Get
positive Mental Health and Live Life To The Max!
Narelle Stratford, Psychologist
My background and
experience comes from a variety of areas, prior to working as a
Psychologist. I have an enormous interest in and respect for complementary
health and healing modalities and see a place for conventional medicine,
complementary health and psychological / mental therapies.
My focus mirrors my Mission Statement because the focus is always on you and
getting the results you want.
I am highly experienced in working with clients with severe mental health
problems, particularly those that have stemmed from abuse and trauma.
NLP, Timeline and Hypnosis
As well, because of my NLP, Timeline and Hypnosis training, there are great results
to be had for so many issues. Here are some groupings of problem
areas that I work in:
-
Health
and Healing of illness
-
Mood
Disorders - Anger, Depression, Anxiety
-
Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder caused by accidents, sexual abuse, abusive
relationships
-
Adjustment to Injury / Accidents
-
Alleviation of Pain (including Migraine and
injury)
-
Weight Management and Eating Disorders
-
Giving up Smoking
-
Relationship Counselling
-
Relationship Breakdown
-
Personality Disorders
-
Performance Enhancement
-
Sports
performance
-
Click
here for a further list
(Nervous Breakdown is not a psychological term, but if you think you're
having one, or had one, you can be helped too!)
You'll be sent support notes on: the psychological techniques, Stress
management tools, Meditation techniques and healthy living suggestions, to help
you remember your sessions and continue your good work at home.
Cognitive
Behaviour Therapy (CBT)
The
techniques that are used, come from Cognitive Therapy, Cognitive Behaviour
Therapy (CBT), Neuro Linguistic Programming, Hypnosis and Timeline.
What
do these fancy words really mean? It means that you will be using your
mind, that's the thinking part also known as cognition) as guided by your
psychologist, to make changes in your attitudes, beliefs and behaviours.
You'll
also learn a variety of practical tools that are also CBT or NLP based, which
may include:
-
Mindfulness
Meditation
-
the
Stop Technique to interrupt those thoughts on the ratwheel
-
Emotional
Observation to let go of emotions
-
the
Rubber Band Technique
-
Mood
and Re-structuring of Mood via a diary
There
are often lots of laughs, practice of psychological techniques, and a feeling of
being fully supported.
My
clients have told me that they initially thought, what good will this do, and
that as they began to improve, they couldn't believe the difference they
experienced in themselves. It was as though all the old 'stuff' was like a
long ago bad dream.
Go
to Physical
Health
Some
Psychology Case Notes
(Without
names or identifiers of course, to preserve confidentiality.)
Anger
A young
man came to see me with anger problems and suspected epilepsy. During the
course of the work which focussed on clearing emotions and healing processes to
assist with the suspected epilepsy, he described to me that he had had a
complete change within himself, "that I am a completely different person
than the person who first came here". This was wonderful for both him
and me, to help him to learn how to relax and take care of himself.
Some
side bonuses that occurred were that his knees which had previously bothered him
with pain, if he did too much dancing or bending, were now pain free.
His
anger, which had previously been quite fiery and aggressive, was now under
control and if he was angry, his anger lasted all of 30 seconds! What a
change!
Anxiety
Cognitive-behavioural
theory tells us that anxiety can occur when one perceives a threat or possible
danger to oneself and/or others.
Mrs
X came to see me because she had suddenly become very anxious following a siege
that occurred in her city. Although Mrs X was not involved in the siege
and lived quite a distance from where the siege occurred, Mrs X had become very
frightened for the safety of her children and herself. There were also
some relationship issues due to her husband's drinking.
Mrs
X completed 8 sessions with me, during which time we completed specific
trauma/phobia techniques designed to resolve and let go of trauma, stress
management training with relaxation and visualisation exercises, plus
mindfulness meditation processes.
Mrs
X recovered extremely well and was able to live her life without fear or
medication. When I last saw her, she was enjoying dance classes with
her daughter!
Depression
Most people don't realise that
depression is made up of many attributes that can be resolved:
-
Memory problems, especially
for short term memory
-
Sleep irregularity - can be
oversleeping, under sleeping or broken sleep
-
Inability to see a future
for yourself
-
Feelings of helplessness
and hopelessness
-
Irritability and/or anger
-
Low or non-existent sex
drive
-
Eating irregularity -
overeating, under eating
-
Withdrawal and even
isolation from normal and social activities
-
Difficulty
making decisions
-
If you're experiencing the
above symptoms of depression, do seek help quickly. You can be treated with my
services, in conjunction with natural therapies and/or medication.
Giving
Up Smoking
I
recommend that you have 4 regular sessions of hypnosis to give up smoking and
get lasting results. Smoking is a regular habit so regular sessions do get
great results.
When you give up smoking with hypnosis, there is no craving, and no desire to
smoke. One of my clients told me "I had a fight with my partner and
huffed out of the house (running on automatic thinking) to go and buy
cigarettes, until I got a block away and remembered I don't smoke anymore."
She sheepishly returned home!
Migraine
Recently,
a man who had been suffering from migraines for close to 2 years, came to see
me. The migraines had come on during an especially stressful time when he
was involved in starting a new business. Finances had subsequently become
very strained and his living situation changed drastically. In a 1 hour
session, we were able to remove the limiting decision (albeit unconscious) to
have migraines, and he let go of the pain. Two days later the pain had
still not returned and Mr X was very happy and looked 10 years younger.
Obsessive
Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Some people may
misinterpret intrusive thoughts (thoughts that keep popping in,
particularly with a negative slant), as a sign that harm might occur, and
they could be responsible unless they take preventative action.
Therefore, normal thoughts such as, "better wash my hands, I patted
the dog, and I'm about to eat" can become obsessional, and can
generalise or spread to many other situations where danger may occur due
to lack of hygienic habits.
In order to
prevent the thoughts, the person takes preventative action, in the example
above - hand washing, and this behaviour may become compulsive, needing to
be repeated over and over again so that harm does not occur.
Unfortunately, the
behaviour serves to reinforce the thoughts, and may actually increase the
person's beliefs about the threat of harm. So, all thoughts and
behaviours increase so as not to be harmed, or harm others.
The Future
Success technique assists you to learn to create positive scenarios,
that feel good. Many people with an anxiety disorder and/or OCD,
mentally fast forward to negative outcomes of future events that are
filled with negatively impacting emotions.
Your subconscious
cannot tell the difference between what is real or imaginary, so it treats
whatever you imagine as being real... (whether there is a positive or a
negative effect...)
Additonally, at
some time in your life a limiting decision has subconsciously or
unconsciously been made to respond with anxiety, panic or ritualistic (OCD)
thoughts and behaviours, in order to try and control the outcome, or be
safe.
Timeline processes
are able to be used to remove the limiting decision that was made, when it
first occurred, allowing you to finally feel that you are in control and
safe from harm.
Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder
Mr
X had witnessed the murder/suicide of two of his best friends and was
experiencing flashbacks, nightmares, recurrent taste of blood in his mouth,
hyper-vigilance and some anxiety.
Over
a course of 4 sessions, Mr X completely resolved all of these symptoms and was
extremely grateful.
Weight
Loss
Mrs
X came to see me because she had increased weight gain, due to a thyroid
condition which had been diagnosed approximately 2 years before.
The
treatment approach involved working with her Timeline of memories, via her
sub-conscious mind to get her subconscious mind to realise that this was a very
limiting decision that had been made, to have this illness.
It
may sound strange, but our subconscious mind is capable of following
instructions that we give ourself, when we are under stress. For example,
we might say, "I am so dumb, I'll never learn anything." Your
subconscious mind hears that, takes it on board, and learning becomes a lifelong
struggle for you.
For
this lady, even after one session, she lost the pain she had been experiencing
in her wrists, and by about the third session, had begun losing weight at a
steady .2 to .3 kg daily.
We
also completed a deep hypnosis session to help with the weight loss and I am
looking forward to hearing that her thyroid has settled down as well.
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