Hypnotherapy to resolve Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and find Peace

When a dangerous or potentially life threatening situation occurs our mind goes into a kind of ‘instant record’ function. This can also occur in circumstances with a high emotional arousal such as the death of a loved one or witnessing a tragic event.

Latest scientific research shows us that when this ‘instant record’ is happening, we are completely absorbing the information (the sounds, feelings, sight, smell, & taste) in our short term memory banks, called the Hippocampus).

In evolutionary terms, it makes sense to have the information stored here because it may be something very pertinent to our survival that we need to have a fast and accessible recall to ensure that we can quickly react if a similar situation was to occur.
This is also why it can seem like the event happened just yesterday, or even that it seems to playback in real time as if it were happening now.

The short term memory bank (Hippocampus), are situated very close to the brains primal survival centre (the Amygdala), and if a situation has a similar scenario to the initial one, it fires off the panic response which is commonly know as fight or flight.

An example of this can be a soldier experiencing terror when a firework goes off due to the fact that shells and gun shot sounds were imprinted in the ‘instant record’ mode.

Symptoms of PTSD include:

Flashbacks (feeling like the event is happening again)
Nightmares (can be of the event or other fearful things)
Severe distress if reminded of the trauma
Intrusive memories of the event
Difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep
Hypervigilance (being on constant “red alert”)
Finding yourself easily startled and jumpy
Perhaps using Substances as a form of self medication
Difficulty concentrating
Outbursts of anger
Irritability

Physical Symptoms can be:

Headaches
Stomach problems
Chest pain
Pounding heart
Rapid breathing
Muscle tension
Nausea
Sweating

And emotional symptoms are:

Anxiety
Anger and irritability
Guilt and shame,
Self-blame
Depression
Feeling of hopelessness
Suicidal thoughts
Feeling alienated and alone
A sense of mistrust or betrayal

You can see that the symptoms are quite wide-ranging and diverse, which sometimes leads to the issue not being properly diagnosed.

If you have experienced a traumatic event and have suffered from a number of the symptoms above it is possible that you may have PTSD.

The fortunate thing is that PTSD can be potentially transformed simply, quickly and easily using Hypnosis. The number of sessions required will depend on whether it was one traumatic event or a series over a period of time, and also whether the symptoms have started to penetrate over the course of ones life.

So why is Hypnotherapy so good at dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?

Due to the fact that the ‘instant record’ mode is a kind of trance state, it makes sense to use a trance to help the mind reprocess the situation or event from the short term memory banks (Hippocampus) to the more evolved part of the brain (the Neo-cortex), where we are able to reflect and analyse the situation in a more detached and dissociated way, thus being able to put it back into the past where it belongs.

The memory may still be an uncomfortable one, but will no longer produce the kind of fear, terror and symptoms that it used to.

If you look at the symptoms you may also notice that Hypnosis excellent at dealing with those kinds of things too, which can further explore on my website if you wish.

So if you have been suffering from the aforementioned symptoms and you are ready to be free of those now, then give me a call on 07949 989986 to book a consultation.

“Kim has helped put the difficulties of my past behind me which had burdened me... and give me confidence and optimism for the future.”

“If you go to Kim you'll be surprised at what can be achieved. I would recommend him to anyone."

Jeff, Lancing (31/05/09)

"I went to see Kim to overcome anxiety in work and social situations... now I just relax, accept it and I can't even remember at what point it goes away! Thank you Kim!"

Anon, Brighton

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