What is Clinical Hypnotherapy and how can it support you?
Clinical Hypnotherapy uses practical, modern and well-researched clinically proven techniques within Neuroscience, NLP, CBT, Psychology and Psychotherapy to help people like yourself make significant, lasting positive changes to their lives in a relatively short period of time.
Clinical Hypnotherapy is solution focused, future-oriented, and gentle positive form of therapy. It’s successful in reducing and relieving a wide variety of symptoms, reducing anxiety and stress levels, as well as changing behaviours and unhelpful thinking patterns whilst promoting calm within your mind and soothing your sympathetic nervous system (fight/flight/freeze/fawn responses). It looks at the solutions and what you want to achieve, rather than the problem or whatever prompted you to take that very first important step towards change. This is different to other forms of therapy which predominantly focus on the problem.
If you have experienced unpleasant events, we acknowledge they’ve happened whilst focusing on:
- understanding where you are currently
- identify where you want to be moving forward
- helping you identify and make those necessary changes
Undertaking this form of therapy shows you how your life can improve, enabling positive long lasting change to fulfil your true potential. Imagine feeling calm, confident and less anxious every day, more relaxed and in control. What a difference that would make to your life and those closest to you.
It’s important to understand that change happens because you want it to, that it’s a collaborative process and you are prepared to take the necessary steps to allow that to happen. When you are ready to make changes to the way you think, this form of therapy is highly effective in relieving many symptoms including anxiety, stress, fears or phobias, sleep issues, menopausal symptoms, low confidence and low mood to name a few.
What to expect?
The first step of the process is your 45 minute Initial Consultation where I’ll collect valuable information allowing me to understand what’s happening for you now, and what you would like to achieve. I’ll formulate your bespoke treatment plan, and how many sessions you are likely to require. Depending on your symptoms this can potentially range from 6-12 sessions (for further details please see bookings and information). I’ll also explain the most up to date Neuroscience helping you to understand your conscious and subconscious mind, how this could be impacting your behaviours, beliefs and symptoms. This information forms the fundamentals of future sessions and I’ve seen so many of my clients improve from this information alone.
Subsequent sessions, depending on symptoms, are one hour in duration split into two sections, firstly Psychotherapy followed by relaxing Hypnosis. During Psychotherapy we’ll discuss the progress you’ve made, which I’ll monitor each session to make sure you’re progressing nicely. I will then assist you to imagine your preferred future, a future where you have a positive outcome and perspective on the quality of your life.
You’ll be encouraged to express yourself positively, focusing on solutions rather than dwelling on the problem.
I’ll then conclude your session by guiding you into a relaxed state of Hypnosis enabling your subconscious mind to consolidate all that we’ve discussed during your session.
What is Psychotherapy?
There are many different kinds of Psychotherapy which is often referred to as “talking therapy”, all of which aim to help people overcome stress or emotional problems. Psychotherapy involves confidentially talking together to help clients overcome their difficulties.
Combining Psychotherapy with Hypnosis is an extremely beneficial and powerful tool, enabling your subconscious mind to make beneficial changes.
It’s important to find the right therapist to enable you to achieve your best possible outcomes.
What is Hypnotherapy?
Many people believe that Hypnotherapy is something that is ‘done’ to them; that they explain their issue to the therapist who then simply hypnotises their problem away, as if by magic. Ta-Dah!
Hypnosis is simply a state of focused attention, in this relaxed state your mind is responsive to positive suggestion. In a therapeutic setting, the suggestions are designed to be beneficial helping you change unhelpful, negative thought patterns and beliefs, rewiring new neural pathways and finding better ways to cope.
Over the following days, weeks and months the subconscious part of your brain will continue to work on these suggestions, figuring out how these changes can happen, making suggestions for implementation to achieve your specific aims.
What does Hypnosis feel like?
We’ve all experienced a Hypnotic state in our everyday lives as it can take many forms.
Have you ever driven home and not remembered anything about the journey as you’ve been on “auto pilot”, or been engrossed in a book or your favourite box set becoming oblivious of time passing? Undertaking your favourite exercise also ignites that similar methodical feeling sometimes described as “flow state”. If so, you’ve been in a state of focused attention, not unlike the feeling of Hypnosis.
Clients often comment how ‘ordinary’ Hypnosis feels, it’s a lot like daydreaming, so you could think of it as guided daydreaming. You can hear everything that’s being said whilst in your deeply relaxed state, some clients fall asleep and snore. Everybody reacts differently and there’s no embarrassment, or judgement here.
During your Hypnosis you can either lie down or remain seated, the choice is yours with whatever feels most comfortable for you.
What Hypnosis isn’t
Contrary to images portrayed in films, books and on TV, Hypnosis doesn’t involve the therapist taking control of your mind with a swinging watch, no one can Hypnotise you against your will. You cannot get stuck and you can bring yourself out of Hypnosis at any time. Your subconscious mind will simply reject any suggestion that’s inappropriate for you, so I cannot make you do anything you don’t want to.