The use of highly concentrated, aromatic plant essential oils to bring about healing effects is often called Aromatherapy. Whilst this may be a relatively new term in the grand scheme of things, the use of fragrant plant oils as medicines, perfumes and cosmetics is ancient.
Different plants have different properties: from antiseptic to detoxifying, from the treatment of burns to fungal infections. But one of today’s most popular uses of Aromatherapy is for affecting one’s mood and state of mind. Some plant oils have uplifting and invigorating effects, helping refresh and clear the mind. Others are calming, and can help induce relaxation or even sleep.
The fact that aromas can have profound effects on human emotions has been well documented scientifically, and essential oils have found use among consumers and holistic healers as supportive treatments for disorders such as depression, anxiety, indigestion, asthma, and many more.
A qualified Aromatherapist is able to create a bespoke treatment for you, carefully selecting a blend of essential oils to best address your current physical and emotional situation. These are added to a carrier oil and applied to your skin through gentle and soothing massage, to help calm the nervous system and induce relaxation and a sense of balance.
Your first session will involve taking your case history, so that we can decide on the most appropriate blend of essential oils to use. The oils are absorbed in minute and safe quantities and thus have a direct effect on your body, as well as your mind through your sense of smell and a soothing massage.
Aromatherapy is a cumulative therapy; an individual session can be very beneficial, but for help with specific problems, or as a preventative treatment, regular sessions are recommended.
Michelle Williamson
Biographical Info
Integrative Health Therapy –
Many, if not all of us suffer from symptoms – physical, mental and emotional. Some of us accept these as part of life, others of us recognise them as “a call to action” to redress the balance somewhere in our lives.
We forget that body and mind are intertwined – one affects the other, and has a knock on affect on our lives, whether that’s our energy or ability to do or not do things we’d like to or should do, our effectiveness at work, at home, our relationships and so on.
The people who take action, may well see various experts to sort out their back, their hormones, their eating habits, their lifestyles and so on, but wouldn’t it be fabulous, time saving and cost effective to be able to see one person who can provide an umbrella of benefits in a single location!
I think so. This broad view enables me to coordinate and integrate a wide range of resources* in order to affect the greatest change(s) for you, a bit like having your own personal project manager for your health, your life, yourself. Any project manager, with their overview of all the pieces that must come together and work together in order to complete the job, can identify the impact that one thing being out of sync will have upon the rest, and the entire project, and thus make adjustments accordingly in any or every area.
My understanding of this approach started with my own personal journey. I wasn’t well in my early twenties and despite many blood tests, antibiotics and a misdiagnosis of appendicitis, standard medical practice couldn’t treat me. Thankfully a friend was already aware of Complementary Medicine, and suggested I see someone that she and her mum went to, and there began my recovery, but most importantly my enlightenment in what was wrong and how to put it right. And so began my passion for learning and exploring wellness – mental, physical, emotional health and vitality – right down to how internal and external environments play a major role in our lives.
Remember this: the body heals itself. A broken bone does not need a pill to mend, but it does need a supportive environment (cast and sling) to facilitate the natural process. Bearing this fact in mind, it would be of greater benefit to us, when unwell, or suffering from reoccurring symptoms, such as headaches, Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), skin complaints and Pre-Menstrual Syndrome (PMS), to recognise that something(s) in our life is preventing us from healing naturally. There literally is dis-ease somewhere in that person’s life– which when located and dealt with, enables symptoms to disappear. One of the best examples of how quickly this can happen, was a man with psoriatic arthritis, who’d been signed off work for several months, and despite medication and continual visits to his GP, continued to be in pain and embarrassed about how he looked. Within a very short period of time he was pain free and his skin was healing.
I love helping people make changes and let go of anything that limits them or restricts their life. My clients come to me with a wide range of problems or goals, probably including yours, so if you are committed to changing, then I may well be able to help. My guarantee is that if after our first session, either of us doesn’t think that I can, the session is free. My rate is £95 per session. The first usually lasts between 60 and 90 minutes, and subsequent ones 60 minutes. Depending upon your response between the first and second session, we may only require 30 minute sessions thereafter, which are priced at £48.
If you want to be really well and free of those things that limit you and your life, to look good, feel good and live a fuller life – then make a start. I would love to be part of your journey, so please come and see me, and discover what I may be able to do for you.
*I draw from a number of disciplines including:
Amatsu, Bach Flower Remedies, Reflexology, Reiki, Sports Massage, Cognitive Hypnotherapy, Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), Transactional Analysis and Positive Psychology, and have had the immense privilege of working and training with Trevor Silvester, Richard Bandler, Anthony Robbins and Paul McKenna.
I now work at Marlow Homeopathy and in Eton.
Cognitive Hypnotherapy –
Opening Minds … Changing Lives
” So often it happens, we all live our life in chains, and we never even know we have the key “ – The Eagles, ” Already Gone “ |
Many, if not all of us, struggle in some area of our lives. So whether its fear of driving on motorways, inability to perform under pressure (e.g. exams, interviews, sports) or problematic relationships with our partners, children, bosses etc, the result is the same: we can feel anxious, frustrated, overwhelmed and stuck. Intermittently, these issues aren’t necessarily disabling, just a bit limiting, but if experienced on a regular or continual basis, they chip away at our self worth, and undermine our ability to lead full and happy lives.
We don’t struggle along because we enjoy it, it’s because we don’t know that there’s an alternative. We don’t know how to change things. And if we’ve tried, but unsuccessfully, we can form the belief that it’s not possible to change things, or even that it’s safer not to try, so that at least we don’t have to suffer further disappointment.
” We cannot solve problems by using the same level of thinking we used when we created them “ – Albert Einstein |
And this is the key ….
Many of you may have heard that on average we use about 5% of our brains, and some lucky people use about 10%, Albert Einstein probably being one! So this leaves us with between 90-95% of untapped resource lying dormant. That’s an awful lot of potential going to waste! And much of that potential, that key, lies within the power of our unconscious mind.
Our conscious minds process approximately 5-9 pieces of information per second, but our unconscious can process in the region of 2,000,000 pieces per second – which is why tapping in to this vast resource via hypnosis or trance, enables people to make change much more easily and quickly than they often anticipate.
Cognitive Hypnotherapy combines the use of hypnosis, with those elements of psychology, which explore the way we process information, form perceptions and beliefs, and our emotional and behavioural responses to those perceptions and beliefs; and it is this very combination which gives us the means to adapt treatment specifically to you, the individual, with your unique ways of thinking, your values and your needs, and renders the process so effective*.
If you have already read my blurb about Integrative Health Therapy (see above), you will already know that it was my own struggle with my physical health, and the impact this had on the rest of my life, that led me along a path of discovery about the mind-body relationship, how to be well and how to get my life back. Those of you who’ve had a similar experience will know the overwhelming sense of gratitude you’re filled with for coming out the other side, and can appreciate my wish to share these learnings and enable others to experience the same.
My personal experience, training, and years of practice with all sorts of people and problems have equipped me with a solid foundation for enabling people to find the key that opens the doors of perception, to opening their minds and changing their lives.
I love helping people to make those changes; and my clients come to me with a very wide range of problems or goals, probably including yours! So if you are committed to changing, then I may well be able to help. My guarantee is that if, after our first session, either of us doesn’t think that I can, then the session is free. My rate is £95 per session. The first usually lasts between 60 and 90 minutes, and subsequent ones 60 minutes.
If you want to be free of those things that limit you and your life, look good, feel good and live a fuller life – make a start. I would love to be part of your journey, so please come and see me, and discover what I may be able to do for you.
Below, I’ve inserted a reference on the research that has been carried out on the various forms of psychotherapy and the outstanding results from combining a cognitive approach with hypnosis.
*Smith et al. (1980) carried out one of the largest and most influential studies ever conducted on comparative psychotherapy outcomes. From meta-analysis of 475 controlled studies, employing tens of thousands of participants, they pooled data comparing different modes of psychotherapy in a genuinely seminal analysis that initiated the modern era in psychotherapy efficacy research. Measurement of the “effect size” of different modalities of psychotherapy showed that only four categories performed better than the average. Specifically, “Cognitive, cognitive-behavioural therapies, hypnotherapy, and systematic desensitisation appeared most effective.” (Smith et al., 1980: 124). Hypnotherapy more than doubled the effect size of conventional psychodynamic psychotherapy. By this time many researchers and clinicians had already observed that hypnotherapy seemed to create a “synergistic” effect when combined with cognitive-behavioural therapy.
I underwent my training in Cognitive Hypnotherapy with the Quest Institute in 2004, and went on to complete my Master Practitioner with them in Neuro-Linguistic Programming, as well as a further three years assisting with new students. Over the years, I have had the immense privilege of working and training with Trevor Silvester, Richard Bandler, Anthony Robbins and Paul McKenna.