The Butterfly Effect.

In Chaos theory, the Butterfly Effect is the, "Sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state. "

When people wonder why and if therapy works the Chaos Theory Butterfly Effect can begin to give an answer.

All too easily when we are growing up we unwittingly take on other people's opinions- both good and bad- because when growing up we are like sponges and don't have the wisdom of experience and knowledge to understand and filter; that that is just someone's opinion- their opinion formed from their lifelong experiences; and so on (and we could so easily get lost in nature vs nurture here).

Nevertheless, we carry these "opinions" subconsciously around with us and subconsciously prove their rightness or wrongness, and of course, the closer the person to us, the more likely we absorb- so it could be a parent, a best friend, a favourite aunty, or in situations where the context is unusual, we suddenly discover that we have taken on the comment of a stranger from the corner shop.

So when we are working in a therapeutic environment these little faulty ingrained beliefs come to surface, and with the addition of hypnosis, we can look at ways of changing what we truly believe about what was once a tiny, throw away statement by someone... And how true or false that statement is.

Many moons ago, in my previous career of being a stained glass artist, I believed that, (a silly belief) 'artists don't wear trainers' and therefore because I was an artist, I didn't wear trainers. -this amazingly limited my behaviour; and consequently I had never even considered running or going to the gym...or indeed any pursuit that involved trainers! This belief, was deeply buried in my subconscious and never even surfaced to be questioned, because I just accepted and believed that I was not THAT sort of person.

BUT once that faulty belief is questioned, and then realised that the belief is faulty- (no matter how long it has been with us), change can be put into action.

So when you have a moment, have a think of when you began believing that you were / were not THAT sort of person; when you decided to be anxious about X situation, or when you decided you have an addictive personality or when you chose to be unconfident and then imagine what would change in your life today, if you changed that one tiny belief .