Weight Loss

Hypnotherapy is extremely effective for changing habits including emotional eating, binge eating, night eating, eating out of boredom, addiction to junk food, chocolate, or other sweets, or just overeating at mealtimes. it can also disrupt the habits of taking disproportionate servings or getting seconds, excessive snacking, or just an “I deserve a treat” mindset.

Hypnotherapy is also great for regaining your basic confidence, motivation, self-esteem and in reaching the realisation that it really is possible to succeed.

The wonderful thing about hypnosis is that it takes away the desire to overeat. It doesn’t stop normal hunger, just the part that wants to grab more. Without that desire, the inner fight is over. That endless loop of try/give up, diet/binge, good person/bad person can come to an end .

When you’re no longer obsessing about food and weight, you free up space to enjoy life and live more fully. You have more energy, feel happier and lighter, sleep better and feel more optimistic. Once this shift occurs, it’s easy to stay on track.

In dealing with weight loss, I usually see people five times over five weeks and ask that people practice with a recording of the session in between meetings, for best effect. After that I suggest an occasional tune up until the goal is reached, then a check in at one year.

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Sleep

If you’re looking for a hypnotist to help you with sleep, you’ve probably already tried basic “sleep hygiene.” There’s a lot of information available but sometimes information alone is not enough. We know we shouldn’t keep adding more coffee during the day, consuming alcohol in the evening, or engaging with electronic devices and thrilling TV at bedtime, but we often do it anyway.

We can be addicted to the agitation, the feeling of being “on.” Maybe it’s too “boring” to eat early, skip the alcohol, and wind down during the evening instead of up, or you can’t/don’t make time to unplug from “doing” mode.

The good news is we don’t have insomnia like a disease, insomnia is something we do. We keep ourselves awake with our habits, agitation, random thoughts, endless reruns, anger, frustration, planning, worry, or dwelling on sad things, or even exciting things, in the future. So if we’re doing it, we can undo it.

The agitated mind tends to try to take control and force itself to go to sleep, then gets irritated if it’s unsuccessful. But we can’t make ourselves go to sleep; we fall asleep. It’s a letting go, a basic trust.

Hypnosis can help greatly with addressing these habits. It can also guide you back down under the superficial chatty mind and that tired, wired feeling into deep rest and deep stillness. People often say after hypnosis that they’ve had their best sleep in years.

I usually see people 5 times over 5 weeks for resolution of sleep problems and ask that people practice with the recording of the session in between, for best effect.

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Addictions

Smoking

Personal motivation is recognised as the most important factor in succeeding at quitting cigarettes. Hypnosis can increase that motivation.

Often, it’s not enough to know that tobacco ruins your health; you have to imagine and truly feel that there’s a good future for you where you’re happy and healthy, that there’s something to look forward to.

Some people will just decide to quit and that’s that, no matter how strong the addiction. They have a sense of being the authority in their own lives. But for most of us, we actually need to find our own confidence and power in order to decide to stop, rather than “try.” Hypnosis is great for giving you this confidence in order to make a stand. Furthermore, it takes away the root desire for the cigarette, so you don’t have to fight with yourself. Without that desire, you’re free.

I usually see smokers 5 times: twice in the first and second weeks and once in the third. The first day is quit day.

Alcohol

Hypnotherapy works extremely well for alcohol dependence. Most of the people I see have increased their intake over time to the point of drinking a half to two bottles of wine daily. A nice lifestyle has become an unhealthy addiction.

I usually suggest that people intend to be a non-drinker for life, or if that is out of the question, then to do it for a year. That is usually long enough to find a better way to live life without the “bottled Valium.” Hypnosis takes away the desire to drink and helps you come out of the fog feeling happy, healthy, confident, optimistic, clear-minded, better slept and looking forward to the future.

I usually see people 5 times over 5 weeks for alcohol or pot addiction and ask that they practice with the recording of the session in between, for best effect.

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Stress

What is it? Stress is our reaction to perceived threats. It’s not a vague thing; we all know when we feel stressed. Cartoonists know how to draw it and we recognise it in ourselves and others. We’re constantly trying to adapt to an accelerating world. Faster and faster we are confronted by not getting what we want or expect or not getting it on time, and instead getting what we don’t want. Our fight or flight reaction is triggered as we perceive possible threats in our everyday. We try to make things happen with force and control but our attempts can be frustrated by others, time, the world, technology, reality. As a result, we  become restless, driven, feel powerless to change things. We might self-medicate with food, alcohol, coffee, cigarettes. Then we hit survival mode living on adrenaline –irritable, inefficient, complaining, foggy, sleepless, tired, and wired.

If you had a choice, would you keep doing this?

The good news is that you can rewire yourself to feel grounded, relaxed, empowered. You can strengthen your resilience, feel confident in your own resources, and live from a feeling of being bigger than your problems.

I usually see people five times over five weeks for stress or anxiety and ask that people practice with the recording of the session in between, for best effect.

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Depression

Most agree that medication is needed to combat major depression, but in mild to moderate depression, psychological treatments alone, or in tandem with medication are often very effective. Of course, there are lots of ways people deal with it themselves, such as exercise, meditation, acupuncture, and talking it through with close friends and confidantes. There also are now several excellent and effective interactive apps to guide people through reframing how they think week by week.

When depressed, we tend to focus on the bad things and spiral down. Some people experience “learned helplessness” and if they also have a pessimistic thinking style they can quickly collapse under pressure. Add in toxic negative beliefs – “everything I do is wrong,” “no one likes me,” etc – and we can get stuck.

The good news is that thoughts and beliefs are not set in concrete; they can be changed and so can the feeling.

What is required for this change to take place? A decision, a willingness to change, knowledge of your intentions, and a pathway to where you want to go.

Hypnotherapy can be very effective at stopping the replays of past negative things and future nightmares, and can change one’s thoughts, beliefs and mood. It also settles the anxiety that most people with depression have. Hypnotherapy improves self-esteem, confidence, sleep, energy, relaxation and optimism. Once these attributes begin to balance, happiness returns.

I usually see people 5 times over 5 weeks and ask that they practice with the recording of the session in between, for best effect.

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Cancer Support

Fear and sadness are natural responses to the sudden possibility of death. Even though we superficially accept that one day we’ll die, a cancer diagnosis is very confronting. The very idea of it can be scary and then the process may include sickness, pain, surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, upheavals in career, family, finances. Furthermore, the shift of identity from being an autonomous person to being a patient is unwelcome to say the least. People often feel powerless to the disease; the conveyor belt, the tests, treatments, the prognosis. As someone who had three monthly brain scans to see if “it” had come back, I know the feeling. It can seem overwhelming but I want you to know that it’s all workable; it may or may not be fixable, but it is workable: the fear, the sadness, the negative beliefs, the hopelessness. You don’t have to die before you die.

Using hypnotherapy and other mind tools can get you back a sense of personal agency (being able to choose your mind’s response to the situation), strengthen your inner confidence, and find a sense that you have all the inner resourcesyou need to deal with whatever comes. Perhaps most importantly, hypnotherapy can give you a strong sense of a possible positive future to sustain you throughout the process. You don’t have to strain to “be positive” over the top of the awful. It’s actually possible to have some genuine happiness of heart.

I usually see people 5 times over 5 weeks to begin with for relaxation, empowerment and happiness.

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