This disorder is characterized by excessive worry and concern about real life situations and circumstances. Generalized anxiety disorder and worry is accompanied by three or more of the following symptoms:

1. Restlessness or feelings of being keyed up or on edge
2. Being easily fatigued
3. Difficulty concentrating or having your mind go blank
4. Irritability
5. Muscle tension
6. Sleep disturbances (difficulty falling or staying asleep, or restless unsatisfying sleep).

Anxiety is an anticipatory tension or vague dread persisting in the absence of a specific threat. In contrast to fear, which is a realistic reaction to actual danger, anxiety is generally related to an unconscious threat.

Physiological symptoms of anxiety include increases in pulse rate and blood pressure, accelerated breathing rates, perspiration, muscular tension, dryness of the mouth, and diarrhea.

Eating disorders are characterized by gross disturbances in eating behavior. There are several major disorders in eating patterns: anorexia nervosa and bulimia.

Anorexia nervosa

The essential feature of this disorder is refusal to maintain body weight normal for age and height, an intense fear of gaining weight and becoming fat even though underweight, and a body image that is very distorted.

Bulimia

The essential features of this disorder are: the current episodes of binge eating; the feeling of a lack of control over eating behavior during these episodes; self induced vomiting; vomiting use of laxatives or diuretics; strict dieting, fasting, or vigorous exercise in order to prevent weight gain and persistently over concerned with body shape and weight.

OCD is a disorder commonly characterized by intrusive repetitive thoughts and/or compulsive behaviors and mental acts that a person feels driven to perform according to rigid rules. This thinking and behavior is aimed at reducing anxiety by preventing some imagined dreaded event or resolving some deeply distressing situation.

Below are the DSM IV diagnostic criteria for obsessive compulsive disorder:

Obsessions can be defined by the following:

1. Recurrent and persistent thoughts, impulses, or images that are experienced, at some time during the disturbance, as intrusive and inappropriate and that cause marked anxiety or distress.
2. The thoughts, impulses, or images are not simply excessive worries about real-life problems.
3. The person attempts to ignore or suppress such thoughts, impulses, or images, or to neutralize them with some other thought or action.
4. The person recognizes that the obsessional thoughts, impulses, or images are a product of his own or her own mind.

Compulsions are defined by the following:

1. Repetitive behaviors or mental acts that the person feels driven to perform in response to an obsession or according to rules that must be applied rigidly.
2. The behaviors or mental acts aimed at preventing or reducing distress or preventing some dreaded event or situation. However these behaviors or mental acts either are not connected in a realistic way with what they are designed to neutralize or prevent or are clearly excessive.

• Panic disorders are defined by the presence of recurrent panic attacks in combination with a constant concern about having another one.
• These attacks often occur with exposure to some kind of situational or environmental trigger.
• The frequency and severity of these panic attacks vary widely.
• Many people with panic disorder attribute implications or consequences to their panic attack.

Symptoms of a panic attack - the discrete period of intense fear or discomfort at least four or more of the following symptoms rapidly develop:

1. Palpitations
2. Sweating
3. Trembling or shaking
4. Sensations of shortness of breath or smothering
5. Choking feeling
6. Chest pain or discomfort
7. Nausea or abdominal distress
8. Dizziness, unsteadiness, lightheadedness, or fainting
9. De-realization (feelings of unreality) or depersonalization (being detached from oneself)
10. Fear of losing control and going crazy
11. Fear of dying
12. Paresthesia (numbness or tingling sensations)
13. Chills or hot flushes

Phobias are an exaggerated, usually inexplicable, and illogical fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation. They include:

• Social phobias
• Agoraphobia  (fear of being in public places)
• Fear of flying
• Claustrophobia (fear of being in enclosed spaces)
• Needle phobia
• Fear of heights
• Driving phobia
• Elevator phobia
• Animal phobia
• White Coat Syndrome (medical or dental phobia)
• Fear of leaving the house
• Fear of water

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) may develop following exposure to extreme traumatic stressors in which both of the following were present:

1. The person experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or threat to the physical integrity of the self or others.
2. The person's response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror.

In PTSD the traumatic event is persistently re-experienced in one or more of the following ways:

1. Recurrent and intrusive distressing recollections of the event, including images, thoughts or perceptions.
2. Recurrent distressing dreams of the event.
3. Acting or feeling as if the traumatic event is reoccurring. This may include a sense of reliving the experience, delusions, hallucinations, and associated feedback episodes, including those that occur on awakening or when intoxicated.
4. Intense psychological distress at exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event.
5. Physiological reactivity on exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event.

A trauma is an extremely upsetting experience that is accompanied by severe emotional shock and pain.

Trauma can involve a single experience or enduring repeated events.  Psychological trauma may accompany physical trauma or exist independently. Typical causes of psychological trauma are sexual abuse or violence.  Psychological trauma can occur if the threat or witnessing of sexual abuse or violence occurs particularly in childhood. Catastrophic events such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, war or other mass violence can also cause psychological trauma. Long-term exposure to situations such as extreme poverty or milder forms of abuse, such as verbal abuse, can be traumatic as well.

After a traumatic experience, a person may re-experience the trauma mentally and physically, and try to avoid anything that reminds them of the trauma. These "reminders" are also called triggers and they can be uncomfortable and even painful. A person may turn to alcohol and/or psychoactive substances to try and escape the feelings. Re-experiencing symptoms are a sign that the body and mind are actively struggling to cope with the traumatic experience.

Individuals with insomnia often report a combination of difficulty falling asleep and intermittent wakefulness during sleep. Such sleep disturbance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other areas of functioning.

Insomnia can effectively be treated with hypnosis.

Hypnosis and Somatic Experiencing are both very effective treatment approaches for pain management. We will develop an approach that is designed to help you, based upon the nature and the origin of your pain. You can be helped to alter the pain sensation, shift awareness of pain sensation and release body tension that may be exacerbating or even causing your pain.

When you're facing upcoming surgery or medical procedures, it can be very helpful to prepare yourself ahead of time for this. I will work with you on helping you to manage your anxiety. Many of the techniques I utilize can also be very helpful with needle phobias, control of bleeding, reduction of scarring, pain management, recovery of appetite, and to enhance general recuperation. Together we will work out a plan that is best suited for you and your situation.

Many chronic medical conditions can be very challenging and frightening to cope with. There are the difficult symptoms of your illness. Then you have to deal with your fear, worry as you look towards an unsettling future. When someone close to you is suffering from a chronic medical condition you may be dealing with many of the same things.

In our work together, we will find ways to strengthen your ability to cope with these difficult challenges and support your capacity to ground yourself throughout the process. I will work closely with you to support you and help you manage your anxiety and strengthen you coping skills.

Bereavement touches us in many ways. The loss of someone we love can be profoundly painful. Bereavement may start when we discover someone is ill and as we go through the terrible stress of being with someone who is dying. We experience grieving when we deal with chronic illness and chronic conditions. We feel grief with many other kinds of losses as well.

You know intellectually that these problems are a common part of life. But we rarely feel prepared when we confront them. At these times, it can be so very helpful for you to sort these issues out with a skilled and empathic clinician. At times like this, it is very important to get support from someone who really understands your crisis and can help you find grounding for yourself. I have helped many people go through similar struggles, and we will work together to help you manage your anxiety, develop self soothing strategies and access to your inner strength so that you can best cope with the situation.

The smoking habit is a unique habitual problem because it also involves an addiction to a substance. But the treatment for this habit goes beyond an addiction to nicotine. People are also addicted to the ways they use cigarettes in their daily life. Furthermore, some individuals are able to stop smoking for a period of time but relapse at different moments in their lives.

Utilizing hypnotherapy techniques, we will address the multilevel nature of your habit, so that you can quickly and effectively become a non-smoker. We will help you find alternative ways to deal with what were once the triggers for lighting up a cigarette. But I firmly believe it is equally as important that I help you maintain your status as a non-smoker and not relapse. Using hypnosis and imaginal rehearsals, we can create new reference points for alternative responses to challenging moments.

Nail biting and picking your cuticles are very common stress related habits. You may find yourself biting your nails or picking your cuticles in times of stress or excitement or even in times of boredom.

We will work together to help you become mindful of the triggers that may be out of your conscious awareness. And we will find alternative ways to help you self- soothe and manage your anxiety.

Weight management can be a challenging problem for many people. Eating is part of our everyday life. Each person may have a different relationship to food, and we overeat for many different reasons. In our work together we will take a deeper look at your particular eating habits, looking both at historical and environmental cues for overeating and we will also help you to become aware of the present day sensory and emotional triggers that may be in play.

Together, we will work to help change your relationship to these cues and triggers and help you to bring more mindfulness into the moment. I will help you address any negative self-talk that may be impacting on your eating, and we will work together on helping you manage any anxiety related to your eating habits.

Trichotillomania is characterized by the repeated urge to pull out scalp hair, eyelashes, facial hair, nose hair, pubic hair, eyebrows. This can often result in noticeable bald spots.

We will work together to help you become mindful of the impulse to pull as it occurs in real time. And we will identify self-soothing strategies that work for you so that you can effectively manage your anxiety as you break the links to this distressing habit

Hypnotherapy and Somatic Experiencing approaches can be very effective adjunctive treatments for a variety of gastrointestinal disorders. It is also effective in helping patients cope with the trauma of difficult symptoms.

Research has shown Hypnosis to be a very effective adjunctive treatment for a variety of autoimmune diseases. Somatic Experiencing and Brainspotting can also be successfully utilized as adjunctive treatments with these diseases.

Hypnosis is a very successful treatment for reducing blood pressure. 

Hypnosis, Brainspotting and Somatic Experiencing are very effective tools for treatment of various types of headaches.

Clinical Hypnosis has been recognized for several decades as a valuable tool for enhancing immune function and many hospitals offer these services to patients   This work can be used as a very effective adjunctive treatment with patients suffering from immune deficiency disorders such as Cancer.

In my practice, I see many patients seeking this help both directly for enhancing Cancer Treatment and in preparation for Bone Marrow Transplants.

Many skin disorders are very responsive to Hypnotic intervention and can also effectively be treated with a Somatic Experiencing approach.

Depression is a common disorder that presents with depressed mood, loss of interest or pleasure, feelings of guilt or low self-worth, disturbed sleep or appetite, low energy, and poor concentration. Appropriate treatment can effectively help most people with depression.

Bipolar disorder is characterized by the occurrence of one or more Major Depressive Episodes accompanied by at least one Hypomanic Episode.

Hypnotherapy can be a valuable and powerful adjunctive tool for people suffering with this disorder.

Grieving is a natural response to loss. Symptoms may appear like depression. However, if symptoms continue the same intensity after several months and the individual is finding it difficult to reintegrate back into his or her life, this becomes problematic.

Hypnotherapy and Brainspotting are very valuable treatment modalities in helping people cope with these feelings and reintegrate back into their lives.

Much has been written about Peak Performance and there are many terms that have been used to describe the peak performance state, such as Flow and going into the Zone. Many people consider these moments of performance as a kind of altered state.

Hypnosis, Brainspotting and Somatic Experiencing are very powerful techniques that can help you achieve your optimum state of performance. Hypnosis can be extremely effective because of the ability to utilize a variety of imaginal rehearsals.

In our work together, we will identify how we can help you move into this optimal state and we will then utilize imaginal rehearsals to help you to anchor this experience in a way that becomes natural and automatic.

Hypnosis is very effective in helping people improve their sense of mastery, and self -confidence. Hypnosis enhances a person's ability to appreciate and draw upon his or her strengths and resources. Hypnosis also can help people break lifelong patterns of negative self-talk.