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Type of therapies
we provide in The Alpha Clinic, Dublin, Ireland:
We use various therapies in our work, as they
are invaluable assets, which aid our clients in the understanding
of their mind, and
how it works. Some of the therapies we use are : : Hypnosis – In
hypnosis our clients can achieve a state whereby a deep relaxed
stillness is attained, that separates
their conscious
logical mental activity from illogical and irrational thought
process. It is a non-addictive power for good and is a natural
manifestation
of the mind at work. Psychoanalysis – We
use this therapeutic intervention to bring about beneficial
change within a distressed client. We use it to
identify elements that are stored in our client’s subconscious
mind along with the client examining the intra-psychic conflicts
that can result from earlier experiences in life, namely childhood. Free Association – Used
as an investigative tool. We as therapists will urge our
clients to verbalise their thoughts in
a random fashion. Free association is used to access subconscious
distress, conflict, trauma and in doing so, can move our
clients towards the unleashing of their innermost disturbances.
This technique
demands that nothing is held back from us as therapists,
as to hold back, would deprive our clients of a prime opportunity
for
discharging some of their psychic conflict or trauma that
they
have been carrying emotionally through their lives. Gestalt – This is a technique we use in order to reduce
impediments of the client’s self-growth, self-actualisation
and self-regulation, enabling the client to complete those
experiences that have left them with unfinished business
in their life. Cognitive Therapy – Enables
our clients to use their ability to be rational problem
solvers when tackling dilemas. They
will assess circumstances objectively and learn how to apply
an objective
evaluation. Dream Analysis – Our clients are guided through a straight
forward process that will reconnect them to their dream, enabling
them to explore their dream, picking up messages, symbols and identifying
it’s emotional content in a way that will enable them to
make connections with their current life’s situation.
Parts Therapy – A
unique mediation hypnotherapeutic technique used to assist
clients to easily and quickly identify
causes of inner conflicts,
within
their subconscious mind, enabling them to release these
issues and resolve them. Click
here to go to top of page Hypnotherapy
How and Why Hypnosis works.
Modern Hypnosis has been used for hundreds of years to build
self-confidence, change habits, lose weight with weight loss
programs, stop smoking, improve memory, end behaviour problems
in children and eliminate anxiety, fear and phobias.
What is Hypnosis?
Hypnosis is a particular altered
state of Selective Hyper Suggestibility, brought about
in an individual by the use of a combination of relaxation,
fixation of attention and suggestion.
The Hypnotic State:
This is extremely useful for
the relaxation it produces. The real importance of hypnosis
to the healing and emotional
change process is that while you are in the hypnotic state,
your mind is open and receptive to suggestions. Positive
and healing suggestions are able to sink deeply into your
mind and more quickly and strongly than when you are in a
normal, awake state of mind. All research has demonstrated
that while in the hypnotic state, you cannot be made to do
anything against your will or your moral values.
Imagine that there is a door
between your conscious mind and your subconscious mind.
Normally the door is closed until
your brain waves slow down to a relaxed, alpha brain-wave
level. This happens when you are almost asleep. The door
opens for a short period of time and ideas, images and
thoughts
come
out of your subconscious mind. When you are in a state of
hypnosis, the door also opens so helpful suggestions can
be directed into your subconscious mind or forgotten memories
can be retrieved.
The three keys to
the successful use of hypnosis for self improvement and
personal growth
are self motivation, repetition,
and believable suggestions.
1. Motivation – The
motivation to change must come from within you. If you
are trying to change because someone
else wants you to “lose weight” or “stop
smoking”, the chances are greatly reduced that the
hypnosis will work. These people do not respond as well to
hypnosis as those who really want to change. Those who come
because they want to give up smoking or lose weight respond
quickly and easily. This clear intention to change will help
the hypnotic suggestions to take hold and manifest themselves
in your everyday life.
2 Repetition - To really work well, suggestions must be
reinforced by
repetition. Most of the time the hypnotic suggestions need
to be repeated on a regular basis until you notice a change.
This is one reason that most specialists in hypnosis give
clients cassette tapes of their sessions so that they can
listen to them every day or often enough that the suggestions
become permanently a part of them. There is no way to predict
how long it will take to see change. It will depend partly
on their motivation and commitment.
3 Acceptable suggestions -
The third key to the successful use of hypnosis for personal
change
is believable suggestions.
If you are to accept a suggestion, your mind must first accept
it as a real possibility. Telling a child that chocolate
will be disgusting to them and will make them sick is too
big a stretch for the imagination. If a suggestion like this
even took hold, it would only last a short time because it
would be so unbelievable to a real chocolate lover. In cases
like this, one of the successful weight loss suggestions
we use is that the next time the individual eats chocolate,
it will not taste quite as good as the time before. This
is far more acceptable and believable to most people. Then
with enough repetition over a period of time, chocolate loses
much of its positive taste and control over that person.
One final note is that HYPNOSIS
IS NOT DANGEROUS. There are almost no risks when used by
trained
professionals. You
cannot be made to do anything that is against your will or
your moral values. You must stick with professionally trained
hypnosis specialists. The one risk we know about involves
falling asleep. If you are tired or if you become too tired
you may move from the state of hypnosis to the normal sleep
state. This is fine if you were going to go to sleep right
after the trance but if you have other plans after listening
to a hypnosis tape, you may want to set an alarm clock just
in case you fall asleep. Never listen to a hypnosis tape
while driving. Don’t even listen to it if you are a
passenger as the relaxation suggestions could make the driver
fall asleep also.
Over the years, self improvement and personal growth using
hypnosis has helped millions of people change their lives
permanently because it is a safe and powerful tool for changing
your thoughts, feelings and habits.
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TAT - Tapas
Acupressure Technique - Dramatic Healing Therapy
This is a simple
energy technique that we use based on traditional Chinese
medicine.
It opens up our vision centre of the brain, which helps to heal
trauma, allergies, allergic reactions
and at the same time it transforms negative beliefs while doing
this. This is incorporated into our therapy as it brings about
a balance of harmony and well-being. We find that TAT accomplishes
healing by resolving the duality of a situation. When the illusion
of separation dissolves, we experience oneness. All of existence
is oneness. If I am not experiencing that, then I am not at peace.
TAT helps us realise this and it is our hope and wish that it
will help you realise it too.
The importance of thoughts and intentions -
Do
not underestimate the power of thoughts and intentions. Your
thoughts and intentions are real things with real energy. They
are important and valuable tools that help you in your healing
process. They are not invalid just because we can’t see
them, weigh them or measure them.
Did you ever get hurt
by someone and go off in a huff? As long as you stay in
a huff, the
relationship
stays estranged, but once you
engage directly with someone or something again, there is an
opportunity for change and healing to take place. Your
thoughts and intentions
hold the key to healing the past. By putting your attention directly
on a trauma and doing TAT, the relationship between you and the
trauma becomes peaceful and harmonious in a matter of seconds.
What is a trauma and what does TAT do? A
trauma occurs when life becomes unbearable and you say “No” to
living fully. Variations on this theme include. “Hold it
right there:” “This is too much for me:” “If
this happens, I won’t survive:” This is not necessarily
a conscious choice, but it is a natural one at that moment, and
it sets up patterns of mental, emotional, and physical behaviour.
Traumatic stress is the stress to your system of continually
trying to hold off the experience of a trauma. The event really
did happen.
Traumatic stress ends when the trauma is no longer resisted.
When you deny the existence of
any part of yourself, life can come to a standstill. You
become cut off from life and from yourself.
Your only company is your trauma.
You
have the power to change your relationship with a trauma
by directly engaging it through TAT. TAT is a way of saying
to your
whole body – mind: “Have another look at this.” It
is an opportunity to change, based on taking a new look rather
than continuing to look away. By taking another look, within
the context of TAT’s direction of the body’s energy
flow, the energy charge that has been held in place is removed
from
the past event, and the event can be integrated into your life.
Children:
It
is delightful to help children heal by using TAT. They have
no preconceptions about what does or doesn’t work. They
go along with trying TAT and let you know what’s honestly
happening. It is a very beautiful experience for both child and
therapist.
Rape and Sexual Abuse:
Overcoming
the trauma of rape or sexual abuse is one of the greatest
challenges you can face in life. TAT can heal the traumatic
stress of rape in one sitting of an hour or less. You
won’t
feel worse, because TAT doesn’t re-stimulate the memory
with all of its fear and terror and anger. When a person
puts their attention on what happened and assumes the TAT pose,
they
will immediately start to feel better, not worse, and the trauma
will start to heal.
It
may take more than one sitting if you are a victim of repeated
sexual abuse. You may not be able to put your attention on “all
of it” and then have every angle of it clear up, but you
may be surprised: It is possible to put your attention on an
entire section of your life and apply TAT and have the traumatic
stress relating to that time alleviate.
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EMDR - Eye Movement
Desensitisation & Reprocessing + Trauma It is a method for releasing negative beliefs and emotional
stress.
Techniques: Using techniques, which cause the left and right hemispheres
of the brain to communicate, the client experiences a process
of release similar to that experienced during REM (rapid eye
movement) or dreaming sleep. When
the therapist moves his or her fingers in front of the
client’s eyes, peripheral vision picks this up and mimics
the effects of dreaming sleep. Messages and beliefs which have
been trapped with the client’s body-mind system are released. J.
Allen Hobson professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical
school and director of the laboratory of Neurophysiology at
Massachusetts Mental health centre, says “The function
of sleep may be not so much, to rest the brain as to reorganise
its information….in sleep the brain can review
and reorganise its already acquired data.”
Trauma: Many
clients have experienced trauma or other unpleasant experiences
and been denied the deep sleep needed to deal with unpleasant
emotion. This then remains stored within them until they can
undergo the process of “wide awake dreaming” which
characterises eye movement therapy. Rapid Eye Movement: REM occurs every time someone achieves the Alpha state of
the normal sleep cycle. As hypnotherapists, we know that this
is the clinical state in which most of our work is done. With
eye movement therapy the client goes into an alpha state quickly,
without the need for a hypnotic induction.
Benefits:
At
this point, the client benefits from the rapid transfer
of information between the right and left hemispheres of the
brain. The left brain carries the original trauma decision “What
do I need to do to survive?”, and also the question “What
do I need to do to be healed?”
The
right brain holds the whole picture of how the person’s
life could change for the better. During the crossover of information
between hemispheres caused by the rapid eye movement the divided
halves allow a resolution and integration.
Clients begin to make connections
with their subconscious belief systems and experience flashes
of forgotten memories. Information
is processed visually, auditory and kinaesthetically and the
client may feel energy moving through parts of their body.
This is of great advantage to those whose symptoms include
sensations such as headaches and stomach pains, dizziness,
and all the unpleasant sensations of panic attack, blushing,
bodily tics, and similar debilitating physical complaints.
“Shapiro……successfully
tried the method on a Vietnam veteran suffering from severe
PTSD ( Post Traumatic Stress disorder ) and then embarked
upon a trial of EMDR on a mixed group of victims of rape, molestation
and Vietnam combat trauma. Initially, EMDR achieved wide recognition
a new breakthrough treatment for PTSD. This was, in part, because
of very positive early reports (E.g. Wolpe & Abrams, 1991),
but also because the EMDR effect appeared to occur with unprecedented
speed, often in cases of PTSD that had previously resisted
treatment by many other methods over a long period.
Methods: Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing is taught as
an eight-phase treatment method which includes history taking,
patient preparation, assessment, desensitisation (counter conditioning),
body scan, closure and re-evaluation. It is based on the premise
that contiguous pairing of therapist-directed eye movements
(or bilateral shift of attention in other modalities such as
sound or body taps) with traumatic memories allows re-evaluation
and reclassification of those memories. After successful EMDR
treatment, probes of treated memories fail to produce distress,
maladaptive behaviour, feelings or attitudes. The eight phases
of the cross-associated traumatic memories are identified,
reproduced, controlled and paired with the eye movement procedure
in a safe manner.
EMDR – A Good Therapy for Children:
When a child has been subjected
to abuse, there may be different brain development leading
to behavioural differences.
Studies also show that
severe abuse may lead to a deficiency in the development
of the
left hemisphere.
Because children do not have
the ability, which adults do, to change their circumstances
i.e. leave home, locality, job,
significant others, they are therefore stuck in situations
from which they have no escape. They may therefore manifest
collections of symptoms such as bed-wetting, anger, bullying,
fighting, phobic avoidance, which are attempts to deal with
a situation over which they have no control. (Tinker and Wilson
1999).
The rapid increase of divorce
in our society leaves a lot of children caught in the crossfire
between warring parents,
or pining for the non-custodial parent, which results in episodes
of behaviour such as head-banging, eating disorders etc. (Tinker
and Wilson 1999).
Possibly because of their greater ability to imagine, and
to blur the boundaries between imagination and reality, children
with severe problems, such as PTSD may be more prone than adults
to hallucinate (Terr 1990). Children with mild development disorder e.g. some clients
with autism, often have good right hemisphere skills e.g. painting,
music, but, have impaired left hemisphere functioning e.g.
language skills. EMDR may help facilitate the transfer of information
from their right to their left hemisphere, enabling them to
learn more skills more quickly (Tinker and Wilson 1991). Eating disorders respond remarkably well to EMDR ( Bannister,
in press ). This is particularly important, given that treatments
for anorexia fail, and it has the highest death rate of any
psychological illness experienced by adolescents.
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Psychophysiology of Trauma
When someone experiences a traumatic event the sensor information
enters the nervous system via the sensory organs (eyes, skin,
mouth, and nose). All sensations (smell, colours, sounds etc)
pass to the structure in the brain called the thalamus where
they are collected and passed on to the amygdala. Here they are
formed into a sensory memory which is passed onto the hippocampus
and the cortex where they are translated into a verbal / narrative
memory.
Recall of information trapped within the trauma memory of the
amygdala is emotional state dependent. Some pieces of sensory
information associated with the event require a certain minimum
level of emotional arousal to be experienced before the trapped
memory is accessed. At this time the trauma network of associated
sensations, which were formed at the time off the event are revealed.
What sometimes happens later is that a sensory experienced (breathing
in cigarette smoke) can trigger the feelings of intense fear
or anger associated with that sensory memory in the amygdala.
What is needed is the gradual linking of these sensory impressions
in the amygdala with the narrative memory in the cortex so that
the energy of the sensory trauma memory is reduced and as a result
the need for flashback and other forms of re-experience are reduced.
It is often remarkably difficult to find the cues or triggers
of the memory (although sometimes the link is clear) but an awareness
of the environment in which flashbacks occur can give a hint
as to their origin. Obviously, talking around / through the traumatic
event many times can cause some of the narrative to emerge and
some of the emotion to be reduced.
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EFT - EMOTIONAL
FREEDOM TECHNIQUE
What is EFT?
The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is one of the power therapies
now being used frequently to assist with anxiety, depression
and other co-morbidities which accompany ADHD and learning difficulties.
It is a method of emotional and neurological control based on
acupressure and involves tapping on acupressure/acupuncture points.
Since acupuncture meridians extend to the brain, tapping on these
points allows brain function to be modified by releasing negative
emotions and even ameliorating some neurological conditions.
It is also thought that EFT alters the energy field of the body
so that perturbations in the energy field causing negative emotions
are restored to balance. Based on the work of Roger Callahan,
Gary Craig and others it is now being used in combination with
a myriad of drug-free interventions aimed at managing stress.
Is it safe?
EFT appears to be a safe way of releasing negative emotions under
most circumstances. However, it is not advised to attempt the
release of very traumatic incidents (sexual or physical abuse)
without the supervision of a qualified mental health professional.
When used for "everyday" negative emotions such as
(irritability, anger, and frustration), phobias and emotionally
charged situations it seems to be quite safe. Over the years,
many people have learned how to use EFT and continue to use it.
Who can benefit from EFT?
EFT can be helpful for many of the negative emotions related
to many different conditions in adults and children.
Since EFT does not require extensive verbal skills, emotional
expressiveness or experience of psychotherapeutic processes it
is ideally suited for use with children. Since EFT works physiologically
it can be useful for neurological as well as emotional conditions.
EFT is very safe, it either works or it doesn’t and it
does not make conditions worse. The technique allows children
and adults to manage their own emotions and with adequate training
and practice, this can give lasting freedom, autonomy and self
control. It appears to be effective 90% of the time. Sometimes
the results are almost magical!
Does it last?
EFT seems to produce permanent effects for many conditions. If
a condition returns, repeated EFT sessions will usually release
the condition and treating all "aspects" of the problem
stabilises the results.
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