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private psychotherapy practice

AGORAPHOBIA
“This treatment approach is based on original work carried out by
Dr Kraft. - See publications.”

Agoraphobia is a fear of open spaces, which can occur with various degrees of severity. In mild cases a person may have difficulty travelling away from home but can still manage to get to work and make familiar journeys, where as in sever cases the patient finds that he/she cannot leave their home environment even to go into the garden. Even within the home the sufferer may experience panic attacks.

The person suffering from agoraphobia is terrified of leaving the home but is unable to find any reasonable explanation to account for these fears. They are unaware that their fear of for example the streets, trains, underground, are in fact the outward expression of their inner emotional turmoil.

Even though it may appear that only one family member is suffering from agoraphobia, invariably one finds that other members of the family have also got emotional problems.

In order to successfully treat agoraphobia it is necessary to examine the problems underlying the phobia (psychotherapy) and in addition to use behaviour therapy to enable the person to go out into the environment and travel on public transport. This treatment can either be undertaken in a real life situation (In Vivo Desensitization) or alternatively in imagination using hypnosis. Some patients find that taking antidepressant medication helps them cope with this problem.

Agoraphobia is a complex disorder and requires regular treatment sessions over an extended period of time. However it can be effectively treated with a combination of behaviour therapy and psychotherapy.

Dr Kraft has treated many patients with agoraphobia and has an excellent success rate.

ALCOHOLISM
“This treatment approach is based on original work carried out by
Dr Kraft. - See publications.”

The term alcoholism is used whenever people find that their drinking of alcohol has got out of hand and is no longer under their control. In mild cases the person finds that he/she has got to drink alcohol when returning from work in order to survive the evening. Such an individual might drink four glasses of wine in the evening in order to feel equipped to cope with the period before bedtime.

It is well known that drinking alcohol at parties has the effect of increasing sociability. However, some people find that they need to consume large quantities of alcohol both prior to and during the party in order to be able to manage the social interaction involved.

In more severe cases, the person needs to drink alcohol throughout the day, even first thing in the morning. The excuse given for early morning drinking is that it counteracts the hangover effect from the night before. Continuous heavy drinking of alcohol may lead to a number of complications for example liver damage, loss of sensation and weakness in the legs, and digestive disorders.

There are a number of approaches to treatment which broadly speaking can be divided into two main groups. In the first group the aim of therapy is complete abstinence from alcohol and is the treatment of choice for severe alcoholism especially where there is evidence of physical illness, which is directly attributable to the alcohol. In the second group the aim of therapy is to ensure that the person will be able to continue drinking socially when the course of treatment has been completed.

When the aim of the therapy is to ensure complete abstinence from alcohol this may be achieved with regular attendance at Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and although this may be extremely helpful, some people are reluctant to attend such meetings. An alternative approach to abstinence is to use a technique called aversion therapy, which is carried out under hypnosis. In this form of treatment the suggestion is given that before any alcohol is drunk, the patient will feel nauseated. The aim of this method of treatment is to make the alcohol drinking unpleasant. Some therapists will prescribe medication, which produces nausea when combined with drinking alcohol but some alcoholics deliberately do not take the tablets because of this effect, or go on drinking regardless of the medication. This would indicate that hypnosis is likely to be a more effective form of treatment.

If it is decided that the outcome of the treatment is to cure the patient of their compulsion to drink while retaining the ability to drink socially, this may be achieved in one of two ways. In the first the patient is introduced, with the aid of hypnosis, to increasingly difficult social situations in which they would usually find the need to drink. In order to achieve this, the patient is asked to imagine under hypnosis, the stressful situation and alternate this with a "special place".

An alternative method of treatment is to use psychotherapy, which involves examining the reasons behind the need to drink alcohol to excess. While this is an effective form of treatment, it requires regular treatment sessions on an ongoing basis over an extended period of time.

Dr Kraft has been treating alcoholism for many years with a high success rate.

ANGER

Anger may take many forms. The most obvious manifestations are shouting at other people, out bursts of rage (such as road rage), and in some cases open aggression and violence. Some patients express the anger by turning it on themselves and this may take the form of self-harming.

Some people are unable to show their anger and it is then converted into other symptoms such as headaches, itching, irritable bowel syndrome, or ulcerative colitis. Un-expressed anger can cause a rise in the blood pressure.

Before treatment can commence it is important to exclude any physical or psychiatric underlying cause for the anger. Often by the time patients request treatment for their anger it is because the situation has already got out of hand. Either because the person has attacked someone or because there has been a complaint at work or from an organisation to which he or she belongs.

The treatment of choice for this problem is individual psychotherapy. This should take the form of regular sessions over an extended period of time. During the treatment the patient explores their feelings of anger and their origin and eventually is able to express this anger within the safe environment of the therapy rather than outside.

Where the anger is converted into physical symptoms such as headache then it is helpful to use hypnotherapy in the first instance. In addition it may be helpful to combine this with individual psychotherapy.

ANIMAL PHOBIA 

Many people are frightened of cats, dogs, birds, snakes, and many other creatures. However, simply being afraid of something does not make it a phobia. For a fear to be classified as a phobia the fear must be irrational, and cause the person so much distress that they avoid all contact with that particular thing.

The fear may or may not be associated with a particular traumatic experience such as being bitten by a dog.

Hypnosis is very valuable in treating patients with animal phobia. In the security of the Consulting Room the patient is encouraged in imagination to gradually get used to the animal in question. During the treatment session hypnosis is used to counteract the fear of the animal and over a period of time the patient is encouraged to imagine increasingly more difficult situations in relationship to it. During the sessions the patient is taught self hypnosis and is recommended to practice this for ten minutes each day at home. In addition once the patient is comfortable with the situation in the Consulting Room, he/she is encouraged to face that situation in real life. Sometimes this may involve the therapist accompanying the patient and approaching the animal together.

Over a period of time patients are capable of making a complete recovery from their phobia, particularly if they are well motivated and persevere with the treatment programme.

ANOREXIA NERVOSA 

This is a condition which tends to become apparent in adolescence and may occur in young people of either sex. An important feature of Anorexia Nervosa is that patients limit their food intake to such a degree that they loose a great deal of weight. In severe cases the individual may starve him or her self to a life threatening level.

Despite the fact that they are considerably under weight these patients often still regard themselves as being fat.

As a result of the restricted diet, girls will often stop having their monthly periods.

Although apparently the anorexia is confined to one member of the household, it is frequently found that the problem is bound up with the family dynamics.

The first objective of any treatment programme is to encourage the patient to increase their food intake. Patients are often highly resistant to any intervention which might increase their weight and it generally requires many months of regular psychotherapy before any weight gain is evident. Once there are signs that the patient is beginning to eat a more normal diet then the therapist can focus on some of the underlying causes of the Anorexia Nervosa. It is important to stress that the treatment of this disorder requires considerable patience and expertise and it should only be undertaken by a qualified and experienced therapist. There is no quick cure for this problem and the patient will need to be in on-going individual psychotherapy for a considerable period of time.

Anxiety

When people suffer a high level of anxiety this may reach panic proportions. Individuals in a state of panic experience a variety of very unpleasant symptoms. They may be subject to overbreathing, palpitations, sweating, and feelings of helplessness. In addition the excessive overbreathing leads to pins and needles in the hands and feet which causes further stress.

As with anxiety the panic attacks are a sign of an underlying emotional problem. It is essential that the cause of the anxiety is investigated and treated by a skilled therapist. This may be achieved either by individual psychotherapy, by the use of hypnotherapy or a combination of these two approaches.

f panic attacks are left untreated the situation in which they occur becomes associated with the anxiety, if this happens the person may well avoid that situation and become phobic to it. SEE PHOBIAS.

ARACHNOPHOBIA 

Arachnophobia refers to a fear of spiders which is sufficiently severe to interfere with the life of the patient. Some people have such a fear of spiders that they will make an extensive search of the bed room every night before they can go to sleep to ensure that there are no spiders lurking any where in the room. Some people will send their partner to inspect the room before they will enter it. In very severe cases the person cannot even say the word spider.

When using hypnotherapy for the treatment of Arachnophobia, a very carefully graded programme is used to introduce the patient first to simple line drawings of spiders then to coloured photographs of spiders and only when they can cope with these with out anxiety are toy spiders introduced. This graded programme then moves on to dead and live spiders respectively beginning with the very small and working up to larger specimens. The patient is taken through each step of the treatment programme first in hypnosis and then in real life and as the treatment progresses he/she gradually becomes more confident about encountering spiders. Dr Kraft has found that if the patient perseveres with the treatment it is possible that eventually they will be able to release a spider from a jam jar and allow it to run across their hand with out anxiety.

ASTHMA 

The incidence of Asthma in Great Britain is rising rapidly and in a large number of asthmatics the problem is well controlled with regular medication.

As long ago as the 1960s a large study was carried out to assess the relative effectiveness of bronco dilators, steroids and hypnosis, this showed that hypnosis was very helpful in the treatment of Asthma.

It must be emphasised that hypnosis should not replace standard medication; however, it has been shown to be helpful in relieving symptoms when used in conjunction with the patient's usual medically prescribed drug regime. Some patients find that they need to use their inhalers less frequently when they use self hypnosis on a regular basis.

To learn self hypnosis an asthmatic needs to have a number of treatment sessions with a medically qualified hypnotherapist.

AQUAPHOBIA

Aquaphobia is a fear of water. This can range from a mild uneasiness of visiting lakes, canals or the sea to a terror of anything to do with water, even turning on a tap or stepping over a puddle.  Frequently patients suffering from Aquaphobia will have a history of some trauma involving water. For instance they could have experienced a situation in which they felt they might be drowning. The trauma of the incident is transferred into a fear of water, and an avoidance of all situations involving water is built up. The fear and avoidance both have to be tackled in the context of the treatment.

After an initial history taking it is important that the therapist outlines the strategy and the rationally of the treatment.

Hypnotherapy is the treatment of choice in the first instance, and the fear of water can be counteracted by using the technique of the “special place” interspersed with a series of increasingly difficult situations involving water.

The first step in this programme is for the patient to learn to be comfortable turning on a tap/faucet, and then to being able to use a shower. Later in the therapy the patient will be encouraged to encounter more difficult situations, first in hypnosis and then in real life. Eventually a stage will be reached when they are able to visit a swimming pool and enter the water at the shallow end. It is very helpful for the patient if they are accompanied by a competent swimmer. Non-swimmers may get to the stage of actually learning to swim with the help of a qualified swimming coach. 

As the treatment progresses it is frequently found that the patient wishes to raise other issues which are important to them. The psychotherapy aspect of the treatment enables the patient to see how these other concerns are connected with the original problem. The patient and therapist work together over a period of time and with this combined treatment approach the patient can expect to make an excellent recovery.


Dr. Kraft