Hypnotherapy for PTSD
To take advantage of EMDR (Eye Movement Desesitisation and Reprocessing) and Hypnotherapy for PTSD in Yorkshire, call Martin Lancaster PDHyp BSCH
20% Discount for Armed Forces Personnel.
What is PTSD?
What is PTSD?
A trauma can be described as a sudden and unexpected threat to the physical body that results in a shift in mental processing. It is seen as an adaptive response that protects the person by distancing them from pain or fear. In some cases, this shift may also disturb the normal processing by “dissociating” the memories so effectively that they remain out of conscious awareness.
Responses to trauma can be expressed in two ways; Acute Stress Reactions, or PTSD
Acute Stress Reactions are usually immediate and brief and may last for a few hours or up to four weeks.
Coping strategies form part of the Acute Stress Reaction and can include;
- Avoidance; the most frequent, the person will avoid talking or thinking about the event, and may not confront any reminders of the event.
- Denial; amnesia of the event, as if it never happened.
These strategies normally recede as the symptoms such as anxiety and depression are processed and integrated by the brain naturally, by thinking and talking the event through, dreaming about it and expressing emotions.
Unfortunately, these coping strategies can sometimes be maintained for too long, and become maladapted, preventing the memory of the event from being properly integrated, developing into PTSD
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can be characterised as an intense, prolonged or delayed abnormal response to stressful and traumatic situations.
Mostly experienced as the result of natural or man-made disasters such as war, attrocities, accidents, rape, assault, earthquakes, floods etc. it can sometimes be present in persons suffering from any type of psychological stress, such as bullying, emotional abuse, or the sudden death of someone close.
PTSD can occur at any age, either sex, and the nature and duration of symptoms can varie, with most cases resolved in a few months. However, some cases may persist for many years.
The most common symptoms are; anxiety, irritability, insomnia, intrusive imagery (flashbacks), reccuring distressing dreams, avoidance of recalling the event(s), avoiding reminders, inability to feel emotion, detachment, depression, derealisation.
How can Hypnotherapy for PTSD help?
How can Hypnotherapy help with PTSD?
The main principle is to allow the person to access the traumatic memories in a controlled and comfortable manner, in order to begin the process of resolving the issue.
This is normally a gradual process that the patient feels comfortable with, and they are in control at all times. The memories can be accessed in small bites, as it were, working gradually through aspects of the trauma.
The therapy, using Hypnotherapy and Eye Movement Desensitisation and Re-Processing, can help the person to acknowledge the reality of the experience, put it into a perspective that makes it less damaging and intrusive, and redefine their concept of themselves.