spare

Carry on and experience the same old or let shift happen.

Sometimes just learning you have choices is the most liberating thing imaginable. You are the boss of you and the mechanisms are there waiting to be utilised for you to change your mind and enjoy complete success. But that can be hard if you are trying to do so alone – it is difficult to know who to talk to or who might be able to help you. Family and friends tend to say what they think is best for you to hear rather than the truth. Working with me enables you to clear the emotional clutter and debris to bring about swift, permanent results.

You decide what you want; free your mind and design an inner template for you to achieve it with ease and grace.

However,
♡ Can you change my life?
♡ Why would I pay you to tell me what to do?
♡ Do I need you to tell me what I already know?

These are all questions I have been asked. Generally, if you are thinking about it, it is probably the right time for you but only you know. I dislike the word 'therapy' because I think it suggests being broken.

Using hypnotic techniques combined with coaching ticks all the boxes.

Here are a few of the modalities that I use:

Hypnotherapy/self-hypnosis to give you a tool for life
Coaching is a multi-faceted holistic approach to life in general or to work through specific issues or difficulties
NLP is neuro linguistic programming. This is a selection of teachable tools that can be practised with or without other disciplines
CBT is cognitive behavioural therapy. This is about acknowledging what is happening and doing something different to elicit change. Repeating behaviours creates alternative neural pathways and forms new habits
Meditation and mindfulness is being 'in the now' in a calm controlled manner
Stress management helps you notice triggers that may lead to potential flares ~ with pain or life flare ups

Do you have the feeling of being 'stuck' or have the feeling of something missing? Maybe you are unfulfilled or challenged. Or, you are so stressed you have forgotten how to have a gentle life. Gentle does not equal dull.

This is about you. Your needs, your choices, your desires.

After your sessions I will send you the ‘key points’ email with suggestions for you to follow.

I have over 30 years experience as a hypnotherapist/coach and I would love to help you make changes that will spark your joy.

FAQ

People saying nice things:

It was so good I became a hypnotherapist myself, JH
Still wondering how it works but pleased it does, JJ
Extraordinary. It is like Barbara knows my head and heart inside-out, PB
Many tried, many failed but she got me, AM
Just to say hi to the lovely lady who stopped me smoking 26 years ago, I still hear your voice saying calm when I can’t sleep, SH

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Plus Member of the College of Medicine and Integrated Health

At Home Hypnotherapy

If we have issues, difficulties, problems, fears, phobias, in fact anything that is not serving us in a positive productive way it might be because we are holding on to outdated inner programming or the fear of change is too great. There might be other reasons such as not knowing where or how to start or a belief that if something has been a certain way for a long time that is it forever.

Change can only happen when it happens and hypnotherapy is one of the best ways for that to occur with ease, grace and permanence.
We all have a conscious and subconscious mind that work separately and together.

Conscious: the bit that reasons and makes decisions, the day-to-day doing, the front-of-house, the tip of the iceberg.
Subconscious: the bit where our emotions, memories, learnt programmes, inner lizard and imagination reside. It is backstage, the hidden part of the iceberg or the flapping feet of the swan under the water that nobody sees as they gracefully float about.

Many will talk about how it feels to ‘go under’ as people think they will sink under the radar of waking consciousness but are unsure where they are slipping into or where they might end up. It is easier to think of hypnosis as something you enter or go into rather under. Hypnosis and meditation are not sleep. Nor will you become a deep coma-like zombie without your wherewithal ready to be ordered about to obey commands or give away personal information. Your body can physically relax and your conscious mind can rest.

Thinking of being frightened creates a feeling of fear that releases a surge of stress hormones like adrenaline, i.e. noises in the dark, partner late, near miss in a car. Events like these cause the flight or fight response - and we experience physical symptoms like butterflies, pains in limbs, breathing difficulties or the shakes.

Thinking of nice things creates a feel-good sensation, i.e. seeing or touching something lovely, laughing, smells evoking happy memories, being in love and deep relaxation. Events like these create a happy peaceful feeling and the release of useful chemicals and hormones like endorphins resulting in a sense of wellbeing and, if necessary, a reduction in pain. Using the mind positively creates reactions that can be used for good - like healing, pain control (childbirth, anaesthesia) and stress management. As every thought creates a reaction somewhere in the body by using the mind in a positive way we can make changes on a cellular level. Our internal imagery - which is the language of the subconscious - can make changes at the cell regeneration stage.

Hypnosis is the natural altered state of consciousness that occurs within us if we are bored, fixated or mesmerised, relaxed or doing something either repetitive or learnt. It is a familiar experience because we are all slipping in and out of differing mind states several times each day. Hypnotherapy makes use of these natural abilities by inducing the hypnotic state to enable healing and/or change to be made on a subconscious level.

The subconscious mind 'runs' our bodies. It is in charge of everything automatic, it looks after our memories so we don't have to keep relearning, it holds on to habits (good and bad), it adjusts our emotions and generally does everything it can to protect and keep us alive.
Your left-brain hemisphere works in a logical sequential way. You look at something and deduce what it is you are seeing with logic. If there is something we don’t quite understand, our mind can become very inventive.

Your right-brain hemisphere is responsible for creativity and imagination. We can even think of them as separate entities or complete in their own right. The left-hand side is usually referred to as the male while the right is the feminine (conscious and subconscious).
If you were to squeeze a tube of toothpaste would you grab and scrunch (right-brain) or would you methodically start at the bottom and push out the exact amount (left)? What about if you are eating bread and a spread? Would you put the used butter knife into the jam and blob on any old amount (right) or use a clean one to deliver the exact portion (left)?

Because our fears, habits, phobias etc. are in our subconscious, that is where we need to deal with whatever is causing problems or difficulties. Even though the appearance of someone deeply relaxed or in a trance has led many to the belief that those in hypnosis or are meditating are sleeping or unaware of what is going on around them - this is not so. So many times, despite explaining this, I have clients who still think they will be asleep and are amazed when they remain awake; it shows how deep our programming and expectations run.

The familiarity of a trance state leads some to the conclusion that they 'can't do it' or that it doesn't 'work'. It is important to just go with the flow and enjoy whatever happens because however you experience it, it will be the perfect way for you.

Do you analyse most things that you experience, deliberating with yourself and spend time logically working through a particular course of action or do you just trust your instincts so that if it feels right you let it happen? When we are in ‘left-brain mode’ we think and behave logically, sequentially and methodically. We plan and analyse - sometimes to destruction. From this behaviour we get the term ‘analysis paralysis’. It can be so disabling that the person who constantly functions like this might end up unable to do anything or runs the risk of developing an obsessive-compulsive disorder. I have seen this happen a lot in my work with performers and sportspeople.

Take golfers for instance: they replay their game in their mind over and over often to the point of destruction by convincing themselves how useless they are and then when they next play they start at the point of being a failure and their game tends to become stressful. They make silly mistakes, which in turn reconfirms the earlier thoughts.

Likewise performers can over-criticise and lose their self-belief very easily. If they mess up an audition through performance anxiety or get turned down for a role that they were sure belonged to them they can easily slip into a downward negative spiral.
When we are in ‘right-brain mode’ we think and behave intuitively with feeling and imagination, going with our hearts but maybe not paying quite enough attention to the goal or logic. You may know people who seem to be away with the fairies most of the time living in a fluffy world. Too much of this type of thinking might mean losing touch with reality. It is generally said that men are left-brain dominant and women right brained. Or, pedantic male versus intuitive female. It might be, for example, that you logically know or understand something but your imagination creates another reality.

All our life experiences are stored subconsciously and stored information works as such:
Driving: we learn how to drive and it then becomes automatic … we don't have to think about it
Tasks: we learn … they become automatic
Habits (all of which are in the subconscious-good and bad): learn … automatic.

We automatically drift into a trance-like state if we do anything repetitive or boring. If we concentrate, fix our attention or bombard ourselves with too much information ~ away we go, shut down, chill out, wander-off, daydream! At the gym having repetitive bass music playing lulls those exercising into a dream-like daze where they can tread the mill for longer than if they were actually thinking about what they were doing.

Reading is another good example of inducing a natural trance. When absorbed in a movie our conscious mind suspends reality to allow our imagination to work its magic and you have probably experienced a reaction watching a film whereby you've cried, laughed or jumped because your mind accepted it as real.

The use of hypnotic techniques is sometimes referred to as creative visualisation. This can be true if you ‘see’ images in your mind. Imagine you were to describe your front door to me. Can you see it in your mind? Do you just know what it looks like? Can you ‘hear’ the bell or a knock?
If I ask you now to imagine a door that is pink and blue stripes with drawings of potatoes randomly on it can you see that? Can you sense it? Can you ‘hear’ it?
Are you a mix of all?
Whatever you see, think or feel is right for you. Imagery is the language of the subconscious - we image in. Our mind then acts on the information.

This is why the changes we desire must be carried out on a subconscious level. We can chat about issues all day but nothing will change until there is subconscious and conscious alignment. Your at home hypnotherapy is exactly that.