Short but informative explainer video about depression.

Notice the reference to the important relationship between worrying, dreaming and depression. 
At CFH, our understanding of the neuroscience behind this is key to our helping people make positive changes.

In fact, we have discovered that when you learn more about how the brain works and what's going on in your brain, you may well find it easier to get on top of depression simptoms and stay feeling better for longer.  This is why Solution Focused Hypnotherapy sessions can also be seen as an education, because once you know something you are more empowered and this helps towards getting you back in control.

Video by: Uncommon Knowledge
Subject: Depression Explained
Source: https://youtu.be/6i-F8O24uas

Like meditation, Hypnotherapy and self-hypnosis help you change your brain and become the person you choose to be.

This video explains the science behind how we can change.

Request a free consultation for more information on how Hypnotherapy can help you make the changes you want to make. 

See Video: How Meditation Can Reshape Our Brains: Sara Lazar at TEDx Talks

Knowing how the brain works helps Solution Focused Hypnotherapists, like Maral Kojayan at Clarity Flow Hypnotherapy, know how best to help each client find their own solutions and make the changes they want to make quickly and effectively.

In each session we talk about how the brain works and the neuroscience behind it all, becuase this knowledge and understanding is empowering and it gives people a sense of increased control.

To help this learning along, here is an educational article from the Guardian, with useful information about what happens in the brain when memories are formed. 

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/sep/16/what-happens-in-your-brain-when-you-make-a-memory

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy counts on the 'plasticity' of our brains, i.e. the fact that the brain and therefore our thoughts and our personality are only as fixed as we think them to be.

This TEDx Talk by Dr Max Cynader explains how we make associations (good or bad!). This is very important to understand to make the changes we want in our lives!

Based on this talk, it seem Dr. Cynader may well support what we at Clarity Flow Hypnotherapy tell our clients all the time; that the key to a healthy brain is a good night's sleep and positive physical activity!

See video: Enhancing the plasticity of the brain: Max Cynader at TEDx Talks

What are the different brain waves and their functions?

Here is a brief overview. We have five brain frequencies (Gamma. Beta, Alpha, Theta, Delta).
Each frequency is measured in cycles per second (Hz) and each is a state of consciousness.

Gamma (above 40Hz) – Insight
Bursts of insight and high-level information processing from different brain areas.

Beta (14-40Hz) – Waking Consciousness And Reasoning
Normal waking consciousness and a heightened state of alertness, logic and critical reasoning.
But also associated with stress, anxiety, unease, fight and flight.

Alpha (7.5-14Hz) – Deep Relaxation
Present in deep relaxation, whilst daydreaming, when eyes are closed.
It heightens imagination, visualization, memory, learning and concentration.
Good for positive programming and accessing intuition.
This is the entry-point to the subconscious mind.

Theta (4-7.5Hz) – Light Meditation And Sleeping
Present in deep meditation, light sleep and REM sleep.
Realm of vivid visualizations, inspiration, profound creativity and insight.
Here lie deep-seated programmes in the subconscious.

Delta (0.5-4Hz) – Deep Sleep
The realm of deep, dreamless sleep and transcendental meditation where awareness is fully detached.
A time of deep healing and regeneration.
Unconscious mind.

During a Hypnotherapy session we utilise this understanding of brain waves to optimise the use of our brains for making positive changes.

We encourage conscious, logical reasoning, followed by relaxation to connect the conscious decisions with the subconscious mind so that the entire mind is focused on creating what is wanted. The trance is then deepened to a sort of replication of REM state to help a person creat the changes they want to see.

As we approach “Look up at the Sky Day” on 14 April, we realise that we can use this change in perspective to find the solutions to our problems in life. By looking up at the broad expansiveness of the sky what we are really doing is shifting our awareness from analysing the smaller pieces of the jigsaw puzzle of our life to seeing the bigger picture of the combination of all the puzzle pieces. 

Maral Kojayan, a Solution Focused Hypnotherapist, based in London says that “When we focus on the problems in our lives, we remain trapped in the emotionally negative part of our mind that goes around in circles. But by allowing our focus to widen from the minutia of our issue to the grand scheme of things helps us step out of the grips of the habitual emotional mind and move into the intellectual space that contains the answers and wisdom that we need to be able to move our lives forward.”

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy is a forward looking therapy that focuses on finding the solutions in your life. Maral goes on to add “The solutions to our lives can be found when we are able to detach ourselves from the actual problems that are gripping us. By moving into a detached observer position, we are able to gain some clarity over the situations we find ourselves in and see other possibilities that are available, via external help, resources or inspired ideas that can emerge within the space that opens up when we move out of the emotional mind.”

The brain is divided into two mindsets, the intellectual mind and the emotional mind. The limiting emotions of fear or anxiety are designed to keep us checking out our lives for threats or danger, but as we know we are usually not really in the type of crisis or emergency that our emotional brain tries to convince us of, we are simply not being mindful. “When we move out of the present moment, and what the mindfulness teachers describe as the “higher self”, we get pulled back in to the primitive part of the brain that is constantly on high alert, predicting and forecasting the future with obsessive risk assessment, or tracking back into the past, where previous templates of behaviour and patterns are repeated in order to keep us “safe”. The emotional part of our brain is certainly not exploratory, it wants to stay inside the comfort zone, and is reluctant to allow you to broaden your horizon with innovative thinking.” Maral says.

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy teaches you to move out into this expansiveness and helps you understand that you are not your primitive mind, but you are actually your intellectual mind. That part of your mind that knows calm, knows clarity, knows happiness and knows creativity.

Maral is a member of the Association of Solution Focused Hypnotherapy (AfSFH) and is practicing in the London area. For more information email [email protected] or visit www.clarityflowhypnotherapy.com.

For more information about the AfSFH, please visit www.afsfh.co.uk.

The importance of positive thought for changing the behaviours of our genes, our well-being and increasing our lifespan and proof that thanks to our brain plasticity, we can rewire our brain in just 7 weeks!

BBC Horizon: "The Truth About Personality"

"There are two of you in your head" says Dr Steve Peters. Hypnotherapy can help you stay in your 'right mind' and make the most of the super dooper thing in your head so you stay in control of your 'inner chimp'