Managing stress
Julian's story - stress turnaround
Julian owned his own woodcraft business. He had always loved working with wood and had initially operated from his father’s farm in the countryside. Unfortunately, the farm had to be sold as his parents retired to Spain and for business reasons Julian decided to take a studio in town. The studios were part of a government complex for craft-type businesses.
The first difficulty Julian had was that he didn’t have the same control as working from his family home. He was restricted on the hours he could work and this did not suit his body clock as he was used to working when he felt inspired. He also stopped cooking for himself because his new flat was a drive away from his work studio and he found it easier to snack on burgers and pizza. Whilst he got more work, his deadlines increased and he was feeling unfulfilled and torn between being an artist and a business person. He got in touch with a free business support group and found it helpful but often he did not have time to attend meetings. He was not sleeping, felt very depressed and decided to seek hypnotherapy.
What we did
First we discussed the fact that he was forcing himself into a framework of working and living with which he was unhappy.
The stress was affecting him physically and mentally, so we looked at ways he could improve his immediate circumstances by choosing healthier eating alternatives, taking supplements and getting some physical exercise by joining a running club because he enjoyed running.
We did hypnosis to see if there was any underlying reason for his stress in relation to his chosen career and lifestyle. There had been a conflict between himself and his father about his career. His father was a successful businessman and Julian had not wanted to follow him into the family business; his father had said that he would not support Julian if his woodcraft business was unsuccessful. Under hypnosis Julian discovered that he had taken this statement to mean that his father had no belief in him and expected him to fail. He realised that he had always felt his father’s disapproving attitude since he was small and this had been at the root of his depression. We worked together to resolve the problem.
Result
Julian was able to improve his lifestyle; he gained a new outlook and actually began to enjoy living in town, especially as his social and business life began to blossom as did his confidence.
Naomi’s story - stress at workplace
Naomi had worked at her current firm for nearly two years and the company was going through a rough patch and there were fears of redundancy. As a secretary she had found it difficult to cope with her boss’s reactions to stress. Confidence had never been her strong point but lately she found herself at a very low point. Secondly, there was friction between her office co-workers because she worked for the boss and they resented her.
Naomi was struggling with very low self-esteem and lack of confidence which was made worse by the stressful situation she was in at work, day after day. She began overeating to compensate and that was making her more miserable. She decided to seek help with hypnotherapy.
First session
We talked about stress and what it does, deciding that we had a choice to take control and do something about it, which Naomi had wisely done in seeking help.
Then we discussed energy fields and looked at ways she could turn things around using mind and energy techniques.
We did light hypnosis to help Naomi relax and feel better about her whole situation. She took away a copy of my CD Unleash Your True Potential, which deals with the whole area of self-esteem and moving forwards in life; it also helps with preparing for hypnotherapy.
Second session
We looked at language patterns and how she could choose her words to gain more control.
We did some role play including body language styles to demonstrate how effective this tool can be.
In our hypnosis session we did some work using Time-Line therapy and were led to a situation when Naomi was at school and was humiliated by someone in authority and this was resolved.
Third session
We were able to go deeper with hypnosis and discover some of the roots of why she felt a general lack of confidence. This time Naomi went back to a very early stage in her development when she felt unwanted because of stresses at home. When we had worked on it together she had a profound healing experience.
Afterwards
Naomi continued to utilise the techniques we had worked on in the sessions and also listening to the CD. She came back six weeks later and had a new job on the horizon and was feeling much improved.
Are you under a lot of pressure? Do you feel stressed?
