Change your brain – in the therapy room

Nicole enters the therapist’s room and clings what she calls her huged pillow. It admits to be nervous because they sit down with a stranger to talk about their mental health.

She is 31 years old, lives in London and works as a chiropractic assistant. She suffers from fear when she drives.

“There are so many things that go through my head so quickly,” she says.

“How far is it gone? How is the route? I somehow forget how to drive.”

She suffers from panic attacks and her fear of driving means that she is constantly canceling plans.

But in the course of six sessions with psychotherapist Owen O’Kane it becomes clear that their problems are much lower than just fear of driving.

Every week, every sixth of the British population experiences psychological health problems such as depression and anxiety and every year more than 1.2 million people seek help from the NHS -Talking Service, whereby many more pay privately to support support.

This form of therapy is most frequently used for anxiety and depression, but can also help with a number of other problems, including body image dysmorphia, compulsive disorder and post -traumatic stress disorder. It doesn’t work for everyone: research proposes a third of the people.

The BBC followed 12 people who were presented in the series Change your opinion, change your lifethe six support meetings received from therapists.

The therapists have used a combination of various speaking therapy approaches, including Cognitive behavior therapy This focuses on changing the way we think and behave, among other techniques to improve relationships and to process trauma.

What it reveals is striking: how the understanding and learning to cope with the spirit that has strength to change life.

“You don’t stay on the brain you have,” says Owen O’Kane, who has been working on the field for 25 years.

He describes his job as a detective work: “Apparently people come with a reasonable story, but the interesting thing is that very often history and emotions do not match. I think what we do is to dig around a bit.”

Owen deeper in Nicole’s fear over her sessions. At some point she cries. In the past, she admits that she has “completely hated” herself. She is worried about what people think about them and is socially fearful: “I don’t feel good enough to be there. I could say something wrong. I need people who like me.”

Owen wonders why she feels like this: “As humans, we like the nice feelings. We like to be happy, to feel joy, be in love.” But he says some people try to avoid or suppress emotions such as fear, fear and sadness, and that can cause fear. Instead, he says that it is healthier to accept them and to accept them as safe.

When people get to this point, they feel enabled: “You can see that they are not overwhelmed.”

When Nicole said outside the therapy room: “I’m shocked. He got my number immediately. I would see vulnerability as a negative thing, but it’s not that.”

They asked to describe themselves, use words like friendly, thoughtful, determined and enthusiastic: “I’m not a bad person,” she says Owen.

She says she learned a lot: “The most important thing is that I wasn’t nice to myself. It was really her eyes.”

Owen says that this is typical of many people he treats: “When people come to these intersections when they wake up and recognize what they do, this is a golden dust moment for me.”

James also learned to think differently thanks to the therapy.

As a 39-year-old father of one who works in finance, he struggles with fear and worried in particular to make mistakes at work. This fear is so weak that he sometimes does not make it work.

He was supported by Prof. Steve Peters, a psychiatrist who explains that perfectionism is the root of his problems: “If we believe that it is the end of the world, if we make a mistake, it paralyzes it.”

James was once athlete, played semi -professional football and competed in athletics before specializing in the bob.

He trained for exams for the Great Britain team when he had a stroke eight years ago: “I lost everything with a switch film,” he says.

“I felt a little man.”

Now he fears to be understood at work and lose his job.

In the course of the meetings, Prof. Peters explains that the key is James’ belief system.

First, he gives some seemingly simple advice: “Put your feet on the floor, get up and go,” he says.

If you focus on the basic task of moving to James’ case so that he can turn to work, someone who is caught in catastrophic thinking can hide the negative thoughts that prevent you from doing something.

In later meetings, James and Prof. Peters examine what could be behind his problems. James tells Profers Peters about his childhood and how his father would criticize him to improve him to improve.

Prof. Peters explains how James believes that in order to please, she cannot make mistakes, and then the devastating stroke, which he suffered at a young age, has triggered an absolute wish that things are never going wrong again.

He says James that he has to make “peace with himself” by not defining himself by performance, but by values ​​and behaviors. He also asks James to describe himself, and James replies that he was hardworking, honest, committed, friendly and as someone who would put the other in the first place.

In the course of his meetings, James’ way of thinking changes: “I can look at myself in the mirror and feel my value and value,” he explains.

Anjale’s fights are a little different. They refer to a traumatic event in childhood – her mother suddenly died when she was 15 years old.

Now she has emotionally fought a mother with three children under the age of five.

She has sleepless nights, a tight breast and feels emotionally separated. It is worse than any physical pain, says the 34-year-old: “Being a mother has to reopen everything I tried to suppress.”

Her first birth was particularly traumatic. She developed sepsis – the state where her mother died: “I thought I would not survive,” she says.

Her psychotherapist, Julia Samuel, explains Anjalee that she was unable to process what happened, and as a result, the trauma has remained with her.

When her mother died, Anjalee was in the middle of the exams and had two younger siblings, so she could be mourned without time.

Julia suggests Desitis and reprocessing of the therapy of the eye movementThe movement uses to help people process and recover from stressful events.

Julia asks Anjalee for her worst memory and she describes how her father tried to save her mother’s life by carrying out breast compressions in her home until the paramedics arrived. Her mother was expelled with Anjaleee, hoping that she would return. She never did it.

Anjaleee says she has never talked about it in anyone. Julia asks Anjaleee to cross her arms against her chest and breathe and knock deeply and to imitate the wings of a butterfly. She talks through the memory and how the pictures in her head change to more positive.

According to Julia, this type of treatment is particularly effective when it comes to a single traumatic event. A memory, she says, can act as a block for everything.

Afterwards Anjaleee speaks about how her symptoms have made easier and what satisfaction she now feels.

“My therapist helped me to connect with the 15-year-old girl who had made me silence. I started to process the trauma that was pursuing me. I now understand grief as a different side of love.”

In May, the BBC shares stories and tips to support your mental health and well -being.

Visit bbc.co.uk/Mentalwellbebeng Find out more.