With this in mind, I have now started up an “Open Clinic” on the last Friday of each month in Manchester city centre. This will give the public the opportunity to hear more about hypnotherapy, have questions answered, and experience a short relaxation session. The Open Clinic groups are limited to a maximum of five people at a time but if you are uncomfortable with group environments or wish to discuss a personal problem, then individual sessions can be accommodated.

If the Manchester Open Clinic proves popular then this service will also be offered in Sheffield in the near future.

For further information on the open clinics, or on hypnotherapy in Manchester, Glossop and Sheffield, please click here.

Chris Boyce of the University of Warwick and Alex Wood of the University of Manchester compared large data sets where 1000s of people had reported on their well-being. They then looked at how well-being changed due to therapy compared to getting sudden increases in income, such as through lottery wins or pay rises. They found that a 4 month course of psychological therapy had a large effect on well-being. They then showed that the increase in well-being from an £800 course of therapy was so large that it would take a pay rise of over £25,000 to achieve an equivalent increase in well-being. The research therefore demonstrates that psychological therapy could be 32 times more cost effective at making you happy than simply obtaining more money.

Governments pursue economic growth in the belief that it will raise the well-being of its citizens. However, the research suggests that more money only leads to tiny increases in happiness and is an inefficient way to increase the happiness of a population. This research suggests that if policy makers were concerned about improving well-being they would be better off increasing the access and availability of mental health care as opposed to increasing economic growth.

The new research paper, entitled “Money or Mental Health: The Cost of Alleviating Psychological Distress with Monetary Compensation versus Psychological Therapy” is published online this week at: Health Economics, Policy and Law

This research helps to highlight how relatively ineffective extra income is at raising well-being. The researchers further draw on two striking pieces of independent evidence to illustrate their point – over the last 50 years developed countries have not seen any increases to national happiness in spite of huge economic gains. Mental health on the other hand appears to be deteriorating worldwide. The researchers argue that resources should be directed towards the things that have the best chance of improving the health and happiness of our nations – investment in mental health care by increasing the access and availability of psychological therapy could be a more effective way of improving national well-being than the pursuit of income growth.

The research also has important implications for the way in which “pain and suffering” is compensated in courts of law. Currently the default way in which individuals are compensated is with financial compensation. The research suggests that this is an inefficient way at repairing psychological harm following traumatic life events and that a more effective remedy would be to offer psychological therapy.

University of Warwick researcher Chris Boyce said:

“We have shown that psychological therapy could be much more cost effective than financial compensation at alleviating psychological distress. This is not only important in courts of law, where huge financial awards are the default way in which pain and suffering are compensated, but has wider implications for public health and well-being.”

“Often the importance of money for improving our well-being and bringing greater happiness is vastly over-valued in our societies. The benefits of having good mental health, on the other hand, are often not fully appreciated and people do not realise the powerful effect that psychological therapy, such as non-directive counselling, can have on improving our well-being.”

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/therapy_32_times

Just a quick post to wish clients past and present a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Oke Hypnotherapy is only closed over the statutory holidays this year due to an unusually busy Christmas period. However, reception cover on the main Oke Hypnotherapy and Life Coaching telephone number is closed from 2pm on 24th December until 4th January. I will be picking up messages remotely though and can be contacted on 07736 413174 as well.

The New Year is already shaping up to be a busy 2010, in particular with those wishing to join the Gastric Band Weight Loss scheme.

The bad news, is that due to increased overheads, hypnotherapy treatment and life coaching prices will be increasing in the New Year. However, for those who book January sessions before the end of December, 2009 prices will be guaranteed for the full course of sessions.

There are a few 2010 events and workshops already organised, in particular the New Year Resolutions workshop on 9th January will help people gain results at no cost! For further details on hypnotherapy and self-improvement workshops and events, please see the events category of this blog.

Also launching in 2010 is my new weight loss programme “Healthy Mind – Healthy Body” which makes hypnotherapy and NLP for weight loss fun and affordable.

Merry Christmas everyone!

The programme utilises Hypnotherapy, NLP, EFT and Lifestyle Coaching techniques. There are no weigh-ins, no awful weight loss diet plans and, because of the mind therapy techniques used, the effects are long-lasting and in most cases, permanent! Unlike certain slimming clubs and diet plans where a lot of people might lose weight to begin with but it soon returns when they go back to their normal eating habits.

The programme is also a lot more cost-effective than one-on-one therapy (although that is also available for those who prefer it). In just six weeks, you could change the way you eat (and exercise) forever!

The next group is starting on 10th January 2010. The sessions are held at Forsyth Business Centre at The Triangle in Manchester City Centre. There are plans to also run this programme in Sheffield, Glossop and later, Liverpool.

For further information please visit www.healthymind-healthybody.co.uk

As well as treating several more Borderline Personality Disorder cases with hypnotherapy, both with local clients and those who have travelled a long distance, I have spoken to many other people who have been diagnosed with BPD who are either overseas or who are unable to travel the distance to my hypnotherapy clinics in Manchester, Glossop and Sheffield.

I am currently in the process of moving my Manchester premises to the business center above the Triangle shopping centre. This means that I have more flexible premises and meeting rooms for group therapy more readily available. With this in mind, as well as the number of people who have been unable to afford to travel the distance and see the therapy process through, I have now produced an intensive group therapy programme for Borderline Personality Disorder. Operating this on a group therapy basis means that I can lower the cost per person substantially and make the travelling costs more worthwhile/lower by offering this scheme on an intensive basis.

The new programme is designed as an interactive 6 day course of treatment utilising techniques from hypnotherapy, NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Coaching and EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique). Although it is very difficult for me to free up six consecutive days for this programme, it is possible at certain times of the year (Early January, August and October being the easiest).

If you are interested in this programme, please contact me. The intention is to start this programme in January 2010. Obviously, this is dependant on the number of people wishing to attend, the groups need to be small enough to be workable but large enough for me to be able to offer the substantial saving on the treatment cost.

In my experience, clients diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder require ten to twelve sessions at £65.00 per session (2009 prices). In other words, this costs between £650 and £780. The programme is designed to make this more affordable, particularly for those travelling a distance. Depending on the level of interest in the programme, I am estimating the cost to be between £325 and £450. In other words, for those travelling a distance, your hotel costs should be offset by attending the programme rather than attending one on one sessions.

This talk/workshop is on the power of the mind to affect the world around us. This is similar to the very current Law of Attraction and The Secret but is far more grounded than many explanations of these. These practices have been around since the late 19th Century and are not in fact new at all!

This talk will help you to attract success in any, or all, areas of your life. The techniques are tried and tested, and this is a talk that I have delivered at several conferences and meetings around the country over the past few years. You will learn how to utilise techniques that have been around for over one hundred years, combined with my own updates and techniques. This will be far more balanced than many similar workshops, you can’t expect the Universe to do it all for you!

If you wish to attend this event then please email gary@okehypnotherapy.co.uk or join (free) Manchester Hypnotherapy and Self-Improvement Meetup.

This workshop will be held on Saturday 9th January in central Manchester and starts at 2pm promptly.

Although many of you will have already started on your New Year’s Resolutions by 9th January, this workshop is designed to help motivate you to keep to your resolutions (in research, only a minority of us manage to do this!). The workshop will utilise techniques from hypnotherapy, NLP and visualisation skills, as well as giving people the opportunity to network and help each other. Therefore, it is an interactive workshop, not just someone talking constantly!

For further information, or to book a place on this workshop, please email gary@okehypnotherapy.co.uk or join Manchester Hypnotherapy and Self-Improvement Meetup Group.

Don’t forget to check back to this blog as these events will be monthly throughout 2010.

The Oke Hypnotherapy Manchester practice is moving!

If all goes to plan, then from 30th November Oke Hypnotherapy will be moving from Oldham Street in the Northern Quarter of Manchester to one of the city’s landmark buildings, The Triangle on Exchange Square.

I’m really excited about this move, it means that I have more flexibility especially for hypnotherapy training in Manchester and the regular seminars and workshops that I run, due to having fantastic meeting and training rooms on site, as well as being in a more prestigious part of the city.

The way the move has been planned, this should not affect my availability as the management at The Triangle have been very flexible. The transport links to the new location are fantastic, the metrolink and main bus station are only a few minutes away, Victoria train station is practically across the street and there are three car parks close by (two of which are only £3 to park all day!).

Having been based in the same building for several years, in fact since it was first redeveloped, this feels like a really big move but I’m looking forward to a new era in the Oke Hypnotherapy and Life Coaching practice and am confident that clients will prefer the new location.

New Oke Hypnotherapy Location

The erectile dysfunction case that I’m going to describe here is a fairly typical one. The client had three sessions, which is about average for me. He also had no physical reasons for the dysfunction.

This particular client found that he could gain an erection during foreplay but would be unable to maintain it long enough for intercourse. The problem started in his early 20’s, he was 30 years old when I treated him.

As with most people in this situation (including women with vaginismus), the problem had become progressively worse with time. As well as the embarrassment that most non-sufferers would imagine, he also felt that he let his partners down, wasted their time, worried they might think he didn’t find them attractive, worried about living up to their expectations.

He had some success using Viagra and often found that once he had intercourse successfully in a relationship, the problem would lessen but the anxiety and worries of it happening again would always be there. When he booked in at my Manchester hypnotherapy clinic, he had recently started a new relationship and was concerned this would become physical soon.

The first hypnotherapy session was aimed at combatting the problem from two angles. First of all, leaving the client with a post-hypnotic anchor that could be triggered consciously to reduce the anxiety. Secondly, to start work on the subconscious part of the problem, again predominantly regarding the anxiety.

At the second session, the client reported improvements in the anxiety and that he had oral sex with his partner but then the old nagging feeling kicked in but by then it was so late at night they were both tired anyway so she was not aware of the problem. The client also opened up more about the earliest instances of the problem. The hypnotherapy techniques used in this session were a combination of self-esteem techniques, along with age regression back to the earliest negative sexual experiences. His girlfriend was due to stay with him the following weekend and we agreed that he would contact me on the Monday.

This time the client reported that the old anxiety had disappeared completely. Without Viagra, he had intercourse twice per night over the weekend and said that it felt “completely natural” and that it no longer felt like a hurdle that he had to overcome in the realationship.

My client, did however, decide to have a third session “just to make sure the changes remain permanent”. This hypnosis session was designed not only to do this but also to boost his confidence that the change had been made and was permanent.

As with most of my case studies, I don’t post them up until at least twelve months after the client was treated. I don’t class the treatment of any problem or condition as having been successful until the client has been free of the problem for at least a year.

If you are reading this and have the same, or a similar, sexual problem then please be aware that drugs are not always necessary to solve it. Any suitably qualified, experienced and reputable hypnotherapist should be capable of achieving these results. There are also other complementary therapies that can help and of course, the information doesn’t end up on your medical record.