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Body Image and the Older Woman

Body Image and the Older Woman It’s Mental Health Awareness Week and this year’s focus is all about body image – how we think and feel about our bodies and how that impacts our mental wellbeing. Last year the Mental Health Foundation found that 30% of all adults...

Health and Performance over Aesthetics

Health and Performance Over Aesthetics It’s Mental Health Awareness Week and this year’s focus is all about body image – how we think and feel about our bodies and how that impacts our mental wellbeing. Last year the Mental Health Foundation found that 30% of all...

How mindful & intuitive eating can impact our wellbeing and reduce stress

How Mindful & Intuitive Eating Can Impact our Wellbeing and Reduce Stress It’s Mental Health Awareness Week and this year’s focus is all about body image – how we think and feel about our bodies and how that impacts our mental wellbeing. Last year the Mental...

Body Image – Isn’t it Time You Took Back Control of Your Body?

Isn’t it Time You Took Back Control of Your Body? It’s Mental Health Awareness Week and this year’s focus is all about body image – how we think and feel about our bodies and how that impacts our mental wellbeing. Last year the Mental Health Foundation found...

Top Tips for Exam Revision

Top Tips for Exam Revision It’s that time of year once again when many people are studying for their school or university exams. It can be a very stressful time because often so much rides on the exam results. So how can you focus and concentrate on studying when all...

Me and My Dyspraxic Brain

Me and My Dyspraxic Brain It’s Brain Awareness Week so I wanted to talk to you about my brain which is probably a bit different to your’s, unless you are another one of the 20% or so of the population that has dyspraxia. Dys-whats-xia?!?! Don’t worry, that’s the...

Addiction – A Different Perspecitve

Addiction – A Different Perspective You could be forgiven for thinking that everyone who’s even mildly famous these days seems to have developed an addiction to something. Alcohol, recreational drugs, legal highs, prescription painkillers, gambling, sex,...

Happiness vs Success – Can We Have Both?

Happiness vs Success – Can We Have Both? It seems to me that there is a constant striving for this wonderful thing called happiness. From an early age we are taught that hard work leads to success and success leads to money and money leads to happiness – ...

The Suicide Epidemic

The Suicide Epidemic Project 84 The installation last year on top of two ITV buildings in central London (of 84 mannequins to represent the average of 84 men who take their own lives each week in the UK) attracted a huge amount of media attention. The idea behind...

Happy Parents, Happy Children?

Happy Parents, Happy Children? Is Putting Yourself First When Looking After Children Selfish? Are your child’s reactions seemingly exaggerated or are they triggered by minor knocks that previously they might have let wash over them? Are you at a loss over how to...

Feeling stuck in a Rut?

Feeling stuck in a rut? How to get yourself back on track before the New Year! Why do we do it? Why do we keep doing the same things and yet expect a different outcome? It doesn’t make sense does it? ‘Nothing changes if nothing changes’. It is as simple as that. If we...

Top Tips for Self Care

Top Tips for Self Care It’s human nature to care for others, to want to do the best we can for those around us. But often, in our drive to help others we forget to look after ourselves. Trust me – I’m a therapist, it’s a hazard of the trade! That’s one of the...

The World Cup – a fans perspective…

The World Cup, a fan’s perspective… ‘We are England’, now we have said that for years and sometimes even meant it, but quickly realised we were being over-optimistic. But this time it’s different, we say it, we mean it, we believe it… Regardless of...

Three things the England Football team should be doing to prepare for their semi-final against Croatia

Three things the England Football team should be doing to prepare for their semi-final against Croatia Who’d have thought it – England just a step away from playing in the finals of the world cup. It is 28 years since England last played in a world cup semi-finals...

Leaving the Armed Forces Doesn’t Have to be a Battle

Leaving the Armed Forces Doesn’t Have to be a Battle June 30th is Armed Forces Day. As a veteran myself I love the fact that we can openly celebrate the service of the men and women who chose to join up and do their bit. As a therapist and mental health expert I...

How Music Affects Your Brain

How Music Affects Your Brain June 21st is World Music Day! Music can be difficult thing to define because there are so many ways to describe and interpret exactly what it means. When I was at school I was taught that music is ‘an organised sound intended to be...

Surviving Cancer – Controlling the Uncontrollable

Surviving Cancer – Controlling the uncontrollable Today is Sunday 3rd June 2018, which is National Cancer Survivors’ Day. Today is Sunday 3rd June 2018, which is my 40th birthday; a day I would not have ever seen if I was not a Cancer Survivor myself. Before I...

Variety Is The Spice Of Life

Variety Is The Spice Of Life! I love this saying – it always fills me with a feeling of excitement! It is said to emphasize that doing many different things, or often changing what you do, makes life interesting. And it does! But to me, as a hypnotherapist is means...

Can Hypnotherapy Reduce Anxiety?

Can Hypnotherapy Reduce Anxiety? Here at Inspired to Change Hypnotherapy we help many people reduce their anxiety levels and move forward with their lives. With 1 in 6 of us suffering from anxiety it’s refreshing to find there is a solution that doesn’t...

Hypnotherapy vs Hypertension

Hypnotherapy vs Hypertension May 17th is “World Hypertension Day”. Did you know that, according to ISH, the International Society for Hypertension, Hypertension – or high blood pressure – is the number one contributing factor for global death, implicated as it...

Dementia and Hypnotherapy

Dementia and Hypnotherapy Dementia Action Week is all about focusing on what we can do to improve the lives of people affected by dementia. Here at Inspired to Change we are interested in discovering whether hypnotherapy could be part of a care package that makes a...

Are You Surviving or Thriving?

Are You Surviving or Thriving? A recent report by the Mental Health Foundation (MHF) showed that we are a nation teetering on the edge of a mental health disaster. The report found that just 13% of people report living with high levels of good mental health. Just...

Gardening vs Stress

Gardening vs Stress With recent bursts of sunshine and warm weather, the outdoors has truly come alive with the sprays of blossom and spring bulbs all around us. And whilst many of us are busy planning what to do with our gardens this year there are also many...

The Power of Placebo

The Power of Placebo With no less than three Inspired To Change Hypnotherapists working in Kent, we like to hang out together once in a while. It’s all part of our philosophy of working as a team despite each of us running our own individual practices, specialising...

7 Reasons a Cup of Tea is Good for Your Mental Health

7 Reasons a Cup of Tea is Good for Your Mental Health It is National tea day on 21st April – a day where all things tea is celebrated. There is even a festival devoted to it called Fes-TEA-val and in the UK, we are the 5th biggest consumer of tea in the world,...

Wear a Flower to Work Day – is it more than just a bit of fun?

Wear a Flower to Work Day – is it more than just a bit of fun? At Inspired to Change we love flowers so April 20th is a special day for us as it’s Wear a Flower to Work Day! The idea behind this fun campaign is to wear your favourite flower to work in...

Top Tips for Feeling Happy!

Top Tips for Feeling Happy! We all crave that wonderful feel good factor in our lives but just what is it and how can we get more of it? That wonderful happy feeling we are after is the release of feel good hormones, like serotonin. It is actually these chemicals that...

Celebrating the female contribution to Neuroscience

Celebrating the Female Contribution to Neuroscience March sees us celebrating International Women’s Day, a day to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievement of women. Here at Inspired to Change we celebrated by recognising, and most...

Top Tips for a Good Night’s Sleep

Top Tips for a Good Night’s Sleep With 1 in 3 of us not getting a good night’s sleep there is plenty of room for improvement! The good news is that the rewards are well worth it! Getting a good night’s sleep boosts your immune system, improves your cognitive functions...

Why is Sleep so Important?

Why is Sleep so Important? 1 in 3 of us don’t get enough sleep. So what? We all have busy lives, surely we have more important things to do than sleep? Our never ending ‘to do’ lists at work and at home mean lots of pressure on our time. And sleep doesn’t get things...

The “What If” Demons

The “What If” Demons It was the week before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse… or so I thought. But then a little demon came knocking. Yesterday I had to take a sick day – I was feeling so rotten...

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome – it’s not just about feeling tired!

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome – it’s not just about feeling tired! When most people think of me they think of perhaps the colour purple – my favourite colour and my branding. They might think of cats (I’ve got 5 after all) as they normally come up somewhere...

Need a Kick-Start to Spring?

Need a Kick-Start to Spring? Winter is over and we are now beginning to see signs of Spring: Longer days, the odd day of glorious sunshine and beautiful primroses and daffodils popping up in the Devon hedgerows and gardens. This normally brightens the spirit....

Need a Kick-Start to Spring With Your Horses?

Need a Kick-Start to Spring With Your Horses? Winter is nearly over and we are now beginning to see signs of spring – longer days, the odd day of glorious sunshine and beautiful primroses and daffodils popping up in the Devon hedgerows and gardens. This normally...

Can Hypnotherapy Really Help IBS?

Can Hypnotherapy Really Help IBS? Irritable Bowel Syndrome, or IBS as it’s generally referred to, is common. Very common. In my pharmacy practice, I must speak to someone at least once every day about diagnosis, how to manage their symptoms or about the current...

Exercise for Good Mental Health

Exercise for Good Mental Health If, like me, you exercise regularly, you probably do it because it makes you feel good, and maybe because it makes you look good, too. If you just did it because you ‘had’ to, and didn’t enjoy it, it’s unlikely to become a regular part...

A Lesson In Indian

The Indian Golden Triangle Challenge What I learned, what were the highlights and how did I do? So many things to say and so much to explain. There were so many highlights that I can’t pick one but I will try and trim the number down in order not to bore you all!...

Top Tips to Learn to Love Yourself

Top Tips to Learn to Love Yourself Shocking statistics show a level of chronic low self-esteem in men, women and children. What can we do to help ourselves learn to love ourselves again? Here at Inspired to Change we’ve pulled together some of our favourite Top Tips....

Learn to Love Yourself

Learn to Love Yourself It’s February and our thoughts turn to Valentine’s Day and the important relationships we have with others. I think it’s fantastic that we have a day dedicated to celebrating our most special of relationships. But I also think we are missing...

Hypnotherapy for Children – Can It Really Help?

Hypnotherapy for Children – Can It Really Help? I have worked with young children for almost 11 years now and in that time I have seen a huge change in practice with regards to their mental health. Health visitors and other professionals are now advised to look...

Building a True Connection With Your Horse

Building a true connection with your horse Over the last few years I have reconnected with my ‘special’ horse in a way I didn’t think possible and I put this down to the fact that I am a practicing clinical hypnotherapist. In each session with a client there is...

The Death of the Man – ‘Long Live The REAL Man’

It’s 13 days before I take on the challenge of a life time for some it might not be that much of a challenge but for me it going to be a real tough challenge. The cause of me doing such a stupid thing as cycling 500k in 25C heat and hotter across Rajasthan is that I...

‘Don’t Talk About it, Its a Man issue’

I’ve been banging on about the challenge I’m doing in India, which is in just 14 days, the one I’m doing on a push bike and taking a stuffed polar bear with me. But why should anyone take notice, there loads of people doing great things for their chosen great causes,...

Life Lessons from Winnie the Pooh

Life Lessons from Winnie The Pooh Until a couple of weeks ago I was not even aware that there was such a thing as Winnie The Pooh day, which is held on the birthday of Pooh’s author A. A. Milne. Even as a life-long Pooh bear fan, having loved the books since I was...

3 weeks to go!

With just 24 days before I leave for the Challenge of a lifetime I’m doing OK but need to just get the last few miles in on my training and the last few pounds off my belly. Despite some minor bike repairs needed that has slowed my training a little, a bakers’ cyst on...

How I Re-wired My Brain

How I re-wired My Brain In our last blog we talked about how we can re-wire our brain to help us to achieve our goals. Which sounds great in theory but how on earth do we go about doing it? I often hear my clients talking themselves into ways of being. ...

Can You Really Re-wire Your Brain?

Can You Really Re-Wire Your Brain? I don’t know about you but I find the whole ‘New Year, New You’ stuff a bit irritating. Am I really in that bad a place that I need a whole new me in order to get through the year? Ok, I’m not perfect, but a few minor...

I Can’t Bear Being Without A Name

It’s Competition Time!!! Inspired To Change founder Gary Johannes is attempting a 500 kilometre bike around the golden triangle in India in aid of C.A.L.M. is just 4 weeks away and we need your help. Gary has been given a polar bear mascot to take with him and we...

Top Tips for Positive Brain Time Travelling

Top Tips for Positive Brain Time Travelling Time Travelling isn’t all about Michael J Fox and DeLorean’s! Did you know our Brain time travels all the time if we let it? Our brain doesn’t know the difference between imagination and reality and that can...

The Art of Positive Reflection

The Art of Positive Reflection It’s December and the end of the year is fast approaching. It’s often a time to reflect back on the year past and to look ahead to the following year. Both of these activities are really good things to do but we can get it wrong! We can...