FAQ

Hypnotherapy is a powerful state of the mind that yields many positive results. It is like meditation but with a specific goal to achieve. Hypnotherapy uses hypnosis to bring a person into a relaxed state where he/she can work on his/her most important goals. In this state, a person becomes most receptive, intuitive, and creative.

During a hypnotherapy session, people are guided through a process to induce a trance-like state that helps them focus their minds, respond more readily to suggestions, and become deeply relaxed. Hypnotherapy utilizes the heightened awareness of the hypnotic state to help you focus on a problem more deeply. 3 Hypnotherapy utilizes techniques including: Relaxation: You will be guided by the hypnotherapist to visualize yourself in a state of peacefulness and relaxation, even when confronting a problematic behaviour or the object of your fears. Suggestion: Your hypnotherapist may make gentle suggestions for behaviour changes that can help you conquer your issue. For example, you may be taught to see yourself as a supportive advisor during a phobic reaction, thus learning to trust yourself and your ability to get through the situation. Coping skills: You may be taught certain cognitive-behavioural coping skills, such as guided imagery and the STOP! technique, that you can use when confronting fears or anxieties. Exploration of past experiences: You may even be encouraged to talk about the first time you experienced the behaviour or problem that you are trying to overcome and how you felt at that moment.

I recommend a multiple session treatment plan. We will have a consultation where you can tell me what the problem is, and we can discuss the different options together and come up with a treatment plan you are happy with. Although there is no ‘typical’ session, they tend to look like this: We will begin with a chat, where I can talk you through what will happen in the session, explain hypnosis and hypnotherapy to you, and where I can answer any questions and concerns you have. We will then proceed to the hypnosis proper and the treatment itself.

You might have a pre-conceived notion of what it will feel like to be under hypnosis. You may think that it is somewhat akin to falling asleep (as many stage hypnotists may click their fingers and say ‘sleep’) or being in a zombie-like trance. But this is not the case. It is actually a heightened state of awareness, although you generally do become very still. You may experience some of the typical signs of hypnosis, such as your breathing slowing, your eyelids fluttering, some movements becoming jerky, and perhaps your perceptions may alter slightly. All of these are perfectly normal.

With hypnotherapy, you are aware of everything the whole of the time!

You may, or may not, be able to remember everything afterwards – but at the time you will hear everything that is said.

You have probably seen stage hypnosis at some time? Well, clinical hypnotherapy is not the same – if you are watching someone who has been hypnotized on stage, it may appear as though they don’t know what’s happening to them. The people who volunteer for stage hypnosis, and the ones who are chosen, are willing to do all the things the hypnotist suggests, and are willing to provide the entertainment for the evening. I will not make you cluck like a chicken, or do anything else you would not be happy to do.

You can never be made to say, or do, anything you don’t want to – and if I or anyone else were to give you suggestions that you didn’t morally approve of – you would come out of hypnosis. You will never give away any secrets – or be made to act in any derogatory way. You are in control as you are actually in a heightened state of awareness, rather than being zonked out, or like a zombie.

I will ask you to visualise certain things – now, if you can’t actually see them – please don’t worry – we are all different – some people can’t visualise because their representational system is more auditory or kinaesthetically inclined – so just try to remember or think about or sense the things that I am saying.

Immediately after coming out of hypnosis you can feel a little groggy, and it can take a moment or two to readjust. This will not last for more than a few seconds. Following the hypnosis session, you may be aware that you feel more relaxed, or lighter spirited than usual – and you will begin to feel differently about whatever you are being treated for. I like to incorporate an Ego Strengthening Routine (ESR) which is designed kick start a positive cycle: you will become more mentally calm, leading to you being more physically relaxed. This enables you to feel more confident, which in turns leads to you becoming more competent. You will then be able to achieve a better quality of hypnosis, and thus a better quality of sleep, which enables you to be more mentally calm … and so the cycle continues.

It can cost anything up to £500 per hour!!! I charge £60 per hour long session is you want to ‘pay as you go’, or if you prefer to pay upfront in one go, I offer discounted packages of 4 sessions for £200

Hypnotherapy can help with a great number of issues. I prefer to work in areas where the science is there to back up any claim with sound research. There are excellent studies which show great successes for helping with anxiety, fears and phobias; pain management; emotional suffering; sleep disorders, psychosomatic and stress disorders, and there is great evidence to show it is highly beneficial for the control of IBS. It can help with so many issues. Here are some that you might not have thought hypnotherapy could help with: allergies, sports performance, bedwetting, insomnia, hair pulling, exam nerves, post surgery recovery, thumb sucking, childbirth, menopause, relationship issues, abuse, jealousy, skin picking, confidence, corporate stress and burnout, memory recall, coping with loss, skin conditions such as eczema, sexual dysfunction, anger management, body image, and so many more!!!!

It works on the premise that you can’t be anxious and relaxed at the same time. So primarily it starts by relaxing you, then there are lots of different treatment and techniques that can be tailored to our own special circumstances. Hypnotherapy has proved very effective in the treatment of anxiety and phobias. Just call me to discover how I can help you.

Hypnosis has proved to be very effective, in particular for anxiety and phobias as well as pain relief. There have been may studies looking into this very question! There is a very interesting study proving that hypnosis does is in fact ‘real’:

 There is something called the Stroop Effect. The Stroop Task is one of the best known psychological experiments named after John Ridley Stroop. The Stroop phenomenon demonstrates that it is difficult to name the ink colour of a colour word if there is a mismatch between ink colour and word. As it is more difficult to name the ink colour when the word does not match, it takes longer for the brain to process this and say the correct word – this delay is called The Stroop Effect. E.g. It is easier to say the correct colour of the word when the word matches the colour you are required to say: You can try this for yourself!

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/java/ready.html Now what is interesting about this is that Amir Raz and his colleagues (2002) used hypnosis to create a ‘Word Blindness’ – where participants could ONLY see the colour and could not read the word. This basically eliminated any Stroop Effect and participants would be to say the colour of the word equally quickly no matter what the word said! Now this is something that you cannot pretend to be good at and therefore provides scientific evidence that hypnosis does have an effect! These experiments have been replicated many times and therefore provides good quality neuro-scientific evidence that hypnosis is something very real!