Hypnotherapy is the use of hypnosis to help people help themselves.

We all have the natural ability to go into a trance-like state. Think of the times you have driven somewhere and suddenly realised that you had arrived? Do you ever daydream? These are both examples of you naturally going into a trance-like state. Remember that feeling between sleep and being fully awake, that's the relaxed state people can access when in an hypnotic trance. An hypnotic trance doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll be deeply relaxed, it depends what we are aiming to achieve, sometimes deep relaxation isn’t appropriate. Hypnosis can be provided conversationally, without eye closure.

Hypnosis helps people go into a different state of mind where, with the help of the hypnotherapist, they can work on and start to resolve the issues that are troubling them.

How does it work?

Every day we take in billions and billions of bits of information at an unconscious level. Our unconscious mind stores all that information and all our memories of things past and things to come. Sometimes things that have happened to us in the past stop us from living our life successfully, healthily and happily in the present. Perhaps there has been a trauma, such as bereavement, bullying, accident or something else that has happened to us. Consciously we might not be aware of what the issue or problem is that causes us to feel unwell or unhappy but because of underlying beliefs about ourselves those incidents have had a big impact on us.

Before you start to change, I will explore with you what the issues are and what is going on in your life now and in the past. We will discuss how you would like to be in the future so that we both know what we are aiming for.

Hypnosis allows us to access the unconscious mind and so deal with problems and issues that have been hindering and bothering you. It may involve going back in time to deal with a specific event and I might use Timeline Therapy©, Regression or Past Life Therapy.

We might be working on something that you are frightened of doing in the future, such as speaking in public. Hypnosis can be used to help people resolve many issues and problems.

During the session, I can help you make changes to how you think about or deal with what is bothering you. This may be helping you realise that you were not to blame for something that happened in the past. Help you visualise new ways of behaving in the future. It might be helping you to deal with a difficult situation by trying out different ways of handling it in your minds eye. It might be helping you refocus your attention away from anxiety provoking thoughts or depressing memories to more supportive ways of feeling and thinking.

Usually there is work for you to do between sessions to speed up the change you want to make. Clients who make the most progress are the ones who help themselves between sessions.

By now you may want to start to help yourself by listening to one of my specially written and produced self help MP3's. You can find out more here