The mind is like an iceberg: one-tenth is seen, nine-tenths is unseen and submerged (from Sigmund Freud)
Holistic Hypnotherapy
Why we do what we do is not always accessible to our conscious mind. To gain access into this deeper realm of our mind workings, I often use hypnosis with therapy (hypnotherapy). This requires deep trust and the full consent of those I work with. Hypnotherapy for therapeutic purposes is about guiding the client into a trance state, where they are fully aware and control of what is going on, but abler and less inhibited to work with issues that arise at a deeper sub-conscious level. I use hypnotherapy in conjunction with mindfulness to allow the clients true Self to be fully aware of any deeper insights gained.
I call myself a holistic hypnotherapist rather than a clinical hypnotherapist because I work deeply with the whole client. While hypnotherapists are generally good at changing unwanted behaviours – phobias, addictions etc – they do not always address the deeper causes. I work at what underlies troubling behaviour. For example, comfort eating that leads to unwanted weight gain, may very well be a way of firefighting difficult emotions that arise from a hurt part of us. I am happy to work on behaviour or the issues that underlie them. I will be guided by you.
‘Paying attention to ourselves without criticism’
Williams and Penman – Psychologist & Journalist)
Mindfulness
One of the most important skills we can learn is to lovingly observe what is going within without criticism. My style of hypnotherapy is to encourage you to become a loving witness to your own mind: to recognise, accept, and look deeply into your own suffering in order to transform it from the inside-out. I use hypnotherapy to strengthen your witnessing part, what may be called your mindful or true Self. My Buddhist leanings deeply influence how I see therapy and understand suffering. Suffering is not all there is. If we look deeply, the ‘mud’ of our suffering always inter-exists with the ‘lotus’ of insight and our innate well being. As such my therapy style is solution rather than problem focused.
Hypnotherapy, as an aid to developing mindfulness within the client, is a central pillar to the style of therapy that I offer.
‘He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.’
(from Marcus Aurelius)
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
I understand a person’s mind to be a multiplicity of sub-personalities or ‘parts.’ My main aim is for you to step into your true power, where your mindful or true Self is present and has insight in how to be free and happy. The difficulty is that we are often unaware of our different parts and the roles they play in feeling trapped and unhappy. My job is to enable and empower an understanding of own internal family system of parts and how that system maybe gently re-aligned to establish narratives and behaviours that promote inner harmony, balance and freedom. Here I am particularly indebted to Psychosynthesis (Assagioli) and Internal Family Systems Therapy (Schwartz).
‘The body holds the score’
(Bessel van der Kolk)
Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)
I understand that consciousness interpenetrates body as well mind, and that trauma, pain and dis-ease is often held in the body. Furthermore, embodied trauma can be pre-linguistic and or difficult to access using talking therapy alone. EFT is a bridge between talk and body therapy. It is like having a counselling session whist tapping on acupressure points with a client. One way of changing thoughts, core beliefs and hidden feelings that have power over us and our behaviour is to clear the emotional charge and motivating force behind them. I use EFT to complement hypnotherapy, especially when I get the sense that the body holds trauma and dis-ease.
‘The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world’ (Marianne Williamson )
Energy Healing
Energy healing is another bridge, one between mind, body and spirit. It is a way to affect letting go of energy disturbances in spirit, mind and body. Letting go and beginning again is a form of forgiveness. While I have trained in different energy healing modalities – Spiritual Healing, Reiki and Reconnective healing – energy healing is a reconnective gift that maybe honed but not given. For many years I worked with people, but have increasingly worked with animal companions both small (dogs, cats etc.) and large (horses…).
Plus…
My aim as a therapist is not to specialise but to prompt a question: who are you, really? And if you don’t like what you see, who do you want to be? Difficult behaviours are the surface level of what needs changing. Most problem behaviours stem from an exiled or disowned part of us that we need to reintegrate into who we really are and know ourselves to be. In other words, the solution/is already there within us and needs help with the exiled parts of us that cause us ‘problems’ in life. To make the deeper shift, I prefer to work at the level of who I am rather than exclusively what I’m behaviour I’m suffering from right now. This is where the most lasting changes are made. That said, I’m prepared to look at helping shift behaviours and nothing else, if the client sincerely wants that. The latter, is what traditional/clinical hypnotherapy offers.
While I do not specialise in any one particular ‘problem-solution’ area, here is non-exhaustive list of what I’d be prepared to work with:
- Addiction (Smoking, alcohol, drugs and food typically)
- Anxiety
- Confidence
- Difficult Emotions and feelings (Anger, fear, Guilt and Jealousy typically)
- Depression
- Existential Issues (what is my purpose/meaning in life/no future)
- Grief
- Insecurity
- Personal Identity Issues (i.e. accepting whomever you feel you are inside)
- Phobias (of all kinds e.g. flying, dentist, dogs)
- Physical health problems (a wide range, including skin problems and IBS which has a strong psychological component)
- Relationships issues
- Low self-esteem (through inner child work)
- Sports performance (boosting confidence and building mindfulness that will help improve capacity to achieve personal goals)
- Trauma Stress
- Weight-loss