Glossary

AGORAPHOBIA: Agoraphobia is made from the Greek words that mean "open marketplace" and “fear”. This anxiety disorder involves the fear of experiencing a panic attack in a place or situation from which escape may be difficult or embarrassing. It is most often associated with a fear of open spaces and can occur with various degrees of severity. In mild cases a person may have difficulty traveling away from home but can still manage to get to work and make familiar journeys, where as in sever cases the patient finds that he/she cannot leave their home environment even to go into the garden. Even within the home the sufferer may experience panic attacks. Treatment can either be undertaken in a real life situation or alternatively in imagination using brief and strategic hypnotherapy. Agoraphobia is a complex disorder and there is a strict strategic hypnotherapeutic protocol.

ANGER: Anger may take many forms. The most obvious manifestations are shouting at other people, out bursts of rage (such as road rage), and in some cases open aggression and violence. Some people are unable to show their anger and it is then converted into other symptoms such as headaches, itching, irritable bowel syndrome, or ulcerative colitis. Un-expressed anger can cause a rise in the blood pressure. Some patients express the anger by turning it on themselves and this may take the form of self-harming.
Where the anger is converted into physical symptoms such as headache then it is helpful to use brief and strategic hypnotherapy.

PHOBIA: Many people are frightened. However, for a fear to be classified as a phobia the fear must be irrational, and cause the person so much distress that they avoid all contact with that particular thing. Brief and strategic hypnotherapy is very valuable in treating patients with a phobia and over a period of time patients are capable of making a complete recovery from their phobia, particularly if they are well motivated and persevere with the treatment programme.

ANXIETY: When people suffer a high level of anxiety this may reach panic proportions. Individuals in a state of panic experience a variety of very unpleasant symptoms. It is essential that the cause of the anxiety is investigated and treated by a skilled therapist. This may be achieved either by individual brief and strategic hypnotherapy, by the use of counseling, or a combination of these two approaches.

BINGE EATING: Binging is a habit and brief and strategic hypnotherapy can effectively control and change this, resulting in better control of eating patterns.

BULEMIA NERVOSA: Repetitive, uncontrolled eating binges associated with weight and body image, where weight is maintained by vomiting. Bulemic patients often respond well to brief and strategic hypnotherapy. As with other conditions, the UKHTC practitioner may work in collaboration with other healthcare professionals.

CANCER & HYPNOTHERAPY: Cancer patients suffer from a variety of distressing symptoms including pain, breathlessness, vomiting, skin irritation, out bursts of anger, insomnia and depression. Where one or more of these symptoms fail to respond to medication it may be very helpful to use brief and strategic hypnotherapy to reduce their severity. Prior to chemotherapy patients often develop nausea and may even vomit, brief and strategic hypnotherapy has been shown to be an extremely effective way of counteracting these symptoms.

CHILD BIRTH: Brief and strategic hypnotherapy is an effective way to prepare physically and psychologically for the best possible experience of childbirth. Hypnobirthing is increasing in popularity, and in some areas courses teaching hypnobirthing techniques for midwives have been launched and very well received.

CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROMME (CFS): Although studied since the 1930s, M.E. (myalgic encephalomyelitis) or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome has only come into the spotlight in the past twenty years. Brief and strategic hypnotherapy and lifestyle management advice can be very effective for supporting patients with CFS.

DEPRESSION: Depression is a complex area and UKHTC practitioners follow professional and ethical guidelines when evaluating the suitability of incorporating brief and strategic clinical hypnotherapy into an individual’s treatment programme and may work in collaboration with other health care professionals.

BLUSHING: is a symptom of anxiety which usually involves the face but may also spread to the chest. It is a distressing symptom for the sufferer that interferes with social interaction. It may even prevent those who suffer from it from going out to events of any kind. Unfortunately, because the sufferer is embarrassed by their blushing this tends to make the blushing even worse and responds particularly well to brief and strategic hypnotherapy.

INSOMNIA: Interrupted sleeping patterns or lying awake at night is a distressing. Once it has been established that insomnia is not associated with any obvious physical or psychiatric illness brief and strategic hypnotherapy may prove an effective way of treating insomnia. UKHTC practitioners are very aware that there may be a number of reasons why an individual has difficulty in sleeping and any physical cause such as pain needs to be investigated in the first instance. In the same way insomnia is frequently a symptom of both depression and hypomania and in these cases the treatment should be directed towards the underlying condition.

IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROMME (IBS): Studies have shown that 1:5 people suffer from some degree of irritable bowel. The symptoms of IBS can vary but patients will often present with urgency and frequency of bowel action, abdominal pain and bloating. Often patients complain of diarrhoea, but some are troubled by constipation. Over 20 years of solid scientific research has demonstrated hypnotherapy as an effective, safe and inexpensive choice for IBS symptom alleviation. Hypnotherapy routinely produces positive results in over 80% of the people who use it as a treatment for IBS.

DRUGS: ALCOHOL: SMOKING: MOTIVATION: CONFIDENCE: SELF- ESTEEM ISSUES: STAMMERING: PREMATURE EJACULATION: IMPOTENCE: GAMBLING: SPORT: PAIN CONTROL: