Cognitive Hypnotherapy
A modern, flexible and personalised approach to helping you change the beliefs, thoughts, feelings and behaviours that may be getting in the way of the life you want to live.
Perhaps there's something you consciously know shouldn't bother you – but it does.
You know flying is safe, but the thought of getting on a plane fills you with anxiety.
You know you're capable of speaking in front of other people, but your heart races or your mind goes blank when all eyes are on you.
You want to sleep, but the moment your head hits the pillow your mind seems determined to think about everything you've ever needed to worry about.
Or perhaps anxiety, self-doubt or an unwanted habit keeps appearing, despite your best efforts to change it.
It's that frustrating feeling of - ‘I know this logically, so why can't I just stop it?’
That's often where Cognitive Hypnotherapy can help.
Quest Cognitive Hypnotherapy
I am trained in Quest Cognitive Hypnotherapy (QCH), a modern and flexible approach to therapy that recognises something I believe is incredibly important: You are an individual - so your therapy should be too! This short video explains
Five people might come to see me because they have a fear of public speaking. But the reason each person's fear developed, what triggers it and what keeps it going may be completely different.
One person might be afraid of looking stupid. Another might hate feeling trapped. Someone else may fear having a panic attack. Another person's anxiety may have started after one particular experience.
The label – fear of public speaking – may be the same.
The person experiencing it isn't.
That's why I don't use a one-size-fits-all approach to therapy.
Instead, I'll work with you to understand your individual experience – your thoughts, feelings and behaviours and the patterns that may be keeping your problem in place.
Then we can work together to help you change them.
So, What Actually is Hypnosis?
One of the biggest misconceptions about hypnosis is that it’s a special state that a hypnotherapist has ‘put you into’.
In reality, we all experience shifts in our attention as part of everyday life. We drift in and out of trances all day.
Have you ever driven somewhere familiar and arrived with very little memory of the journey? Do you ever become so absorbed in what you’re doing that you’ve lost track of time? Or found yourself staring out of the window, completely lost in thought? It’s completely natural to be in an altered state or trance. Our mind has to do things automatically to save us energy. Imagine if you had to think actively about everything you do. It would be exhausting!
From a Quest Cognitive Hypnotherapy perspective, problems come out of the way we become caught up in learned automatic patterns of thinking, feeling or behaving without consciously choosing to.
Rationally, you might know there’s nothing to be afraid of but the emotional part of your mind and body has other ideas and reacts as if you’re in danger.
Cognitive hypnotherapy gives us a way of working with those learned automatic patterns, to help you unlearn them, and create a different response.
Will I Be in Control?
Yes!
Hypnosis isn’t about me taking control of your mind - and I can’t make you do anything you want to do.
When I’m using hypnosis with you, you will usually be aware of what’s happening and hear most of what I am saing. You may feel pleasantly relaxed or deeply absorbed in your inner world but there’s no particular way you’re supposed to feel.
You don’t need to be ‘good’ at hypnosis or going ‘into trance’.
You don’t need to empty your mind.
And you certainly don’t need to surrender control.
In fact, many people come to see me because they want to feel more in control - of their fears, their anxiety, their thoughts or the way they respond in certain situations.
My role is to work with you to help us understand the patterns that maybe getting in the way and find ways of changing them.
Therapy Tailored to You
One of the things I value most about Quest Cognitive Hypnotherapy is its flexibility.
Rather than deciding that a particular problem always requires a particular technique, I tailor our work to you and what we discover together.
I’ll be incredibly curious about how you would answer:
What triggers the problem?
What happens in your body when that happens? What happens with your thoughts?
What do you do or avoid doing because of it?
And then, importantly, what would you like to be doing instead?
I draw on hypnotherapy in combination with a range of therapeutic techniques and approaches including hypnotherapy, NLP (neuro linguistic programming), AMDR (Applied Memory Deconsolidation and Reconsolidation) and EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique).
The aim isn’t to fit you to the therapy. It’s to fit the therapy to you.
Focusing on Where You Want to Go
Understanding what’s keeping the problem going can be important, but therapy is a lot more than analysing what’s wrong.
I’m also very interested in what you want to have instead.
If anxiety wasn’t getting in the way, what would you be doing instead?
If you felt comfortable flying, where might you go?
If public speaking no longer filled you with dread, what opportunities might you pursue?
If you could quieten your mind at night, what difference would better sleep make to your life?
In Quest Cognitive Hypnotherapy, we call this your solution state - what your experience of life might be like when the problem is no longer running the show.
Our work together is about helping you move towards that.
Hypnosis that’s Personal to You
Another aspect of Quest Cognitive Hypnotherapy is an approach to hypnotic language called Wordweaving™
Rather than using a generic hypnosis script designed for everyone with the same problem, I can create hypnotic suggestions tailored specifically to you, incorporating your own words and ideas about the changes you want to make from your solution state.
For most clients I will also create a personalised Wordweaving™ audio recording for you to listen to between our sessions.
After all, your idea of feeling calm, confident or in control may be completely different from somebody else’s.
It make sense that your therapy should be personal to you too.
What happens in your first session?
Your first session gives us the opportunity to really explore what’s been happening and what you would like to change.
I’ll ask you questions to help us understand how your particular problem works, when and where it shows up and what may be keeping it going.
We’ll then spend time exploring how you want to be in your live without the problem getting in the way.
The first session may or may not include hypnosis. Everyone is different, and I tailor the session to what feels most useful at that point.
If we don’t use hypnosis, I’ll usually want to help you learn something useful - perhaps a different way of understanding the problem or a technique you can begin using straight away.
What Happens in Further Sessions
We'll look at what's changed since we last met, what you've noticed and what we need to focus on next.
There's no fixed session plan for anxiety, phobias or confidence because your experience of the problem is unique to you.
Depending on what you need, our work may include hypnosis alongside other therapeutic techniques and approaches. A lot of sessions may not focus on hypnosis at all. It all depends on what seems most appropriate for what you bring to your session.
Some problems, such as specific phobias with an obvious root to reframe, can sometimes respond relatively quickly. Other issues may need more time. There's no hard-and-fast rule about how many sessions you'll need, although many clients work with me for around four to six sessions. Some clients choose to work with me on an on-going basis for general personal development. It all depends what suits you.
Research Findings on Cognitive Hypnotherapy
Quest Cognitive Hypnotherapy has also been the subject of published research. A pilot study examined the outcome for 118 clients receiving Quest Cognitive Hypnotherapy for anxiety and depression. The results were published in a peer-reviewed article in the Mental Health Review Journal in 2015.
Could Cognitive Hypnotherapy Help You?
If there’s something you’d like to change and you’re not sure whether Cognitive Hypnotherapy could help, you are welcome to get in touch for an initial conversation.
You can tell me a little about what’s happening, what you would like to be different and you can ask me any questions you have about how I work.
If I think I can help, I’ll explain what I would suggest as a way forward. And if I don’t believe I am the right person to help you, I will always be honest about that.
Ready to find out whether Cognitive Hypnotherapy could help you? - change is a call away!
Disclaimer - please note results can vary from person to person
