Help for teenagers and young adults (ages 13-18)

Looking for therapy / hypnotherapy for your teenage son or daughter?

Is your teenager suffering from stress, not going to school or refusing to go to school, suffering from anxiety, confidence issues, low self esteem, relationship problems, anger problems, worrying, brooding, obsessing, image problems, nightmares, lack of sleep, eating disorders?

We learn everything as a child - except HOW to think well...
When we are young we are taught how to clean our teeth, how to cross the road, how to sit up in class, how to add up and subtract - how to do thousands of things. However, very rarely does anyone show us as a youngster how to MANAGE OUR THINKING, MANAGE OUR EMOTIONS AND BUILD UP OUR OWN SELF ESTEEM BY CHANGING THE WAY THAT WE THINK!

So nobody (usually) helps us with our own thoughts......nobody ever 'trained' us at school in how to create and change our thoughts to be more positive, create self esteem, create belief etc.....nobody taught us how to react well to different situations and create an internal locus of control (a belief that you can handle anything yourself).

As primarily an analytical hypnotherapist over the last 8 years with nearly 15,000 hours of clinical hypnotherapy experience treating all types of people and conditions, I have been lucky enough to gain a lot of insight into the WAY that people think and feel and HOW we as people process experiences (such as school, relationships or trauma).

Now (through word of mouth) a lot of parents are consulting me at my Cheltenham Hypnotherapy Clinic with their teenager (typically ages somewhere between 13-18) and during 3 or 4 sessions, together, we are going through a 'training' programme (not therapy as such) to help the teenager manage their thinking better, and feel happier, calmer, more resilient, more robust etc.....topics covered in great detail in these sessions would be:

Topics covered / taught / explained to your teenager...

The three main personality types - which one are you and why does it matter (it does!) when it comes to stress? Self insight - how to know what makes you 'tick' - how to know what you are REALLY thinking especially about yourself. Self esteem - where does it come from? What builds self esteem? What damages it? Learn WHO the most critical person in your life is (you would be surprised)... Language - what WORDS are you using as your self talk? Do you call yourself an 'idiot' all the time? Are you hard on yourself? Do you blame yourself for everything? Do you keep comparing yourself to others (internally?) How to change critical thoughts into POSITIVE empowering ones Coue's law and negative suggestion - how we often give ourselves negative suggestions, and more importantly how NOT TO! How to think more positively, and create MORE self esteem and more confidence WITHOUT needing others to help - therefore building a strong 'internal locus of control' How not to magnify problems (catastrophise) and make them less signifcant and therefore less stressful Specific techniques for managing stress, anxiety and worry - to get rid of emotional or anxious feelings FAST.

Where necessary the sessions can be reinforced with exercises to do at home and a workbook which contains all information above.

I wish I'd had access to this information and these techniques when I was a teenager!

Feedback from a mum about her 17 year old daughter "My daughter has suffered with anxiety for years and has had several awful bouts of it, resulting in missing huge amounts of school in her crucial GCSE year. After several years and several trips to the doctors and hospital to look for a physical reason for her nausea, I was recommended to Richard. I was told about him being a hypnotherapist and he had helped a friend. Richard told us about a book he uses called 'Changing Limited Beliefs' which was like a course. He was really sympathetic but empowering and we both sat there feeling that for the first time in ages, she could overcome this awful debilitating 'thing' that seemed to be taking over. She had a session a week for five weeks and along with this, read the book which had exercises in and helped to consolidate the sessions with Richard. The biggest hurdle, and is still a little hurdle, is that she thinks this 'thing' is happening to her, but the anxiety, and emetephobia is coming from her. It is not happening TO her. This is by far the biggest revelation and, even I had thought at times it was an external thing or a physical thing that she had no control over. But 80% of this book/course is about understanding why she has come to feel and react like this. It is not a sudden light-bulb moment pinpointing why this has happened. It is just purely examining her personality. She is still having the occasional blip and can still suddenly feel out of control, but she is so much more in control generally. She can logically think why she is feeling the way she is at a certain point and can put strategies in place to deal with it. She is contacting me less and less with distraught negative texts. She is going to her lessons and all her exams. She has even booked a holiday with friends in the summer. The sessions with Richard, along with the book, which incidentally is hers to keep and go over as many times as needed for reassurance and guidance, have given me my daughter back in many ways. We both understand now that we all have personality traits, and sometimes, even negative traits can be utilised to good use. But most of all, it is her who is in control. I also understand how to help - Richard took the weight off my shoulders a little. I used to think that I could help and tried to. But, I sometimes think we can be too helpful and enable the person to give the power to whatever the anxiety is all about. Of course I want her to be happy and stress free and would do anything for her. But, she knows that I am here for her, but ultimately, it is her who has to help herself. And I am absolutely pleased to say that this is what she is doing. I am so proud of her as she has worked so hard and is continuing to work hard. I know she still has struggles, but she is definitely moving in the right place. We are both very grateful that we came across Richard and I would recommend him to anyone who is making their own lives debilitating." Nicki and Alice, Cheltenham, March 2011

You never know, as a parent you may learn a thing or two along the way that would help with your own life / lives. This is exactly the sort of thing I talk about when I lecture at schools and colleges:

Lecture at Westonbirt School "Richard, Thank you so much for taking the time to see us on Wednesday for a fantastic talk on hypnotherapy and further aspects of psychology. Your talk was relaxed and involving, and allowed Westonbirt and Rednock psychology students an opportunity to expand their knowledge, and those visitors who do not do psychology to explore the topic first hand." A. Davies, June 2007