If you are a victim of domestic abuse, coercive control, physical or psychological abuse or

violence, it is extremely important to seek help immediately. Sometimes the best place to start are the many amazing charities such as Refuge (0808 2000 247).

Abuse is when someone is deliberately harming you and causing you pain.

Abuse is generally categorised as physical abuse, emotional and psychological abuse, child abuse, sexual abuse or domestic violence. Very often people will experience some combination of these types of abuse. Abusive behaviour is often related to another person’s desire to control, manipulate and coerce you.

If you are being abused or have been a victim of abuse you should seek out professional help or the help of an abuse support group.

If you feel in immediate danger or threatened, then you should call 999 and ask for the police.

The effects of abuse can cause life-long trauma and result in serious mental health issues like depression, self-harming and suicidal thoughts. Having suppressed trauma can manifest itself in your daily life by affecting your mood, create panic attacks and be the cause of self-destructive behaviour such as alcohol and drug abuse as well being the root cause of behavioural and sexual difficulties.

If you are not ready to speak with one our counsellors at Omega Counselling then there are many good charities to help you deal with abuse and we urge you to contact them if you are suffering any form of abuse.

Information from the Government regarding abuse, can be found here.

If you do wish to speak with us, then our person-centred therapy will help you understand not just how abuse has affected your life but how to live life in the future without feeling a sense of powerlessness and to address long standing issues of trust, anxiety and confidence all of which are affected by abuse and abusive relationships.

We want to improve your well-being and support you in taking the next step forward to live a more positive and productive life.

Being angry is a natural emotional response to things that sometimes happen in your life. Although anger is a basic physiological response to things like being frustrated, insulted, anxious or more seriously, being threatened, it is destructive when it becomes overwhelming and leads to a loss of emotional control.

Anger will negatively affect your decision making and have an adverse impact on the people you love, on your working relationships and career and on your everyday happiness in life. It can lead to poor physical health, low mood, isolation and loneliness and if left untreated, may lead to violence.

I will help you understand why anger is dominating your emotional responses to people and your everyday life and help you overcome this response by learning to express and manage your anger in a constructive, non-threatening way.

By working with you we will be able to develop strategies that enable you to express your needs in a meaningful way and avoid the harmful effects of overwhelming and persistent anger.

We provide a safe and non judgemental environment at our clinics in Manchester and Wigan for you to work through the reasons why you become angry and help you develop processes that you feel comfortable with in order to help you manage your anger.

Learning to recognise and manage your anger will lead to a healthier life both physically and emotionally and contribute to your longer-term happiness.

For further information on anger issues, you can visit the Mental Health Foundation.

Our counselling services in Manchester and Wigan are easily accessible from anywhere in Lancashire and Greater Manchester. If you have any questions or need advice on if counselling is right for you, then do not hesitate to get in touch with us at Omega Counselling.

Anxiety is often described as feeling worried or fearful about something persistently or more intensely than necessary to the point that it is affecting your mental well-being and how you physically engage in the world around you.

Anxiety comes in many forms and can be induced by many different things. Often the anxiety being induced, such as a phobia or a panic attack can be driven unconsciously by events and experiences that happened long ago.

Suffering from anxiety can be debilitating and prevent you from having an active lifestyle and experiencing new and interesting things. It can produce many physical symptoms such as shortness of breath, feeling irritable to insomnia and restlessness to name just a few.

Talking about anxiety is often difficult and we recognise this at Omega Counselling.

Our person-centered approach means you can discuss what might be making you feel anxious in a way that makes you feel comfortable and safe and at your own pace.

Anxiety is different for everyone, whether you suffer from a traumatic life event, PTSD, or find you experience compulsive behaviour symptoms, OCD, we will help you and treat you with the utmost empathy and compassion.

Our aim is to help you live your life without constant worry and fear and to enable you to move forward by enjoying good mental health and well-being.

Omega Counselling has clinics in Manchester and Wigan and we cover Bolton and Standish too. We are easy to get to from most places in Lancashire and Greater Manchester. Please get in touch if you want our help or more information.

The death of a loved one or friend is one of life’s most difficult events. Very often a bereavement and experiencing loss will be extremely unsettling and destabilising and leave a person temporarily disconnected from their world around them.

The passing of a loved one may mean you have unresolved issues and the grief you feel may cause emotions like guilt, anger, and depression to manifest themselves as well as experiencing physical effects like poor sleeping, loss of appetite and what is often described as a feeling of numbness.

Grief has no time limit and it is important to learn to adapt and live with the memories of a lost love one and understand why your loss is affecting you in way it is. Through our talking therapy approach, we can help you to come to terms with your loss and help you find a form of acceptance that enables you to move on with your life.

Bullying is when you are experiencing repeated behaviour that is deliberately hurtful towards you. It comes in many forms from physical events to emotional and psychological manipulation. It can be directly aimed towards you or done indirectly through influencing others in or around your personal and professional space.

Bullying is incredibly destructive as it has the power to affect you even when the bully is absent. Consequently, it will affect how you feel in your day-to-day life. From feeling isolated and alone, feeling unsettled and anxious, to creating a lack of confidence and self-doubt or simply being afraid to just be yourself in public.

Bullying left unchecked is destructive.

Often a person being bullied is at a loss to understand why they are the target and can sometimes even end up blaming themselves for attracting this unwanted and hurtful behaviour towards themselves. This will often make it harder to seek out help.

But speaking with a trained therapist at Omega Counselling will allow you to discuss and explore how you are feeling in a supportive and non-judgemental environment and help you gain control of your life again so you can begin to heal and recover from the damaging effects of being bullied.

Please don’t suffer in silence, speak with one of our experienced counsellors here at Omega Counselling and let us help you move forward with your life.

We have counselling clinics in Manchester and Wigan and cover Bolton and Standish too, so we are easily accessible from Lancashire and Central Manchester.

Please don’t suffer in silence, if you or someone you know is struggling with bullying, the National Bullying Helpline may be able to help in the first place.

Much like having low self-esteem, confidence issues can strike at any time making you feel uneasy and unsure about yourself. It’s important to recognise that you are struggling with low confidence, and I am here to help you, one step at a time.

It is a normal part of life to feel sad sometimes or unhappy about something in your life. However, feeling depressed is different to these more transient emotions. Feeling depressed means you experience these emotions more intensely, more extensively, so often from when you wake up until you go to sleep.

The most common symptoms of depression are feelings of deep sadness, worthlessness, very low motivation or interest in life and the things you used to enjoy. It can lead to emotional problems like low self-esteem, anxiety and indecisiveness as well as physical issues like insomnia or poor sleep, loss of sex drive, suffering with joint pain and headaches or neglecting one’s appearance and hygiene.

This deep-rooted lack of motivation can make it difficult for a person suffering depression to seek counselling.

People sometimes describe depression as a inescapable sadness or a numbness which makes it hard to concentrate and very difficult to take part in everyday life.

But we want to help you take a full and active part in life again, to be able to look forwards and think of being in the future with hope and confidence about yourself. We will provide you with a safe space to share key events in your life and discuss with you at your own pace, why you are feeling and suffering with the symptoms of depression.

Don’t suffer alone with your depression, please speak with one of our counsellors to see how we can help you acheive better mental health and wellbeing.

Omega Counselling has clinics in Manchester and Wigan and we cover Bolton and Standish too. We are easy to get to from most places in Lancashire and Greater Manchester. Please get in touch if you want our help or more information.

If you are a victim of domestic abuse, coercive control, physical or psychological abuse or violence, it is extremely important to seek help immediately from the following support groups such as:

• Refuge (0808 2000 247)

• Childline (for those under 18) 0800 1111

• NSPCC (if you are worried about a child) 0808 800 5000

• Womens aid

If you are in immediate danger please call 999

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Abuse is when someone is deliberately harming you and causing you pain. Abuse is generally categorised as physical abuse, emotional and psychological abuse, child abuse, sexual abuse or domestic violence.

Very often people will experience some combination of these types of abuse. Abusive behaviour is often related to another person’s desire to control, manipulate and coerce you. If you are being abused or have been a victim of abuse you should seek out professional help or the help of an abuse support group (listed above).

The effects of abuse can cause life-long trauma and result in serious mental health issues like depression, self-harming and suicidal thoughts. Having suppressed trauma can manifest itself in your daily life by affecting your mood, create panic attacks and be the cause of self-destructive behaviour such as alcohol and drug abuse as well being the root cause of behavioural and sexual difficulties.

When you are ready to speak with us at Omega Counselling, then our person-centred therapy will help you understand not just how abuse has affected your life but how to live life in the future without feeling a sense of powerlessness and to address long standing issues of trust, anxiety and confidence all of which are affected by abuse and abusive relationships.

We want to improve your well-being and support you in taking the next step forward to live a more positive and productive life.

f you or someone close to you is struggling with an eating disorder, it is very important to get help with the right counsellor, as early as possible, to avoid any physical and mental effects that this may have. Please get in touch to talk through how I can help if you or a loved one are experiencing issues in this area.

Eating disorders are a psychological condition that affects a person’s relationship with food and their eating patterns and food.

There are three main types of eating disorder: Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia and Binge-Eating Disorder.

Given food is essential in our lives, any condition that affects how much food we consume or how we consume it can have serious effects on our health and put a person you love or your own health and well-being in danger. Eating disorders can lead to hospitalisation and can sometimes be fatal.

If you or a loved one suffer from an eating disorder you should seek out help without delay. Support is available from the following charities

Beat Eating Disorders

NHS Website

There is no one factor for developing eating disorders. The consensus is that it can be caused by environmental, psychological, or genetic factors or a combination of the three. Certainly, eating disorders can be driven by negative emotions like stress, anxiety, and low self-worth as well as key life events causing trauma and psychological harm.

If a person is struggling with things in their life or from their past, then one way of assuming some control is to change the way we eat or our pattern of eating. Controlling food intake means one is gaining some control over one’s body, weight and appearance.

Anorexia, Bulimia and cases of Binge-Eating Disorder all have this changing attitude to eating food in common. Whether it is Anorexia- a restriction of food intake, Bulima – excessive eating then purging, or Binge Eating Disorder – compulsive eating and overeating, they all involve some form of taking control over one’s food intake.

People suffering with an eating disorder can often feel shame or embarrassment and this can cause changes in a person’s behaviour or personality.

It is very important to look out for signs of change, for example:-

• Being secretive about what they have eaten
  

• Persistent or constant weighing
  

• Constant commentary about their weight or body shape
  

• Hiding food or always wanting to eat alone
  

• Irregular mealtimes and skipping meals

This list is by no means exhaustive and if you have any doubts, please contact an eating disorder charity or seek out counselling.

At Omega Counselling we will take time to listen to your issues and be guided by what you need to talk about and at a pace that suits you. Our person centred approach means we will not be judgemental, we want to help you take part in life in ways that support you and help you grow into the person you want to be.

We have counselling offices in Manchester and Wigan so we are easily accessible if you live in West Lancashire or Greater Manchester.

If you or a loved one suffer from an eating disorder you should seek out help withoutdelay.

Support is available from the following charities

https://www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/

https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/feelings-symptoms-behaviours/behaviours/eating-disorders/overview/

Whilst a lot of us take our health for granted, sometimes, we can be overwhelmed having been given a difficult diagnosis or we develop unfounded or unwarranted concerns about our health.

If you are going through a difficult period of your life health-wise, I am here to help.

What is Hypnotherapy?

Hypnotherapy is when a clinical hypnotherapist will use a technique we call, ‘hypnosis’, to put a person into a relaxed state of emotional, physical and mental relaxation.  Hypnosis, when used clinically, can be used to help people overcome persistent psychological, emotional and mental health issues.  It is used to help with many different mental health conditions, disorders and persistent behaviours, but it is more widely known to the general public as being used to help people lose weight, stop smoking and stop compulsive behaviours.

However, hypnotherapy is a well-known and effective technique for helping people suffering with serious clinical conditions like anxiety, depression and negative, life debilitating, thoughts and behaviours.

Once a person is hypnotised, or in an hypnotic state, their subconscious mind becomes open to inquiry and suggestion and through this process, usually with repeat sessions, the hypnotherapist can begin to make positive changes to a person’s thinking, their thought patterns, habits and beliefs.  This is what makes hypnotherapy so effective at creating real functional changes in a person’s life and helping them to take part in a more active and fulfilling life without their subconscious fears and emotions holding them back.

What is inherited therapy and epigenetics?

Inherited Therapy is a new approach to treating people using hypnotherapy.  It has been pioneered by Geoffrey Loveday, from Liverpool, and our hypnotherapist colleague at Omega Counselling, Brian Folkhard, is one of a handful of people across the globe that has been trained by Geoffrey and is certified by him to be an Inherited Therapy Hypnotherapist.

Inherited Therapy focuses on the role of epigenetics or how genes transmit past behaviours, traumas and emotional and psychological issues from one generation to another.

It is widely acknowledged theory now that how our genes get expressed is affected not just by our biological and chemical reactions but also through environmental factors, that is,  not just our built and natural environment but also the social, psychological and emotional environment that each individual experiences throughout their lifetime.

This realisation that trauma can cause both emotional and psychological conditions to be inherited via gene expression across the generations has resulted in epigenetics and inherited trauma becoming the focus of considerable scientific research in recent years – if you are interested in learning more, see links below.

For scientific research examples you may wish to look at this paper here or here

For a layperson’s explanation you can read about Epigenetics and inherited trauma here on the BBC website.

Where Inherited Therapy hypnosis is powerful is it helps reveal to a person the unknown, or unrealised, causes of trauma buried deep in their subconscious.  Inherited Therapy will identify the origin of the trauma and how the resulting stresses have been carried down generationally  (epigenetically) and still be causing deep emotional and psychological distress for someone in the present day. 

Remarkably, this means you can be living with an ancestral figure’s trauma or psychological distress many generations after the events that caused them occurred.

Having identified the root cause and origin of a person’s emotional state or distress, the hypnotherapist will essentially ‘reset’ your emotional and psychological state by removing this past trauma from your subconscious, allowing you to move on with your life and effectively leave this trauma behind.

What Can Inherited Therapy Hypnosis Help People With?

Brian as had enormous success with helping people recover from long term, trauma related, mental health issues like anxiety, depression and compulsive behaviour as well as helping people overcome other problematic social and personal behaviours through hypnotherapy.  

Brian will help people with the following mental health or wellbeing issues:

• Depression

• Anxiety

• Compulsive Behaviour

• Addictive Behaviour

• Fears and phobias.

• Sexual Abuse

• Eating Disorders

• Panic attacks

Please note this list is not exhaustive and should you need further advice, then you should contact Brian directly for an initial discussion and assessment on how he can help you with other issues affecting your mental health and emotional well-being. 

Brian has many years of experience successfully improving people’s lives and will take his time to listen to you and guide you through the process.

Brian is a member of Member of the International Association for Evidence Based Pyschotherapy

Omega Counselling has clinics in Manchester and Wigan which makes access from West Lancashire and Greater Manchester easy.

Developing your sense of self, how you perceive your authentic self to be in the world is a process of development influenced by many factors. As a person matures, so this sense of self, your identity, also matures - you develop an understanding of who you are and how your authentic self fits into the world.

Interacting with the world around you and building relationships within it will often mean negotiating with your own sense of self and finding the right balance between being authentic and true to yourself and ‘getting along’. There are social, political and personal pressures, to name just a few, to conform but when this gets out of balance your sense of self can be suppressed or denied to the extent that your mental health suffers.

Losing your sense of self, or always suppressing your authentic identity can become normalised and lead to a loss of confidence, to feeling insecure or developing serious anxieties or depression. It will affect your relationships with those people close to you and in your professional life.

Unforeseen life changes can challenge someone’s sense of self and confidence in who they think they are, like suddenly losing your job or a loved one. These unexpected events can be disorienting and can lead to people struggling with their identity and feeling unfulfilled and overly self-critical about how events in their life turned out .

Identity issues can lead to a number of psychological conditions developing so it is important if you are suffering from issues around your identity, whether it is sexual identity or your role in a relationship, please seek out advice and help.

Omega Counselling will support you and help you understand why you are feeling the way you do about your identity so that you can begin to take more control over your life and your self-image. Our counselling service is based on creating a nurturing and non-judgemental environment. We will take as much time as you need to explore how you are feeling and address any issues that may be affecting your mental health and your attitude to life.

Feelings of loneliness can happen even when surrounded by people or perhaps caused by something external such as the loss of a loved one or separation. Whatever the cause, we have extensive experience in counselling people suffering from loneliness. It can be difficult to begin exploring the causes of your loneliness and the hardest step to take is very often that first call.

We offer a free counselling session for you to start the process and feel if we are the right counsellors for you.

There is no commitment and no judgement, you are in control. If you want to find out more about Omega Counselling and how we can help you overcome your loneliness, then please do not hesitate to get in touch with us at our Manchester or Wigan counselling clinics.

A low mood that lingers and impacts your daily life can be extremely difficult to deal with, especially when you don’t know why or how to change it. Over time, person-centred talk therapy can help overcome a low mood and help you get on the right path.

If you feel overwhelmingly sad, or you cannot shift low, sad feelings, it could help to talk through and understand these through person-centred counselling. We can gently walk through the feelings and form an understanding, ultimately dealing with the feelings and moving on.

Self esteem is how you think about yourself, how you measure your own self worth.

But what is low self esteem?

With low self esteem, your attitude to yourself will be a negative one and comes from the beliefs that you have developed and been conditioned to think about yourself over your lifetime.

Low self esteem can be caused by many factors such as:

· abuse

· unhealthy relationships,

· body image issues,

· physical and mental health problems

· traumatic life events

· sudden changes in your financial position

· discrimination or bullying

A person with low self esteem will often feel themselves unworthy and lack pride in their achievements in life and at work. They will see and focus on what they perceive to be negative traits about themselves and where they think they have failed and let others down.

Low self esteem usually creates feelings of self doubt and low confidence but in more serious cases can lead to developing mental health problems like eating disorders and drug addiction.

Counselling with a professional therapist will help you understand why you think about yourself in this way and how your life experiences and relationships with people may have led to you focussing on your weaknesses, why you tend to emphasise the failures in your life.

Our person-centred therapy at Omega Counselling will focus on bringing to light the good things you have done in your life and help you work towards seeing yourself in a more positive light.

We provide professional counselling services in Manchester and Wigan that offers you a safe and calm space to talk with your therapist about key events in your life. We will explore ways in which you can overcome these dominant negative core beliefs that cause low self esteem at a pace that suits you.

Let us help you begin a more confident and positive approach to your life today.

Self harm is when someone deliberately chooses to hurt themselves. Although ‘cutting’ is the most known phenomena, there are many other ways that people take to cause physical pain on their body. Burning, picking and scratching are also practiced as well as less obvious actions like overeating or under eating, deliberately getting into fights, putting oneself into dangerous situations, overdosing or overeating.

Self harm activities are understood to be a coping mechanism to decrease or minimise emotional distress being experienced by a person. The sensation of harming can act as an emotional release for the sufferer, marking the body with pain that cannot be expressed. It is critical to get help if you feel like self harming or that you are self harming. The fact someone hurts themselves on purpose makes it very difficult for family and friends to understand what you are going through. If you are self harming you should seek out professional counselling.

Our counsellors at Omega Counselling are all BACP registered counsellors and we specialise in ‘talking therapies’ and CBT. Both of these approaches are effective in helping people manage and control self-harming and enable you to begin the necessary healing process to lead a more fulfilling and positive life.

If you need help and support now, outside of counselling, please consider visiting the below links:

Self harm - short term treatment advice from NICE

Self harm - support and advice from harmless

We have counselling clinics in Manchester and Wigan that will provide you with a safe, neutral and calm setting for exploring your feelings and expectations about yourself and your relationships with others. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. We will always do our best to help find the right counsellor for you.

Stress is your body’s natural reaction to events in your life that trigger a ‘flight or fight’ response. Stress is not something that should be endured for extended periods, it is a mechanism for preparing your body and mind to respond and resolve short term situations and events.

Persistent and prolonged stress is bad for your physical and mental wellbeing. People in general experience stress differently so not everyone will find the same thing or experience stressful.

People suffering from stress related illnesses can find it difficult to seek out professional counselling as there can be a feeling of embarrassment or shame from being perceived as weak and unable to cope with what you are dealing with in your life.

It can be hard to simply admit, ‘I’m not coping’, or say to someone else ‘I can’t cope with this any longer’ and so many people will endure stress for long periods of time without addressing the cause or problem.

Excessive or persistent stress can lead to poor decision making, irritability and anger with loved ones or people at work. It is not uncommon for people suffering with stress to be anxious and in its most debilitating form it can result in people suffering from panic attacks and becoming dysfunctional.

Stress does not just affect your mental health and wellbeing, it can produce uncomfortable and sometimes frightening physical conditions such as high blood pressure, heart palpitations and various stress related skin disorders.

Stress creates a vicious circle, such that a person may keep their stress levels to themselves, sometimes to protect someone else, or through an obligation to lead and be strong or from simply feeling overwhelmed. One of the first signs someone you love might be under abnormal stress is a change in mood, noticeably, unexpected mood swings and angry reactions to normal events as well as being restless and suffering from poor sleep.

Talking therapies are very effective at helping people manage stress and developing an understanding of how to help control your stress.

Removing or limiting stressful feelings in your life is critical to leading a healthy and positive future but the first step in that journey is simply telling someone you can trust that things aren’t okay. Our Person Centred Approach at Omega Counselling will give you a safe space to discuss how you are feeling and to build the trust and confidence you need with your counsellor to explore key events and people in your life, all of which have influenced how you respond to the world around you.

If you need to find out more about our counselling services in Manchester or Wigan then please get in touch, we want to help people lead happier and more positive lives. If we are not the right fit for you, then we can help you find the right counsellor for you.

The workplace is a large part of each of our lives; in fact, we can spend longer in the workplace than with our loved ones. With this comes the possibility of work related issues such as bullying or helplessness that can, in turn, cause mental health issues such as stress, anxiety or depression.

We can work on strategies to help understand and deal with the problems you are encountering in the workplace, as well as rebuilding your confidence once again.