Before we begin working together, we’ll have a consultation call to explore the issue you’d like support with and to make sure that Clinical Hypnotherapy is the right approach for you. This call also allows you to ask questions, and it helps me gather more information so I can begin shaping your personalised treatment plan.

Each session follows a structured process which is designed to help you feel safe, supported, and fully involved:

• Check‑in and Discussion: Initially this will be to further explore your issue, and in subsequent sessions we’ll check in to see what changes have occured since we last spoke.

• Hypnotherapy Induction: My voice will guide you into a deeply relaxed, comfortable state.

• Therapeutic Hypnosis: While you’re in a focused, receptive state, we work with the techniques best suited to your treatment plan, this may include anchoring, imagery, parts work, or other evidence‑based hypnotherapeutic methods.

• Ending: I will gently guide you out of hypnosis to ensure you feel grounded, alert, and fully present before we close our session with a brief discussion about your experience.

• Recording: To reinforce the therapeutic work and further support your progress you will receive a personalised recording to listen to in the days that follow our session.

Whether we meet online or in person, the structure and quality of the session remain exactly the same. My aim is always to create a calm and supportive environment where you feel understood, empowered, and ready to move forward.

Psychotherapeutic techniques are specific tools, methods, and techniques used in different forms of therapy. Some of the approaches I might use within our hypnosis sessions are: Somatic Therapy, Parts Work, Anchoring, CBT, Mindfulness, Breathwork, Trauma-Informed Yoga, Transactional Analysis, Psychodynamic, Analytical, Person-Centred, and Existential Therapy.

Depending on your needs I will draw from the knowledge and experience I’ve gained during my 20+ years working in health and wellness. Sessions and programmes are tailored to your own unique needs and circumstances, blending various methods with hypnosis allows for more personalisation, which gives you deeper insight, and more meaningful lasting change.

Hypnosis is a deeply relaxed state of focused attention, very similar to when you’re completely absordbed in watching a film or lost in a good book. It’s a natural state of mind that we all drift into regularly in everyday life.

Some examples of being in hypnosis that you’re probably very familiar with are:

• Have you ever been driving on a motorway and realise you’ve gone past your exit? Consciously you don’t know how you missed it, but it happened because you were driving unconsciously, you were in a state of hypnosis.
  

• Those moments when time disappears, like when you pick up your phone for a quick look at social media and all of a sudden it’s an hour later, even though it feels like it’s only been five minutes. You were absorbed in a scrolling trance!

• Now, take a second and imagine you were just on a lovely holiday in sunny Spain, right now you’re back in wet and windy England but if you close your eyes and take a breath, you can easily bring your mind back to the memory of your holiday; the warmth, the smell of sunscreen, the relaxed atmosphere, your mouth might even water a bit as you remember the delicious food. Without much effort your mind has taken you somewhere that feels more vivid than your current reality. This is also a state of hypnosis.

These everyday moments show how naturally your mind moves into a state of hypnotic trance. Hypnotherapy simply guides you into that same state intentionally, to communicate with your unconscious so you can make positive changes to your thoughts, feelings, patterns, or behaviours.

IS IT SAFE FOR EVERYONE?

There are some conditions which are contraindicated and unfortunately we cannot proceed with hypnosis if you have any of the following:

• Psychosis or Psychotic conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder

• Drug or alcohol induced psychosis

• Being under the influence of drugs or alcohol

• Epilepsy

• Narcolepsy

If you have any illnesses or injuries, whether diagnosed or not, and you are unsure if hypnotherapy would be suitable, please contact me and we can discuss.

THE UNCONSCIOUS

Most of what shapes our thoughts, behaviours, and emotional responses happens outside of our conscious awareness.
The conscious mind can only hold a small amount of information at any one time, whereas the unconscious mind is constantly absorbing, storing, and organising everything we experience.

From sensations and memories to patterns, beliefs, and automatic reactions, the unconscious acts as a vast internal library, protecting us from overload while quietly influencing every decision we make.

Research shows that around 95% of our behaviour is driven by unconscious processes, which is why making lasting meaningful changes in your life can be hard when you rely on willpower alone, changing our unconscious processes requires working at a deeper level.

BRAINWAVES

Hypnotherapy helps you access this powerful part of your mind by guiding your brain into a natural state of deep relaxation and focused attention, where theta brainwaves become dominant. Theta is the same state we enter during meditation or just before sleep. It’s an inward‑focused, highly receptive state where deeper memories, emotions, and patterns can be reached more easily. In theta, the conscious mind softens, and the unconscious becomes more open to new insights, imagery, and therapeutic suggestion.

NEUROPLASTICITY

Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to reorganise itself, form new neural pathways, and strengthen patterns of thought and behaviour.

Every time you learn something new, imagine a different possibility, or practise a new response, the brain rewires itself. Hypnotherapy enhances this process by combining focused attention, vivid imagery, and emotional engagement, all of which help the brain “fire and wire” new pathways more efficiently. Over time, these pathways become stronger and more automatic, and they replace old habits, reactions, or limiting beliefs with more supportive ones.

CONTROL

Hypnotherapy isn’t about losing control, it’s about gaining access to the part of your mind that already shapes your life (your unconscious), and using the brain’s natural capacity for change to create new patterns, new possibilities, and lasting transformation. Ultimately, hypnotherapy allows you to have more control over your life.

A hypnotherapist cannot control your mind (if I could then I would never have to vacuum again as I’d make someone else think they want to do it!) But no, it’s not possible for me or any Clinical Hypnotherapist to control your mind.

We’re not psychic, we cannot read your thoughts, and we cannot make you disclose anything that you don’t want us to know.

In hypnosis, you are taking control of your own mind by connecting with your unconscious and changing the patterns it has created. So, in a way it is mind control, but it’s YOU gaining more control over your own mind and your life.

There is a very small percentage of people who cannot be hypnotised. Most of us can experience some level of hypnosis as it’s a natural state that we go into every day without realising, and lots of people are highly suceptible to hypnosis.

Many people who believe they cannot be hypnotised say that it’s because they don’t like to give up control, or because they can’t stop thinking. If you feel like this you’re not alone, it’s probably the most common response I get when I tell someone I’m a hypnotherapist.

Hypnosis is not mind control, and a hypnotherapist cannot read your thoughts, so you’re free to carry on thinking whatever you like and I’ll never know. Also, it’s impossible to stop thinking, it’s literally the main job of the mind, so please don’t drive yourself mad trying to stop your thoughts!

As there is only a small percentage of people who cannot be hypnotised, it’s more likely that someone can’t relax enough to enter a state of focused awareness (hypnosis), which leads them to think they can’t be hypnotised.

It’s understandable if someone finds it hard to relax, especially if they think they will have to surrender control, or if they think they’ll have to stop thinking in case the hypnotherapist reads their mind, or gets them to discolse secrets, or something simlar. The mind will resist and won’t relax if it doesn’t feel safe.

A lot of people find it harder to relax in the first session, that’s completely normal, it’s a new situation and it’s the minds job to keep you safe in life, so of course it might be a bit resistant to relaxing and that’s fine. You are always in control and there are many different techniques we can use to help the mind feel safe and at ease. It’s not a one-size-fits-all, your sessions are tailored specifically for you, so we’ll find what works best for your comfort level at the time.

Hypnosis is a natural state that you can come out of at any time. You still have awareness when in hypnosis, for example if a doorbell rings or a dog barks, you will hear it, there is nothing keeping you in hypnosis an you remain in control at all times.

There will be no swinging watch! That is a dramatic invention by TV and stage shows for entertainment.

Some hynotherapists do use a pendulum for eye fixation however, I use focused mental imagery, breathing exercises, and my voice to guide you into hypnosis.

You are always in control and you cannot be made to do anything against your will.

The things we see people do on TV and in shows are for entertainment, it’s stage hypnotism and it has no therapeutic value whatsoever, it is completely different to Clinical Hypnotherapy.

Hypnosis requires your active participation. You can’t be forced to do anything you don’t want to do, especially things that go against your values or morals.

And personally, I have no interest in stage hypnotism or making anyone do daft things. I don’t practice rapid inductions or physical triggers (both are used a lot in stage hypnotism), some hypnotherapists will use these techniques however, I prefer to guide people in a slow gentle way using my voice to communicate with the unconscious, so you can experience long lasting and meaningful change.

Clinical Hypnotherapy is collaborative and goal-directed. Where meditation often trains your attention over long periods of time, hypnosis allows you to enter a high-quality state quite quickly and then begin working with it.

In hypnosis you’re not only resting in awareness and observing, you’re engaging, shaping, and reorganising in that awareness. Hypnosis acts as a tool to change a specific behavior or belief, while meditation acts as a lens to observe the mind without trying to alter it.

Meditation = tune in, be in your awareness, observe your mind, be present.

Hypnosis = zone out, get out of your own way so your unconscious can come forward.

Hypnosis is the state of focused awareness and deep relaxation, and sleep is an unconscious state of physical and mental rest.
If you happen to fall asleep during hypnosis I will gently wake you a little bit so that you remain in a focused state rather than asleep.
However, falling asleep is perfectly normal and happens regularly when the body and mind are deeply relaxed, so don’t worry if you nod off, unless you’re listening to a recording that is specifically designed for going to sleep, I’ll continue with the session while speaking a bit louder to bring you back to a hypnotic state.

Hypnotherapy is not a magic wand, that would be fantastic but unfortunately, there are no shortcuts in any kind of therapy, so you still have to do the work, and you will be fully supported along the way.