypnosis. However, as much of my work includes crisis intervention and extremely brief therapy, with no time to complete a full case history, I use Alert Hypnosis together with a simple protocol I've developed to reframe victims in as short a time as possible whilst building rapport and remaining empathetic. In private practice I have been able to extend this specialization and now treat patients who are victims of serious crime.

With this come all the legal ramifications and practical considerations that I must take on-board when doing this kind of work.

Crime is different to other types of crisis in that the trauma caused is due to the deliberate action of another person. Grief is often left unresolved; anger and shock are predominant emotions; the judicial process is long, and frequently the outcome does not match the victim's expectations.

Certain types of crime are concomitant with further risks, as in the case of domestic violence, where the therapist may unwittingly be placed in danger, or when supporting a bereaved relative of a homicide victim who may also be a suspect in the investigation. Your first consideration must always be your own personal safety.

As any evidence obtained during hypnosis is inadmissible in court, it is vitally important that you do not prejudice a court case by regressing the patient such that they recover a memory they may then rely on in court or offer up as evidence to the Police. There are many ways, however, that Hypnotherapy can speed recovery.

Much of the work I do draws on Crisis Theory, developed in the 50s and 60s and traditionally employed for the treatment of victims of crime. Like hypnotherapy, Crisis Theory is an eclectic mix of psychotherapies, and hypnosis is its ideal partner. Specific use of reframing, parts therapy, self-integration dissociation, ego strengthening, direct suggestions and alert hypnosis, whilst avoiding use of regression, can empower and heal the victim. And yes, I refer to them as victims until they decide that they want to be referred to as survivors. Never automatically reframe a victim of crime as a survivor. It is vitally important that you gain trust, develop rapport and use their language, working at their pace, particularly when dealing with serious crime.

There are specific emotional distinctions between each crime. Domestic violence for example can include sexual, financial, emotional and physical abuse, each with their own set of emotional responses. Homicide can include feelings of revenge, anger, or hopelessness, and this may be turned on you as their therapist. As such you need to be both very well- trained and mentally prepared to deal with certain types of incidents. You will lose your objectivity if you are unduly affected by the horrors of the crime. If this is the case, then you are better off referring. Additionally, should you feel you have been affected by your patient's trauma, then you must ask for supervision and deal with whatever this has brought up for you.
When it is a matter of crisis intervention and you don't have enough time to take a full case history, the simple protocol I have developed for use with victims of non-serious crimes or where the victim has no prior history of trauma, takes only one hour and works in the following way:

1. Allow the victim to tell you about the crime
2. Reassure and normalize the victim's emotional states, reframing where necessary. Leave the victim/survivor reframe until later
3. Ask about support from family and friends
4. What were they doing with their life before the crime? Their work, study, interests etc
5. What plans did they have for the future before the crime occurred? Original goals?
6. Incorporate the positive and reframed aspects of the crime to provide a new insight on the future. Use their words to feed their positive feelings back to them.
7. Now reframe the victim/survivor tag. Ego strengthen, stressing bravery.

These seven steps provide a very simple way to guide a victim of non-serious crime around the healing circle; taking them from the journey in pain to the journey to recovery by reframing, using Alert Hypnosis to incorporate the crime into their life as a learning experience.

http://www.lcch.co.uk/hypnosisarticles/hypnosisarticle1.htm

7 Ways To Mentally Cope With Moving Abroad

1. Join an Online Social Group
Meetup is one of the best websites for meeting new people with a common interest. Sign up and search for interest groups in your new city, or even better, if there isn’t one already, create one. Facebook is also very useful; I’m an au pair and I made all of my new friends through the city’s au pair group.

2. Schedule a Regular Time to Catch Up With Loved Ones

It’s easy to miss your loved ones when you have conflicting schedules; especially romantic partners. Schedule a time every week, regardless of the time zone and/or the circumstances and speak to each other on Skype (it’s free to download if you don’t already have it).

If you make this a regular habit, it will comfort you when you start to miss them too much because you always know you’re going to catch each other online. Sundays are often the best time for this.

Talk about what you both have been doing, how much you miss one another. and what you’re going to do when you both see each other.

3. Do What You’ve Always Wanted to Do
As much as we adore our loved ones, sometimes we get complacent and hold ourselves back from what we really want to do, such as working on a business plan when you really want to go and watch the game with your friend.

However, being alone can sometimes give us the kick in the ass that we needed. Now that you have a lot more free time and fewer distractions, you can pursue a hobby you’ve always wanted to do. Being alone also gives you the opportunity to meet new, like-minded people.

4. Learn to Embrace New Challenges
Many people see challenges as negative, but they can be very fulfilling to overcome, and living abroad is no exception. This will push you to your very limits, but know that by the end of it, you will be a better-rounded person for it—not many people can say they’ve come out the other side, so don’t be one of them.

5. Write a Note to Yourself to Read When You Feel Most Challenged
There are going to be times when you’ll want to throw in the towel and quit; it’s all too common to let your emotions affect your rationality. Don’t let that happen—instead, write yourself a note (I have mine on my iphone notes) and look at it whenever you feel most dis-empowered. It was written by your best self, to you. The irony is that you may never even need it; I wrote one to myself and never ended up looking at it, so I deleted it.

6. Seek Comfort in Something You Can Always Have With You
We seldom root our comfort in the simplest of pleasures like a cup of coffee, a picture in your wallet, a favourite album / book / movie, but when you’re abroad, you won’t have your home to comfort you when you have a bad day. This is what people mean when they say they’re homesick: they miss what their home provides them—comfort.

Always have your favourite personal belonging at hand to look at whenever you feel sad. I have my favourite albums on my laptop and whenever I feel homesick, I listen to them because it takes me back to a happy place, regardless of where I am in the world.

7. Celebrate Your Successes
Celebrate every success you have, regardless of how small you think it is. You don’t always have to share it with someone, because it’s yours. Write it down in a journal and reflect back on it when you feel you can’t move forward. Maybe you were really anxious about meeting your new co-workers, but they all greeted you with open arms. Build up this forward momentum of little successes and soon you’ll be on your way to acclimatizing to your new home.

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/7-ways-to-mentally-cope-with-moving-abroad.html

Dealing With That Overly Competitive Person

If a competitive friend or colleague is making your life a misery, here's what to do about it...

We're all a bit competitive. We all want the best job, the best grades or just the best seat on the train. There's nothing wrong with that, of course. A healthy competitive streak makes sure we get what we deserve in life. But some people take competition too far. They'll go to any lengths to get to the top of the tree, even if it means pushing other people off the ladder on their way up.

You'll come across overly competitive people in all walks of life, from your weekly six-a-side touch match to the office or boardroom. They have to win at all costs, and those costs can include your own peace of mind. You can avoid them, of course, but that's not always possible. So here's how to identify the ultra-competitive among us, and deal with their antisocial behaviour.

How do you know if someone is overly competitive?
First off, it's worth remembering that being competitive isn't bad — just being overly so. If somebody wants to be the best, but balances that with respect for his teammates or colleagues, his competitiveness isn't a problem. Overly competitive people tend to value winning above everything else, even friendship. So their desire to be first, or to garner most praise and admiration from others, or to win, often includes being nasty, spiteful, backbiting or sneaky. They may put you down behind your back, especially if they view you as competition.

Things could be getting worse. The economic downturn means that — in terms of work — more of us are competing for fewer resources, bringing out a selfish streak in some. One survey found that, on average, workers view about a third of their colleagues as competitive to a negative degree.

Why are some people overly competitive?

Extreme competitiveness seems to be part and parcel of some personality types. Many successful business people are described as having a type A personality — which means they're driven, impatient, often hostile and usually highly competitive.

Others have self-esteem issues, and constantly feel the need to judge their achievements against those of other people. Some have adopted what psychologists refer to as a 'scarce resource model', which means they see everything in black and white.

Put simply, they think that if you've got something they can't have it too, so they strive to beat you to it. Some people are simply narcissistic and arrogant, and see you, according to psychologist Dr Melanie Greenberg, "as a potential threat to their own success, or as an object to use or manipulate in order to meet their own needs or increase their resources".

The effect of their behaviour can be serious. Greenberg believes competitive people "can provoke feelings of irritation, anxiety, or inadequacy". The constant battle to keep a competitive person at bay can leave you exhausted and even depressed.

Dealing with an overly competitive person

According to psychologists, there are several ways you can deal with the colleague who always grabs credit for collective work or the friend who always has to go one better.

Choose your friends, and colleagues: If there's a painfully competitive character in the office or in your group of friends, surround yourself as much as possible with more cooperative people. Show a united front. You don't have to be mean to him - some light-hearted banter about his win-at-all-costs nature will show him that you're on to him, and that you're no pushovers.

Give praise: Strange as it may seem, giving overly competitive people praise can sometimes disarm them and persuade them to see you as an ally rather than a competitor. This won't mean they change their behaviour — they'll just direct it towards other people rather than you. It works if their ultra-competitive streak is caused by insecurity.

Change the subject: Whether it's a colleague bragging about grabbing the biggest contract or a friend who can't help bringing up his death defying adventures, the simplest tactic is just to change the subject. Do it a few times and they may get the message. It's a bit brutal, so you should only use it if their competitive bragging is really getting everyone's goat.

Do big up your own achievements: In work situations, however, bigging yourself up can work. In particular, coolly reminding an ultra-competitive colleague of your own achievements can work wonders. Competitive people are often impressed by status, and by reminding them of yours you may gain their respect. Of course, they may still want to overtake you, but they won't want to knock you down while they're doing it. They may see you as someone who might be useful to them — and someone to keep on side.

Be cooperative: Make a virtue of your own cooperative nature. Suggest ways of working with your competitive colleague and make sure a few important people know about it. Always make sure you have enough work and responsibility to showcase your own talents, and at the end of a project praise everyone involved, so Mr Competitive will look particularly self-centred — and dishonest — if he tries to take all the credit for himself.

Be on your guard: At the same time, if you're up against someone so competitive he's prepared to be devious and conniving you need to stay on your guard. Don't share information with him that he can use to support his own claims, and make sure — as above — that your own work gives you the chance to shine.

If his behaviour gets out of hand, you may have to have a word with the boss. In a private moment, let him know that the success was due to collective effort, and that your competitive colleague is in danger of undermining team morale.

If an overly competitive friend or colleague is harming your health, happiness or career, you don't have to put up with it. By invoking a few easy strategies, you can put them in their place or make them direct their competitive attentions elsewhere.

http://lifestyle.msn.co.nz/nzmenslifestyle/intheknow/8366710/how-to-deal-with-overly-competitive-people