Anxiety is cruel. It robs you of the joy in special occasions and it makes everyday tasks much harder than they should be. We all suffer stress and anxiety at some points in our lives but it’s not actually what is going on in our life that causes us to feel anxious but the way in which we think about those events. Anxiety is merely our brain’s primitive way of protecting us, of keeping us safe. It’s a perfectly normal feeling when faced with genuine danger, but it becomes a problem when there is no imminent danger and it stops you from living your life the way you want to.

There are many reasons why anxiety can rear its head. Menopause and perimenopause; grief and bereavement; big changes such as moving home, school or workplace; pregnancy; caring for elderly relatives. There doesn’t even have to be a reason. When life becomes overwhelming, our brain will simply do what it can to keep us safe.

Solution-focused hypnotherapy is a gentle yet incredibly effective form of therapy for supporting clients suffering from anxiety. It’s gentle because I will never ask you to relive past traumas or analyse why it is you’re feeling anxious. Your brain knows what’s causing you to feel anxious and talking about it over and over again is just going to add it back into your stress bucket. What we’ll do instead is focus on the positive things in your life and think about how it is you want to feel. You know you don’t want to feel anxious and scared, but how do you want to feel? Confident? Happy? Motivated? Focused? You decide how you want to feel and together we’ll work towards an action you can take to move yourself closer to that goal. With that action in mind, I’ll then guide you into a hypnotic state so that your subconscious and conscious mind can come into focus, helping your brain to realise that it’s safe to take these steps forward.

Solution-focused hypnotherapy tends to work quite quickly, typically between 8-12 sessions, although some clients may require more.