Endeavour School use hypnotist to help pupils with exams

"The work we have been doing with Sheila is to ensure students are in the best frame of mind when they sit their exams"

STUDENTS at a city school are being hypnotised to relieve exam stress.

Clinical hypnotherapist Sheila Granger has been working with GCSE students at Endeavour High School on techniques to help them through the exam period.

Teachers say the initiative is paying dividends, with students being better prepared than ever.

The Beverley Road school closes this summer and headteacher Stewart Edgell is determined youngsters will go out on a high.

He said: "We want the school to go out on a high this year, but ultimately we want our students to achieve the very best results that they can individually.

"The work we have been doing with Sheila is to ensure students are in the best frame of mind when they sit their exams, and that any barriers to them performing at their best have been removed.

NEW TECHNIQUES: Headteacher Stewart Edgell and Sheila Granger with pupils. Picture: Jack Harland

"If you have a student who is worried and you bring someone in who can help them by arming them with new strategies and coping mechanisms, they feel valued that someone has taken note of their concerns and is doing something with them.

"When you get a critical mass of students being looked after in this way, it's much more likely everyone will perform better across the board."

Mr Edgell said the school has worked hard with its 101 students to ensure they achieve the best results they can.

He said: "We brought Sheila in to work with students who we identified that would benefit from additional strategies for preparing for their exams, adopting a positive mindset and believing that they can do it when it comes to achieving their potential.

"We have worked with our students to help them structure their revision carefully and Sheila's work has dovetailed nicely into that in terms of giving them a positive outlook and creative ways of preparing for exams."

'Massive student pressure

Sheila Granger, clinical hypnotherapist, said: "With exam season well and truly upon us, the pressure on students gains considerable momentum at this time of year.

"I have been delighted to work with Endeavour High School in the run up to this important time of year and it's been a real pleasure to work with the students there.

"We all have expectations placed on us, either by ourselves or by others, and it's these expectations that can cause us the greatest stress".

If you are interested in any of my services or need some questions answering, feel free to contact me via email or visit my website. 

Needle Phobia: Taking back control

 "NEEDLE PHOBIA IS A DEFINED MEDICAL CONDITION THAT AFFECTS 20 - 23 PER CENT OF THE POPULATION"

One in four of us will need to receive blood at some point in our lives, so it was quite alarming to see “Britain heading for blood donor crisis as new numbers giving blood drops by 40%” splashed across the headlines earlier this week.

NHS Blood and Transplant says 120,000 fewer people joined the blood donor register in 2014-15 than in 2004-05. Most of us know giving blood saves lives, but not nearly enough of us do it and the NHS believes one of the main reasons is the increasing pressure on people's free time – citing longer commutes and the distractions of social media.

Needle phobia is a very important, but widely ignored condition and one which I believe is contributing to the decline in donors. Many people who are afraid of needles get labelled as being ‘a bit of a wimp’, but this is far from the case.

For some individuals it can be mildly distressing but manageable.  For others it can be seriously debilitating, causing massive anxiety attacks, cold sweats and blind panic. It is actually a defined medical condition that affects between 20 and 23 percent of the adult population, to such an extent that it causes some to even avoid essential medical appointments.

People come to me for help with all sorts of fears and phobias. Hypnotherapy works by accessing the underlying cause of the phobia and eliminating the person’s conditioned response to the stimulus. 

While I’m not promising I will be able to alleviate your fear altogether, although this has been reported in a vast amount of cases, I can definitely help you to control your phobia once and for all.  

The blood unit is calling for 204,000 new volunteers to start donating. Do not let your fear control your life, get in touch with one of my accredited hypnotherapists to arrange a consultation to get the help you need today. The results could be life-changing, and not just for you.

Sheila x

Exam stress and believing you can do it!

"we all have expectations placed on us, either by ourselves or by others, and it’s these expectations that can cause us the greatest stress"

Many of us will be able to recall how nerve-racking it can be to take an exam. Butterflies in our stomach, sweaty palms, a racing heart and panicking that we won’t be able to remember anything we’ve learnt are all common feelings before an exam.

But, when I recently read that children as young as ten were smoking cigarettes to prepare for their exams I was in utter shock. The poll of 1,000 youngsters, who took Key Stage Two SATS last year, also found the students are gorging on junk food and drinking energy drinks for breakfast.

This just proves that there is definitely a huge demand for children to be equipped with skilled coping techniques to get them through this stressful time of year. So, recently I have stepped back into the classroom to help pupils maximise their potential before the exam season got underway.

I have been busy working with several local schools and students, conducting a range of group and one-to-one sessions with the aim of instilling coping strategies that allow everyone to perform to their best ability.

What’s interesting is that, we all have expectations placed on us, either by ourselves or by others, and it’s these expectations that can cause us the greatest stress. Students with low expectations who believe they are going to fail, find it difficult to think positively – which ultimately impacts their performance.

This mind-set is called premature cognitive commitment, which, in a nutshell, means that if you don’t believe you can do something, you won’t even try despite never reassessing whether your belief is true or not.

Take this story of the Indian elephant as an example. A baby elephant is chained to a big tree and the elephant will struggle against the shackles, but only for a period of time. It then gives in to the belief that as long as there is something around its foot, it no longer has free will. Once it’s fully grown, it can be tied by a flimsy rope to a small plant and it will not try to escape - despite the fact that it would be able to!

In much a similar way, top performing students have to contend with the weight of increased expectations and the pressure to deliver can set them up for a fall. Belief has so much to do with it. 

We are all guilty of negative self-talk, both young and old, which can easily turn a good day into a very bad one. My work is all about changing this mind-set.

For teachers, there is already huge emphasis on the delivery of pastoral care and teachers have the added role of coaching individuals through the exam experience, as well as preparing them academically.

Teachers will give pupils their exam dates and the material needed to study but don’t always teach the children to plan their revision. And it is the things that we don’t plan for that make us stressed.

Helping students through this important milestone can be challenging, especially as schools are constantly under the spotlight when it comes to results. It’s really not unusual for schools and colleges to incorporate alternative methods of dealing with student issues such as exam stress.

Many schools have even gone one step further to alleviate the pressure on teachers by creating permanent therapist positions, hiring counsellors and holding mindfulness and meditation lessons, where they work with psychiatrists and therapists on a more regular basis.

It’s natural to feel nervous before taking any test, let alone one that could help shape your entire future, but using the power of suggestion and visualisation techniques will encourage students to clear their racing mind and approach the exam with a cool, calm state of mind.

I wish all students taking exams at the moment the very best of luck.

Sheila x

For information on how one of Sheila's accredited practitioners can help you achieve your goals, visit http://www.sheilagranger.com/pages/lifestyle