I always used to think that I was in charge of my mind, and for the most part I believe I was, up to a point and this first point came in 1998. This was the first time my mind either exploded or collapsed in on itself, I’m still not sure which way round I would describe it to be honest. I was being medically discharged from the military, a job I loved, I was getting divorced and losing my home, so a fair bit to contend with. On top of this a friend of mine had lost hope and tried to kill himself but thankfully wasn’t successful, he had put a pistol in his mouth, pulled the trigger and survived. I had reached the end of my tether and I learnt from his mistake so I put the barrel of the pistol in my eye socket to make sure the bullet took my brain out effectively. Fortunately for me, one of my oldest friends had picked up on something when I had phoned him to subtly say goodbye and after putting the phone down he got in his car and drove from Bournemouth to North London to my flat to check on me. He rang the doorbell as I was about to pull the trigger, which at the time really pissed me off, but it also interrupted my thought process and he took me out and got me drunk.
My next blip was in 2002 and was much shorter, partly because I was more aware of what was going on and also because I was in a new, stable relationship and had the support of my partner.
The third blip was in 2016, and in true fashion I had been ignoring the signs for some time until I finally fell apart and this blip lasted around 6 months. This time I was well informed through previous experiences, having studied psychology, psychotherapy & hypnotherapy for 20 years and having developed the Immediate Care Process. I practiced what I preached, focused on myself and with help from a wonderful friend and therapist, Bob Burns, got back on track.
So what I am saying is that to own your mindset, you must commit to it and yourself, you have to treat it like a muscle and exercise it daily and practice the things that work for you and this is precisely what I do. I sue my own techniques in the Immediate Care Process every day, they are the first thing I do when I get up each morning while the kettle is boiling and I use them as needed throughout the day. I don’t profess for this process to be a panacea, it is not a magic wand or a universal cure all and sometimes they take longer to kick in than on other days. However, the more you practice the better you get and the more effective they are when you need them.
So what is this process and how did it come about?
I began to develop The Immediate Care Process in 2007, really as a direct result of my own personal experiences and seeing and helping close friends deal with their own issues. This was enhanced with my study of psychology & psychotherapy to bring lived experience, academic study and research together. It took 2 years to finalise the initial three self-regulation tools and then another 18 months of researching and testing the fourth step, the reprocessing tool.
During this time, I used these tools with growing success and shared them with numerous friends and colleagues around the world who worked as therapists.
Since 2007, The Immediate Care Process has been taught to 174 therapists from psychiatrist to nurse, 70 plus non therapists such as veterans and partners, paramedics, police officers, prison officers and firefighters, and has been delivered to almost 8,000 patients in person and via video call.
A small research study has been conducted on a random 100 sample. The following assessments were used; PHQ-9, GAD-7, WSAS from intake, 3 months and 6 months and a patient self-report of symptom improvement. This showed an 89% success rate and an average 11 sessions per patient.
The Immediate Care Process is an amalgamation of several fields of Psychology (sport, cognitive, behavioural, positive), Hypnosis, Neuroscience, Psychotherapy and Neuro Linguistics. This incredibly powerful blend of several schools of thought creates a deep and broad view of how our minds work, how we decide on what’s important for us, what’s a threat, what’s stressful and what we decide to do with that information.
The Immediate Care Process takes advantage of NLP’s modelling process, often called a Psychology of Excellence, is discovering and taking on the beliefs, values, behaviours and mental sequencing found in people who are outstanding in their field and utilising these in yourself and others. It is also finding examples of when you have been excellent, finding out how you were doing that and replicating it in different areas of your life.
This course is all about Emotional & Psychological Resilience and provides you with easy to learn, simple to use, powerful psychological tools that you can use with yourself or anyone else experiencing a mental health crisis. The course begins with a foundation in how we process information, how we communicate this and how it can go wrong when we become overloaded and overwhelmed.
After the underpinning theory, the next step is to learn the skills themselves in Part 2, here I recommend you practice them yourself and then practice explaining and delivering them to family and friends as this helps to embed the skills further.
Learning this way means you get plenty of practical hands on experience from two different perspectives
Take a look for yourself and start to own your mindset in 2022.