The thing I hear quite a lot is: “Isn’t hypnotherapy swinging a watch in front of my face or making me cluck like a chicken?”

I’m not a stage hypnotist, so I can’t make you cluck like a chicken unless you truly want to. I work on the therapy side of hypnotherapy. Cognitive hypnotherapy is about moving people towards the person they want to be. It isn’t about making people do anything against their will. I work with you towards your goal, on your terms, and at your pace. I don’t use labels like “anxiety” as you are not your diagnosis. You are more than that and we are all unique. One person's anxiety is different from another person's. I treat the whole person and not just their label.

We are all born with no issues from a therapy point of view. We are a clean slate. During our lives we end up having experiences that hypnotise naturally which could lead to anxiety, confidence issues, phobias etc. Every person's experience is unique. The way our mind processes an experience is different from someone else’s, even if they had the same experience at the same time.

Imagine, for example, 3 people have to pitch for some work. The first person is really excited and gives a great presentation. They notice that the audience is engaged and enjoying themselves. Afterwards they are really energised. They are already looking forward to the next time they have to do a presentation. The second person is slightly nervous. They are anxious and think that people might not like their presentation. Even though they feel like this, they get up on stage and give their presentation. It might have been a bit stilted in places but they got through it and if they had to do it again they would but they wouldn’t enjoy it. The third person to present is so nervous that their fight or flight system has gone into overdrive. They might believe that they cannot do this and the audience will hate them or laugh at them. They stumble through their presentation and vow to avoid future presentations.

They all had the same experience but due to past events, their minds came up with different future predictions based on their past experiences.

Using Cognitive Hypnotherapy I can work with you to see how your mind uses all those different experiences to get to the predictions it makes. For example everyone uses a recipe to make a cake but each chef always puts their own flare in that might be a secret ingredient. This is similar to finding out how your mind experiences anxiety for instance. Each person will experience anxiety differently so my job, with your help, is to work out your unique spin on it so we can de-hypnotise you in order for it to become more manageable.

Just remember all behaviour has a positive purpose, even if you don’t see it yet. We understand that everyone is doing the best they can with the information they have at the time.

Cognitive Hypnotherapy uses a Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) framework but I can draw on a lot of other tools and techniques such as Emotional Freedom Technique (tapping), positive psychology, CBT resources etc and I will choose which ones according to your unique issue.

If you want to learn more and see if Cognitive Hypnotherapy is for you then book a free discovery call below:

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