People come to hypnotherapy for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes there is one very clear problem. Sometimes several things have become tangled together: poor sleep feeding anxiety, anxiety affecting confidence, or stress making an old habit harder to manage.
You don’t need to diagnose yourself or decide which label fits before contacting me. The pages below cover the areas I’m most often asked about and explain where hypnotherapy may have a useful role.
Anxiety, worry and situational fears
Anxiety can be obvious and intense, although it can also sit quietly in the background. It may appear as constant overthinking, physical tension, disturbed sleep, avoidance or the feeling that you can never quite switch off.
For some people it is present across much of life. For others it becomes strongest in a particular situation such as flying, driving, public speaking or being somewhere that feels difficult to leave.
Hypnotherapy can help relieve anxiety. My sessions focus on understanding what happens for you, experiencing a calmer and more focused state, and rehearsing how you would prefer to respond in everyday situations.
Read about hypnotherapy for anxiety
Stress and emotional wellbeing
Long periods of pressure can leave you feeling tense, irritable, mentally exhausted or unlike yourself. You may still be getting on with work and looking after everybody else while knowing that you are running on very little.
Sessions offer calm, structured time to look at what has been happening, practise relaxation and consider manageable changes in the areas you can influence.
Read about stress and emotional wellbeing
Sleep
Sleep can become surprisingly complicated once you start worrying about it. You may struggle to switch off, wake in the night or find yourself doing mental arithmetic at three in the morning about how many hours are left before the alarm.
Hypnotherapy can be used to support relaxation and aid sleep. We can also look at the thoughts, habits and pressure that have gathered around bedtime.
Confidence and self-trust
Confidence is rarely the same in every part of life. You may be perfectly comfortable with people you know and become self-conscious in meetings, interviews, performances or unfamiliar social situations. For some people, the difficulty is making a decision without repeatedly questioning it afterwards.
Hypnotherapy can be used to help with confidence. We agree a realistic aim connected with something you would genuinely like to feel more comfortable doing.
Read about confidence and self-trust
Habits and behaviour change
Smoking, vaping, drinking patterns and other repeated behaviours often become closely tied to particular times, feelings and routines. By the time somebody contacts me, they usually understand the reasons for changing. The awkward part is what happens in the familiar moment when the old response appears automatically.
Hypnotherapy may be used as one source of support once you have made your own decision to change. Your motivation, preparation and the actions you take outside the session remain important. Alcohol dependence and substance misuse need appropriate medical or specialist support.
Read about habits and behaviour change
Eating habits and weight management
Many people already know what they intended to do around food. They find themselves eating automatically in the evening, responding to stress with food, struggling with cravings or giving up on a sensible plan after one difficult day.
Hypnotherapy may help people who genuinely want to change food-related habits or manage cravings. Any change in body weight still depends on food intake, activity, health and other relevant factors; hypnotherapy does not cause weight loss on its own.
Read about eating habits and weight management
A sensible place to start
Some physical sensations, sleep problems, changes in mood and eating difficulties can have medical causes. Please begin with your GP or another appropriate professional when symptoms are new, severe, persistent or unexplained. Hypnotherapy does not replace medical diagnosis, prescribed treatment or specialist mental-health care.
If you are unsure where your concern fits, tell me briefly what has been happening and what you would like help with. I can explain whether I think my approach fits and will suggest another starting point when that seems more appropriate.