My apologies for not blogging for some time. I’m afraid that life has got in the way of late and my elderly parents have taken priority for the past few months. I am happy to say that I have now settled them both in to a lovely care home nearby, so I can now start to focus once again on work.

Listening to Radio 4 this lunchtime, ‘You and Yours’ was talking about public health campaigns and how useful they are (or not) in getting people to lose weight, drink less, stop smoking etc. Some of the callers explained that they felt that they had been genuinely persuaded by this sort of campaign and it was the catalyst to make them change their behaviour.

My personal feeling is that the NHS’ latest campaign – costing the taxpayer £3.5 million – is a terrible waste of money. People tend to already realise that they should cut down on alcohol, lay off the cake and chips, go to bed earlier etc. The problem is they don’t know HOW to do it. That’s where the help needs to be focussed. And, the thing is it’s really not easy to do these things. Most people these days are so stressed and over-worked that they resort to the quick fixes – the glass of wine, the chocolate cake, the cigarette – which will make them feel better in the short term.

Life is hard for many people, and unless we tackle the underlying factors which I believe include a complete overhaul of mental health services in this country, then there will be no significant change in behaviour patterns any time soon.

Very often, unhealthy lifestyles have at their root cause a mental health issue, whether that is anxiety, depression, social phobia etc.  I find that very often, after a course of hypnotherapy, a client feels so much better about themselves, that they no longer feel the need for their ‘crutch’ be it smoking, drinking, eating too much.

Warmest wishes everyone

Wendy x