Experienced homeopath Imogen Spencer is offering £20 OFF her first appointment for children and adults until 31 January. Homeopathy is a gentle, yet powerful system that can address a wide range of issues on the mental and physical level. Skin conditions, digestive problems, hormonal imbalances, anxiety, depression, sleeplessness and many other complaints are often treated with homeopathy at the Brackenbury Clinic. Phone us on 020 8741 9264 to request more information or to make an appointment.
Author: Stelyana Spassova
25% OFF HYPNOTHERAPY UNTIL 30 NOVEMBER
Hypnotherapist and regressionist Nicolas Michaelides is offering a 25% discount (£120 instead of £160 for two hours) to new clients until the end of November.
Autumn is a time for turning inwards and taking stock. If you are looking for ways to release old unnecessary habits and patterns of behaviour and thought, maybe hypnotherapy could help. Call or email the clinic to book your appointment and please mention this offer to receive the discount.
£15 OFF AROMATHERAPY MASSAGE UNTIL CHRISTMAS
Brackenbury Clinic aromatherapists Makeda Hemans and Olivia Inge are offering their hourly treatments for £50 instead of £65 until Christmas! Treat yourself to this luxurious massage or make use of the offer to buy Christmas Gift Vouchers, which will be valid for 6 months.
Aromatherapy is an ancient art in which essential oils are used in conjunction with a unique and special massage to rebalance the nervous sytem and the metabolism of the body. The oils are chosen individually to suit the client both mentally and physically. Some of the benefits reported include restored energy levels, reduced pain and anxiety, improved circulation, better sleep etc.
£10 OFF Sports Massage until 16 September
Sports Massage therapist Maite Delafin is offering £10 off her one-hour treatments until 16 September. Sports Massage is beneficial for everyone – from people with sedentary lifestyles to professional athletes. The treatment will be tailored to the individual needs of every client with special emphasis on improving range of movement, releasing muscular tension and encouraging recovery from potential injury. Please mention this offer when you call to book.
£20 OFF Homeopathy for Children
Homeopath Imogen Spencer is offering the first consultation for children at a £20 discount until the end of September 2016. Children respond very well to homeopathic treatment for a wide range of different conditions including colic, sleeplessness, ear ache, coughs and colds, temper tantrums, exam nerves, skin conditions and many others. The appointment lasts around one hour and the remedies used are completely safe and free of side effects. If you wish to have a chat with Imogen before booking an appointment, please call the clinic on 020 8741 9264.
£50 OFF FOOD INTOLERANCE TESTING
Nutritionist Lowri Turner offers a comprehensive laboratory test for 150 foods, drinks and ingredients at her Friday clinic at the Brackenbury. The usual price is £249, but now clients can take the test for £199.
Food intolerances can cause bloating and water retention, as well as fuel cravings and compulsive eating. They can also be a factor in digestive problems such as IBS and skin conditions including eczema and rosacea. Common allergens tested include wheat, gluten, yeast, cow, sheep and goat dairy, soy, citrus and different wine grape varieties.
The test is easy and quick to do (just a skin prick) and results are available in a matter of days.
Follow-up support, including help and advice, a food exclusion food plan and programme of 1-1 consultations is also available. Phone us on 020 8741 9264 or email reception to arrange your appointment.
£20 OFF Sports Massage until 31 May
We are happy to welcome to our team Sports Massage therapist Maite Delafin. Maite is offering £20 off her treatments until 31 May. Book a session and experience the multiple benefits of this specialised treatment. It is suitable not only for those involved in sports, but for people in sedentary and computer-bound professions. Read more about Sports Massage here.
Beyond conditioning
We all see the world through our own eyes – through subjective experience. But how much is our view determined by our true self and how much by conditioning?
Everybody is profoundly influenced by their experiences – most of all by early childhood when the input of powerful others shape how we see the world. Every child absorbs parental and social attitudes, takes experiences as information about their own value and later makes generalisations from their early experience – these become expectations and assumptions about the world, self and other people.
Some people have a memory/expectation of abandonment, others being overwhelmed or abused – some both. And ways of handling these fears and old experiences, originally self-protective, can become problems in themselves – fears of closeness or intimacy, addictions and compulsions, control, numbing, self-sabotage, avoidance, under- or over-achievement to name but a few.
To begin to become aware of internal assumptions and to start to see where they come from can have a transformative effect. To shine a light on the ghosts of the past can put phantoms where they belong, allow feelings to thaw and pave the way for the emergence of your own new perspective – and with it a unique vision of life and the world – and the release and integration of your own energies.
ROSANNE HOOPER, BA(Hons), UKCP reg., Dip AIP. Rosanne is an experienced integrative and humanistic psychotherapist who works with clients on a long or short term basis. She has been in practice for over 20 years.
Acupuncture for Migraine
A case study of a woman suffering from migraines during the menopause.
Lorraine is in her late fifties. Her menopause started 8 years ago and she has been on HRT for the last six and a half years. She came for acupuncture because she had been having bouts of migraine for the last 3 months. The pain lasted 4 or 5 days each time, starting from her right temple and radiating to the neck and shoulder. During a migraine bout she was light sensitive, jumpy and edgy. She complained that her neck and shoulders were very tight and in constant pain, even when she was free of migraine. I examined her abdomen and pulse and diagnosed that she was deficient in Yin energy, particularly Yin of Liver. Around the menopause the body’s Yin and Yang balance can easily go astray, and symptoms such as migraine can appear. I treated her to tonify her Yin energy and I also needled lightly her upper back and shoulders to nudge energy to move more freely. After the second and third similar treatments given weekly, she felt much better in herself and she had not had a migraine for 3 weeks. She was happy and decided to stop coming. From my point of view, her Yin energy was not yet strong enough to stop treatments. I wanted to see her at least a few more times for monthly maintenance, which would have really boosted her Yin and her essential energy. It may mean that her migraines will come back and she will need to go through the same process again.
ATSUKO COWLEY BAC, MBAcC, Kanpo. Atsuko uses a Japanese style of acupuncture – Toyohari – known for its most gentle needling, yet powerful effect.
The Language Of Symptoms
Symptoms are signposts. They are messages from the unconscious – an invitation to listen to what the unconscious is trying to communicate. A bit like dreams, they are an ingenious way of getting our attention – if we listen, the rewards can be great, if we don’t they will “up” the volume until we do!
Symptoms take many forms – from aches, anxiety and arguments to addictions – from self-doubt, dissatisfaction and depression to dis-ease – from impatience, impotence and insomnia to illness.
But what are they trying to communicate? This will be as individual as your fingerprints and the patterning within you. Yet at the same time, they may express something universal, human, “archetypal” – just as we are all born, have parents, exist in a human body and go through feelings and experiences. But the configuration will be unique to you.
Sometimes the body becomes the safe storage space for feelings and aspects of ourselves that had to go into hiding at some point in our lives. For example, if something traumatic happens, it may simply be too much to process at the time, to the experience is shut away. Or, if the environment was simply not open, not understanding, not accepting – perhaps critical, dismissive or neglectful – if the emotional climate was too much or not enough – natural needs, feelings, even characteristics are kept frozen in the unconscious, often deep in the body, waiting until the chance comes to let them be safely seen, so they can thaw and flow.
Sometimes they first come to light when something in the present reminds us of what happened. A pattern repeats, the feelings start resonating and sending out signals – mental, emotional or physical – asking to be recognized – so they can be worked through and resolved, so that life can flow again.
So, we can see that over-riding symptoms or trying to get rid of them is not what they are asking of us, even if that were possible. Feelings of shame can keep symptoms in place, but there is no shame, no blame in safely bringing to light what has been hidden. Rather, it is honourable and intelligent to see the opportunity in the problem.
If we learn to pay attention to symptoms, to explore and really hear and understand them, something profound starts to happen. This can take time, it is a process and it can be complicated. It often helps to do it with another – for example, in therapy. But if we begin, one step at a time, life can transform.
ROSANNE HOOPER, BA(Hons), UKCP reg., Dip AIP. Rosanne is an experienced integrative and humanistic psychotherapist who works with clients on a long or short term basis. She has been in practice for over fifteen years.