Post Updated June 2018
YOU CAN Take Steps To Clear The Blocks In Your Path…
When you do this you set yourself free to never stop growing!
If I can, so can you…I am taking this bold step with you here to share my story, because I hope that it will help you to find your courage to break free too. Here goes…
When I look back on my own journey from when I needed help with anxiety to this pivotal point as I grow my practice internationally as LisaSkeffington.com, more than ever now, I am so excited to share my knowledge, skills and life experiences, to reach more people in need around the world not just in this small corner of my world here in the New Forest.
It was twenty five years ago that I found my way to complementary therapy to offer help with anxiety and set up as The Waterfall Soul Sanctuary offering massage and relaxation therapies to adults and children. As I invested in the best possible training in Hypnotherapy, HypnoHealing and Psychotherapy, I grew into Good To Be Me Therapies and Coaching, earning myself a solid reputation locally.
During the past ten years, I have niched naturally into helping women who perhaps like you, are struggling with anxiety and feeling overwhelmed and stuck in their lives. Working online to extend my reach globally has made it possible to help so many more women like you and I feel immensely honoured and grateful for the opportunity to make a difference for you.
To know me now, you would think that I had always been super-confident and calm within myself but the truth is, I wasn’t always this way. I can’t quite believe how much my life has changed when I look back on my own journey from when I needed help with anxiety, to where I am now well established as an Anxiety Expert for over twenty five years.
Back then when I struggled with anxiety, which was all my life until my late twenties, you wouldn’t believe how underweight I was, or how I stammered over my words, how I had digestive troubles, horrendous skin problems plagued with acne and cold sores. I was a victim of abuse at home and bullied at school. I was crushed to the point that I even suffered nervous convulsions! Life was just horrid and I contemplated ‘opting out’ on more than one occasion. I felt so alone and so misunderstood. I didn’t like who I was and I had no confidence in myself at all.
Growing Into Me…
Then on a Uni try out weekend at 17, I meet a psychology lecturer at Loughborough University,
…and I’m sitting in a dorm with my friend and it’s 4am and I’ve been talking for hours. The lecturer is listening. He’s helping me to see that the nervous convulsions I am experiencing around this time do not mean I’m insane, as I am repeatedly told by an obsessively controlling and violent father. He’s explaining to me how the neurons fire in the brain and that the fits and other anxiety symptoms are being triggered by the sustained emotional and psychological confusion I’m living in.
“You’re not mad”, he tells me… and in it’s in this moment that I become strong.
Having witnessed years of relentless psychological and physical abuse towards my mother (which became a ‘normal’ way of life), as a teenager, it had become ‘my turn’…
I recall clearly the moment when time stood still and I became aware that I had surrounded myself within a wall of limiting self-belief. “My confidence is smashed and I am caught up in believing, because I have been told so often that I am no-one and no-one will ever listen to me or want me or love me.”
I was both fascinated and relieved.
I can recall vividly how it felt like waking up from a bad dream in my life. I realise that
“My circumstances are not normal. I AM – and I am being controlled in the most horrible way… I’m making what he says true because he tells me that he knows me better than I know myself. It isn’t true. It’s what he needs me to believe….
“I AM GOOD ENOUGH. I AM SMART. I AM LOVABLE. I WILL GET OUT OF THIS!”
The kind lady at Citizens Advice, suggests I do nothing but keep my head down, try to avoid trouble, finish school and get out as soon as I can. “You’ll suffer more in a children’s home if you report what’s happening”, she says. (The Children’s Act or Childline was yet to exist.)
“I find myself three jobs and I work hard to save every penny I can, and with the help of some amazing teachers at Longfield School in Kent, I get myself away and off to work at 18 in London and then on to Barcelona to study and work.”
In the years that followed, I was lost in my life and finding my way through Diplomatic work and Investment Banking. I may have seemed confident to the outside world. I had convinced myself I had it sorted. I told myself, ‘I did get away and on with my life, after all’ … but inside I was insecure, angry, defensive and quaking.
I married and by when my daughter Mollie was born, I had retrained as an Interior Designer. I know now that the house represents ‘us’ in our soul, so I guess I was already on the right track somehow to getting the best job in the world. It seemed a way then to help people feel better about emotional stuff they were often disguising.
With experience and training now, I recognise how people cling to materialism as a displacement activity, but I didn’t get that then – or at least I hadn’t realised that I did. I found through my experiences, that I had a gift for helping clients through their emotional problems, which were often causing anxiety symptoms, as they clung to materialism in an attempt to solve their issues. I knew then my true vocation.
Having found my own way to a more stable and calm life, so I thought, I knew I could help women like you to find your way too. Of course, it wasn’t that simple…
I suffered traumatising flashbacks, endless panic attacks and nightmares…
In what seemed to be post-natal depression, I spiralled into an isolating emotional breakdown. I suffered traumatising flashbacks with every day triggers I never saw coming, endless panic attacks, and debilitating nightmares, as I sank deeper into the black abyss of depression and anxiety. I tried medication and counselling without success. As I withdrew further from the outside world, I clung to my precious baby girl to try to keep my sanity; I tried lots of different help.
And then one day…
Someone mentioned a lady who helped with emotional stress in a way that was so much more than counselling. The therapist was an Advanced Hypnotherapist and Psychotherapist, just like me now. I signed up for the right help and I never looked back. Advanced Hypnotherapy and Psychotherapy provided efficient and effective help for me with anxiety, but more than that, it was the connection in being able to trust the right person at my most vulnerable time, which gave me a safe opportunity to seek the answers within myself I had been seeking for so long.
I remember how
I’m standing in my garden and it’s a sunny day. I’m playing with my little girl and I’m crying. This time, they are tears of joy; tears of gratitude for the peace and the love in my life now. I’m stood here in the sunshine and I’m realising that I have lived my entire life based on beliefs about myself that don’t belong to me. These beliefs have been restricting me and keeping me distant from the woman I was always meant to be, and continuing to torture the young girl within me, who got crushed all those years ago.
I give myself permission to get to understand and accept myself truly for the first time in my life, I begin to break free from the anxiety that had kept me down in a place in the world that wasn’t meant for me.
If YOU are feeling that you can’t get the right help…
…and that without it, you will spiral into emotional breakdown yourself, as I did, please be encouraged – you can break free from anxiety and even put the past behind you. I did and if I can, with the right help, you can too. So keep the faith and seek out the right help. You will get there. I began to understand for myself what doesn’t work in battling anxiety, and what really does! As I began to find the answers to truly believe in myself, and to break free from those limiting self-beliefs, I grew to understand myself and to accept myself and I eventually felt for the very first time that it was ‘Good To Be Me.’
At that time, twenty five years ago that I found my way to complementary therapy to offer help with anxiety and set up as The Waterfall Soul Sanctuary offering massage and relaxation therapies to adults and children. I was lovin’ life for the first time in my life in a calm and confident and uncomplicated way. I was so inspired and impressed by how the combination of hypnotherapy and psychotherapy helped me to break free, I began to invest in the best possible training in Advanced Hypnotherapy and Psychotherapy.
Enjoying a better life for myself, it became both my passion and my duty to bring this help to other women too. I further developed my holistic practice to become ‘Good To Be Me’ Therapies and Coaching. With my personal experience of overcoming anxiety, my excellent training, and my strongest desire to help and connect, I began to earn myself a solid reputation in my local area.
Over Twenty Five Years On And I Am Still Growing
During the past ten years, I have niched naturally into helping women who perhaps like you, are struggling with anxiety and feeling overwhelmed and stuck in their lives. Working online to extend my reach globally has made it possible to help so many more women like you and I feel immensely honoured and grateful for the opportunity to make a difference in the world through my consultancy, in a way that reaches far beyond what is generally available.
I have been honoured to help so many others find the resources within themselves to grow into a place of self-acceptance and to find a confidence that life has in many cases stolen from them. I offer my help to you in a way that would have benefitted me to receive it.
As a woman in my own personal life, I am naturally continuing to grow. There’s no manual for any of us and without strong role models, I have simply always strived to give to my children in particular the love and acceptance I never felt.
As a mother, it has always been my goal to ensure that my children grow to believe in themselves and to love themselves unconditionally; to learn those vital lessons which have taken me a long time to really grasp. My greatest achievement is my relationship with my children, along with my relationship with myself. I am so proud that they have grown to own a strong self-belief and confidence, and to love and trust themselves to handle difficult situations and follow their dreams. This, I deeply desire for you too.
In fact, in all my close relationships, I accept nothing less than mutual respect, love and support. This is because I have learned to truly accept and value myself. The past five years have meant some life changing decisions and steps for me, in my quest to be fully happy and fulfilled, as I continue to grow. Six years ago, I took the decision to end a 25 year marriage, after years of trying hard to re-kindle a spark of love, which for a number of reasons, had long since died for me. I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but I feel confident and empowered in my life. It has taken me years to get this point and it hasn’t been an easy journey, but I have learned so much along the way.
The Good News For You Is…
It doesn’t have to be so hard for you. I can help you to heed the life lessons so you don’t make the mistakes I made. I can teach you the short cuts to create for yourself the right mindset, and set the right boundaries. I can help you to find your way quickly to loving yourself and creating a life that works for you on so many levels, so that you too can feel free, happy, relaxed and secure in your life.
Grow Hope
Desiderata tells us that with all its broken dreams, shams and drudgery, it is still a beautiful world, to strive to be happy. I hope this snapshot of me, encourages you to grow hope in your life, and to find your happiness and your courage to get out of and heal from any tricky situation you might find yourself in. If you’re searching for help with anxiety and you want to feel more happy and fulfilled in your life, I’d love to support you to find your way to freedom.
I hope you will take those necessary and brave steps to dig deep into your own resources, to find your resilience, and keep growing yourself too.
I’m here for you and I know you can do it!
One morning, you can also start your day energetically and you can feel a deep sense of peace because, like me, you will be affirming honestly within yourself not only that “It’s Good To Be Me” but that you are “enough” just as you are.
It would be my absolute pleasure to help you to find this feeling for yourself too.
I know you can do it!
Always remember – if I can… you can.
Warmly,
Lisa x
“I have never experienced so much generous help in a professional person as I have with you. Support like that is from the heart and makes a massive impression when you are involved in very personal stuff. The sense of freedom growing in myself is unbelievable. I feel more alive and confident. You have well and truly exceeded my expectations.” Tamara, 50
“Things are so much better now. At the beginning I didn’t ever think I would get to a point where I would be able to say “It’s Good To Be Me!” It’s such a strong statement but I can say it now and believe it and every time I do, I feel emotional in a good way.” Dawn, 53
“I feel in control of myself and my life and I feel a sense of peace. I’m sleeping well and I feel so healthy. I’m rather proud of achievements. I now understand why Lisa’s logo is Good To Be Me” Claire, 50
Do you feel powerless, anxious and overwhelmed to make change happen in your life? I’d like to offer you an immediate opportunity to take a break from your stresses and anxieties. CLICK TO DOWNLOAD my FREE De-Stress Audio.
Lisa Skeffington, Anxiety Expert – Anxiety Help Bournemouth