New to counselling or hypnotherapy?

If you haven’t been to a counsellor or hypnotherapist before, or simply want to find out more about my approach, this is the page for you.

How does it work ?

Lifestyle Therapy counselling and hypnotherapy is based on respect for your life experience so, as your counsellor and hypnotherapist, I won’t tell you what to do and won’t criticise or judge you. You have a safe, confidential space to talk, explore, heal and grow. My role is to help you understand your areas of difficulty, gain relief from present symptoms and develop resources to cope in the future.

What’s the difference between counselling and hypnotherapy?

Counselling provides a way of  identifying the problem and how it impacts on your life. People come for help because they are stressed or have a problem. The counselling part helps the client peel away all the ‘symptoms’ e.g. the not sleeping, stress, anxiety and to understand the root causes behind them. Counselling asks questions, maybe challenges the answers because often people feel or think in a certain way because they always have. It provides a safe environment in which to consider other ways of thinking, responding and often afterwards people say, ‘I never thought of it in that way’.

Hypnotherapy looks at the unconscious part of problem, how it originated and has been subsequently reinforced over time.   Hypnotherapy therefore helps to heal the origins of the problems and many people find that they start to feel better very quickly.

How does hypnotherapy work?

Many people have a fear of being ‘hypnotised’ because they fear losing control. With hypnotherapy, your eyes are closed and your mind becomes more inwardly focused. As a hypnotherapist I provide you with the opportunity to use your unconscious mind to process what you need to process, you are aware throughout and will remember the session afterwards. Trance or hypnosis is a perfectly natural state that you experience on a daily basis; for example if you’re daydreaming or driving somewhere and can’t quite remember how you got there!

Will the sessions be confidential?

Everything we talk about during the counselling session is confidential, just between you and me. Carefully protecting the confidential basis of counselling is an essential part of my role. Only very rarely can confidentiality not be kept. If you are in danger or someone close to you is at risk of serious harm, then we will discuss  how other people, such as your GP, could be involved, but this is purely for safety reasons, and hardly ever happens.

What will happen at the first session?

The first session lasts approximately two hours.  The first hour we discuss the case history; why you’ve come and what you want to achieve from counselling and hypnotherapy.  There may be some challenging questions to help you gain initial insights.  We then discuss how you wish to proceed.

  Often the second part of the session uses hypnotherapy as a means of healing the unconscious roots to the problem and commiting to living more positively in the present. Many people find that they benefit very quickly, feel really relaxed, like a weight has been lifted off their shoulders after that session. This first 2 hour session costs £80 and in effect is a double session. 

Subsequent sessions usually last about 90 minutes and cost £75.

To find out more about working with me, please contact me at any time by phone or email, with no obligation to make an appointment.