Counselling or hypnotherapy: what works?

Counselling and hypnotherapy can both have a useful impact in your life, and in major ways. But what is the difference and how can each help you tackle what are seemingly the same issues (anxiety, depression, confidence and other mental health issues)? As we progress through life, we can often become lost. It’s not uncommon to need support at least some point in your life. If you are looking to make a change and are considering the options available to you, it’s true that counselling can be h...
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Self-awareness and self-development: Two of the same?

Self-awareness and self-development are both parts of the same package. As we learn more about ourselves, we are slowly tearing back layers of mental barriers that we’ve attributed to the experience we call life. Our limitations are our own making. Looking at those who we believe to be successful in society, they are extremely self-aware. They have developed a true (authentic or congruent) image of themselves: their strengths, weaknesses, areas of improvement and most of all who they can beco...
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Escaping your comfort zone: Taking advantage of chaos

Put simply, our comfort zone is a behavioural space where our activities and behaviours become part of our routines. This helps to lower risk and stress, giving us a natural state of mind in which we can function and perform our routines habits on a daily basis. The problem is that, when we do try to leave our comfort zones, we face uncertainty, which manifests as anxiety and worry. Anyone who has ever done anything new or pushed themselves to live up to the challenge knows that it can be har...
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Self-hypnosis: Could you help yourself with autosuggestion?

Could you help take control of your life with self-hypnosis and autosuggestion? Autosuggestion can be a real, practical way to change behaviour and influence your life in huge ways. Since it's conception, autosuggestion has been used as a form of self-hypnosis, self-development, psychotherapy and hypnotherapy. Developed in the early 20th, there are two separate forms of autosuggestion identified: Intentional - "reflective autosuggestion", made by deliberate and conscious effort Uni...
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Personal development planning: Recipe for success

A personal development plan offers a great way to ensure that each job role and experience feels more meaningful, offers you a purpose and gives you an amazing insight into the future and is excellent for developing an efficient long-term perspective within your career. Firstly, the definition of a personal development planning is “the process of creating an action plan based on awareness, values, reflection, goal-setting, and planning for personal development within the context of a career, ...
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Your self image: How does it influence your ability to change?

Are you wanting to make a change in your life but no matter what you do you seem to be stuck in those destructive habits that are forever bringing you to your knees? There are countless stories of people trying to lose weight; give up smoking, quit the drug habit, all of them using, tried and tested methods such as smoking patches, dieting pills, supplements for drug use. Do these substitutes really work? Or does change only occur when you change how you perceive yourself? Your self-image ...
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Understanding your destructive habits: 12 signs of self-sabotage

Self-awareness is a huge advantage when it comes to identifying your own self-sabotaging behaviours, and understanding the ways you're being self-destructive can be a great place to start. Addictions Addictions are one of the highest forms of self-destructive behaviour and over time destroys self-esteem and your confidence, becoming a deadly cycle that keeps you trapped in an unproductive lifestyle. Emotional neglect Repressed emotions are not good for your mental or emotional wellbeing....
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Eating disorders and Anorexia

Research shows that if someone doesn’t get effective treatment within the first three years, medical outcomes in anorexia are very poor. Eating disorders in young people are on the up. A British Medical Journal report says the ­frequency of eating disorders rose from 32 per 1,000 to 37 in the 10 years from 2000 in people in the age group 10-49. Eating disorders are now fairly common among adolescent girls. A recent Dutch study found they’re six times more common than in men. Despite this p...
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