Therapy for mental health
A therapy to help maintain long-term mental health is being offered in Woy Woy.
Ms Nessie Shaw has started a Strategies for Health program as a modern approach to helping people overcome anxiety, depression, fears and addictions.
Ms Shaw said that, prior to moving to the Central Coast, she was involved in developing and running programs for patients suffering from depression, anxiety and addictions in a hospital setting.
While the programs were helpful, Ms Shaw said she realised that many people found it difficult to maintain the improvements made in the hospital setting and that it was not uncommon for clients to relapse.
"I became interested in understanding why people were unable to continue with improvements in their mental health and over a number of years I undertook research to find alternative treatments that could help people permanently eliminate patterns of emotional distress and unhappiness," Ms Shaw said.
"This search led me to develop Strategies for Health which incorporates a number of new generation treatment modalities including Structural Therapy, Thought Field Therapy, Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Ericksonian Hypnosis."
Although Ms Shaw developed Strategies for Health through her work in the hospital setting, she said that the treatments are suitable and effective for anyone who wants to improve the quality of their emotional and psychological life.
She is now offering them at Gnostic Healing Sanctuary in Woy Woy.
"Many people are unaware of the underlying patterns that cause their low mood, anxiety, panic or addiction," Ms Shaw said.
"Many people are highly motivated to lose weight, for example, yet are unable to resist overeating.
"When underlying emotional triggers to overeating are addressed the client will much more easily be able to make lifestyle changes in diet and exercise that will lead to weight loss."
While each individual will require a different type of treatment, Thought Field Therapy is a particularly exciting strategy because it is able to eliminate emotional problems and cravings for addictive substances, often quite rapidly, according to Ms Shaw.
"Thought Field Therapy involves the tapping of various energy meridian points with the fingertips while focusing on the specific problem."
Ms Shaw is currently undertaking a pilot study using Thought Field Therapy and hypnosis to treat cigarette addiction.
She is seeking anyone who is motivated to give up smoking, at no cost to participants, but clients are required to attend two sessions per week for two weeks.
To request an application form for the Quit Smoking study, call Ms Shaw at Strategies for Health on 4311 2555.
Press release, 1 Sep 2009
Janice Wells, Milestone-BellaNova