“Can Acupuncture Help With…?”

Yes in wooden blocks, showing that acupuncture and hypnotherapy can potentially help most people

This is a question that I am frequently asked and is one that is aimed at most things that bothers people! For example, all types of painful conditions, skin problems, digestive system problems, breathing issues, fertility concerns, periods and menopause, headaches, migraines, tinnitus, mental worries like depression and anxiety, insomnia, side-effects from chemotherapy, slow healing scars, post-stroke rehab, heart and blood pressure worries, poor circulation, weight loss, appetite stimulation, autism and ADHD related stress etc, etc. The list is pretty much never ending. 

In the early days I used to fret about answering this question as specifically as possible with regards to whatever condition was being enquired about. However, with many years of experience under my belt and thousands of acupuncture treatment sessions completed, I now know that the answer is simply and undoubtedly “Yes!”.  

Cue my Dad stepping in to tell his longstanding home-made joke that acupuncture works on everything, except for pins and needles. Boom, boom. (Actually I’ve found it can help with pins and needles too).

It is always worthwhile having acupuncture for pretty much anything that might be concerning you, simply because even if your issue doesn’t resolve, (more of that in a moment), then you will leave my clinic feeling calm, at peace with the world and more crucially with yourself. Importantly, you will know that you gave it a go.  Also, for the minority of my acupuncture patients that do not have a reduction or elimination of their issue, they are put into a much happier state and are then more able to accept and cope with whatever it is that was bothering them. Which is pretty amazing isn’t it? I don’t think this can be said about conventional, pharmaceutical based medicine!

As I say to all new enquirers, most of my acupuncture patients get better. Regarding certain conditions such as back pain or peripheral nerve damage from chemotherapy, I would estimate the resolution rate to be around 80-90% of cases. I have found however that one or two conditions such as tinnitus and vertigo to be much more resistant. 

I expect miracles from the very first treatment because sometimes they happen and I don’t want to give you any limiting beliefs that you will need a set number of treatments in order to shift yourself into a happier, healthier state of wellbeing. That said, usually if after three treatments there’s absolutely no improvement with whatever it is that you’re wanting to improve upon AND you don’t want to continue simply because of the fantastic relaxation and sense of calmness that the acupuncture gives, then by all means I will do my very best to find a different therapy in the area that might well help. There’s always hope! There’s also a gazillion different therapies and therapists out there and by the laws of probability at least one of those will be able to help you. Provided that is that you are committed to changing and healing. I am not of the view that you need to believe that acupuncture works, but I do from time to time, meet the odd person that actually isn’t ready to heal, or even willing to let go of the identity that their illness is providing. This is a tricky one, because from personal experience it is quite hard to recognise that deep down there’s still a part of you that doesn’t want to be healthy. It’s taken me 6 years to finally go for chiropractic treatment with a friend to sort my longstanding poor posture! The reason for finally doing this is because I’ve reached that critical tipping point of being very annoyed by my poor posture and inflexible back. In hindsight it previously didn’t bother me enough to motivate me to drive the 90 minutes that it takes to visit her clinic. This is the key aspect. It is only when the effort and discomfort of changing and improving becomes less than the discomfort of staying in the current state of health, do we actually take steps to improve our health.

So, if you’re now at the point of being extremely fed-up, annoyed, depressed, even angry about something you need to sort with regards your physical or mental health, then that’s brilliant! Use this discomfort and negative emotional state to motivate you into booking in with me for some calming, gentle acupuncture. Oh, and if you ask me as to whether acupuncture can help with whatever it is that you want rid of, my answer will definitely be “Yes!”.

Love and Light, 

Emma xxx

Treating Yourself

Man lying down and treating himself with cucumber on his eyes. Obviously feeling relaxed after having hypnotherapy from Emma Rose-Roberts

When I was younger the idea of treating myself usually meant me raiding my piggy bank and heading across the road from my house to buy a large bag of Black Jacks and Fruit Salads. Getting older, this changed to eating an entire large bar of Cadbury’s Wholenut chocolate in one sitting; which made my binge eating of black jacks look quite healthy! At vet school, well, let’s say I’m surprised my liver survived my six year degree. 

I am very pleased to now report that thanks largely to getting older, a tendency towards middle-aged spread and heartburn, the notion of treating myself means booking in for various holistic therapy sessions, self-acupuncture, meditating, doing quarter of an hour of high-intensity interval training in the mornings and either taking the time to play the piano, or listening to music at full volume! Very different to mindlessly stuffing my face. 

So, what changed? Aside from the increasing side effects of not looking after myself, I realised that I do actually love myself. If I love myself, why would I want to inflict increased pain and illness on me, for just a few minutes of a dopamine high? So that helped change my perception of truly “treating myself”. Of course, I still have moments of mindless eating of things I shouldn’t. I am human.  I do however, now recognise the triggers as to why I’m doing this. Both hypnotherapy and acupuncture have helped me deal with difficult stuff in my life, and release stuck emotions.  In the acupuncture world we talk about stuck Liver Qi (energy). In the case of hypnotherapy, it helped create such a strong aversion to certain binge foods that the mere thought of them now makes me want to vomit!  

Yet, I still frequently encounter the idea that to treat yourself involves eating or drinking something that causes illness. I know, because of the acupuncture clients I treat. Most pain, lethargy and general poor health is caused or certainly increased due to sugar in the diet. Several weeks of eating a lot of daily chocolate will cause me to have knee pain! When I tell clients that I’ve cut all sugar and sweetener from my diet, I’m often met with surprise as to why I would want to deprive myself? I agree, the brain chemistry that goes off in my head as soon as I put that chocolate cake, biscuit or sweet in my mouth is really, quite an amazing aspect of being alive! What stops me from doing it regularly though is the fact that I get a headache within minutes, get fatter, and lose the ability to refuse more sweet things. I also feel bad suggesting to clients that their lives would be greatly enhanced if they cut the sugar and sweetener out, if I’m busily stuffing my face between appointments! Oh, and I love the fact that as soon as the sugar and sweetener goes from your life the fat on your belly and sides disappears and all without exercising!

So, if you’re wanting to cut the sugar, or the sweetener-loaded fizzy drinks from your life (yes they really are bad especially if you have hormonal issues and are trying to fall pregnant), and are struggling to do so, please talk to me. I’ll only be too happy to book you in for a couple of hypnotherapy sessions to see if we can finally, once and for all change your subconscious thinking patterns that cause you to reach for the naughty cupboard whenever you’re distracted by tiredness, boredom or emotional issues.

Happy treating yourselves! 

Love and light, 

Emma xx

Easy Cheesy Self-Improvement

What has cheese got to do with your mind? Well, it turns out a fair bit and I only discovered this by accident the other week. Last year and on a whim, which all of my best life decisions are initially, I signed up to Paul McKenna’s hypnotherapy course. I’m glad I did because it was brilliant fun and, as in my case, it helps you start to understand the fascinating way in which your brain is wired up. 

Anyhow, before I explain about the cheese, let’s clear some things up about hypnotherapy. Milton Erickson once described it as being the “loss of the multiplicity of the foci of attention”. In other words, the person zones in and concentrates on just one thing, to the detriment of noticing everything else that’s going on. I bet you do this frequently? I certainly do when scrolling through social media posts, watching a film, when captivated by a beautiful rainbow, or after a loooong day of solo “babysitting” my kids. 

I know when mentioning it to some people they recoil in horror at the mere idea of hypnotherapy just in case I will put them to sleep, take over their brain and make them bark like a dog. Whilst others recount joyful stories of how hypnosis cured them of x, y and z. Quite different reactions…and I thought acupuncture prompted wide ranging views! From my own personal experience, hypnotherapy is relaxing, enjoyable and remarkably quick and effective at re-programming the subconscious brain and the associated “background” behaviours and thinking. You are in control the entire time.


Sometimes you need a few sessions to reinforce the desired change, and other times just one session is all that’s needed. Of course, it does depend on you actually wanting to change, the “style” of hypnosis and more importantly if you’re willing to follow my instructions.

In hindsight I’ve been doing this for most of my life and didn’t even realise. I’ve always seen it as a glorious, satisfying challenge to help a person see that there is always another route or even routes to take in life, especially when they’re stuck in their “story”. It’s only until now that I have the nice bit of paper from Paul McKenna to give what I do a title.

Some hypnotherapists read from a script and others, like myself, prefer to improvise in a structured way so that the session is reactive and perfectly suited to you when you’re sat in front of me. We’re all individuals and process things at different speeds, so it makes more sense to me anyhow, to be able to be flexible and not constrained by reading from a script. Indeed, hypnotic suggestions can be made just in normal conversation, and so a session really starts as soon as you and I first make contact.

 

I also find this on the acupuncture side – the healing starts as soon as the person makes the appointment with me. I’ve lost count of the times a new patient has said, “well it’s really funny and I feel like a fraud now, but my agonising back pain of xx years suddenly got better as soon as I booked in with you”. Yes! A great example of quantum physics in action. Booking the appointment triggers the change within you and your energy is instantly connected to mine. Perhaps that’s the subject of another blog? Back to cheese…

…and I’m going to be pedantic, I’m referring to Manchego cheese specifically. What on earth has it got to do with self-improvement and hypnosis? Well for some very bizarre reason I find the word Manchego funny. You’ve only got to say “Manchego” and I will laugh, or chuckle, or giggle, or collapse in hysterics depending on my general mood at that moment. Try it out next time you meet me, although don’t everyone over do it because it may well wear off, and I quite like this odd reaction that I have. It was on Paul’s hypnotherapy course that I worked out why I find Manchego so funny. I have trouble hearing song lyrics correctly. If you know the classic song “Golden Brown” by The Stranglers…“Golden brown, texture like sun, lays me down, with my mind she runs”? I actually hear…  “Golden brown, texture like sun, lays me down, with my MANCHEGO!!”. Try it…. It does work. Sorry about the ear worm.

So, over the years I’ve gone from laughing at getting the lyrics wrong whenever the song comes on the radio, to just laughing whenever Manchego cheese is mentioned. I’ve now joined the ranks of Pavlov’s dogs. Instead of dribbling at the sound of a bell, I laugh at the mention of Manchego cheese. In hypnosis terms I have anchored the feeling of laughing to the word Manchego. So that demonstrates one hypnotic principle and that’s of anchoring. I don’t even know if I’ve ever eaten Manchego cheese. 

The next important hypnotic principle was the fact that I was shopping in my local supermarket. I was heading off to buy toilet roll. I wasn’t thinking about cheese, I didn’t need cheese. In fact, most of my household is dairy free. I just headed down the end of the aisle, in my own “la-la land” as my wife calls it, swept the trolley around the aisle end and I was stopped in my tracks by having the word “Manchego” jump out at me and of course, I then laughed. I thought that’s weird because, and no disrespect to this particular supermarket, but it’s the last place I expected to see Manchego cheese. I have subsequently corrected my view and now appreciate that this supermarket has become “posher”.

More bizarrely when I looked round, I couldn’t see any Manchego cheese. Anyhow, I have come to realise that my intuition and general oddness is not to be ignored, so I retraced my steps, and nestled amongst the Edam and mozarella was a tiny block of cheese, with an even smaller label, that said in teeny-tiny text “Manchego”. Of course, I then laughed my head off again at reading “Manchego” because it’s funny, isn’t it? Also, I’ve anchored the happy, laughing feeling to not only the sound and thought of Manchego but to the word in writing as well. It shows how easy it is for us to associate things in multiple ways.  Those of you that have or rather “are doing” a phobia will understand this point. I was so expert at doing my phobia, before I learned how to shift it, that even reading the word of the thing that I was scared of would trigger me. So, there I was, walking around the supermarket thinking of toilet roll and from the very periphery of my vision, my eyes had read Manchego, my subconscious had thought it important enough to flag it up, triggering me to stop and laugh! Isn’t that incredible? It just goes to show how much information we really are taking into our brains at any one time, making associations and we mostly don’t know the half of it.  

These associations can be bad ones too. I remember as a child I bizarrely and effortlessly associated the awful taste of coins with Yorkshire puddings and I went off eating Yorkshire puddings for six months. It initially caused quite a stir at home because it happened very quickly and only half an hour before the usual dishing up of the Sunday roast. I’d been reading about a cartoon pig eating dirty coins, which made me feel a bit sick and whilst I was smelling the wonders of that day’s Yorkshire puddings that were cooking away. Very rapidly I’d anchored in feeling sick with Yorkshire puddings. I couldn’t even look at them on my family’s plates! Luckily it wore off because years later I needed to woo a Yorkshire lass and so didn’t need to lie when asked the question “where do you stand on Yorkshire puddings?”.

So, it’s possible to unwittingly anchor things, and make associations between a whole range of stimuli to an infinite number of events, places, objects, people etc. It’s the way in which our brains try to rapidly make sense of the world against a background of infinite information. Just sometimes it needs to be amended.

Hypnotherapy exploits this and I can help you “collapse” any anchors you don’t want and create new ones. I’ve yet to be asked to help someone to laugh every time they hear the name of a type of cheese, so normally it’s about helping people to feel more relaxed or confident or removing addictions and cravings. Squeezing your thumb and forefinger together to fire off an increased, relaxed state is a great anchor to help someone create. Very powerful, yet simple to do. I would go so far as to say it is easy-cheesy*.

Love and Light everyone,

Emma 

xXx

(* “Easy-peasy, lemon squeezy” – For anyone that is not aware of the mid-20th Century British slang term to which I’m referring!)

Manchego cheese showing the principles of hypnotherapy and associating random objects with emotions

Unexpected Life Lessons

You know how there are those moments that creep up on you, and in hindsight, it was a pivotal point of your life? Well, I had one of those the other day. Of all things to be given inspiration and guidance by it was the last thing that I would have suspected.

Having spent a significant portion of my life and bank balance on self-improvement books, courses, seminars, webinars, consultations, affirmations, applications, hallucinations… Plus, with every manifestor and coach on the planet, well, planet Instagram and Facebook, telling me how I’m going wrong, it was only until I tried a new deodorant did life make more sense!

I’ve been struggling for a while to balance out that holy grail of spiritual oneness and zen like state of “just BE – just be ME” with the, “Oh God I really can’t cope with x, y, z in my life, I must have failed at being zen and in my heart!”. How do you stay 100% kind and loving, yet, not be a doormat to those that aren’t in that state? How do you live your life like an enlightened Earth mother or warrior, or whatever cool, hippy name you want, when you can’t stop yourself reverting back into old patterns of behaviour as soon as someone or something that you don’t like comes your way? 

I’ve always thought and passed onto others, that there are three options in life. Three is a very symbolic magic number in most, if not all, ancient and spiritual/religious cultures around the world. It makes sense to always have three options.

1) Alter the thing, person, situation etc that’s upsetting you,

2) Alter yourself so that you don’t react in the way that you no longer want to react with regards the thing, person, situation etc,

3) If 1 and 2 don’t work, then remove yourselffrom the thing, person, situation etc.

“Simples”, to quote a phenomenally corporate but nice mongoose.

Except for me, it’s not, or it wasn’t “simples” until the other morning. I should be able to be me, and calm, and happy and heart-centred, despite all that’s going on around me.  With age I have learned to manage myself better when in the company of people I don’t like, or in places that are negatively overwhelming. A certain shopping centre that used to be the largest in Europe springs to mind here!  However, given the choice, I’d rather stay in places that keep me happy and relaxed. Who wouldn’t want that? Why do I have this guilt?

So, the other morning, I had a shower…reached for my lovely new, hopefully toxin free deodorant and Bam it hit me!! Fussy!! Yes! I am fussy and it’s ok to be fussy! This sounds really ridiculous, (and if you’re still reading – thank you), but my deodorant pointed out the obvious to me that I am fussy and it’s ok to be fussy! It’s what the small intestine in Chinese medicine terms does all the time! It sorts the pure from the unpure, the clear from the turbid. Heck, if my small intestine is fussy and does this quite happily, and in fact is only happy when it is busily sorting away, then why can’t I as a whole be more like that?

I’m chuckling as I write this now. Hopefully all of you have sussed this point…or even have far more fulfilled lives than me, and have never needed to ponder this dilemma for yourself. 

There are graduations of fussiness. I would never stay in a situation that kept me in physical danger, yet somehow, I feel under pressure to visit a certain shopping centre. Relatively speaking, the former seems sensible to avoid and is an acceptable level of fussiness. The latter example, just means me being unnecessarily fussy. Everyone goes to this shopping centre and enjoys it, right? Right? Well probably not judging by the nickname given by locals. 

So now, I have promised myself that I am allowed to be fussy about all things that I want to be, irrespective of other people’s own relative “fussiness scale”. I’m sensitive, I’m an empath, undiagnosed autistic, dyslexic…yawn with the labels…all round lovely, cheerful, fusspot! There I’ve outed myself. Somewhat weird in that coming out to myself about being fussy in life was harder than first telling others years ago I had a girlfriend. 

Life itself is all connected, but it is also differentiated. It’s about balance and like the many teachings within Chinese Medicine, this balance is always in a state of flux. As soon as it is fixed, stuck, then qi stops flowing, dis-ease appears. Maybe that’s why sometimes we get on great with some people then later on we can’t, or vice versa.  Everything is finding its own balance and way of getting on in life…including us. 

Good lesson to me, who traditionally has been in a fear state and needing control over every minutia in life. Things change! Hopefully for the better too.

So, I may well change my mind on this one in the future. I may even ramp up my fussiness scale and truly go mad and live on my own aged 90 in the woods with a dozen English Setters. Who knows? Or horror of horrors to me as I write this, I may well live in a community and share food off my plate!! At this moment of time even tapas with friends is a step too far.

A friend was struggling the other day, judging by their latest TikTok video, (yes, I’m now down with the cool kids). My reply to them was that I’ve come to realise one needs to be FUSSY and SELFISH in life so that the magical love and light from your soul spreads easily to the world. Cool, eh? And it’s true. As we are meant to do on a plane…put the mask on first, THEN go to help others.

The second huge lesson to me is that what we need to do, and how we need to live life, really is right under our very nose; or in this case armpits!

Love and Light everyone,

Emma

xXx

* Fussy Deodorant – I was kindly given an offer for my friends to get 50% off their first order. I thought you might like it. This is on me, plus I get a reward too. https://fussy.mention-me.com/m/wa/el7hs-emma-rose-roberts