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http://catherinechadwick.co.uk/

Catherine Chadwick Hypnotherapy, London (2025)

31/03/2022

FREE 30 MINUTE RELAXATION SESSION VIA ZOOM SUNDAY 3RD APRIL

"Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop." Ovid

Join me for this free session this Sunday at 9p.m. BST. Message me for further information and joining details.

Photo by Dave Ashcroft on Unsplash

09/03/2022

TODAY IS NATIONAL NO SMOKING DAY

Nobody wants to be preached at and everyone has free will. It has to be the right time for you to stop smoking, the time when you feel ready and sick enough of it to want to stop. Only you can decide when that is. No amount of pressure is ever going to work.

Most people who come to see me to stop smoking have certain reservations about it, despite having a big desire to do so. These usually revolve around whether they’ll be able to stop, how they will cope without ci******es and what they will do when they are out socialising and drinking with friends.

Realise these things.

There was a time when you were perfectly able to navigate life without ci******es, times when actually you had a lot of learning to do with regard to coping with the world

You have shed a number of things in your life, habits and activities that just became redundant to the life you were living and the person you were becoming

Millions of people, heavy smokers, light smokers, have stopped smoking for good which means you can too

Lots of people deal with stress without ci******es. You know some

Lots of people go out with their friends enjoying themselves without smoking. You know some. They enjoy themselves as much as you do

Most people who eventually stop for good, have tried to stop at least once before. It’s just the way it is.

You have numerous inner resources that can help you stop, stay stopped and give you that feeling of no longer being enslaved by ci******es.

One of the reasons that hypnotherapy is considered to be the best approach to stopping smoking is its ability to convey new messages to the unconscious mind, draw out your resources in a meaningful way to empower you and allay any fears you have about stopping.

I personally prepare people before they come to see me with a couple of activities to start the ball rolling. The stop smoking session is 2 hours long and I combine several approaches to help you stop. You can also take a free follow up session within 6 months of that if there are any loose ends.

If you want to stop but worry about your ability to stop, so have hundreds of people before you. That didn’t stop them from trying and succeeding.

You can find out more about my approach https://quillfish-dinosaur-kc26.squarespace.com/smoke-free-package

Photo by Egor Myznik on Unsplash

02/03/2022

CAN PUBLIC SPEAKING EVER BE ENJOYABLE?

One of my hobbies is storytelling. It gives me great pleasure to take a myth or fable or short story and present it in my own way. It’s a meshing of creativity and public performance, of crafting and drawing in an audience.

I have always been drawn to public performance whilst also not always feeling as comfortable with it as I do now. This has led me through reading on stage as a young school child, performing in amateur dramatic productions, and Toastmasters, the international public speaking organisation.

The truth is that many of us have varying degrees of nervousness that may extend to overwhelming anxiety about performing in front of others, whether that is introducing yourself in a meeting, giving a work presentation or as part of your profession as a musician or actor. Let us not forget either that giving presentations is a requirement of many further and higher education studies.

I have had clients come to me for fear of public speaking who have developed elaborate ways of evading meetings at work, turned down jobs, not applied for jobs and left university studies because at some point they will be required to speak in front of others. Many will start to feel anxious as soon as they know they must give a presentation, an anxiety that ramps up over the days before the event, often including sleeplessness the night before. One person I worked with had to have an alcoholic drink before he was able to deliver his speeches.

Often, these responses have their roots in childhood events; being laughed at in class, being criticised by a teacher, parent or friend, or some other similar event. Sometimes, it is part of a generalised anxiety the person experiences on a day to day basis.

Like most fears, the fear of public speaking can be overcome and very quickly and easily. Not long ago I worked with a client and after two sessions she said she no longer needed to continue as she was feeling perfectly comfortable about her upcoming viva. Incidentally, this particular client was also concerned about her fear of speaking in front of others because she wanted to pursue a career as a university lecturer. I recently worked with another young woman whose new job required her to present to clients as well as colleagues. After a couple of sessions, she wrote to me that she had been abroad and had given a presentation to 50 people and it had gone very well. This was someone who at the time of coming to see me was also anxious about expressing herself in the office for fear of how she would be viewed.

It is good to have a small amount of nerves about giving a presentation or performance of some sort, a short burst of adrenalin. This gives us the motivation to do the best we can. What I want to draw your attention to though is the exhilaration that can occur when you have expressed your thoughts, ideas and creativity to others, an exhilaration that can occur because you had minimum anxiety and were more focused on what you had to say. Of course, the less fear we have about anything, the more pleasure we can get and the more we can develop both personally and professionally.

Photo by Will Kell at Unsplash

15/02/2022

HELPING SOCIAL ANXIETY
In a 1986 study, university students were asked to describe the kinds of situations that caused them to feel shy. A whopping 80% of them reported that talking to strangers and authority figures evoked this feeling in them. Other anxiety-provoking situations included meeting new people, asking for a date, attending social functions and ‘impressive people’ that is people viewed as of high status or attractiveness.

What these situations have in common is the possibility of judgment by others. If you are a person who suffers socially, and from the afore-mentioned study it seems that most people do to some extent, you may be aware that you wonder how you are coming across to others, worry about the quality of what you say, being accepted and may generally be very focused on yourself.

There is no doubt that social anxiety can cause varying degrees of unhappiness ranging from detraction from enjoyment of a social interaction or situation to an inability to function normally, fleeing situations where you are uncomfortable or avoiding them altogether.

Another study on social anxiety found that the kinds of situations that precipitated social anxiety could be divided into 4 categories:

1. formal speaking (giving presentations for example)

2. informal speaking and interaction

3. interactions requiring assertive behaviour (such as returning something to a store)

4. when being observed by others while working, writing, eating etc.

By the way, anxiety can develop when just thinking about being in any of these kinds of situations.

Your Historical Experiences

Very often this kind of anxiety has its roots in the past. It may come as no surprise to you that very often situations that occurred at school are implicated. For instance, I recently worked with someone who felt very inept in social situations. There were several situations that had occurred at school that were connected, not least feeling excluded from conversations and feelings of being talked and laughed about. We worked on these using IEMT. It was fascinating for my client to notice how her response to these old experiences changed and updated completely so that they were now viewed totally differently from how her younger self had interpreted them at the time, leading to a diminishment of her anxiety in the present.

The truth is that when we have a particular problem, there are very often these pockets of memories with an emotional charge that are preventing us from experiencing similar situations from our adult perspective. That is why we often know there is no reason for us to be afraid of others but are still held back in some way. Therapies like IEMT update our responses and bring all parts of us into alignment.

What You Think of Yourself

Inevitably, those who suffer with social anxiety form opinions and beliefs about who they are, their capabilities and shortcomings. We are of course our harshest critics. Dealing with old, highly charged upsetting memories contributing to social anxiety is part of it, but a fuller approach means tackling beliefs about ourselves, and perhaps even others and the world that are feeding into the problem. The stage is then set to really enhance your comfort within social situations and hypnotherapy comes into its own here.

Projecting Forward

Once the groundwork has been done, you will be feeling much better about interacting with others. You will more easily be able to tap into your resources. The stage is also set for you to really imagine being in social situations in the way you want to be. With the tools I provide, you can set yourself up for success and most importantly, ease and comfort being in the presence of others in all manner of situations.

Photo by Priscilla du Preez on Unsplash

04/01/2022

ARE YOU ONE OF THE 15%?

According to a poll published in i newspaper this week, 15 per cent of those polled intended to set a new year’s resolution to cut down their alcohol consumption. The article also said that of those who said back in June that they would cut down their drinking when covid-19 restrictions were lifted, only 46% had done so by December 2021.

As we all know, setting new year’s resolutions can fill us with enthusiasm. Sometimes we stick to them, but very often we don’t. Many theories have been advanced for why this is so.

The truth is, that we are indeed creatures of habit. Through repetition, we set certain behaviours in place and will tend to revert back to them unless we find a way of not doing so.

To make matters worse, sometimes the behaviour we want to change is enshrined in beliefs and identity issues that almost guarantee we won’t stick to our resolution, the glue that holds the behaviour in place because they are part of the fabric of how we think of ourselves. “I am a smoker” is one that I often hear. “I need a drink after work to wind down.” “I don’t feel included if I’m the only one not drinking”, “it makes me the life and soul of the party” and one I heard from a course participant who had been trying for years to get her eating under control “I am fat”.

Sometimes we can be blissfully unaware that we hold certain beliefs that trip us up when we try to change a behaviour. When we have an aspect of identity that is contrary to changing a particular behaviour, then our efforts can be even more of a struggle often ending in failure.

In order to make the change you want, to reduce the alcohol intake or something else, it is therefore a good idea to tackle these beliefs and identity statements. Hypnotherapy and Integral Eye Movement Therapy can help us do just that so that you could become the kind of person who can take or leave alcohol and feel perfectly OK about doing so.

Photo by Michael Discenza on Unsplash

15/09/2021

FEAR OF PUBLIC SPEAKING

Imagine you have a fear of public speaking. It’s not just lots of people looking at you or bright lights. It’s worse when there are “authority figures” present. You’re afraid of forgetting your message, of not being able to express yourself clearly, of being asked a question you can’t answer. It’s so bad that you don’t apply for jobs that require you to present and you’re not sure about your future career because the work that you could logically do and have trained for, means that you will have to lecture.

This is how a client presented to me. After 2 sessions of Integral Eye Movement Therapy this person wrote to me and said that not only had her fear of public speaking dissipated, but she found herself more confident in other situations where she was previously anxious and that with people in general, she was relating differently - more open to listening and sharing, less guarded and less concerned about being judged negatively for what she said.

Imagine that. After a short time your whole experience of public speaking changing - and other life-enhancing benefits besides.

Fear of public speaking can cause great distress. I have met people who have developed very creative ways of avoiding giving presentations at work. I have met people who have given up university studies because of it and like my client above, have limited their career choices because of it.

And yet, presenting, performing and teaching can be so rewarding. I know this because I have done all of them and still do.

Don’t let yourself suffer a moment longer when there‘s really no need. Whether by means of hypnotherapy or Integral Eye Movement Therapy, this fear is very amenable to change.

Photo by DESIGNECOLOGIST on Unsplash

13/08/2021

CAN YOU SEE IT?

When someone comes to see me for help with losing weight, I will always ask them if they can see themselves at the weight they want to be.

This is very important. It is difficult to steer yourself in a particular direction and keep going if you don‘t have a clear idea of the destination.

Sometimes my client will have a favourite piece of clothing they want to be able to wear again. Sometimes they will have a photograph from a time when they felt they were at a healthy weight. It doesn’t really matter. The main thing is to have some kind of image.

There is a range of things I do with someone who wants to lose weight. I will though always include at some point in the treatment a visualisation of a slimmer you.

I will get into some detail with the person so that they see what they are wearing, how the clothing fits to the shape of their body, how their skin looks now they are slimmer, the contours of the muscles under their skin, the shine of their hair and so on.

Imagery isn’t just about the visual however and I will include the other senses. For example, I might get them to imagine touching their arms and feeling the tone of their muscles (because of course they will have been exercising!), hearing positive feedback from others and so on. I might get them to imagine they can actually step inside this slimmer self as if stepping into a body suit and “trying it on for size” and noticing how it feels to feel slimmer, lighter, having more energy, what they are saying to themselves.

Imagery such as this can be very powerful. I once read about a woman whose picture was of herself wearing her favourite jeans. She said that it was strong enough for her to turn down chocolate when offered it. She would just call up the picture, and it would work its magic.

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

12/08/2021

STRONG EMOTION AND BELIEF

Our beliefs are formed in many ways throughout our lives. We have been influenced by our caretakers, teachers, religious leaders, peers and have made our own decisions about what we believe in different circumstances.

What we may not realise is that beliefs can be laid down in the presence of strong emotion. For example, we go on a plane and there is severe turbulence such that we are terrified about what may happen. We decide that air travel is to be avoided at all costs. We have a panic attack on the underground and resolve to never use that mode of transport again.

The experience of strong emotion has in effect opened us up. Our usual defences are in abeyance. It has created a narrowed down focus of attention, in effect a hypnotic state, which is perfect for new learnings and, in cases such as described above, the learning that these situations are best avoided in the future.

Logically, we know that air travel is safe and that having a panic attack on the underground doesn’t mean we will have one again. Emotionally however, the perception is different.

The amygdala is the part of the brain that houses emotional learning for the purpose of keeping us safe. This is very necessary of course. There are most certainly situations in which we need to apply caution. If you have an emotional learning such as described above then your amygdala is truly working for you.

However, when the particular fear is hampering us in our lives and the situation is not a threat to our lives, we are better off without that fear. Hypnotherapy can help here. There are a number of tools we can use to eradicate unhelpful fears so that you can engage in that activity without anxiety yet with a suitable level of caution if necessary.

Photo by Marek Piwnicki on Unsplash

03/08/2021

I WON'T EVER GET OVER IT

I’m ashamed to say I have watched very little of the Olympic Games this year whilst keeping abreast of the progress of our teams. As I was looking through the BBC website today, my attention was taken by the headline “GB rider won’t ever get over back-flip crash”.

This was referring to the BMX rider Declan Brooks who at a contest prior to the Olympic Games knocked himself out when performing a particularly tricky manoeuvre. Although he wasn’t badly injured, he experienced some hesitancy about performing the jump again. In the short video interview with him, he says that he realised that he needed to get back to doing that particular jump immediately otherwise he might not attempt it again - the classic “get back on your horse“ approach. This is how he dealt with it.

Sometimes following an unpleasant or frightening event or accident, we are able to “get back on the horse”. Sometimes we are not. Sometimes what happened to us was more than our nervous system was able to deal with at the time or subsequently and we remain on high alert, wanting to avoid a similar event at all costs.

This is of course our nervous system seeking to protect us. What if though that high alert is just stopping us from getting on with our lives or experiencing the life that we want?

Like all hypnotherapists, I have worked with numerous people who were afraid of flying, talking to an audience, mice, spiders and so on. Sometimes the initial cause of the fear is buried in childhood. Sometimes we develop a fear because we witness it in someone else.

Of course, it makes sense to be fearful of certain things such as walking along the edge of a cliff during high winds or walking alone in a park late at night. These activities might pose a threat to our safety. But many fears we hold simply prevent us from fully experiencing life.

These kinds of fears use up an enormous amount of energy. Imagine needing to be vigilant every time you enter a room because a spider might be there. You would be much better off having that energy available to use in a life-enhancing way, not to mention being able to relax more.

The beauty of hypnotherapy is that by using very simple techniques that are very non-threatening, you can be relieved of these unwanted fears very quickly. How would that make your life better?

Here is the interview with Declan Brooks: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/newsbeat-58016999

Photo by Yves Scheuber on Unsplash

02/08/2021

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF A PANIC ATTACK

Very often when someone comes to see me because they have what we call “panic attacks”, I have to explain what is happening physiologically because often, despite having been to their doctor, this has not been explained to them.

Experiencing a panic attack can be very scary. The person does not know what is happening to them and often, they will start to avoid situations where they have had one.

Symptoms might include sweating, shortness of breath, a feeling of unreality and general unease. The desire to leave the situation is usually strong. Eventually, the symptoms subside but the person might then feel fatigue and shakiness and often, fear it might happen again.

Panic attacks are an expression of the fight/flight response, a primitive biological mechanism designed to keep us safe. This is how it goes. You have an experience where you feel you might be in danger. Once you have registered this, the message is sent from your brain to your body to make the chemical changes that will allow you either to stay and fight or run for your life.

Adrenalin is secreted. Your heart beats faster so that it can pump more. Blood is diverted from your inner organs outwards to your limbs, non-essential functions such as digestion and the ability to think, shut down. You breathe more shallowly. Now you are in a physiological state to either run or stay and fight.

That’s all well and good on those rare occasions when you might need to respond to an event in this way. Certainly, our cavemen ancestors would have needed such an ability when faced with a wild animal or being attacked by a neighbouring tribe, for example.

In modern times however, there are few events that happen in most people’s lives that require such a response. What we do have however in modern times are the kinds of lifestyles where we are wound up and often stressed a lot of the time with an inability to completely calm down. This means that the nervous system is over stimulated as a matter of course and further pressure, perhaps something quite innocuous, tips it into full fight or flight mode.

The nervous system has two strands to it and they are designed to work together. One is called the sympathetic nervous system, the other the parasympathetic. The sympathetic is the part of the nervous system that stimulates us into activity. It is also the aspect of the nervous system that is overly stimulated when a panic attack occurs. The parasympathetic strand is also known as the rest and rejuvenate or holiday aspect of the nervous system. Many of us do not have lifestyles that allow this restorative element of the nervous system to work adequately for us.

The task of hypnotherapy is to attend to this. One of the first thing I do when someone comes to see me for panic attacks after I have explained what is happening physiologically, is teach them a breathing technique. Generally, someone who is experiencing panic will breathe high in the chest. This kind of breathing feeds the panic response because as we have seen, it is a necessary component of the fight/flight response. Re-educating the breathing goes a long way to relieving the symptoms.

There are of course other things I do with someone who comes to see me about panic attacks because the fear of having another one can be very much present and needs addressing, as does the ability to access more of the ability to be calmer in all sorts of situations.

Having said that, the knowledge of the physiology of panic attacks coupled with learning to re-educate your breathing can go a long way towards overcoming them completely.

Whilst this programme is not designed to deal with panic attacks, there is more information about the workings of the nervous system in my free download “Relaxation Magic”.

There is no need to suffer with panic attacks. Hypnotherapy can help you resolve them.

photo by Kelly Sikema on Unsplash

28/07/2021

BREAK IT INTO CHUNKS

Some years ago, a young woman came to see me wanting help to reduce her weight. She was very successful in a very short period of time in fact.

At one of the sessions, she mentioned that she was due to go on holiday and had wanted to have lost some weight by then. I told her that a healthy weight loss was around 2lbs per week which meant she could be a half stone lighter by the time of her holiday.

She told me at the next session that this had been a turning point for her. Wanting to lose 3 stone to get to a healthy weight had seemed such a large task, an almost impossible task. Of course, this belief was really holding her back from getting started and committed.

When I said the above to her, not only did the task seem much more manageable, but also indicated that she could expect to notice some real change within a particular time frame.

This kind of chunking down is useful in all sorts of arenas. If you think about it, how often do you procrastinate in starting a particular project, task or undertaking because in your mind it all seems rather large? How often do you stall midway through because it still seems as if you have a long way to go?

Breaking things down into chunks and then completing them can give a real sense of achievement. This can then spur you on to the next chunk and ultimate completion.

So how about exercise? Are you exercising? Does getting that slim, toned, healthy body seem a long way off? Start small. If you’re not doing any exercise at all, start with a minute a day and see what happens.

Want to write? Start with 5 minutes, do it every day and see what happens.
Break It Into Chunks

Some years ago, a young woman came to see me wanting help to reduce her weight. She was very successful in a very short period of time in fact.

At one of the sessions, she mentioned that she was due to go on holiday and had wanted to have lost some weight by then. I told her that a healthy weight loss was around 2lbs per week which meant she could be a half stone lighter by the time of her holiday.

She told me at the next session that this had been a turning point for her. Wanting to lose 3 stone to get to a healthy weight had seemed such a large task, an almost impossible task. Of course, this belief was really holding her back from getting started and committed.

When I said the above to her, not only did the task seem much more manageable, but also indicated that she could expect to notice some real change within a particular time frame.

This kind of chunking down is useful in all sorts of arenas. If you think about it, how often do you procrastinate in starting a particular project, task or undertaking because in your mind it all seems rather large? How often do you stall midway through because it still seems as if you have a long way to go?

Breaking things down into chunks and then completing them can give a real sense of achievement. This can then spur you on to the next chunk and ultimate completion.

So how about exercise? Are you exercising? Does getting that slim, toned, healthy body seem a long way off? Start small. If you’re not doing any exercise at all, start with a minute a day and see what happens.

Want to write? Start with 5 minutes, do it every day and see what happens.

Photo by Hunter Gascon on Unsplash

26/07/2021

IS YOUR PHONE MAKING YOU STRESSED?

Recently, I was watching a talk by an American expert on stress called Brian Luke Seaward during which he talked a great deal about the effect of the use of technology and in particular smartphones, on our levels of stress.

Initially, this might seem counter-intuitive. Surely carrying a phone would have the opposite effect given that it ensures we have the ability to quickly contact emergency services for example, can get in touch with the friend we are meeting if we are delayed/lost, find out what time the last train is and so on.

Of course, the ease with which we can communicate and find information is the upside of having such an item. Very few of us however only use our phones in such circumstances. Take a trip on any mode of public transport and you will see most people with their heads buried in their phones checking texts, replying to texts, surfing the internet.

According to studies however, being ‘on’ all the time means that you are always in a state of arousal which is accompanied by chemical reactions in the body that move it out of homeostasis and into stress mode. It has also been found that every time a phone ’pings’, you experience a release of the neurotransmitter dopamine which is highly associated with chemical addiction. Studies have also found that when you have your phone in your immediate vicinity even if it is switched off, your attention will be divided.

There is no doubt that phones and of course computers can be addictive if we use them to excess. Not only do we experience the chemical reactions described above, but the small screen means that we have a narrowed-down focus of attention which in itself leads to a hypnotic-like state making it difficult to tear ourselves away.

The truth is that our physiology is not well suited to constant arousal. We are in fact wired to take regular breaks. One of the functions of this is to allow the brain to assimilate the activity of the previous period of time.

In addition, the blue light from a phone or computer screen interferes with the circadian rhythm, the daily sleep/wake cycle. It affects the pineal gland and reduces the secretion of melatonin necessary to sleep easily. Before the advent of electric light, our ancestors would have experienced dimming light as the evening wore on facilitating sleep. In fact if you have trouble sleeping, one of the recommendations is to mimic this by dimming the lights in your home as the evening wears on.

So what might some recommendations be for healthier use of your phone?

Keep it off your desk and out of sight to prevent its distracting effects.

Schedule distraction-free time - relaxation - throughout the day.

Switch it off (and indeed all screens) as early as possible in the evening.

This might seem impossible from where you are now. My suggestion is to try it as an experiment. Today I was talking with someone who for a period of time stopped reading or listening to the news. He stated that he felt so much better for it, in particular more relaxed.

My suggestion would be to try it for 30 days - long enough to assess the impact and yet not so long that it feels a huge barrier from the beginning. If you have difficulty doing this and you feel your use of technology is negatively affecting your well-being, hypnotherapy could really help.

Catherine Chadwick Hypnotherapy

31/03/2022

09/03/2022

02/03/2022

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04/01/2022

15/09/2021

13/08/2021

12/08/2021

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