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"I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become"
- Carl Jung
Psychotherapy
Put simply, psychotherapy is the use of psychological methods, particularly when based on regular personal interaction, to help a person change behaviour, increase happiness, and overcome problems. Psychotherapy provides awareness of how the brain processes and filters information and how a client’s unique thinking style can contribute to blocks. This is an important element of treatment, enabling the client to both observe the experience and be a participant.
At Minds of Distinction, we use a combination of psychotherapy techniques. These include Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Neural Linguistic Programming (NLP) and hypnosis.
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Treatment is non-invasive. It largely involves working through memories and thought processes in the mind, while being verbally guided through steps that challenge the brain. The process is unintrusive and tailored, allowing clients to keep their thoughts private. The sharing of their experience during treatment is what helps us understand if a shift in perspective has occurred.
While the first session generally unlocks many blocks, it typically takes between five and six sessions to create a lasting shift and ensure all problem areas have been resolved.
Strategic Coaching
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Many people reach a stage in life when they realise auto pilot has been left running too long.
The juggle of life has caught up with them, and they have the realisation, that perhaps their life is no longer one of their choosing.
Chronic Stress could be a feature of their day to day existence and they have become so used to just getting on with things, that they haven't made necessary adjustments along the way to ensure they are continuing to thrive and be their best, be it at work, in their relationships or life in general. , This is the ultimate process to delve into what makes you tick and reframe it into what makes you succeed. Tailored to you over a 6-12 week period.
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Our Techniques
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Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
CBT is founded on the theory that the way individuals perceive a situation is more closely connected to their reaction than the situation itself. These techniques are based on initiating behavioural changes that address problem thinking. Common tools used include: Unravelling cognitive distortions and challenging them through absurdity. Cognitive restructuring by taking a faulty thought pattern and reframing it. Journaling to encourage self-reflection and self-identification of thought patterns. CBT helps us to understand the problem and the cognitive distortions which to allow the issues to exist – so we can disrupt them with a more useful pattern of thinking.
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Neural Linguistic Programming (NLP)
Not as scary as it sounds, NLP uses perceptual, behavioural and communication techniques to make it easier for people to change their thoughts and actions. NLP was developed by Richard Bandler and John Grinder who believed it was possible to identify the patterns of thoughts and behaviours of successful individuals and teach them to others. These techniques feature heavily in our Strategic Coaching model. They work in conjunction with Psychotherapy to detect and modify unconscious limitations in thinking to help clients move beyond their current state to one that they desire. This treatment is further enhanced with the use of hypnosis.
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Hypnosis
A process similar to a guided meditation (but strategic) and a favourite among clients, hypnosis creates a deeply focused and relaxed state. This quiets the noise in the rational mind (pre-frontal cortex) so that the subconscious (limbic brain) can be reached to reframe old thinking patterns. In this state, therapeutic suggestions can have a significant effect on attitudes, perceptions, and behaviours. As a result, the client can more readily incorporate learnings from their session and offer the brain alternative perspectives to address challenges. Incredibly, studies show that hypnosis combined with CBT can amplify the therapeutic efficacy by up to 90% - which is why we often use the two treatments together.
Treatment Areas
​Stress & Anxiety
While stress is a natural phenomenon and it helps many people be motivated and succeed, when it starts to get out of balance, the short and long term health effects can be damaging. Underlying anxiety can manifest itself in many different symptoms and like stress, can have a severely damaging effect on those who suffer from it. The causes of anxiety and stress are familiar to most and include financial problems, unsatisfactory or unpleasant employment, interpersonal and relationship problems or a stressful family situation. Clearly some problems that cause stress and anxiety cannot themselves be alleviated with therapy, such as financial problems, or the ill-health of a loved one, but the degree to which you experience these responses can be improved greatly. Many people do not realise that there is a choice in how we respond to difficult situations. Many of us are programmed to hit the panic button without realising that perhaps taking a deep breath and assessing the situation from a calmer objective frame of mind, will allow for greater clarity of thought and therefore a more appropriate reaction to whatever situation presents. Developing the ability to optimise your response to life’s uncertainties and difficult experiences can be the key to managing stress and anxiety, and therefore the quality of your life. We work with you to help bring awareness to how you are responding to situations that induce a stress and anxious response, and then work with you to interrupt that response using CBT, NLP and Hypnosis. Contact us today to understand how we can help you to manage your stress and anxiety, and improve your quality of life.
Self Esteem
Do you ever feel that you are not good enough, that people are judging you, have fear of failure and find yourself avoiding life rather than embracing it?  Unfortunately, many people running these patterns of thoughts don’t realise that they are just that, a pattern of thought in the subconscious and do not actually reflect reality. Hypnotherapy is uniquely suited to working with the content of the subconscious, and interrupting thought patterns that are not serving you. During the deep relaxation of hypnosis, the subconscious is more receptive to updating your views of yourself using words, your own resources and metaphor.  This experience allows for the interruption of cognitive distortions and negative input, enabling you to challenge old, negative views, and starting to perceive yourself accurately and positively in more areas of your life. It’s time to get out of your head and living your best life.  Contact us today to see how we can help.
Behaviour & Habit Change
Habits are simply responses that form when our subconscious mind gets into a pattern of helping us to self-soothe when life gets uncomfortable. While these responses help to numb the uncomfortable feeling in the short term, the problem is, we haven’t performed any actions that will proactively address the issue that is making us feel uncomfortable in the first place. So, while we may have short term relief from discomfort, it will pass, and then we are left feeling no better. Before we know it, a pattern is being created, because our mind is looking to be relieved. The longer the problem state exists, the more tempted we will be to continue with self-soothing ourselves with the numbing forming habit. Some people get to the point where they have a serious enough habit that they recognise a desire to want to change the habit. Whilst this can be challenging if you have been repeating the habit in response to a negative feeling for a while, it is absolutely possible to change the habit. To address problem habits, we use several techniques to really challenge the validity of the thought patterns that are maintain the habit and create actions to assist in genuinely soothing the problem space. If you would like to create lasting change to a habit that you have picked up along the way that you no longer want, touch base with us today.
Women's Health
The evidence is mounting that stress and anxiety can have a significant impact on how well our bodies function. For women, this can be evident when it comes to trying to fall pregnant, and then further down the track, how severe their experience of menopause can be. Fertility issues Often by the time many women are ready to think about having children, they have lived a very full life, often accompanied by the stress and anxiety of a very full on career. Research has shown that stress, anxiety and depression can all contribute to fertility issues. Stress and anxiety release the hormones adrenaline and cortisol from the brain into the body. Too much can make it more difficult to conceive because they affect the part of your brain that controls other hormones. And it’s not just the female’s hormones. Studies suggest that high levels of stress can reduce testosterone levels and semen quality which can have negative implications for male fertility. Hypnotherapy can help with fertility issues by helping both women and men feel calmer, relaxed and more in control, and giving them strategies for managing stress and anxiety. When we are relaxed, the brain produces endorphins which helps restore hormone balance, regulate the nervous system and promote a healthy immune system. In Strategic Hypnotherapy, we look to identify conscious and unconscious issues that may impact our pathway to conception, tackling issues like negative self-talk, excessive worrying and helping our clients find ways in which to overcome limiting beliefs about themselves and about becoming pregnant. IVF IVF can be an emotional rollercoaster, compounded by the ongoing ambiguity and physical discomfort. When you are anxious and worried, your subconscious mind is likely to try to protect you by going into the fight-flight stress response. Leading up to IVF and during IVF, hypnotherapy can be a powerful way of interrupting the stress response in the subconscious so that rather than fighting the process, the mind will support the body and everything that is required of it during the IVF cycle. Our psychotherapy and hypnosis techniques help you to better manage your stress response to the process, allowing your body and mind to be more relaxed and better supported by the subconscious mind. A study conducted by Professor Eliahy Lievtas in 2006 at the Academic Fertility and IVF Unit in Beer-Sheva Israel found that those couples who used hypnosis during their IVF cycles doubled the success of the clinical pregnancies from 14% of those without hypnosis to 28% of those with hypnosis. (Link to study……https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16566936/) Menopause Menopause is a normal event, but around 25% of women have symptoms such as hot flushes, night sweats, weight gain, mood swings, disturbed sleep, lack of libido, heavy menstrual periods that can impact their quality of life. For many women, these symptoms will be accompanied by stress and anxiety as they start to feel less in control of their bodies. Utilising CBT and Hypnosis, Strategic Psychotherapy can be an effective tool to assist in the management of symptoms and associated anxiety.
Chronic Pain
Modern pain research shows that psychological and emotional elements can play a major role in chronic pain conditions like migraines, back pain and Irritable Bowl Syndrome. The non-pshysical components can help the brain "learn" to be in pain, re-writing the body's neural circuitry to perpetuate the sensation of pain. With propr therapeutic attention the brain can "unlearn" pain, paving the way to phsyical pain relief. Contact us to find out more.
Trauma
Trauma can stem from a single, distressing event or from prolonged exposure to stressful situations. It can lead to a host of emotional and psychological issues, such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD, which can disrupt daily life and relationships. Trauma affects the brain's ability to process information and regulate emotions, often leaving individuals feeling stuck in a cycle of fear and helplessness. Multichannel Eye Movement Integration (MEMI) is an effective therapeutic technique for addressing trauma by promoting relaxation and helping individuals access their subconscious mind. This approach can assist in reprocessing traumatic memories, reducing their emotional impact, and helping people regain control over their lives.
Appointments are in person in Elwood or via Telehealth.
Contact us to organise a complimentary call to discuss how we can help.