Alternative Medicine within the NHS

It amazes me that even today, knowing the connection between the mind and body that we continue as a nation to feed ourselves with medicines and other such pills whenever our bodies send us the message that something is wrong. I feel that more time and money should be invested in addressing the real causes of ailments, rather than continually treating the symptoms. I am a member of the NHS Directory for Complimentary and Alternative practitioners. This is something that I have to pay for whist using the very carefully worded phrasing above. My details are on an NHS list somewhere and I have never received one referral as a result of being on it. I have even hypnotised a doctor's receptionist in from on several doctors at a primary care trust meeting.

Below, I explore some of the reasons why I believe hypnotherapy and other such practices should be given much more credibility by the medical establishments.

1. Relaxation

Lets face it, the only time most people relax these days in when they go to bed- and then they can't even do that properly, the get busy brains right at the point where what they actually need most, is to go to sleep. Relaxation is so important and should be integral of your every day routine. Without it, there is often no way of releasing the build ups of stress that accumulate in the every day working lives that we have. This can lead to aggravated states within the body, such as headaches, IBS, muscular aches and pains and lack of energy.

2. Motivation

Quite simply we don't get very far without it. Motivation keeps us going and keeps us growing, and everybody has to grow in order to feel fulfilled in life. We have 2 kinds of motivation in life, things we are motivated to achieve and things we are motivated to get away from. Strangely the latter contains the most power due to the fact that it is most like a survival instinct. In short, motivation is essential in life and you really won't get very far without it.

3. Life Changes

This is probably the broadest of the 3. People want their lives changed in many different ways. For some, changing their life might be about changing their lifestyle- taking up more exercise or giving up smoking for example. For others, changing their life might mean leaving behind years of emotional baggage from abusive relationships. Either way, one small change always tends to snowball and have positive knock on effects in many other areas of life also.

Hypnotherapy has been used as a therapeutic tool for many years and has been recognised by the British Medical Association since 1955. Yet still it is brushed off as invalid and jiggery pokery. If as a nation we invested as much money into alternative practices as we have into pharmaceuticals, we would have invested wisely. People would be in a better position to take responsibility for the impact their lifestyles have on their bodies, getting better would be more empowering, potentially less money from the health services would be spent on treating symptoms and would be more geared towards finding and solving the causes. Let's hope for the future that our potential as human beings can be taken more seriously than our belief in manufactured drugs.

Gemma Bailey is qualified hypnotherapist and NLP Master Practitioner. She is based in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire and has helped many clients and patients throughout South East England. For more information on Hypnotherapy, NLP therapies and Life coaching, visit http://www.gemmabailey.co.uk