OCD awareness week takes place this year between Monday 14 and Sunday 20 October 2013, and Observatory Practice hypnotherapist David Mclean is focusing this month on how hypnotherapy can support the management and control of some aspects of this complex and, for many, challenging and debilitating condition.
OCD, or Obsessional Compulsive Disorder, is a term that is often used these days to describe behaviours or tendencies that some people exhibit with little real understanding of what it is, and the extent to which it can have a devastating impact on some people’s lives. It is a crippling mental health problem that severely impacts on the functioning and quality of life of those children and adults that suffer from it. It comes in many forms, from serious disabling and debilitating contamination fears, through to horrific and graphic intrusive thoughts that go round and round in the sufferer’s head with little, if any, respite.
This year organizations, such as OCD UK, are highlighting people’s unique experiences of OCD during Awareness Week to improve understanding about OCD, and to illustrate some of the daily struggles this illness can cause for sufferers in an attempt to challenge trivialising misconceptions and stigma that currently surrounds OCD.
So how can hypnotherapy help with OCD? Observatory Practice hypnotherapist David explains about the approach he takes with his clients.
He says, “Solution Focused Hypnotherapy (SFH) can help with many conditions and this includes obsessional thoughts and disturbances, which can sometimes be exacerbated by anxiety.
“During the (free) initial consultation, we explain in detail about how the brain works and why it might react in the way it does in terms of these kinds of behaviours. With the help of a Solution Focused approach, which is forward- looking and positive, we can help clients to change the negative thought patterns by supporting them to become calmer, more positive, and leave some of those obsessional behaviours behind as the anxiety and negative thinking reduces.”
The Association for Solution Focused Hypnotherapy (AfSFH) has been established to promote the benefits of the Solution Focused approach to improving mental wellbeing so that the public are more aware of this valuable resource.
David is a member of the AfSFH and is enthusiastic about the efficacy of the approach with OCD. “Clients are often relieved to learn that there are ways to help them and it is something that can often be worked on quickly; they soon get the hang of how it works and they often say how much they have enjoyed the process as well as the result! I have been able to help (several / many / dozens etc) reduce their OCD symptoms; it is such an amazingly powerful technique”.
He is keen to stress that hypnotherapy is not a cure or replacement for medical intervention and that outcomes do vary.
