Hypnotherapy is a combination of psychotherapy and hypnosis.
What is psychotherapy?
Psychotherapy is a type of therapy used to treat emotional problems and mental health conditions.
It involves talking to a trained therapist, either one-to-one, in a group or with your partner. It allows you to deal with troublesome habits and a wide range of mental disorders, such as depression or anxiety.
There are many different types of psychotherapy but the type I practise is Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT). This therapy focuses on what you want to achieve and what small / specific steps you can take in order to achieve your goal(s). It’s about focusing on the solution rather than the problem, so rather than talking about the reason why you come along to the session, we would encourage you to think about what is it you want and the way in which you want to be feeling.
What is hypnosis?
Have you ever been driving down a road and all of a sudden you wonder how you got there? It’s often called driving on autopilot but you’re actually in trance.
Hypnosis / trance is very ordinary in many ways and is something that we all experience everyday, it’s when we focus on something to the exclusion of everything else around. For example, when we read a book, watch tv, daydream, etc, we are in trance.
People often associate hypnotherapy with stage hypnotists and are either very sceptical or worried at what might happen to them. I can categorically say that as a hypnotherapist I can’t make you do anything against your will, and you are in control at all times. People ask me (as a joke…I hope) if I will make them bark like a dog, and my response to that is if you want to bark like a dog then you will but I certainly can’t make you!
It’s actually a really positive experience and clients often report feeling very relaxed and refreshed, they often feel like they’ve just drifted off and had a little snooze!