About Nancy Blake

[Image: Nancy Blake]

Nancy Blake BA CQSW, has worked in mental health settings since 1971. She served as the Chair of the ANLP PCS (now the NLPtCA), as well as on a National Working Party developing postgraduate standards for Psychotherapy (NVQ Level 5), and contributed to the document which led to NLP being accepted as a therapeutic modality by the European Association for Psychotherapy.  She has presented workshops at UKCP Professional Conferences on an NLP approach to working with victims of abuse, and in psychoneuroimmunology.  Recovering from ME since 1986, she is the co-author, with Dr Leslie O Simpson, of the book Ramsay’s Disease (ME) about ME, as well as A Beginner's Guide to ME / CFS (ME/CFS Beginner's Guides). Both titles are available both in paperback and Kindle formats on Amazon. Nancy was previously enrolled at Lancaster University in a PhD doctoral program; her thesis topic was Conflicting Paradigms of ME/CFS and how the Psychiatric Paradigm creates its Influence in contrast to the Medical Model. She may be contacted via    nblakemecfs@hotmail.com   http://nancyblakealternatives.com/ Her books are available to purchase at  Amazon.co.uk

Articles by Nancy Blake

  1. Psychoneuroimmunology and NLP

    Listed in mind matters

    The author explains the required paradigm shift that is needed to bridge the divide between science/allopathic medicine and the holistic, mind-body approach to health, highlighting ...

  2. NLP: Cult or Cure? Neither, Actually

    Listed in nlp

    This authoritative feature is a response to the definition of NLP on the online Wikipedia, which describes neurolinguistic programming as a cult.

  3. Joy - That’s What It’s About, Isn’t It?

    Listed in nlp

    This column on NLP touches on experiences of joy - the joy of the seasons - and pain, which is nature way of letting us know that something needs to be done to ensure our survival. ...

  4. Dealing with Harm

    Listed in complementary medicine

    This column focuses on how practitioners in health-enhancing professions can keep well, and use their skills to the best of their ability to help their clients without drowning in s...

  5. Learning Piano Joyfully with NLP

    Listed in nlp

    The three concepts used here are leading by reward, using a moving toward strategy, and working to create positive internal dialogue. These all work hand in hand.

  6. Practical NLP: Separation and Separateness

    Listed in nlp

    The author offers some keys to healthier relationships, particularly with our partners. She also explains the difference between separation and separateness, and how men and women...

  7. Practical NLP: Negotiating Being Fat

    Listed in nlp

    The author gives an account of her personal history of having been told by her doctor to lose ten pounds, when she was fourteen, and weighed eight stone nine pounds. She did this su...

  8. A Curious Thought - ME

    Listed in cfs me long covid

    This author column is usually headed Practical NLP. However, she is also nearly fully recovered from ME, and is passionate about the often cruel treatment of people with ME and othe...

  9. Never Mind ME - What About 'Blame-the-Patient' Syndrome?

    Listed in cfs me long covid

    A group of psychiatrists led by Professor Simon Wesseley, have been able to establish the view that ME is a psychiatric condition which can be successfully treated by Cognitive Beha...

  10. Neurolinguistic Psychotherapy for the Treatment of Depression Part I

    Listed in nlp

    As my theme is Practical NLP, I will explain how these basic concepts can be used in the treatment of depression.

  11. Neurolinguistic Psychotherapy for the Treatment of Depression Part II

    Listed in nlp

    The article sets out ways in which working with submodalities can be very effective in helping people suffering from depression.

  12. On Togetherness and Being Separate, in the Week of the Royal Wedding

    Listed in nlp

    Counselling couples in difficulty, I never discuss who said what to who, or whose fault anything is (too often, one or both members of the pair believes that things can only be reso...

  13. "I Was Too Ashamed......."

    Listed in nlp

    The guilt of the victim can present a serious challenge to those trying to heal the damage done by any form of abuse. How can we understand it - how can we release it?

  14. When It's Not Going to Get Better - Redefining Success and 'Failure'

    Listed in nlp

    The medical conference concerned the fate of a ‘younger disabled’ patient – a formerly healthy young woman who, for reasons no one could figure out, had deteriorated, over the years...

  15. A Beginner’s Guide to ME/CFS: Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, by So Many Names - Part I

    Listed in cfs me long covid

    A Beginner’s Guide to ME/CFS is the title of a little book by myself which includes essential information and recommendations from Dr. Leslie O. Simpson, which will be available on...

  16. A Beginner’s Guide to ME/CFS Part II: Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, by So Many Names

    Listed in cfs me long covid

    So, as we who have ME know too well, just getting through the normal activities of daily living means we are functioning above our anaerobic threshold a lot of the time, which is w...

  17. Practical Uses of NLP, and What Is It About Wheelchairs?

    Listed in nlp

    Just a quick refresher about metaprogrammes, first!

  18. A Radical Care Pathway for ME/CFS

    Listed in cfs me long covid

    Much maligned and misunderstood, ME gets a radical makeover in this exclusive editorial for nhsManagers.Network. But is this pathway really so radical? Perhaps only if you are a he...

  19. ME/CFS: Ethical and Unethical Uses of NLP

    Listed in cfs me long covid

    This article will not be welcomed by those who practice and believe in the use of NLP as an effective treatment for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - ME/CFS.

  20. ME-CFS: Redefining Rest and Learning to be a Psychopath

    Listed in cfs me long covid

    At this moment, I am struggling with at least three themes: Getting ‘rest’ recognized as ‘treatment’, getting the influence of certain psychiatrists recognized as part of our societ...

  21. ME, CFS, Now SEID

    Listed in cfs me long covid

    I was dreading the outcome of the US Institute of Medicine (IOM) report on ME/CFS. All of us who have this illness (or one of these illnesses) know from bitter experience that phy...

  22. Lost in Translation - The ME-Polio Connection and the Dangers of Exercise

    Listed in cfs me long covid

    ‘The syndrome which is currently known as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis in the UK and Epidemic Neuromyasthenia in the USA leaves a chronic aftermath of debility in a large number of cas...

  23. Pain

    Listed in cfs me long covid

    We regard the development of scientific means for alleviating pain, and the development of more and more humane cultural practices as the marks of advanced civilization.

  24. Win the Fight Against ME/CFS by Doing Nothing

    Listed in cfs me long covid

    We are constantly told that, no matter what is wrong with us, exercise will do us good. Wrong: According to the February 2015 IOM report Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue...

  25. ‘Medically Unexplained Symptoms’ - Diverting 5-Year Funding from Mental Health

    Listed in cfs me long covid

    Commissioning inappropriate mental health services for people with complex medical disorders would be an unethical use of funds which are desperately needed for people who have genu...

  26. ME/CFS, NLP and the Lightning Process™ in the Looking Glass

    Listed in cfs me long covid

    The purpose of this article is to provide an explanation of the theoretical model and practical processes underlying both appropriate and inappropriate use of NLP in the treatment o...

  27. What Can We Expect from the Current Review of NICE Guideline CG53

    Listed in cfs me long covid

    Cultural, political and economic factors create pressure to keep ME/CFS classified as a mental health disorder. Anything written about ME/CFS can attract immediate skepticism, ...

  28. ME/CFS Advice for 2019

    Listed in cfs me long covid

    I apologise in advance to both those who already know and practise much of this, and to those who will find it much too complicated and long-winded. ME/CFS is a big and complicated...

  29. Influencing With Integrity When Your Child ‘Has Been Sick For Too Long’

    Listed in cfs me long covid

    You have a child with ME/CFS. She has now been judged to have ‘been sick for too long’, and you are involved with the education system, the medical system, and possibly with social...

  30. Keeping It Safe, When It's Time to Part

    Listed in nlp

    If you are in a dangerously abusive relationship and thinking of leaving (not just reading this article out of interest!), it is essential to keep plans to leave secret. Safest is ...

  31. Keeping The Peace While In Lockdown 2

    Listed in nlp

    When we are all confined, tempers rise. But, like covid-19 itself, the consequences can vary from trivial to fatal. Maybe the usual family arguments just become a bit more frequen...

  32. The Three Most Powerful Things You Can Say – When you are in Conflict with Someone who has more Power than you Do

    Listed in nlp

    This articles is about specific situations in which the reader needs to influence others more powerful than themselves. Compassion, courtesy and kindness are essential for getting ...

  33. ME/CFS, Covid, Long Covid: Rest and Ivermectin

    Listed in cfs me long covid

    This article is a discussion of the role of old-fashioned rest, and the widely used drug, Ivermectin in the treatment of Covid 19. We are now well into the second year of a pandemic...

  34. This Might Help – A Practical Exercise for Releasing Your Inner Strengths When It’s All Too Much!

    Listed in nlp

    As a person with ME, now 86 and virtually bed bound, I want to say that this exercise is for everyone who retains the ability to create beautiful spaces with their imagination! If, ...

  35. Covid Long-Haulers; Why Fish Oil, EPO, or B12 Might Help

    Listed in cfs me long covid

    There are thousands, potentially millions of people who have Long Covid. Effective treatments are still being sought by researchers. The main cause of death in Covid is microclots...

  36. Words that Can Heal in Turbulent Times

    Listed in nlp

    our attention is compelled by negative emotions;  fear, anger, envy and rage. We know our media is controlled by billionaires and our politics is controlled by the banks and big cor...

  37. Suicide – The Conversation You Need to Have

    Listed in depression

    Think about the following scenario. You have been taken into someone’s confidence. You may even have agreed not to tell anyone else. The challenge is implicit – you must find a way ...

  38. Gabor Maté, Meet the Real Dr Spock:  He’s Not a Behaviourist!

    Listed in authority rights freedom

    “Have a bite to learn to like it.   And stop making faces!”  my father would shout angrily, as, gagging and tearful, I struggled not to vomit over the “bite to learn to like it” of...

Book reviews by Nancy Blake

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