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Research has shown that once-weekly sessions of hypnosis, with women also practising at home, can help women to reduce hot flushes by 70 per cent after just five weeks, reducing both the frequency and the intensity of the flushing. Women taking part in this research also reported being ‘highly satisfied’ with the treatment, scoring it more than 9 out of 10.

 

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Hypnotherapy can help clients during their menopause as a complementary alternative way of dealing with hot flushes, night sweats, mood swings and other symptoms as HRT is not suitable for everyone. Up to 80% of women in menopause experience hot flashes. During the menopause transition levels of the estrogen hormone begins to drop.  The loss disrupts the body’s ability to regulate heat properly, causing a sweating response at lower-than-normal core body temperatures.

 

The feeling of heat during a hot flash is caused by the sudden opening of the blood vessels close to the skin, following by increased blood flow.  Sweating lowers the core body temperature and then may lead to shivering to increase the temperature back to normal. Hot flashes, weight gain and sleepless nights are all signs that our hormones may be tipped to one side or the other. 

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THE TECHNIQUES PRACTICED FOR MANAGING THESE SYMPTOMS WOULD BE:-

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• Cooling Imagery

• Your Future Self

• Flash Control Dial

• Hypnotherapy

• Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT)

• Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)

 

During hypnotherapy for hot flushes, for example, I talk about imagining being cool, about the refreshing qualities of an ice-cold drink on a hot day, about the feel of an ice cube in the mouth. By imagining being cool, over and over again, the brain can regain control over the body’s thermostat and help turn it down. I also teach that it is very important to practice self-hypnosis at home. The effect of hypnosis becomes greater the more times you do it! You can become much better at quickly getting yourself into the zone and your brain then finds it easier and easier to make the changes being suggested. After a bit of practice, my clients do not need me at all!

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Hypnosis is an incredibly powerful tool in helping us to reconnect and gain control of our bodies in addition to allowing us to visualise the lives we deserve to lead and to begin to make those visualisations come true. Restful sleep is often a casualty of the menopause. Frequent hot flushes or night sweats disturb sleep, while stress and anxiety can make it hard to get to sleep in the first place or to go back to sleep again after being woken. In addition to reducing the flushes, learning simple techniques to control night-time anxiety can mean a happier, more rested feeling for the next day. For example, square-breathing can help settle the brain ready for sleep. Hypnosis can ensure you approach bedtime feeling relaxed and ready, not anxious and worried about yet another restless night.

 

Going through the menopause can feel as though you are in some kind of vicious negative cycle. The fall in oestrogen causes the hot flushes, stress and anxiety. These then cause disturbed sleep, which then results in even more anxiety and mood swings and the cycle goes on. The good news is that there are ways to break this cycle, to reduce the symptoms, to get you through this challenging time and for you to feel just more like ‘you’ again.

 

Decide now to do something positive and seek the help that is out there. You deserve it. I feel that Clinical Hypnotherapy would also work alongside other complementary treatments offered within the Bodyworks  Treatment Page.