More going under as recession bites
The stress of working through a recession is leading those in pressurised jobs to look at different ways of coping with the strain, writes Rob Virtue.
One remedy that has gained in popularity in recent months is hypnotherapy.
Elle Dormer brought her clinic to the Reebok Sports Club in Canary Wharf two months ago, helping people with a range of problems. Recently, though, more clients have been coming to her with stress brought on by the financial meltdown.
Elle said: "There's no mistaking the fact there are more people feeling bad about themselves, particularly people with high-pressure jobs. I'm certainly seeing more people for anxiety and stress and matters around work than I used to."
To many people hypnosis is best known for making people think they are chickens, or through the television appearances of the likes of Paul McKenna and Derren Brown.
For 29-year-old Elle, a Cambridge graduate who was a communications professional in Westminster and the City before she began studying hypnotherapy two years ago, it's much more serious.
She said: "It's about relaxing people, giving them positive suggestions and helping them focus on an issue with greater clarity than they would on their own or fully conscious.
"It's a relaxed and structured state of concentration and not 'away with the fairies'."
Elle, who spends one day a week at Reebok treating members, first encountered hypnosis to treat a phobia, and then returned to it during pregnancy.
She said: "As far as I was aware there were three different ways of dealing with a phobia. Ignoring it, exposing yourself to it or hypnosis.
"It was about four years ago that I had the hypnosis for the phobia. It was pretty successful. Then when I was pregnant I investigated HypnoBirthing. I had a successful home birth with no drugs.
"Almost as soon as my son was born I started studying."
Since becoming a qualified clinical hypnotherapist, Elle has noticed a gradual increase in the popularity of the method, especially through HypnoBirthing, of which she is a practitioner.
She said: "With HypnoBirthing, midwives are talking about it more and there is a steady increase of people wanting to know about it.
"The more people that have hypnosis, the more mainstream it becomes and the more it helps dispel the myths created by television.
"It's got something over and above other talking therapies. We go through a long case history, then use cognitive behavioural therapy and counselling techniques.
"Once I've discussed it there's the extra tool of hypnosis to make them relaxed and feel better straight away."
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