This is a guest article by Andrew Salmon.

We’re all consumers. We love every gadget, antique doohickie, fashion, and bauble on the market and, before you know it, we’ve stuffed every nook, cranny, closet and shelf in our homes with stuff. Some of these items make are lives easier, some enrich our journey, and others are just pretty to look at. But there comes a time of critical mass when we simply run out of space for our trinkets. Then what? Well there is a way out from under the mountain of stuff we surround ourselves with. And it’s easier than you think.

1. Haul Your Trash!

This is the fastest way to begin reducing clutter in the home. Take a look around you. Is that an old pile of newspapers in the corner? Overflowing recycling bins in the porch? Full trash cans decorated with the odd crumpled ball that missed when you attempted a Steve Nash 3-pointer? Amateur lab experiments in your fridge? Get rid of this stuff! Curb it! Now you’re on your way!

2. Calling Dr. Jones!

Remember that suit/dress you wore to your best friend’s wedding 8 years ago? Or those LPs you stuck in the back of your closet because you thought they’d be worth something? How about those shoes you couldn’t bear to part with? Or the empty boxes stored flat under the bed? Well, it’s time to don your Indiana Jones fedora and excavate your hidey-holes. You’ll be surprised to find that stuff stored in these lost recesses years ago is no longer relevant to the present-day you. If it’s out of style, it’s out of here! If it doesn’t fit, it’s gone. Boxes to the recycling. LPs to the thrift store – or eBay if you’ve got an entrepreneurial streak. Either way, be ruthless. It’s tucked away, forgotten. You’ve gone x-number of years without it. Time to move it on out the door.

3. Tech = Yecch!

Without a doubt the #1 source of clutter in the 21st century is technology. TVs, CD and DVD players, computers, phones, appliances and toys will have you sleeping on your porch for want of space if you aren’t careful. Here’s what you can do about it. CD music can be stored on your computer, iPod or MP3 Player. Sell the discs for quick cash, or donate them, but get them off the shelf. The same goes for DVD movies. If it’s not your absolutely favourite movie of all time, then show it the door. Got an old TV in the basement. Bye-bye. Ditto that DVD player you’re going to fix all by yourself one day. Got suckered into the latest Veg-O-Matic infomercial? Well, the damage has been done, but you don’t have to look at the thing. Goodbye! The simple rule for technology is: if you’re not using it regularly, you don’t need it. No exceptions.

4. Close Down Your Gap Franchise

Clothes give technology a run for its money when it comes to clutter. Get rid of: what doesn’t fit, what’s out of style, what needs the mending you never seem to get around to doing. If you don’t wear it regularly, you don’t need it. This is essential if you’ve got limited space in which to store spring/summer, fall/winter stuff. The answer is simple: get seasonal. If it’s 30C outside, you don’t need the parka. Flip-flops in January?! As the seasons change so should the look of your closets and drawers. Store the winter clothes in the summer, and vice versa when the artic winds begin to howl. Basements, storage lockers, packed tightly in containers under the bed… this are where seasonal clothes belong until needed.

5. Get Organized!

A place for everything and everything in its place. Shoes go on the shoe rack, not on the floor near the shoe rack. Coats in the closet, not the doorknob or the back of a chair. Dirty laundry in the hamper, clean in the closets and dressers. I think you get the message here. Set aside a place for something and keep it there when not in use. After all, what was the point of creating all that free space if you’re not going to use it efficiently?

6. Ask Why Before You Buy

Now that you’ve organized the stuff in your home it’s time to take preventative measures. That is unless you’re looking forward to having to go through these steps again in a few years. If not, then simply ask yourself why you’re buying the next shiny object that crosses your line of sight. Impulse buys = Clutter. Einstein may not have proved this equation but it’s true. Before you bring something new into your home, decide if it’s something you need, or something you merely want? If it’s the latter, then put it back. Go home and enjoy the clean, neat living space you worked so hard to create.

Andrew Salmon is an author and freelance writer. He writes about various healthy living and finance topics including life insurance in Canada.

Well in excess of four hundred different counselling styles used by mental health practitioners today exist to treat stress related problems. Two main schools of hypnosis have emerged, the older model being Traditional hypnosis and the more recent being Eriksonian hypnosis. However research has consistently demonstrated that the relationship between therapist and client (also referred to as the therapeutic alliance), rather than the therapists counselling style, is what makes or breaks the successful therapy.

So if it doesn’t matter what approach is used, why should counselling and hypnotherapy be combined?

Milton Erikson, the founder of Ericksonian hypnotherapy claimed that processing and change had to occur in the conscious and unconscious mind to really be effective. While counselling traditionally targets conscious experiences (such as thoughts, images and feelings we can easily access and communicate to others), hypnosis aims to influence the unconscious mind. So while the counselling process, involving respect, empathy and listening encourage conscious trust, hypnosis performed in a safe environment by a qualified and experienced practitioner helps to develop unconscious trust and rapport. Counselling and psychotherapy, whatever the approach, can help to make hypnosis and NLP more effective and vice versa, even though each attempts to address problems from a slightly different perspective.

Hypnotherapy usually focuses on changing behaviours, while counselling and psychotherapy more often help to promote self-understanding and self-acceptance. Together, breaking old habits and developing more adaptive behaviours and improving self-esteem and self-knowledge can create a much happier individual. Therefore, its impossible to really compare counselling and hypnotherapy. It would be like asking who’s better out of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones – they are both popular and well-known bands with much to offer.

Hypnotherapy can help psychologists, counsellors and psychotherapists who are wanting to help their client deepen their self-understanding and awareness of their transferences (seeing aspects of authority figures from childhood, such as parents and teachers, in perceived authority figures in adulthood) and projections (seeing disliked qualities of themselves in other people) through establishing a secure relationship with the unconscious. It can also be one of the fastest ways to develop rapport and trust with a therapist.

On a more individual level, I use dream work and analysis with my clients to help them identify more with their unconscious and to help them better understand the messages being sent from this part of the mind. Interventions promoting relaxation, such as light trances, meditative practices and Eriksonian hypnotherapy greatly accelerates this process. Another handy by product is increasing memory recall and self—confidence.

A further common difference between hypnotherapy and psychotherapy is the number of sessions required. Psychotherapy can literally go on for years, and in some schools such as traditional psychoanalysis, therapy is viewed as a life-long endeavour. Hypnotherapy can bring about noticeable changes in just a few sessions. Of course this is an average and will vary from person to person. While both approaches can be crucial to long-term healing such as in cases of unresolved or complex trauma, there are some issues such as nail-biting that hypnotherapy alone will be able to assist with.

So why in the world would anyone think abut having long term therapy that goes for months and in some cases years? In my view, NLP and hypnotherapy themselves are not able to address deep seated emotional and attachment disorders originating in early childhood. These issues are thought to arise due to parents not responding effectively to the needs of their infants and young children. This lack of response can range from the parents misinterpreting that their baby is hungry when the baby is cold, to parents overtly ignoring, neglecting and abusing their children. The relationship and responses we receive from our parents in the earliest years of our life go on to form the templates we use that guides our expectations of what we will receive from others in all sorts of relationships including platonic, professional and intimate. Almost everyone who seeks psychotherapy have an insecure attachment style which can either be avoidant (lots of conscious mind activity, but rarely any emotional or feeling states), anxious ambivalent (flooded with and guided by emotional feelings and states with less conscious mind activity) and disorganised (who are incredibly sensitive to threats, inherently mistrusting and find it very difficult to feel safe).

Regardless if the presenting complaint is anxiety, pain, depression, addiction, OCD, trauma or relationship problems, there will always be an attachment disorder exacerbating the emotional torment. All of these problems unconsciously have one purpose: to avoid feelings. That is why “getting rid of a behaviour”, for example quitting smoking or giving up alcohol is not enough. While the behaviour may be gone, the underlying motivation for the behaviour lingers and eventually crops up again if the deeper reasons are not acknowledged, processed and understood for what they really are and what they represent. This is explains why I see so many people who have “tried so much hypnotherapy and NLP and CBT before”. I reassure them that there is a very valuable place for hypnotherapy within the counselling relationship but it is not a quick fix.

Willing people work courageously to face their inner conflicts and resolve them in time. This develops an authentic self, a self which is well integrated, congruent and fully aware of all it’s aspects. In effect, this process transforms and insecure attachment into a secure one, helping to shield against depression, anxiety, stress and traumatic feelings.

In my view true therapeutic work comes from changing an attachment pattern to a secure attachment complex. With a safe enough therapeutic alliance and weekly sessions this can be possible. A key pillar of this process in the ability of the therapist to remain non-judgemental, to offer ongoing acceptance and respect regardless of what the client discloses. With hypnotherapy and self-hypnosis the client can learn how to do this for themselves by accepting what they experience non-judgementally. This takes regular practice of around two years for the plasticity of the brain to change and an adaptive attachment style formed. This does require a commitment of energy, time and money, however the life waiting for you at the end of the rainbow is well worth it. Can you imagine being more resilient to stress?

Melbourne Hypnotherapist and Counsellor Adam Szmerling has been practicing since 1996. He has completed and Advanced Diploma of Clinical Hypnotherapy, an undergraduate university degree in counselling and postgraduate studies in counselling and psychotherapy. He is a Master Practitioner of NLP and takes a Mindfulness and Attachment Therapy approach to counselling, integrating clinical hypnotherapy, NLP, mindfulness, psychodynamic and experiential approaches to best support the needs of each individual client he is privileged work with.

http://www.baysidepsychotherapy.com.au/

Hypnotherapy can certainly help PTSD. But hypnosis can hinder people with PTSD. Just like depression, which is a kind of symptomatic trance in itself, it is vital to see a well trained and experienced counsellor and hypnotherapist for trauma based syndromes. PTSD is a difficult and debilitating psychological condition. Historically, PTSD is a relatively new inclusion to the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual (a popular reference book describing a variety of psychological syndromes), first appearing in the third edition in 1980.

The witnessing or experiencing of intensely traumatic material is thankfully not part of daily life for most individuals. However, the majority of adults do experience some sort of traumatic incident in the course of their lifetime. Of these, only a small percentage will go on to develop PTSD. Let’s have a look at some of the features and risk factors for PTSD.

Risk factors

It’s unclear why some people manage to cope well with a traumatic experience and don’t experience further problems, whereas others develop traumatic stress. Some possible reasons include an individual’s coping strategy, their personality style, and previous stressful or traumatic events. PTSD also appears more commonly in females than males. There are some interesting reasons for this gender difference that will be outlined shortly.

What are “traumatic” events?

In essence when we talk about trauma we are referring to events out of the range of normal human experience during which an individual’s life or physical integrity is threatened, or they witness this happening to another person. Common reactions to such appalling circumstances are feelings of shock, powerlessness and horror. Below are some examples of traumatic incidents that are more likely to lead to PTSD:

Interpersonal violence (such as being mugged or unexpectedly attacked)

Combat violence

Sexual assault

Torture

Sudden and unexpected death of a close family member

Given that women are more often the targets of physical and sexual violence, it makes sense that females experience PTSD more than males.

What are the symptoms associated with PTSD?

PTSD can manifest in a number of ways. Here are some common features:

Flashbacks to the event

Nightmares relating to content of the event

Avoidance of people, places or conversations linked to the event

Irritability and anger

Hyper vigilance (manifesting in disturbed sleep and/or an exaggerated startle response).

Emotional numbing

Sense of helplessness or a foreshortened future

What can people with PTSD do to help themselves?

1. Self-soothing activities that bring relaxation and an implicit respect to the body and mind to counteract the habitual trauma response. Anything from having a bath, getting a massage or walking.
2. Self Hypnosis to relax and learn how to trust the sub-conscious and enlist the back of the mind in the healing process.
3. Hypnotherapy with a trained professional to discover new healthy ways to cope with stress and trauma.
4. Counselling to develop a secure attachment with a therapist and gradually become exposed to the traumatic stress without reacting in habitual ways.

A warning though. If you have PTSD be cautious who you see for hypnosis, as a relatively untrained hypnotherapist could inadvertently make matters worse. Hypnotherapy in Melbourne is not yet regulated and there are some great therapists and people who have only done a weekend hypnosis course! But seeing someone who is a clinical member of a reputable association which has stringent guidelines, such as the Australian Hypnotherapists Association (AHA) would be a good start. Ask them if they have experience with PTSD. Also it is good if they have adequate counselling and psychotherapy training of more than just a couple of years.

http://www.baysidepsychotherapy.com.au/trauma.php

Depression Treatments abound but combining depression counselling with hypnotherapy for depression could help take stress out of the myriad of therapies around. In fact to begin with even a self-hypnosis recording for depression can go a long way.

Depression is one of the most common psychological problems observed and treated by mental health practitioners. The intensity can range from mild to severe. In some cases, depression can be so debilitating that individuals are unable to perform normal daily tasks, such as going to work, hanging out with friends, doing household chores and caring for children.

How do you know if you’re depressed or not? Everyone feels down and blue from time to time. This is a normal part of being human and fortunately for most people, their down or sad mood lifts within hours or days. For some people however, this sad or flattened mood continues for weeks, and in some cases for months or even years.

Technically speaking, clinical or major depression involves feeling sad, down or “can’t be bothered” for at least 2 weeks, along with at least 4 of the following:

-disturbed sleep (oversleeping, waking 1-2 hours earlier than normal and not being able to sleep, waking up feeling unrefreshed).

- decreased energy

- changes in appetite or weight (either a noticed increase or decrease)

- changes in psychomotor activity (either moving very slowly or being hyperenergised)

- disturbed concentration and difficulty making decisions

- feeling guilty and or worthless

- thoughts of, or attempts at, suicide.

Other symptoms commonly linked with depression include socially withdrawing, excessively crying, irritability, self-harming behaviours such as cutting, lack of enjoyment in previously pleasurable activities and a decreased interest in sex.

The feature and risk of suicide clearly highlights why it is so important for people who are depressed to get professional help. Approximately 15% of individuals with severe depression successfully commit suicide. In such severe cases, hospitalisaiton is often necessary to keep individuals safe. It is very hard to end up in hospital, and most cases of depression can be successfully treated while you remain engaged in your normal life.

There are many reasons why people develp depression. It seems more likely in those who have an immediate family member who has also experienced depression. It is common following some sort of stressful life event, such as losing your job, a relationship break-up, or following the death of a loved friend or family member. Major depression also seems to occur in adults who suffered abuse and neglect when they were children or who lost a parent during childhood and adolescence. Other risk factors include chronic health problems, such as heart disease or high blood pressure. Interestingly, from adolescence, females suffer more from depression than men do.

What should you do if you think you have depression? Tell someone you trust, such as your partner, friend or family member that you aren’t feeling like your usual self. There is no shame in having depression and it is an illness that needs treatment. Do some research and contact a few different therapists and have a brief chat about the problems you are experiencing. Its good to talk to prospective therapists on the phone to get an idea about whether you feel you can work with them. Then you may choose to see a depression counsellor qualified in hypnotherapy to help you manage and even come out of depression.

http://www.baysidepsychotherapy.com.au/depression.php

Imagine this. You are young and scared, even phobic of the dark because deep down you imagine that some scary snake is going attack you. It isn’t the dark that is dangerous but your imagination is running wild, creating panic attacks or a phobia. But just imagine if you turned on the light and saw the rope on the floor, your phobia would melt like snow on a hot stove because, and here’s the point – it is not enough to know intellectually that there is nothing to be afraid of, you have to train your mind to feel safe deep down.

Hypnotherapy CDs and MP3s are relaxation recordings incorporating NLP can help treat phobias. A hypnotherapist can assist to treat phobias at deep levels of mind. A phobia can be debilitating. Phobias can literally ruin your life if untreated.

Take emetophobia for instance; intense fear of vomit or being sick. Emetophobia sufferers may fear getting sick or other people getting sick. They think about getting sick and in turn restrict their relationships significantly. They rarely go to restaurants for fear of eating food that may be off.

Where such phobias may be symbolic of deep, childhood based traumas, manifesting in many ways such as fear of abandonment, they remain unprocessed as it were. Thus the fear of vomit symbolises a fear of feeling. Such excess avoidance of feeling fears turns a mild fear into a full blown phobia with all the classic symptoms, like increased heart rate, blood pressure, breathing shifts, shaking, chest pain, marked anxiety and more.

There are so many types of phobias, but some common ones include:

fear of rejection, fear of crowds, fear of confrontation, fear of public speaking, social phobia, fear of flying, dental phobia, needle phobia, elevator phobia, driving fear, bird phobia, dog phobia, claustrophobia, agoraphobia, arachnophobia and many more phobic reactions abound.

Whatever type of phobia you have, a skilled hypnotherapist can assist you to release the cause of your phobia. Hypnosis can also retrain your mind to relax your body symptoms and feel good the next time you think about or are confronted with your fear and phobia. If you don’t have a hypnotherapist, it may be worth listening to a hypnosis CD to cure phobias daily. There are some good self hypnosis titles around to help treat phobias. Phobias are learned every day, and people are becoming phobia free every day, and so can you.

This Stress Tip has been kindly supplied by Adam Szmerling of Bayside Psychotherapy.