Counselling and Therapy at The Open Door

Maybe you haven’t ever sat on a seafront bench under a greying sky, looking blankly into the distance and having the sort of thoughts that the person in this picture may be having. But most of us, at some point in our lives, will find that we can identify quite closely with whatever might be going on for him even if we do it while sitting at the kitchen table or at our desk at work.

That’s why you may notice this image in Viva Lewes over the next few weeks or on flyers and posters around Lewes. The Open Door has now been up and running for six months and in that time our team of dedicated practitioners has expanded significantly so that we can now provide support and help with a wide range of issues such as anxiety, stress, depression, addictive or compulsive behaviour patterns, eating disorders, phobias, bereavement, sex and relationship difficulties, family tensions, post traumatic stress and the consequences of physical or sexual abuse.

Counselling, psychotherapy and hypnotherapy may be the kind of treatments you would expect to be offered if you are trying to cope with these sorts of problems and, as you will see on our website, we have a great team of experienced and very approachable practitioners in those specialisms.

But some people are anxious about the idea of engaging in a ‘talking therapy’. If that sounds like you then you may want to enquire about some of the other treatments available at the clinic which can have profound psychological and emotional benefits but the methods used are through a physical, and in some cases ‘self-help’ approach to treatment. See Richard Morley’s interesting contribution, below, on the treatment of anxiety using the Alpha-Stim microcurrent device. This is explained more fully in his clinic website listing under Hypnotherapy where he also explains his use of EMDR and NLP and has a link to his own website.  

Also on the clinic’s website under the heading ‘Craniosacral Therapy’ Steve Lane explains his Brainspotting therapy for the treatment of trauma and stress. Under the ‘Massage’ heading you may also want to check out Corinna Kitchen’s Biodynamic Massage treatment which uses a physical approach to access the less conscious aspects of our thoughts and feelings.

Psychological and emotional problems can also produce physical symptoms like muscle tension, back pain, migraines, irritable bowel, sleep problems and exhaustion so we also have practitioners who can offer treatments for these linked conditions. Reflexology, Massage, Craniosacral Therapy, Acupuncture, Emotional Freedom Technique, Reiki, Meditation and Mindfulness (to mention only a few!) can all be very helpful in this respect.

Some problems are more easily addressed by going to someone who isn’t a friend or family member. Our experienced practitioners are there to listen to what you have to say and offer help and support, or give you a physical treatment that might surprise you in the way that it can clear some of those grey clouds out of the way.

Anxiety still top of the list

More people present with anxiety than any other issue.  Yet more anxiety drugs are being prescribed than ever before and drugs inevitably have side effects.  Ironically, anxiety is sometimes one of them.

Fortunately there are ways of reducing anxiety that have no unpleasant side effects and often get to the root cause of the problem more effectively.

Some anxiety is caused by the way we think.  Anxious thoughts lead to anxious feelings, which in turn create more anxious thoughts.  Cognitive therapies can help you spot how you are thinking anxiously and you can then learn how change those thoughts.  Hypnotherapy, mindfulness, relaxation and exercise quieten down the amygdala, which is the part of the brain that creates the anxious feelings.  The amygdala sometimes makes mistakes and it can often be retrained so that it responds differently rather than causing you to flee, fight or freeze – such as when flying, or public speaking – both big anxiety triggers.

In addition, it is now known that 98% of brain communication activity is regulated electro-magnetically with only 2% being chemical.  There are devices that you can use at home which have an 80% success rate at significantly reducing anxiety, depression, insomnia and stress using minute currents that you cannot feel, yet leave you calm, relaxed and alert.  This has been confirmed in numerous clinical trials.   I’ve used them with hundreds of patients.  They are approved by the NHS and the biggest users are the United States armed forces.   

A typical session starts by exploring what sort of anxiety issue you have, what it is preventing you doing, what medication you are on, which therapies will suit you best. I design a programme specifically for you.  Anxiety does not have to be top of your list.

Richard Morley is an established clinical hypnotherapist and EMDR practitioner. He is a tutor at the London College of Clinical Hypnosis and a full member of the British Society of Clinical Hypnosis. He is one of only a few Certificated Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Health Practitioners in the UK, and a Master Practitioner and Trainer of NLP. He is a certified practitioner of Applied Neuroscience and a practitioner for the National Smoking Cessation Institute. He has helped thousands of people change their lives for the better.