Habits

The impact of unwanted habits on one's everyday life can range from merely annoying through to distressing. Self esteem as well as personal and working relationships can all be affected.

Habits are sometimes formed as a result of experiencing an uncomfortable situation, the emotional pressure we feel may unconsciously trigger an involuntary behaviour which we find relieves the discomfort. In this case the behaviour is likely to be repeated the next time we experience a similar situation or feeling, specifically because it's consciously recognised

that it brings relief. Alternatively that emotional pressure

may cause a malfunction in the 'firing' of the brain's network

of neurons that would otherwise have formed the normal

behavioural response, causing a reaction such as a stammer

or nervous twitch. Just like the behaviour that relieves

discomfort, this malfunction gets repeated and hence

reinforced each time a similar situation arises.  

So, habits are patterns of behaviour reinforced by repetition

and breaking a habit often requires a full exploration of the

pattern, history and context in which it occurs (and just as importantly, when it doesn't occur). Once these aspects are understood then appropriate techniques from Cognitive Hypnotherapy and/or NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) can be used to bring the behaviour under control.

Treatable habits include: Stammering/stuttering, blushing, bruxism (grinding of teeth), nail biting, finger picking, hair chewing, scratching, nervous twitches/tics,

nervous tapping, stress eating. procrastinating, chronic lateness, lying, sniffing, coughing, laughing inappropriately.....not an exhaustive list but hopefully it gives you an idea of the type and range of problem behaviours that can be successfully treated using Cognitive Hypnotherapy.