A practical, psychologically informed approach to using hypnosis for anxiety, confidence, fears, sleep, performance and positive change.
Clinical hypnosis can be a powerful therapeutic tool for helping people change unhelpful patterns, reduce anxiety, build confidence and respond differently to situations that have previously felt difficult or overwhelming.
At The Well-Minded Practice, hypnosis is used within a professional, psychologically and neuroscience-informed therapeutic approach. There is no stage hypnosis, no surrendering control and nothing mysterious involved. Instead, it draws on the brain’s natural capacity for focused attention, absorption, imagination and rehearsal to support meaningful change.
Instead, clinical hypnosis uses the mind's natural ability to become deeply absorbed and focused, creating an opportunity to rehearse new responses, strengthen helpful patterns and make therapeutic change easier.
Most of us naturally experience hypnotic or trance-like states every day. You may have become completely absorbed in a book or film, driven somewhere familiar with very little conscious thought about the journey, or been so focused on something that you temporarily stopped noticing what was happening around you.
Clinical hypnosis deliberately makes use of this capacity for focused attention and absorption within therapy. During hypnosis, you remain conscious and in control. You can hear what is being said, think about it, respond if you wish and stop at any point.
The therapist helps you enter a focused, absorbed state in which imagination, therapeutic suggestion and mental rehearsal can be used to support the changes you want to make.
Clinical hypnosis can be useful as part of therapy for a wide variety of difficulties, including:
It can also be used for positive performance and personal development, helping you mentally rehearse situations in which you would like to feel calmer, stronger, more capable or more confident.
One of the biggest misconceptions about hypnosis is that somebody else somehow takes control of your mind. That isn't what happens.
Hypnosis can increase focus, absorption and responsiveness to suggestion, but it does not remove your ability to think, make choices or stop the process. People may sometimes feel less inhibited or more willing to respond to suggestions than they ordinarily would, which is why trust, consent and professional ethics are so important.
In clinical practice, hypnosis is a collaborative process. You know what you want to change, and we use your own imagination, attention, abilities and internal resources to help your brain practise a different response. You can speak, question what is happening, reject suggestions or stop at any point. You remain yourself throughout.
There isn't one particular feeling that tells us somebody is hypnotised. Some people feel deeply relaxed. Others notice a pleasant heaviness or lightness in their body. Some become very absorbed in the imagery or ideas being discussed, while others remain quite aware of the room around them. You don't have to feel as though you are asleep or "in a trance" for hypnosis to be useful. And you don't have to be especially suggestible, imaginative or good at visualising. The process can be adapted to suit you.
We will begin by talking about what you would like to change and understanding the thoughts, feelings, behaviours or automatic responses that are currently getting in the way. Hypnosis is never simply something that is "done to you".
Depending on what you need, your session may also include psychotherapy, psychoeducation, practical psychological strategies and techniques for managing difficult thoughts, feelings or physical responses.
If clinical hypnosis is appropriate, I will then guide you into a comfortable state of focused attention.
The hypnotic work itself is tailored to you and may involve therapeutic suggestion, imagery, metaphor, rehearsal of future situations or reconnecting you with times when you have already demonstrated the qualities or capabilities you need.
The aim is not simply to feel relaxed during the appointment. The aim is to help your brain learn a more useful response that you can take back into everyday life.
I don't see hypnosis as a magic treatment or a completely separate form of therapy. It is one of a range of therapeutic tools I can draw upon when it is appropriate for the person and the problem in front of me.
My wider therapeutic approach is based on Human Givens psychotherapy: a practical, solution-focused approach which draws on psychological knowledge, neuroscience and effective therapeutic techniques to help people understand what is happening and make useful changes.
Clinical hypnosis integrates naturally into this work because it allows us not only to talk about change, but also to rehearse and experience it. For some clients hypnosis will form a significant part of our work together. For others it might only be used briefly within one or two sessions. And for some people it won't be needed at all. Treatment is always tailored to you.
I am a Senior Accredited psychotherapist with the Human Givens Institute, hold the General Qualification in Hypnotherapy Practice (GQHP) and am registered with the General Hypnotherapy Register (GHR). This means clinical hypnosis is used within a broader, professionally grounded therapeutic approach rather than as a standalone or one-size-fits-all technique.
Anxiety often involves the brain repeatedly predicting danger before anything has actually happened.
You may understand logically that you are safe and still experience racing thoughts, nausea, shaking, panic, tension or an overwhelming desire to escape.
Clinical hypnosis can give us another way of working with those automatic responses. Rather than simply telling yourself not to worry, we can use focused therapeutic rehearsal to help your brain practise experiencing the situation while calm, capable and in control.
The same principle can be particularly useful for confidence and performance. Whether you are preparing for an interview, presentation, examination, sporting event, difficult conversation or another important situation, hypnosis can help you mentally rehearse responding in the way you would like to respond when it matters.
Hypnosis and relaxation can also form part of my specialist work with sleep. However, persistent insomnia is rarely solved simply by making somebody relax. As a therapist with specialist training in sleep and insomnia, I will look at the wider factors maintaining the problem and use hypnosis when it is clinically useful rather than presenting it as a cure-all. You can find out more about specialist treatment for insomnia through The Sleep Clinic.
Sometimes people experience surprisingly rapid changes. Other difficulties require several sessions or benefit from hypnosis being combined with wider therapeutic work. I don't offer promises of instant cures because human beings, and the difficulties we experience, are more complicated than that.
My aim is always to help you make meaningful progress as efficiently as we reasonably can, while ensuring that the work is appropriate, ethical and tailored to you.
Clinical hypnosis can be used effectively within both online and face-to-face appointments. For online sessions, you simply need somewhere comfortable and private where you will not be interrupted.
You don't need any special equipment and you certainly don't need to be lying on a couch.
No. Hypnosis is not sleep. Most people remain aware of what is happening throughout the process.
Usually, yes. Clinical hypnosis isn't designed to make you unconscious or erase your memory of the session.
Not in the sense of taking over your mind or removing your ability to choose. Hypnosis can increase absorption, responsiveness to suggestion and sometimes reduce inhibition, so I think it is too simplistic to say that a hypnotised person could never be influenced to do something they would not ordinarily do. People may sometimes feel more willing to respond in ways they would normally feel too inhibited or self-conscious to behave. That is why trust, informed consent and professional ethics are so important in clinical hypnosis. In practice, hypnosis is a collaborative process. You remain able to speak, question what is happening, reject suggestions and stop at any point. I will always explain what we are doing and why, and the work will be agreed with you beforehand.
That's absolutely fine. Hypnosis doesn't depend upon being able to create vivid pictures in your mind. We can use thoughts, words, sensations, memories, ideas and other forms of focused attention instead.
There isn't a test you have to pass. People experience focused attention in different ways and the approach can be adapted accordingly.
Not necessarily. Like any therapeutic intervention, its suitability depends on the individual and what they are seeking help with. We will talk about your circumstances first and decide together whether clinical hypnosis is an appropriate part of your treatment.
You don't need to know whether hypnosis is the right approach before you contact me. Tell me a little about what you would like help with and we can discuss whether clinical hypnosis, whether as the main focus of our work or as part of a wider course of psychotherapy.
Get in touch to arrange an appointment or discuss whether clinical hypnosis may be suitable for you.