Abuse is a form of trauma carried out by a human being on another human being. This type of trauma is inflicted knowingly and unjustifiably to harm another person. The effects of any type of abuse, be it emotional, physical, or sexual are wide-ranging and varied and can include feelings of worthlessness, powerlessness, shame, guilt, low self-esteem, and relationship difficulties.

I provide a non-judgemental space in therapy to work through any overwhelming emotions compassionately and respectfully. I provide a tailored combination of hypnotherapy and psychotherapy to help you reach inner peace and happiness.

Scientific research has shown that humans and animals all share the same basic pleasure and reward circuits in the brain; circuits that are activated when in contact with addictive substances or during pleasurable acts such as eating or orgasm. One conclusion from this evidence is that addictive behaviours are normal, a natural part of our wiring. If they weren't, or if they were rare, nature would not have let the capacity to be addicted evolve, survive, and stick around in every living creature. It is when addictive behaviours around things like alcohol, drugs, food, shopping, gambling, sex, porn, social media, for example become all-consuming that people’s lives are negatively impacted. Some signs and symptoms that are common include:

Defensiveness

Paranoia

Irritability

Mood swings

Tiredness

Difficulty focusing

Low self-esteem

Memory problems

Secretive behaviour

Withdrawing from social situations

Withdrawing from responsibilities

Losing interest in activities previously enjoyed

Poor performance at work/school

It is important to recognise how human and how hard addiction is, but it is most certainly not hopeless. Hypnotherapy can help you change your perspective on addiction, fundamentally changing habits, thought patterns and behaviours. Together, we can work towards returning to healthy non-addictive behaviour. This is achievable even when it often feels impossible. I aim to dispel common misconceptions and reduce the stigma associated with addiction. It can happen to anyone; we are all human.

Anger is a normal and healthy emotion which can act as a powerful and liberating force when expressed assertively, rather than aggressively or passively. Anger can spill out into everyday life, with some people internalising it, some needing to get in touch with it, and others displaying it as an outlet in often inappropriate ways. Women are frequently encouraged to contain anger and men are sometimes admired for displaying it in competitive or challenging ways. I work with both men and women, exploring the root cause of anger that is negatively impacting their everyday lives.

Therapy offers the freedom you may need to express your anger in a compassionate, non-judgemental space. Hypnotherapy can effectively explore the root cause to help you understand what is motivating your feelings.

Anxiety plays a crucial role in keeping us alert and alive. It is the mind and body's reaction to stressful, dangerous, or unfamiliar situations. The sense of uneasiness, distress, or dread felt before a significant event is a profoundly human experience, as humans have the capacity to imagine a future. This uncertainty about future events plays a crucial role in how anxiety is experienced in both mind and body. There are also times when anxious thoughts focus on the past. The mind is on the lookout for uncertain danger and the body prepares itself for an uncertain scenario.

Most people experience stress and anxiety in their lives but when physical, psychological, or behavioural symptoms begin to escalate it can impact everyday life considerably. Some of the common symptoms are listed below:

Feeling of butterflies in the stomach

Shortness of breath

Dizziness

Increased heart rate

Dry mouth

Feeling sick

Shaking

Needing to use the toilet more often

Feeling frightened and panicky

Thinking you might lose control/go mad/might die

Feeling detached from your environment

Feeling the urge to run away/escape the situation

Making excuses to not see family or friends

Avoiding going out alone

Rushing out of situations quickly

Only shopping when it is quiet

Crossing the street to avoid people

Some people experience symptoms like these constantly, or it may be episodic, associated with certain recognisable situations. I can help you understand the nature of the anxiety you are experiencing. One crucial factor in therapy is to guide you to recognise the appropriateness of any given anxiety response and work towards changing your perception of it.

Self-esteem is the cognitive and emotional evaluation of our worth. It is the matrix through which we think, feel, and act, and reflects and determines the relationship to ourselves, to others, and to the world. Self-esteem can influence life in many ways, from academic and professional success to relationships and mental health. One central element I aim to bring to the forefront when working with self-esteem, is to let your psyche know that no one person is less worthy than the next person, and no one is deemed more important. To rebuild healthy self-esteem is to put aside your fear of being worth less than others.

Some examples of what healthy self-esteem can look like in daily life are:

Knowing the difference between confidence and arrogance

Not afraid of feedback

Not people-pleasing or seeking approval

Not afraid of conflict

Able to set boundaries

Able to voice needs and opinions

Assertive, but not pushy

Not afraid of setbacks

Does not fear failure

Does not feel inferior

Therapy can help you feel more secure in your own life, moving towards a healthy feeling of self-worth. Hypnotherapy can effectively emphasise your personal value and the value of your unique life.

Research into the channels of communication that exist between mind and body shows that the relaxation response achieves the opposite physiological effect as the stress response. If you are experiencing daily chronic pain the stress and anxiety associated with it can exacerbate the pain, resulting in feelings of hopelessness and isolation. It is quite probable that you have tried most things, including high doses of medication.

Hypnotherapy offers a different route for you to reclaim your life and get back to enjoying everyday activities. The deep levels of relaxation experienced during hypnosis can help link the brain and body’s nodal-point areas which contain the neurotransmitters, hormones, and peptides, all responsible for pain, stress, and inflammatory responses. Hypnotherapy aims to get these distinct regions working together in harmony again. It also explores the affecting root cause of the physical pain, allowing the unconscious to release old, unresolved emotions.

Our world can be loud, and people are often faced with things that make them question whether they are good enough. Negative self-talk and the associated thought processes can directly impact self-confidence, leading to feelings of low confidence and of being self-critical. This critical inner voice of judgement resonates with old unresolved emotions and can lead to patterns of repeated intrusive thoughts. When the subconscious is accessed during hypnotherapy, the role of the critical inner voice is brought into awareness so any unwanted emotions can be released. The negative thought processes are observed without judgment, so it is far easier to disengage from them.

Hypnotherapy can help you explore how you feel about yourself. Together we can identify how past experiences - both negative and positive - have influenced how you view yourself and the world around you.

Depression is different for everyone. It may swoop down almost out of the blue, or it may be felt immediately after a setback or personal loss. There will be often be persistent feelings of sadness, emptiness, anxiousness, worthlessness, hopelessness, helplessness, pessimism, or guilt. Depression also interferes with concentration, motivation, sleep and other aspects of everyday functioning. Not everyone who is depressed experiences every symptom. Some people experience a few symptoms, some experience many.

Hypnotherapy works on a subconscious level and is an approach which aims to identify and address the root cause of any depressive feelings. I can work with you to help gently access your subconscious which then allows any past experiences and unresolved emotions to be released from the mind and body.

Eating disorders come with both emotional and physical symptoms and include anorexia nervosa (voluntary starvation), bulimia nervosa (binge-eating followed by purging), binge-eating disorder (binge-eating without purging), and other or unspecified eating disorders (disordered eating patterns that do not fit into another category)

When people become fixated on what and how much they eat, how much they weigh or their physical appearance it can sometimes be an indicator of an eating disorder. People may become more withdrawn and lethargic, they may avoid people or activities they previously enjoyed, or they may struggle with mood swings, depression, and anxiety.

Hypnotherapy can help you get to the root of disordered eating. It is a gentle, effective technique which can help you change how you think and feel about food, leading to a happier and more fulfilling life.

Fear is a human, natural response to danger, threat, and confusion. It is normal to experience these instinctive emotive reactions. However, if they remain stuck and unresolved, it can affect how you feel about yourself and the world around you. Sometimes at a very early age, fear becomes part of the subconscious. As adults we may show this unconscious fear as fear of loss, separation, abandonment, rejection, failure, or feelings of helplessness. Sometimes it shows itself in feelings of not really being sure of ourselves, or others. It can also arise in the form of panic attacks, phobias, generalised anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorders nightmares, flashbacks, and panic attacks.

Hypnotherapy can help you to identify the underlying root cause and how fear may be impacting your life. True feelings can be expressed safely, leading to a better understanding of the fear itself.

Grief is our mind and body’s response to loss. The experience of grief is different for everyone, and there is not a set way in which people respond to it. It triggers so many thoughts, feelings and emotions which may take time to process and overcome. These intense emotions of unhappiness, bereavement and loss can also encompass feelings of fury, indignation, rage, terror, and shame. The therapeutic setting can allow you to express these feelings safely and at a pace that feels comfortable.

Hypnotherapy can help you come to terms with the grief of loss. This can be the loss of a loved one, the loss of the past, the loss of a job, the loss of purpose or loss of freedom.

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a disorder of the digestive system and gut that causes the bowel to be highly sensitive. The condition causes recurring pain and discomfort in the abdominal area and often, the nerves and muscles are impacted. Some people living with irritable bowel syndrome find their symptoms to be an occasional nuisance, for other people, however, the condition can seriously affect their quality of life. Hypnotherapy works directly with the intrinsic link between brain and gut. There is a constant two-way communication between them, via the connections of the autonomic nervous system and hormones that circulate through the bloodstream. With IBS, the communication between brain and gut is unbalanced. Hypnotherapy aims to restore a healthy balance.

Hypnotherapy can help you to overcome the stress and anxiety associated with IBS. It can also help with pain management and discomfort by working with the body and mind, not against it. Any triggers and the root cause are looked at gently and sensitively.

Migraine and headaches are common and can vary greatly in severity from person to person. Migraine reduces quality of life, and many sufferers live in fear that at any time an attack could disrupt their ability to work, care for their families or meet social commitments. The headache is severe, with pain described as one-sided, throbbing, pounding or pulsating. There is often nausea and vomiting and an aversion to strong sensory stimuli such as bright light, strong smell and loud sounds. The pain can often be aggravated by movement or physical activity.

Hypnotherapy can help to identify the root cause of the migraine and to reduce the occurrence of powerful triggers such as stress and lack of sleep. Hypnotherapy is also effective at reducing the experience of pain, which in turn restores a feeling of autonomy. You can begin to feel more in control of your mind and body, rather than the migraine pain controlling you.

Feelings of overwhelm are a common occurrence in our fast-paced world, where the stresses of everyday life can quickly begin to build up. Normal stress responses within the nervous system can become unbalanced, leading to feelings of isolation, anger, anxiety, depression and hopelessness. The first step is to recognise what overwhelm looks and feels like. A few signs that you may be experiencing overwhelm are:

Seeing an increase in stomach aches, headaches, and body pains

Crying or shouting more frequently

Little things are more bothersome than usual

Motivation has decreased significantly

Increased sleep disturbances

Patience has decreased

Increase in or onset of anxiety and/or panic attacks

The sensory system is easily overwhelmed - sounds, scents, tactile feelings feel overwhelming

Increase in general emotional distress

Hypnotherapy can help you cope with feelings of overload, breaking down the stresses and anxiety into manageable and understandable parts. It can help locate the root cause of the overwhelming feelings, so any unresolved emotions are acknowledged and released safely and gently.

The need for connection, conversation and intimacy with others is an innate human trait. So, it is common to feel deeply affected when any relationship, be it platonic or romantic, begins to feel unstable.

People learn through early experiences the capacity to form healthy, loving relationships. These initial relationships with caregivers who meet the infant’s basic needs for food, care, warmth, protection, stimulation, and social contact, establish deeply ingrained patterns of relating to others. Often these experiences when people are young affect their relationships as adults. Unhelpful behaviours are learnt which subconsciously impact the here and now.

Hypnotherapy is a powerful tool for change and can help support you to navigate any relationship difficulties. I will work compassionately alongside you in a way that feels empowering.

Many people experience sexual difficulties at some point in their lives. A few of the most common sexual problems for men are erectile dysfunction, performance anxiety and premature ejaculation. For women, it is vaginismus and decreased libido. Some people describe feeling self-conscious in the bedroom, unable to relax and of having feelings of embarrassment, frustration or guilt.

Hypnotherapy works with the unconscious mind to help you identify the root cause of the sexual problem, correcting any unhelpful subconscious beliefs. This then leads to increased confidence and an improved and fulfilling sex life. I provide a compassionate, respectful space to talk about sexual problems in complete confidence.

Skin disorders are common and include atopic dermatitis, which is characterised by inflammation such as eczema, dry skin and severe itching, acne, hives and psoriasis. People experience intense itching, scratching and picking which leads to increased levels of stress, anxiety and depression. Many people describe avoiding social situations, increased physical tension and sleep disturbance. This can all exacerbate symptoms which can have a huge impact on day-to-day life.

There is a powerful connection between body and mind, so hypnotherapy can work effectively to identify the root of any presenting skin condition.

Sleep disorders have become common in many parts of the world and are categorised into different types, dependant on their characteristics. The most common sleep problems are insomnia, sleep apnoea, narcolepsy, restless leg syndrome and parasomnias. These sleep issues have a direct impact on physical and emotional wellbeing. They can make daily life feel like a huge challenge and affect mood, energy and concentration.

Hypnotherapy can help you discover the underlying root cause of any disordered sleep, allowing the subconscious mind to reset the restorative sleep part. This creates a deep sense of calm and relaxation so that sleep becomes natural, deep and effortless.

Many people experience stress and tension in their lives, but when the pressure begins to feel too much, it can lead to exhaustion, negative self-talk, poor concentration, anxiety and overwhelm. I work with you to restore balance and calm. Hypnotherapy can effectively identify what is causing the feelings of stress, working with the subconscious to promote healthy ways of dealing with the associated symptoms. You will rediscover your innate ability to relax naturally, using simple relaxation techniques that can be easily applied to your daily life.

Most people feel hesitant to talk about suicide or may even be deeply uncomfortable or anxious at the thought. Those who are experiencing suicidal thoughts may also keep quiet out of fear of burdening their loved ones. Widespread discomfort around the subject of suicide often stems from cultural norms and taking one's own life is taboo in many cultures and religions and is even considered shameful by some.

I provide a compassionate space where you can talk openly about suicidal thoughts and tendencies. It is deeply emotionally painful to consider suicide, or to fear that a loved one is considering it, so it is crucial that you feel fully supported, without judgement. I aim to reduce the stigma around suicide and to encourage those who are experiencing suicidal thoughts to talk about how they are feeling. This reduces feelings of isolation and allows the idea that a journey of recovery is within reach.

It is important to recognise and acknowledge trauma from a truly personal perspective. Every individual person will experience traumatic events differently and it is crucial that their experience is met with empathy and compassion. Some people respond to events with an unhealthy coping mechanism, such as using drugs and alcohol as a means of escape. Others may dissociate to evade what is happening, allowing their thoughts to take them to an imagined place of safety. Sometimes people repress the trauma. This is an involuntary act where the subconscious mind buries the feelings to protect the self. Suppression is similar, but it is a voluntary response, such as keeping busy to avoid thinking about the event. Quite often the traumatic memory is blocked from conscious thought entirely.

Hypnotherapy explores any traumatic event very gently, at a pace that is right for you. By looking at the events in this way, your subconscious mind can feel held and protected. The associated emotions can then be acknowledged compassionately and then released.