Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) was a reaction to traditional psychotherapy.
Watch this short video to find out why people appreciated it so much.

Maral Kojayan MA HPD
Clinical Hypnotherapist
www.clarityflowhypnotherapy.com

TO BOOK A FREE CONSULTATION* FOR CLINICAL HYPNOTHERAPY CLICK HERE

Nuggets of Neuroscience 3: Why can’t we just make a decision to change a habit, and do it?

Here is another 3 min. bitesize bit of neuroscience to help answer these questions  and some thoughts and tips to help with having the right mindset to make things easier.

Understand how thing work can help us come up with smarter solutions.

If you prefer support, you can book a free initial consultation to discuss how hypnotherapy sessions with me, at Clarity Flow Hypnotherapy, could strenghten your process.

Maral Kojayan MA HPD
Clinical Hypnotherapist
www.clarityflowhypnotherapy.com

TO BOOK A FREE CONSULTATION* FOR CLINICAL HYPNOTHERAPY CLICK HERE

With the New Year’s festivities behind us, we can now start to sharpen the focus on what we want to create for ourselves and how we want to move forward.

Here are some questions to kick-start you into your thinking and planing.

First of all, have you started to refocus on your priorities?
If not, have a think and start writing things down and brainstorming.
If you’ve done that, do you have a clear roadmap to make things happen?
If not, draw out your plan - think of it as your guide for yourself.
And if you’ve got a plan, do you have things in place to make sure you stick to your plans and keep up the momentum so you continue to see progress for months to come?
(Because to make things happen we need focus and consistency).

If the answer was no to any of these questions above, Have a think about what’s getting in your way.
Do you need more structure, self-discipline, confidence, motivation, inspiration or to get the mental obstacles out the way so you can start making things happen?
Pause now and have a think about what’s really in your way.
Once you’ve done that, think;
How can you improve on this situation?
Can you make it happen by yourself? If so great, get started.
If not, is this something you need help with?
If so, do you have people in your life who can support you and give you a regular boost?
If not, and if you feel you could really benefit from external support, have you looked into Solution-Focused Hypnotherapy?
I’m not going to go into what solution-focused hypnotherapy is now, but I will say that it can help a lot with gaining more clarify, coming up with solutions and ideas, Transform anxiety into new energy and action, clearing and overcome obstacles that are interfering with you being your best, maintaining focus on your priorities, and very importantly, staying on track for weeks and months to come.
 
And what all that translate to in your everyday life is, for example, that you: manage stress better, get less anxious, can change exercise or eating habits easier, are more confident, can ask for what you want or say ‘no’ easier and as a result ultimately feel happier with yourself, where you’re at, and the direction you’re taking yourself in…

The bottom line is, when you choose to focus on your wellbeing and do regular mind-maintenance, you can really make good progress in making things happen, and with the added benefit of hypnotherapy and someone in your corner, you can enrich and accelerate this process even more.

So by all means, go back through the first questions in this video to start your process of helping yourself already and look up other ways (there is so much useful information out there!).
But if you feel it’s really now time for you to take the next step and really commit to your growth and wellbeing with regular one-to one sessions, I am happy to offer you a free initial consultation to give you insights into the working of our brains and how sessions with me, at Clarity Flow Hypnotherapy, could help propel you forwards in being at your best and making what you want happen for yourself.


Maral Kojayan MA HPD
Clinical Hypnotherapist
www.clarityflowhypnotherapy.com

TO BOOK A FREE CONSULTATION* FOR CLINICAL HYPNOTHERAPY CLICK HERE

Remember: If you are unhappy with where you’re at, you can’t keep doing the same thing and expect you’ll miraculously feel better.
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” (often attributed to Einstein)

Be honest with yourself and know that if you want different results:
1) change is needed
2) it’s up to you, no-one can do it for you.

But you can have help, and you can ask for help.

This can apply to so many things, like: habits and behaviours you don’t like (e.g. procrastination, perfectionism),or to do with how you are in relationships, or work related, it can be weight or eating related or about confidence…
In any case, like it or not, want to or not, the way to get different results is to make changes! sometimes you know what needs to change, sometimes it’s trial and error or a series of little things.

I’m spelling this out, because although it sound very logical, unfortunately when we’re down we’re often not engaging our highest faculties, we’re often stuck with our primitive mind in the driver’s seat and that part does not like change. maybe you recognise that part inside, the part that would rather suffer than face change.

Recognising is a good first step, but action is needed, so figure out what you need to do differently and how.
Look things up, ask for support from people around you or speak to a professional like myself (book your free consultation) who can guide and support you in making the changes you want to make.

Maral Kojayan MA HPD
Clinical Hypnotherapist
www.clarityflowhypnotherapy.com

TO BOOK A FREE CONSULTATION* FOR CLINICAL HYPNOTHERAPY CLICK HERE

A client brought my attention to this video (it's always a joy to work with such proactive clients!)

See the video from 40 to 43 minutes to see what he has to say about why Clinical Hypnotherapy is so effective at helping us to rewire the brain to make the changes we want to so quickly.

This long and interesting interview is with Stanford University School of Medicine Neuroscientist, Dr. Andrew Huberman. His laboratory studies neural regeneration, neuroplasticity, and brain states such as stress, focus, fear, and optimal performance.

In short, he says:
"Hypnosis seems to capture both the high attentional state and the deep relaxation at the same time... It's very clear that it leads to these rapid changes in behaviour because you are rewiring the brain.  And the reason you're able to rewire the brain so quickly is because you're getting the trigger event (the focus) and you're also getting the relaxation event simultaneously, so it's much faster than separating the learning trigger from the rewiring of the brain"

Earlier in the video (23:40) he discusses how many other therapies, including traditional psychotherapy do the same thing, but that is a much longer process because these two process he describes happen separately, over longer periods of time, unlike with hypnosis which is simultaneous and therefore a very quick therapy.  He also states that this information regarding the power of Clinical Hypnosis comes from his collaborations with his colleague David Spiegel, M.D, Associate Chair of Psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine and director of the Stanford Center on Stress and Health.

Interview with: Dr. Andrew Huberman (Professor of Neurobiology and Ophthalmology at Stanford University School of Medicine)
Subject: This Neuroscientist Shows You the Secrets to Obtaining A Growth Mindset | Andrew Huberman
Video by: Tom Bilyeu
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGa_jt3IncY

​
Maral Kojayan BA, MA, DHP, DSFH, HPD
Clinical Hypnotherapy
t: NL: 0644256844 / UK: 07855883967
e: [email protected]
TO BOOK A FREE CONSULTATION FOR CLINICAL HYPNOTHERAPY CLICK HERE

Why does it seem harder to stay happy than to stay suffering?

This is a question that comes up very often for people in all sorts of situations in life.

To really understand why many of us experience happiness and suffering in this way, a neuroscientific understanding of how the brain works is very useful.

Extremely simply put we could say we have three brains (neocortex, limbic system & reptilian brain). Two of these are relevant for the purposes of this discussion, one is a part of the neocortex, the left prefrontal cortex and the other a part of the limbic system which we sometimes refer to as the primitive brain. The left prefrontal cortex is where you could say happiness lives. That is where our solutions are, where we are creative and inventive and positive. Then there is the limbic system, within which is the amygdala, our fight-flight centre. When any insecurity/threat/stress is perceived this primitive brain takes over and stays in control until it perceives the external world to be a safe place again. Although this is effective, there are two problems with this for us modern humans in our overloaded lives.

1. By nature, this part of the brain is negative and not an intellect. This means your actions that come from here are not designed to feel good or make you happy. They are designed to stop you dying. That is it. Suffering (your own or those of others around you) is not an issue for this part of the brain so it will easily allow you to go into suffering for as long as it deems necessary.
2. Given our stressful lives, most people are living mostly with their primitive brain in the driver's seat.

The end result is that people experience suffering and they can remain suffering for what seems almost permanent, except for little glimpses of happiness. What's more, it seems difficult to come out of it, whilst it seems very easy to fall out of happiness into suffering.

The good news is, it does not have to be this way. Like most things in life, maintaining happiness can also be learnt. Happiness, interestingly, has a great deal to do with awareness and a degree of self-discipline as shown by a number of studies of Buddhist monks, which found that Buddhist monks had significantly larger left-prefrontal cortexes compared to the average population. (Look up Matthieu Ricard/Dr Richard Davidson for more info).

Now you could feel disheartened, and say, 'well, I am not a Buddhist monk, so what use is it to me'. But if you look at it from another perspective, you see that this is very good news indeed, because it means that the physical brain can actually changed based on your behaviour, your activities, your choices... Another words, the plasticity of the brain means you can change your physical brain, patterns habits and personality tendencies.

So, in the end, thankfully, the supposition in the question may not be true. Happiness can be very robust if you know how to work on yourself to develop your happiness 'muscle'. And that's exactly what I facilitate at Clarity Flow Hypnotherapy.

Why? because we all deserve to be well!

And thankfully, we can always find small ways to be better than where we are at right now, right?


TO BOOK A FREE CONSULTATION FOR CLINICAL HYPNOTHERAPY CLICK HERE

Maral Kojayan MA HPD
Clinical Hypnotherapist
www.clarityflowhypnotherapy.com

More and more people all around the world are enjoying the benefits of Hypnotherapy, more specifically Solution Focused Hypnotherapy, the method practiced at Clarity Flow Hypnotherapy.

However, when you're new to anything, its perfectly reasonable to wonder about safety and you'd be especially forgiven when it comes to wondering about Hypnotherapy.

After all, Hypnotherapy is one of those things we don't get taught about at school and perhaps only catch very small snippets of confusing information about it. Sometimes this can be in the context of stage hypnosis, which has a very different purpose to Hypnotherapy. Sometimes it can be strange images of swinging pocket watches or of someone clicking their fingers and saying 'sleep!'. Naturally, a rational person would have questions—I certainly did and at the top of that list is the question of safety.

So let's get straight to answering at least one of these important questions. The first one at hand for today is, “Is Solution Focused Hypnotherapy safe?”

The short answer is, Yes! Solution Focused Hypnotherapy is very safe.

But that doesn't tell you much, after all, everyone has a different idea of safety. So let me explain why I'd say it's very safe and you can draw your own conclusion.

First of all, trance is safe because it's really a natural process. The trance state—which we go into during Hypnotherapy—is as natural as daydreaming and as safe as falling asleep or reading a good book.

People also feel extra safe with Clarity Flow Hypnotherapy, because we do sessions via Skype. It's always really nice to be in the safety and comfort of your own space, you can be completely yourself and more relaxed because you don't need to commute, dress-to-impress or go into any unknown places. You can just focus on what's important, your well-being.

And the final badge of safety is that at Clarity Flow Hypnotherapy, Clinical Hypnotherapists are fully certified with the British Government recognised qualifications, the HPD—a gold standard in Hypnotherapy diplomas.

So for all the reasons mentioned above, I think we can safely say that Solution Focused Hypnotherapy session, especially as provided by Clarity Flow Hypnotherapy are very safe, comfortable and convenient for helping people to take steps towards making many of the changes they want to make.

Remember, we all deserve to be well.
www.clarityflowhypnotherapy.com

 But lets break it all down and start with what Solution Focused Hypnotherapy is.

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy combines a type of evidence based psychotherapy (SFBT) and clinical hypnosis.

Hypnosis is used because it's an excellent, comfortable and easy way to help a person access the power of their own mind and by doing so that person can sort through and clear many things much quicker than by using some other methods.

The state of hypnosis, known as trance state, is in fact a very natural and common occurrence. People go into trance—this focused sate of attention—many times a day. It happens all the time, whilst reading, listening, watching TV, driving and doing most routine tasks. Hypnotherapy uses this natural and powerful state of trance for therapeutic purposes.

So, I hear you thinking “If I'm going into trance naturally, why am I not fixing all my issues naturally myself?”

Well, the short answer is, sometimes you are but sometimes (often when you're not at your best) you're not. It really depends on the suggestions and messages you've got going on in your mind at the time—something which you're probably not fully in control of. Unfortunately, we often go into a 'negative trance' and we use those powerful moments of access to the subconscious mind, to affirm all the wrong stuff. “I'm such a...”, “I can't believe I keep doing that”, “this is ridiculous”, “I'm never going to...” etc.

The bottom line is when we're unaware of a process, we can't make it work for us. If you don't know you have a tool you won't know to use it or how to use it. If you haven't learnt how to use a tool, you'll use it ineffectively at best or possibly even unintentionally against yourself. Most of the time, because of certain beliefs, plus certain structures in our brain (we'll call the 'primitive brain' for simplicity) this tool we have is working against us in our modern day lives.

What Solution Focused Hypnotherapy does is teach us to pull ourselves consciously out of and above the 'primitive brain' and uses hypnosis—that powerful natural state of trance, that important access to the subconscious mind, that space where the brain can be rewired—to big positive effect.

We could say, Solution Focused Hypnotherapy is Hypnotherapy PLUS.

Neuroscience and clinical studies have been demystifying things for us for a number of decades now. And what makes Solution Focused Hypnotherapy a sort of 'Hypnotherapy PLUS', is that it brings together many knowledge streams; the latest knowledge of brain structure and brain chemistry, the most proven aspects of psychotherapy including SFBT, CBT, some tested NLP tools and a modern understanding of hypnosis. The result is a power-charged not only therapy but an education, beneficial to the vast majority of ordinary people; business people, medical professionals, people who're struggling but also people at the top of their game looking to keep their edge. The neuroscientific understanding of how the brain works means almost anyone can benefit from Solution Focused Hypnotherapy.

So, to answer that question again of what's it's all about in a different way, we could say it's about you, me, your boss, a friend down on their 'luck', the healthcare professional wanting to maximise their effectiveness and really anyone who wants to create changes in their everyday reality, learning to use the power of their own mind to bring about those positive changes into their lives now.

It's all about seeing functional positive change in our everyday lives, which is what most of us need.

Now, this positive change can take different forms. For someone it can be coping with stress better, for another not being so frustrated or angry, for another overcoming a fear or phobia, another having the confidence to speak up at meetings or public speaking, another to stop addictions to drinking,smoking, shoplifting, screens etc... For others these positive changes may mean becoming a more serene mum, overcoming anxiety, enjoying a better relationship, easing the impact of health issues, healthy eating or weight loss, finding motivation, sleeping better... We could go on and on, because almost every person you know, from people you may think haven't got it quite together, to people you look up to, almost everyone has something they would like to see improved in their lives. Yet many of us either go about it the hard way or ignore it because it seems too hard to change.

Most people see change as something that's going to take a lot out of them and many may feel they don't have the time or the energy to dedicate to a process of change. They imagine either endless talking in talking therapies or if they imagine hypnosis, they may think it's about giving up control, something unfamiliar, scary, quackery...

These things couldn't be further away from Solution Focused Hypnotherapy.

What's great about Solution Focused Hypnotherapy is there's no endless talking about problems and digging into the past. We spend our precious time learning to focus on the solution instead of the problem, Another great thing is that the client is front and centre, taking control, utilising their own resources to construct a clear vision of their own preferred future, The therapist's role is to help to strengthen and imprint the client's vision.

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy is not something that's done to you. It's an education. It's learning how 'up-there' works and becoming the boss of your mind.

Fortunately, this doesn't have to take long. Of course we need willingness and repetition to learn things, but neuroscience has shown us that the old saying “you can't teach an old dog new tricks” is not true for people. Research has shown that far from being hardwired, the brain is constantly being rewired, that means that when we want to learn a 'new trick' we can! This is great news for us all. Furthermore, what research has also shown is that new neural pathways can develop and become established within about 45 days. So, the time-frames previously thought to be needed for effective therapy have been reassessed and based on this fact and on clinical evidence, we can be confident that brief therapy—done the right way with a willing client committed to themselves—can be effective and lasting.

A brief closing note about the success rate of Hypnotherapy.
An established peer-review journal Psychotherapy of the American Psychological Association published a study conducted by the prestigious clinical psychologist Dr. Alfred A. Barrios looking at the overall lasting success of various psychological approaches. Barrios (1970) found Hypnotherapy to have a 93% success rate after only 6 sessions, compared to Behaviour Therapy which had 72% success rate after 22 sessions and ordinary Psychotherapy only 38% success rate after a massive 600 sessions.

So, you can see that far from hypnotherapy being some airy fairy, wishy washy, look into my eyes and magic happens sort of thing. Solution Focused Hypnotherapy is a serious golden nugget and a great way forward to greater well-being.


Remember, we all deserve to be well.

Maral Kojayan  BA Hons(Dunelm), MA, DHP, DSFH, HPD  
Clinical Hypnotherapist
www.clarityflowhypnotherapy.com

Disclaimer

I have shared Dr Bruce Lipton's work before, but I think it's such important science that it's worth sharing again, here in a very casual conversational format discussing epigenetic control, and how the mind effects health and more and the importance of understanding that we have TWO minds to make changes!

Interview with: Dr Bruce Lipton
Subject: How to Hack Your Health with Beliefs & Super Learning
Video by: 180 Nutrition
Source: https://youtu.be/k2EqqBdHB-c