In the varied field of counselling and psychotherapy, continuous professional development is essential for us as therapists to provide the best possible support to our clients. 

One valuable tool that plays an important part in my journey is ongoing learning via supervision sessions with a senior Hypnotherapist, qualified in supervision. This form of guided reflection and mentorship not only fosters personal and professional growth, but also ensures ethical and effective practices during sessions. It is something that Topaz Health Training is committed to long term to ensure we can best support you, however that may be. 

The Basics of Supervision:

Supervision involves a collaborative relationship between my supervisor and myself as a therapist. The goal is to enhance the quality of services I provide through a combination of education, support, and reflection. The structured process provides a safe space for me to discuss my cases anonymously and confidentially, explore challenging issues, and receive constructive feedback in order to improve.

Key Elements of Supervision:
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Reflective Practice: Supervision encourages me to engage in reflective practice. Through thoughtful exploration of my own reactions, thoughts, and feelings during client sessions, I can gain deeper insights into my work and identify areas for improvement and development.

Case Discussion: Discussing specific cases inconfidence with my supervisor allows me to benefit from their experience and expertise. This collaboration of examining my real life clients not only enhances problem-solving skills but also encourages me to gather a broader understanding of various therapeutic approaches.

Professional Development: Supervision is an ongoing process that supports me in staying up to date with the latest research, interventions, and ethical considerations. This commitment to professional development ensures that I continue to evolve and provide high quality, current and successful services to my clients.

Ethical Guidance: Supervision serves as a crucial forum for discussing ethical dilemmas and challenges that I may encounter in my day to day life. By providing a confidential space for open dialogue, my supervisor helps me to navigate any ethical issues while upholding the highest standards of professional conduct.

Benefits of Supervision Therapy:

Enhanced Competence: Regular supervision contributes to the development of my own knowledge, increasing my confidence in handling diverse situations.

Reduced Burnout: The emotional demands of my job can lead to burnout if not managed effectively. Supervision provides emotional support and helps me to develop self-care strategies, reducing the risk of burnout.

Cultivation of a Learning Culture: Supervision encourages a culture of continuous learning within the profession. By engaging in regular supervision I am more likely to embrace a growth mindset and a commitment to lifelong learning.

To summarise, supervision is a powerful tool for therapists such as myself who are committed to providing the best possible care to my clients. 
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In this collaborative journey of self-discovery and professional growth, supervision stands as a beacon, guiding Topaz Health Training towards fulfilling our mission “Making a difference; empowering, educating and changing lives” and we very much look forward to welcoming you to join us on your journey.

The Mental Health Foundation carried out a study that showed 74% of people have felt so stressed they have been overwhelmed or unable to cope. Stress is a necessary part of life (yes really) - appropriate amounts of stress help to motivate us to act.
 
What is Stress?
According to The Mental Health Foundation “Stress is our body’s response to pressure. Many different situations or life events can cause stress. It is often triggered when we experience something new or unexpected that threatens our sense of self or when we feel we have little control over a situation.”

Moderate amounts of stress actually help improve your memory and productivity by strengthening the connection between the neurons in your brain. The problems start when the amount of stress outweighs your ability to cope. Often referred to as your resilience and ability to cope with adversity. You know how some people seem to manage a lot of challenges at once and others find even minor stressors just too much? Well, every day we meet challenges that may or may not cause us stress and we will all respond differently based on our experience and levels of resilience.

The important thing is to find healthy ways to manage stress before it fills the metaphorical stress bucket in our minds. High levels of stress are linked to an increase in stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol which lead to poor sleep patterns and a lowered immune system. This is often why you might experience upset stomachs, increased anxiety symptoms, indigestion, fatigue and catch every cold bug around!

How to Manage Stress
Some proven ways of managing stress and improving your overall well being include:

• Taking time out in nature
• Deep breathing 
• Relaxation exercises
• Meditation
• Hypnotherapy

All these methods help to reduce the stress hormones - they can regulate brainwave activity, increasing the parasympathetic nervous system (sometimes referred to as your ‘rest and digest’ system) so you feel calmer, positive and able to cope better with whatever life has to offer.

Contact us to find out more about how Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can help you manage your stress (and reduce your stress bucket!).

​Would you like a more positive way to manage your health and be a healthy weight?
Do you find yourself having a hidden battle with your weight, trying many different diets, or using negative language about yourself and the food you eat? Do you label your food good and bad?

As someone whose weight fluctuates easily, I know the hidden battle of dieting,
exercising and not always liking how your body looks in the mirror. What I have learnt
through my coaching and hypnotherapy training is that weight loss is only part of the
problem, for when we are focusing on what we do not want; worrying and increasing
stress levels, we attract more weight.

Solution-Focused Hypnotherapy (SFH) has allowed me to change my thoughts towards
my own weight management and to realise the benefits that it can bring to improving my
overall health and wellbeing.

There is more to ‘weight management’ than the end goal and SFH helps us to identify
the underlying issues which are contributing toward this negative self-perception. It can
help promote a healthier mindset and a more positive relationship with food. It can also
help you to change your mindset and adjust your thoughts, beliefs and attitudes towards
food, exercise and your body. Neuroscience tells us that all meaningful change happens
at the subconscious level.

We know weight related issues are not just about diet and exercise. Stress levels and
emotional wellbeing all play a part. SFH incorporates relaxation techniques and stress
reduction strategies to help you manage and overcome stress effectively. Reducing
stress levels helps to lower stress hormones such as cortisol which can increase fat
storage. When our stress levels are lower, we are less likely to do things that negatively
affect our weight goals such as overeating or eating overly processed foods.

SFH also helps us to change our outlook by helping to improve self-esteem and
confidence by reinforcing positive thoughts. Visualising these during our sessions we
actively develop a more positive self-perception which contributes to long-term reported
happiness and weight management success.

While there is no quick fix for weight management, SFH provides the positive mindset
which will help motivate you towards your goal and to also feel more positive in all areas
of life. Here at Topaz Health, we offer a unique combination of SFH and neuroscience-
based coaching to help you achieve and maintain healthy changes throughout lifes
everyday challenges.

If this is something you would be interested learning more about then contact me on
07974 095011 or email me at [email protected] to book a complimentary
discovery session.

As far back as I can remember, I have been a people pleaser, but my first memory of true anxiety was when I started dance college. Completely stepping outside of my comfort zone, away from the path my school friends had taken and into a world where everybody else seemed so cool, calm and together.
 
The anxiety has come in waves since then, I had bad moments and good moments, but I always managed to push through it and never let it stop me doing the things I wanted in life. I refused to let it paralyse me into avoiding the things that made me truly happy. Then I had a baby.
 
I was so cool and calm during pregnancy. Throughout my twenties, I had developed coping strategies of yoga, reiki, meditation and carrying crystals to keep myself calm and centred (it was a bit of a running joke with friends that I was a secret hippy!), and I carried this on throughout my pregnancy. I enrolled in hypnobirthing sessions and sat back and waited to be the cool calm mummy I wanted to be.
 
Fast forward 4 years and I look back at my pregnancy wistfully, wishing I could be as calm now as I was then. Postnatal anxiety is not talked about as much as postnatal depression, but it is a thing and it hit me hard. Throughout the 4 years of my little boy's life, it has come and gone in waves. Sometimes I felt like I had a lid on it, but more frequently I felt constantly paralysed with fear that something bad was going to happen to him.
 
I met Suzi when she booked in for a Reflexology session with me, and during her session we began talking about her work. The mention of Hypnotherapy piqued my interest and in the back of my mind I knew it was something that I needed to try.
 
I started off with eight weekly sessions with Suzi. I had no idea what to expect, as all I had known of hypnosis in the past was the comedy acts you see on tv or in holiday resorts.
I wasn’t even sure that I “could” be hypnotised, but to be honest, by this point, I was willing to try anything to help myself feel better.
 
A session with Suzi always starts with listing the positive things that have happened that week. In the past, I have always prided myself as being a positive person, but speaking to Suzi made me realise I had been slipping into quite a negative mindset, which is so easy to do without realising. Listing positives seems like such a simple thing to do, but I found that doing this each week during my session really trained my mind to focus on all the good things that were happening around me. After this, we would talk about how my week had been in general and set goals/tasks that centred around little things that could improve my all round general well-being.
 
After this we go ahead with the relaxation. I have done a lot of guided meditations in the past and in the beginning, this is what hypnotherapy mostly felt like. I sat back, tried to clear my mind, and let Suzi’s words sink in and relax me. Afterwards, I felt calm and very sleepy - I almost never want to wake up and leave the room once the session is finished!
 
After a few weeks of these sessions, I realised I was feeling calmer and less stressed. I started to realise that, although the sessions felt similar to my guided meditations, the repetition and the wording of the relaxations were most definitely having an effect on the workings of my mind, and each time I went, I was sinking into an even deeper “trance”. Towards the end of my eight weeks of sessions, there was definitely a breakthrough moment, where I could really start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It took a lot of baby steps to get there, but those weeks of baby steps made a huge change to the workings of my mind and my ability to deal with stressful situations.
 
I now see Suzi roughly every two weeks, and she keeps me on the straight and narrow!
 
Would I say my anxiety has gone? No, in a way a small part of it is who I am. But I am in a much better place than I was at the end of last year. If I feel those thoughts and worries spiralling out of control again, I know that a session with Suzi will leave me feeling calmer and back on track.

Guest blog written by Chloe from Reflexology by Chloe.

If you would like to contact Chloe, you can reach her here: [email protected]

With the ease of lockdown measures and longer, brighter days, hopefully all of us can start to feel more like our “usual self”; more energised, motivated and positive.  The increased sunshine during this time of year (although not always guaranteed in the UK 😊) also helps to boost our Vitamin D levels which plays a part in energy production, positive mood and feeling more motivated too.

Moving more, eating healthy foods, sleeping well, doing things that relax you and drinking plenty of fresh water daily are all ways in which we can help keep our bodies healthy and energetic. 

What is motivation? Where does it come from?  How do we stay motivated when pursuing a new challenge?

You start to learn a new subject, look for a new job opportunity, change your diet, attempt to quit smoking, or change an unhelpful habit and you feel really motivated to start with, you manage a week, two weeks or more and yet at some point the motivation (or will power) to continue fails.  Trust me, I’ve been there too, failed attempts in dieting, exercising and in my 20’s several failed attempts to quit smoking before I learnt about how our thoughts affect our feelings and behaviours. 

So how do you keep motivated?  The key to any successful behaviour change is to have a vision, who you want to be, what you want to achieve, how you want to feel.  The vision needs to be set-in the future, maybe close your eyes and envision yourself being, doing and having what you desire.  Take time to see, feel, hear the new situation, the new you.  Make the vision so powerful that even on days when you lack motivation you can return to the vision to help find the motivation to make the change you want. Also, know it is ok to have days when you are unmotivated, rather than criticising yourself and your failed efforts remember you are on a journey and you can stop and start again each new day.

If you are interested in knowing more about motivation, we are offering a Motivate Me! coaching discovery taster of 3 one-hour sessions for £125.00 usually £225.00 during May. You will be guided through goal setting and NLP techniques to change unhelpful thought patterns and increase your motivation to achieve and make permanent changes.

For more information contact me on 07974095011 or email [email protected]
I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all my clients, family and friends who have supported my business during lockdown, who knew coaching on Zoom would be a thing a year ago!  The great news is the new Wellbeing Coaching Office is now open in Huntingdon, 49A High Street, PE29 3AQ and hourly sessions and coaching packages are discounted by 25% throughout May 2021 with this article.  I look forward to welcoming you to our new home in the heart of Huntingdon and wish all SPARK readers a happy, healthy and motivated May.

Suzi’s coaching qualifications include Master NLP Practitioner, Hypnotherapist and Time-Line Therapist (ABNLP). Suzi has also undertaken CBT, Life Coaching and regularly participates in continuous professional development and is registered with The Academy of Modern Applied Psychology.

Finding Your Motivation In May
Spark Magazine
May 2021 / May Issue / P14