My Story

Background

I am a scientist with a PhD in Physics - Molecular Physics. I was extremely fortunate to be able to start this as I turned 60. It fulfilled a lifelong ambition. This experience led me to working in epigenetics, fascinating new territory especially as I then was able to work with another group doing cancer research.

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Hypno-therapy

I started training to be a hypno-therapist in September 2020. I’ve been interested in therapy and counselling since a disastrous move from London to Devon kicked me into a depressed state and counselling. But that’s another story.

I am officially retired and, until the pandemic, was doing some part-time work in cancer research at the University of Birmingham. It was quite spasmodic and left me with quite a lot of spare time. It was OK for a while doing craft things and meeting friends for coffee but I decided I needed something more to focus on. I happened to read a book called ‘Many Lives Many Masters’ by Brian Weiss and I had a ‘revelation’ that I really wanted to learn about and practise hypno-therapy.

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Training

I found a local training organisation and gained my qualifications, Diploma from the Association for Solution Focused Hypnotherapy and the National Council for Hypnotherapy's Hypnotherapy in Practice Diploma. The qualifications involved the successful completion of 10 months of practical and classroom work, eight written case studies as well as evidence of knowledge about other therapies (such as psychotherapy, CBT, NLP and Humanistic Counselling), running a hypno-therapy practice and being professional in every way. 

During my first training session I saw a demonstration of how our brain wave patterns change when in a trance state. As a scientist, this was both convincing and reassuring - I was going to be dealing with something based in fact and not the stage demos that we usually associate with hypnosis. I also received a Relaxation Programme to practise with friends as soon as I had recorded some suitable etherial music to accompany it.

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I was also expected to work with clients (non-paying) from the outset: this was very scary! But I advertised for some ‘hypno-pigs’ and several people turned up. A good friend was also interested to see if it could help his long-term depression. It did.

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I also helped a gentleman who had had a stroke. His wife approached me to see if trance work would provide a deeper state of relaxation than the afternoon nap recommended by his doctor. It did.

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As my training progressed, I had more tools at my disposal. The most powerful of these is an explanation of how our brain works when it comes to anxiety, stress and depression during your first session.

Continuing Professional Development

As in most professions, we are expected to attend further courses to update our knowledge and practice.

More recently I have qualified as an Emotional Freedom Therapist (EFT), another simple but powerful means of restoring calm and relieving symptoms. It's also called Tapping. It's based on the ancient Chinese practice of acupuncture, using pressure on the acupuncture points instead of needles. Research findings show that it produces positive outcomes but no research has yet discovered how.

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