The Teacher who Beat Stress and Sleeplessness to Gain ‘a totally different view of who I am’

Sylvia came to us for hypnotherapy because she was suffering from severe stress as a result of her job as a teacher and manager in a Lancashire college. She had also suffered a blow to her confidence when she had to give up her management responsibility.

Following six sessions of hypnotherapy she found herself able to ‘look ahead with a totally different view of who I am’.

When Sylvia began therapy she felt her life was slipping out of control. She was receiving medical treatment for high blood pressure and was sleeping badly. She would wake at three in the morning with thoughts circling in her head and be unable to get back to sleep.

She was also putting on a bit of weight and feeling a failure because she couldn’t get back into the habit of going to the gym. She particularly complained of a lack of perspective and feelings of doubt as a result of the change in her life brought about by what she saw as a loss of status.

Good Sleeping Patterns

It took just one session for Sylvia to get back into a good sleeping pattern and this in itself immediately made her feel better in lots of ways. Work on developing physical self-awareness and control eased her worries about her blood pressure. Strategies for dealing with situations at work helped with stress and getting perspective.

At the same time Sylvia was also learning how to value herself as a person again, rather than needing status at work to give her a sense of self-worth.

Sylvia hadn’t fully appreciated the richness of her own imagination. She also had lot of interests outside work. Becoming aware of the importance of these things played a key part in the improvements she was experiencing.

And as for the gym…well she didn’t bother going back. She realised this was just another pressure she was putting herself under and that letting go of it would ease that pressure. Since her six therapy sessions she has gone on to lose half-a-stone using the Paul McKenna weight-loss programme, which we discussed during one of her sessions.

A Great Affirmation

Here is Sylvia’s own description of how she felt at the end of therapy: ‘To reflect upon my initial targets and realise that I was well on the way to achieving them was a great affirmation for me.

‘I am looking ahead with a totally different view of who I am, what I need and where I can be in the future.’

When I contacted Sylvia more recently to see how things were going she added: ‘Things are going well. I have lost the half-stone I wanted to without the gym, but using the Paul McKenna rules and I feel so much more positive about everything.

‘My husband has noticed that I seem much calmer and more able to take life in my stride rather than worrying about what may never happen. So I am one of your success stories’.

JG