What is hypnotherapy?
Hypnotherapy has been approved for use by the British Medical Association for more than 40 years. It is a form of therapy which enables you to enlist the help of your unconscious mind. It is a client-centred process and allows you to focus your attention internally, re-assessing resources and creating new associations, patterns and behaviours.

How can it help me?
Hypnosis does not claim to perform miracles, but it does create a state of awareness that can be useful for self-help. Psychological problems from unwanted habits to irrational anxiety states can usually be traced to distorted, one-sided or unbalanced attitudes, deeply-embedded in the mind, often at unconscious level. Clients that come for hypnotherapy have usually exhausted the resources of their logical, critical, conscious minds.

In the hypnotic state, clients can draw upon inner imaginative and experiential resources and become open to suggestions that encourage more rational, balanced and helpful attitudes to reality.

Can anyone be hypnotised?
Nobody can be hypnotised against their will, so if you chose not to be hypnotised you will not be. However, it is said that if you allow the process to occur, most people are hypnotisable. The therapist does not have "control of your mind" and you would not do anything that would be against your free will or moral standards.

For what conditions can hypnosis be used for?
It has been claimed that up to 80 per cent of patients who visit General Practitioners are suffering from psychosomatic disorders - illnesses which have their origins in the mind. These include various forms of anxiety or depression, insomnia, digestive problems and back pain, to name but a few. Due to time restraints and lack of access to alternative therapies via the NHS, G.Ps are often forced to treat these complaints with drugs. Although they may provide temporary relief from the effects, they do not treat the cause.

Hypnotherapy can be applied to assist with a number of issues or problems, such as:

- smoking cessation
- weight control
- athletic performance
- anxiety*
- depression*
- stress management*
- obsessive compulsive disorders
- fears and phobias
- childbirth
- sleep difficulties
- pain control and pain management*
- confidence-building and self-esteem
- public speaking
- exam and driving test nerves
- loss and bereavement
- memory loss
- regression
- dream analysis

*clients may be required to discuss the proposed treatment with their G.P prior to the therapy session