As the clocks go back I am left reflecting why my counselling client appointment requests increase in the winter?

There may be some obvious reasons, dark nights, bad weather, less time out and about, less sunlight.

There is a long leap from the summer holidays to Christmas with a short October break for some. Stress caused by chronic ongoing unwanted demand can leave some of us feeling down, depressed, anxious or even ill. It can often affect our relationships, leaving us on a short fuse, ready to dump the day’s anger on the safest (loved) one. How many of us are guilty of that?

If we feel stressed or down due to increased workload, the bad weather and lack of light can affect us even more. Our control seems to be external. In other words our happiness depends more on what is happening ‘out there’ rather than us taking control. If the weather is bad than that makes us feel sad, if people aren’t nice to us at work we feel down. This external locus of control can be the cause of stress and make stress worse, a vicious circle downwards.

If you would like to find out how to take more control of your happiness and feel less down the winter than last, through counselling or hypnosis, please call me at Calm Minds in Bramhall.

Jonathan Lloyd
Oct 2011

This is a question I have been asked recently, and I have some ideas about this subject. Occasionally hypnotherapy clients come to me to quit smoking and I tell them that they are not ready. Sometimes there are more important things to deal with than stopping smoking at that time. Our subconscious seems to have a way of prioritising items on it’s “To Do List”. For example a client came to see me recently who had high levels of negative stress in his life. We had to deal with this first, before the smoking cessation session. If we hadn’t there would have been a good chance the smoking session wouldn’t have worked. I want the therapy to be as effective as it can be for each and every client. I am pleased to say that we worked on his issues (about four sessions of hypnotherapy and counselling) and he did subsequently stop smoking.

Some clients may require help getting to the level where they are ready to quit, and others may need some ongoing support. Although I believe the vast majority stop at the first attempt (it is hard to be accurate on the statistics as I do not monitor clients for confidentiality reasons). If there is one reason for clients starting the habit again is usually peer pressure at a moment low defences (alcohol in the main). There is no problem in repeating the hypnotherapy treatment, and it can often be even more potent the second time. It is important not to admit defeat at this point; it is just your subconscious starting the habit over again, which can be stopped through hypnosis.

If you would like to know more about stopping smoking our any other habit, please give me a call at Calm Minds in Bramhall.

Jonathan Lloyd
Oct 2011