What’s your speciality?
If you are looking for a hypnotherapist – or, in fact, a therapist of any kind – it’s worth knowing what questions you want to ask in advance. After all, these folks are skilled persuaders and will often know just how to influence you to make the ‘right’ decision!
A question you might want to consider is: “What is your speciality?” After all, do you really want to settle for a Jack of all Trades? It is surely preferable to find a therapist who has the perfect match of skills to help you resolve your issue.
As a way of providing a quick and open answer to this question, Graham Old proudly wears the label “Well-being Coach”.
What is Well-being?
There has been a growing body of research into what contributes to the quality of people’s lives. This has enabled a new understanding of the factors that both influence and constitute well-being.
Well-being is most usefully thought of as the dynamic process that gives people a sense of how their lives are going, through the interaction between their circumstances, activities and mental or psychological resources or ‘mental. It has been briefly defined as ‘Doing Well and Feeling Good’, but might just as easily be defined as ‘Doing Good and Feeling Well.’
Well-being is essentially a subjective evaluation that your life is one of contented health and happiness.
The Public Health White Paper “No Health without Mental Health” (2011) says that mental wellbeing relates to “the ability to cope with life’s problems and make the most of life’s opportunities. It is about feeling good and functioning well, both as individuals and collectively.”
What is a Well-being Coach?
Well, it’s not the same thing as a Personal Trainer, a Management Coach, a Dietician, Nutritionist or Health Trainer. The best way to think of a Well Being Coach is to think about physical well-being and then consider all of the “mental” factors that go into that. Then think about psychological well-being and some of the associated physical issues. So we end up with things like:
Stress
Anxiety
Depression
Smoking
Weight-loss
Motivation
Drinking
and so on.
These aren’t necessarily things that you want to “cure”. You might not, for example, be an alcoholic so you have no desire to quit drinking. However, you might recognise that you would function more effectively at work in the morning if your alcohol intake was under control in the evenings. So, we could help you cut-down.
You might not have a phobia, or suffer panic attacks, but you might feel like you’re surrounded by a general sense of anxiety or un-ease. The trouble is that unless you have some kind of mental “problem”, many therapists or therapies may not apply to you. Even those that use hypnosis might not seem particularly appropriate. Unless you need to train for a Sporting event, or receive physio, you may not find many Physical Therapists who can help you either. You fall in that gap in the middle.
The irony is that most of us fall into that camp. Just as the difference between Healthy and Unhealthy is fluid (we are all healthy in some ways and unhealthy in others), Mental Health is a sliding scale. It may simply be that you want to feel better. You may look at your life and think, “This is not as good as it could be.” There may be a persistent sense of unhappiness, frustration or lack of motivation, or it may simply be that you fed up with your smoking, drinking, shyness or lack of direction.
If that’s you, then what you need is Well Being Coaching!
What does a Well-Being Coach actually do?
Coaching is a dynamic two-way process that helps you get greater satisfaction out of life. Coaching focuses on the here and now as a solution focused, goal oriented approach to self-fulfillment and personal development.
During the coaching process, through questioning, the coach engages in confidential and thought provoking dialogue with the client to help them expand.
The purpose of coaching is to help clients identify their own solutions to achieve their personal and professional goals by developing a comprehensive set of actions to achieve them. The process typically involves one to one sessions and usually includes a results-focused plan that helps the client clarify objectives, set goals, overcome obstacles and act on agreed milestones.
Wellbeing Coaching is designed to help people identify the wide range of options available to help them manage their own health and wellbeing more effectively. Wellbeing Coaching can also be particularly useful for people struggling to manage change, suffering from stress, feeling lonely or miserable or wanting to resolve a specific problem or situation.
What Qualifies Graham Old to work as a Well-being Coach?
You can read Graham’s profile, including information on his style and qualifications, at the Hypnotherapy Directory.
Briefly, he is a highly trained hypnotherapist, having been trained in both direct and indirect styles of hypnosis. He is certified in Solution-Focused therapy, Motivational Interviewing and Coaching. He is a Rapid Results Pain Control Consultant, a Licensed Hypnoband Practitioner (one of only 2 in Northampton!) and a Certified Stress Management Consultant.
Perhaps more importantly, he has successfully battled with stress and depression in his life and has seen hypnosis empower him to lose weight, where diet after diet failed.
Many therapists or Hypnotists are solely focused on helping you deal with your problems. At Hypnosis Northampton, we would much rather focus on your as a person. We are interested in not just getting rid of problems, but in enhancing lives. As a part of the multi-disciplinary team at The Abington Clinic, Graham is uniquely positioned to assist and advise you, working with you to create the solutions that will bring more happiness and satisfaction into your life.
How do I book-in for Well-being Coaching?
You don’t! We prefer not to offer well-being coaching as a standalone option. Instead, it permeates every aspect of what we do. Why not simply book a session to come in and deal with whatever issue is bothering you? Let us take care of the label given to the tools we will use to help you – whether that’s hypnosis, NLP, Mindfulness, Acceptance and Committment Therapy, Solution-Focused Therapy or Coaching.
However, you can rest assured that whatever techniques or tools we use, it will come under the banner of Well-being Coaching – working with you, to lead you into a more satisfying future.
So I can’t come just for Coaching?
Sure. Some people still have hang-ups about Hypnosis or ‘therapy’ (even though our hypnosis is completely non-threatening and we do not do any “delve into the past” type of counselling). So, if you have particular feelings about a therapy that you would rather avoid, or especially want to experience, just say so.
On the whole, we do not separate the work that we do into hypnosis or coaching, as it is all used seamlessly. So, even if you choose to come just for Coaching, you may find the experience hypnotic!
Can you help me with this issue…?
The list of issues we can help with is on our Treatments page. So, if you want to come in to deal with nail-biting, or blushing, fear of flying, or sexual performance issues, Hypnosis can help. There’s no doubt about that. However, if you’re asking about our speciality, the area we focus on and are highly skilled-in is Well-being and all related physical, mental and social issues.
If you are trying to figure out whether your issue comes under this heading, ask yourself a simple question: Does this affect my satisfaction and happiness in life, or have a detrimental effect on my functioning? If the answers yes, contact Hypnosis Northampton without delay. Basically, breast enlargement, past-life regression and entertainment are out. Weight-loss, pain control and stress management are in!