Cenacle Treatment Centre

What is stress

Stress is a psychological and physiological response to events that upset our personal balance in some way. When faced with a threat, whether to our physical safety or emotional equilibrium, the body's defenses kick into high gear in a rapid, automatic process known as the “fight-or-flight” response. We all know what this stress response feels like: heart pounding in the chest, muscles tensing up, breath coming faster, every sense on red alert.

If you have a lot of responsibilities and worries, you may be running on stress a good portion of the time—launching into emergency mode with every traffic jam, phone call from the in-laws, or segment of the evening news. But the problem with the stress response is that the more it’s activated, the harder it is to shut off. Instead of leveling off once the crisis has passed, your stress hormones, heart rate, and blood pressure remain elevated.

Cost of health Products

With the rising obesity epidemic, increasingly large numbers of people are spending huge amounts of money on so called “health” products that advertise themselves as aiding weight loss. In reality they are proving to be ineffective

A new EU Directive on Unfair Commercial Practices has been adopted this year in the UK and it is hoped it will help prevent consumers spending money on these useless food products in an attempt to prevent their disease. Although it is illegal for unsubstantiated claims to be made on the nutritional functions of food products, many benefits are still implied through use of brand names and packaging images even with no evidence.

Consumers are easily tempted to part with huge amounts of money in an attempt to help curb their problem. It is hoped (Lean 2008) that this new EU directive will put a halt to this practice.

Gambling Support

Gambling is fast becoming a widespread problem in the UK today.  "It is thought there are about three hundred thousand problem gamblers across the UK. This is a huge figure and a clinic has been set up in Soho London, by the NHS for these gamblers to access a counselling service.  Counselling can help clients with addictions, as it is an illness not a habit, some might say.

Obsessions, and the by products of it being; anxiety, stress, depression, and in some cases suicide, all come from a clients obsession with one particular object.  In this case its gambling, an obsession with winning back the losses, thinking its a quick fix to financial freedom.  If only I could win this to get that, it would be fine, and so the cycle continues. 

Cognitive behaviour therapy is ideal for this and a suggested amount would be at least 12 sessions, alongside group work also, to share and learn from other people in the same situation.  Clients I have worked with describe ' never being satisfied with what they have but rather what they might have' and so are always striving for that winning buzz' these words are from a client I have worked with and through
counselling and group work, this client has moved forward with his life, and has learnt to manage his debts, with the techniques picked up in counselling and talking to others.

Child abuse, more help for victims

Child abuse is still a taboo subject in today's society.  However it is a subject that needs to be talked about more in order to help victims come forward to talk about and take the stigma away from the subject by acknowledging that it is happening today, as much as it happened thirty years ago.  One such story told by a 41 year old woman, described as 'single and childless' tells her story, and a familiar story in the world of Child sexual abuse. The headline reads " My Mum didn't stop my stepfather abusing me".

This is quite a shocking headline to some, but alas a very common theme amongst the victims of CSA.  As a counsellor  with several years experience in the field of rape, and  CSA, I found working with these women, this was the case for seven out of ten victims. Their Mother knew it was happening but did nothing to protect their daughters.  Consequently as adults, these women cant come to terms with what happened to them and why why why did their sole carer not protect them? These are just some of the questions a victim of CSA goes through, when they come to counselling.

Football team use NLP

Bolton wanderers have enlisted a Psychologist and Hypnotherapist to improve their mindset. Jamil Quereshi an NLP expert will work with players at the Premier League team, both individually and as a team, using a mind shaping process, which aims to reprogramme the mind to encourage positive thnking.

Dr Richard Freedman, Bolton Wanderes sports science and medicine expert said "This is new to football and yet again we lead the way at the cutting edge of sports development. Jamil will be a tremendous asset for us going into the new season".

Hypnosis for childbirth

Why chose hypnosis for childbirth?
Hypnosis for childbirth has been around for many years. Dr Grantly Dick -Read, a British physician was the first to propose the "fear-tension-pain" syndrome in his work Natural Childbirth (1933) and recommended natural childbirth preperation as a means to prepare for birth.

Midwives and physicians recommend natural childbirth preparation. The Royal College of Midwives also admits that hypnotherapy can help some women and says that "any method that can help calm a woman's labour fears are beneficial".

Hypnosis applies the theory on a subconscious level, which at the same time allows your physical body to deeply relax, not only during the sessions but also during the birth. Research studies from around the world show that the use of hypnosis for childbirth results in:-

Bottled Water is Impure?

 A two-year study by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) analysed ten popular brands of water. They found thirty eight chemical pollutants, with an average of eight contaminants in each brand. Further, more than one-third of the chemicals found are not regulated in bottled water. What types of pollutants did they find?

• Disinfection byproducts

• Urban waste water pollutants like caffeine and pharmaceuticals (Tylenol)

Size zero and infertility link

Professor Brian Lieberman from Manchester Fertility Services has recently highlighted the risks to a woman’s fertility by following the latest trend to become a ‘size 0’ in an attempt to mimic celebrities who are exceptionally thin.

Women with a body mass index (BMI) of less than 19 are at risk of irregular or absent periods which can result in infertility as ovulation ceases. In addition it can also lead to osteoporosis. A certain amount of body fat is required to store and produce oestrogen, essential for fertility.
This is reversible with adequate weight gain to achieve a healthy BMI of 19-25.

OBESITY – meeting the challenge

Obesity is a major health problem in the 21^st century both across the UK and worldwide. It is defined as a body mass index equal to or over 30kg/m2 (Health Survey for England 2006).

According to the government’s foresight report (2007), by the year 2050 sixty percent of men and fifty percent of women in the UK could be obese due to ‘passive obesity’ – a state in which the effects of modern living overpower biological control of body weight. The result is that every generation becomes heavier than the previous one.

Costs of Stress in the Workplace

Costs of Stress in the Workplace:

•  Stress, anxiety and depression is now the single biggest cause of sickness absence in the UK
• 46% of employers have reported an increase in stress-related absence within the workplace 
• The estimated cost of sickness absence to the British economy is  around 12 billion pounds per year

This equates to approximately 1600 pounds per employee.