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Hypnosis is a very effective
and versatile tool for treating depression problems. Clinical
depression is one of most prevalent mental health problems today. If you
are clinically depressed, you need help. Living with clinical depression
is a daily struggle. Life is too short to be depressed.
Symptoms of clinical
depression include some or all of the following:
Low mood, feelings of hopelessness and helplessness, self-deprecation,
depleted self-confidence and self-esteem, feeling useless, loss of energy
and motivation, and feeling disconnected.
Excessive sleepiness and/or an
inability to rest, boredom, inability to stay focused and concentrate,
memory loss, pessimistic and morbid thoughts, mental perseveration, loss
of the desire to socialize, inability to experience simple pleasures in
living, and suicidal thoughts.
Appetite changes, weight loss or
weight gain, difficulties getting out of bed in the morning, dreading the
day, looking forward for the day to end, anxiety, agitation, fears,
shakiness, mental slowing and dullness, slowed reaction time, and total
inefficiency.
Living with depression is
very painful. Clinical depression is both a medical illness as well as
a problem in living. As such, clinical depression needs to be evaluated
and treated both medically as well as psychologically—both components are
necessary.
Medical treatment of clinical
depression largely involves the prescription of anti-depressant
medications. These drugs can ameliorate the biological/physical and mood
symptoms of depression, but they do not treat the underlying psychological
factors and negative fixed ideas that need to be addressed.
The psychological treatment
of depression involves supportive psychotherapy and psychological
counseling aimed at changing the cognitive, behavioral and mood
symptoms of the condition.
If you are currently suffering
from depression, and you are seeking Psychological Treatment for your
condition, you will need:
1. To be
helped to identify your negative, self-defeating thinking patterns
and to replace them with healthier ways of thinking.
2. To be coached to engage in activities to keep yourself
occupied and to distract yourself from your morbid thoughts.
3. To be helped to interrupt your morbid thinking habits.
4. To be helped to pursue mood lifting activities.
When people are
clinically depressed, they do not think clearly. They hold a
pessimistic view of the future, unrealistic expectations, and are
unusually harsh and overly critical of themselves.
If this is true for
you, you probably tend to judge things in stark all or nothing
terms. When you are depressed, you tend to key in on the negative
aspects of situations, seeing the proverbial glass as half empty as
opposed to half full. It feels as if there is no future. This is NOT
the truth, but it does FEEL this way.
The fact is that the
longer you remain depressed, the more your negative expectations can
become a self-fulfilling prophecy. This is because depression
breeds inactivity and mental perseveration which, in turn, breed
further depression in a vicious downward spiral. Then, the contents
of your thinking become more and more pernicious. Your negative
automatic thoughts and private self-talk perpetuate your negative
feelings and predicament.
This process needs to
be interrupted.
In a sense, when you
are depressed, you fall into a state of Negative Self Hypnosis.
Negative self-suggestions repeated over and over again become
imprinted in your subconscious mind. Negative thinking becomes a
habit that must be changed in order for you to recover from your
depression. This is where clinical hypnosis can be very helpful.
If you are
clinically depressed, you feel trapped and devoid of choices.
You are in fact trapped in a mental prison by your negative
thinking, pessimistic expectations, and perseveration on morbid
themes.
Hypnosis can offer a
positive way out of this predicament. Through the use of
hypnotic techniques and language, the doorway to your subconscious
can be opened with your permission and cooperation, and then,
information can be introduced hypnotically through hypnotic
suggestion to:
1. Change
your negative self-suggestions.
2. Reduce your feelings of guilt and self-blame.
3. Help you to begin making positive choices again.
4. Shift your perspectives on your negative
experiences.
If you are
clinically depressed, Therapeutic Hypnosis can help you begin to
move in a positive direction and take steps towards healthier
behavioral functioning and mood lifting and mood shifting
activities. Hypnosis can help you learn more adaptive behavioral and
psychological coping skills.
In hypnosis, you are
guided to mentally rehearse the process of countering and refuting
your negative, pessimistic thoughts. The tool of hypnosis makes
the rehearsal of these cognitive coping skills easier, quicker and
more effective. The coping skills become imprinted directly into
your subconscious mind. Through the use of hypnotic imagery and
post-hypnotic suggestion, you can learn to psychologically inoculate
yourself against the adversity of difficult daily living situations
that depress you.
Hypnosis is also employed to uncover and re-process past experiences
and memories that have sensitized you to continued depressive
reactions in the present.
When you come to see
me for Hypnosis Treatment, you will also be taught the use of Self
Hypnosis and Deep Relaxation skills. All of the resources of
your mind and body are in balance during deep relaxation. There is
no wasted energy on anger, pain or discomfort. All of that energy
becomes available for positive healing, growth and change.
Recognizing how
comfortable you feel in self hypnosis allows you to also recognize
that you can, in fact, feel comfortable. This means that you are
no longer trapped in discomfort. Once you learn how to get very
relaxed and enter the neutral healing place of self hypnosis, you
can begin to move beyond the discomfort into a more positive state.
Positive comfortable feelings while being relaxed during hypnosis
eventually generalize through the use of post-hypnotic suggestions
and through repeated practice into when you are not in hypnosis.
The memory of this
comfort can imprint itself in your subconscious mind and become
available to you when you are awake, and while sleeping. It is
strengthened and reinforced every time you do your own self
hypnosis.
I co-authored the book,
Brief Cognitive Hypnosis: Facilitating the Change of Dysfunctional
Behavior. In my clinical hypnosis practice, I use Brief
Cognitive Hypnosis to help people manage anxiety, overcome
depression, and change unwanted habits. Brief Cognitive Hypnosis
provides an effective way of simplifying and shortening the
diagnostic and treatment process using both hypnosis and
cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques. My experience has been that
most people begin to feel better after several sessions of Brief
Cognitive Hypnosis.
You
can change your hurtful habits and overcome your depression with the
help of Hypnosis and a qualified therapist. So, get help, get well
and improve the quality of your life. Life is just much too short to
be depressed. Call me at: 215-947-7867 (947-STOP), or
email me.
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