In our first session together, we will fully explore what, as a Cognitive Hypnotherapist, I call your problem and solution states (I apologise if you don’t have what you call a ’problem’ but instead want help to improve an area of your life. Please bear with me) . Your problem state consists of how you experience your problem: when it starts; what feelings and thoughts you get; what you do; when it stops; what effect it has on your life etc. We will also look at how you would like to be instead, and what effect this would have on your life: this is your solution state. It is important to know where you want the therapy to take you, otherwise how will we know when to finish? Actually, it is far more important than that, as to harness the power of your unconscious fully it needs to know what it is working towards … to have a vision of how you want to be.

The ‘glue’ that holds my therapy together is the specific hypnotic language I will use, which was created by my mentor, Trevor Silvester. It is called WordWeaving ,and part of what it does is to use the algorithms of the mind to get the unconscious to believe that any changes made, as a result of our work together, mean that you are becoming who you want to be. And once we achieve that, then the process becomes automatic, with your unconscious driving you towards that future vision. I can only help you achieve this by understanding what this vision is.

So the first session takes the form of a conversation, in which I will be asking you to consider the answers to all sorts of, what may seem to you, strange questions. By the end of this session I should have a good idea of the best places to begin to tackle your issue, and I will explain and discuss these with you.

I will provide you with a recording of a general relaxation session for you to take home to use before our second session. This will get you used to the sound of my voice guiding you into a state of relaxation, and will also prime your subconscious to expect the therapy to be successful (we might as well use everything at our disposal to get the outcome we want, so why not not get started on this before we do any ‘proper’ work together?)

It may be that the two sessions are all you require (often true if you want to be cured of a phobia or become a non-smoker), otherwise we will book further sessions one at a time until you have gained what you desired from the therapy and are able to maintain it without further help from me. What we do in each subsequent session will depend upon the feedback you give me on what changes you have been noticing. I may provide you with further recordings as appropriate, or give you tasks to undertake between sessions.

It is impossible to say upfront exactly how many sessions you will require, as each situation is unique. However, this is a brief therapy and it is unusual to need more than a handful of sessions, with good results often being obtained in just 2 or 3. I will be able to give you an idea of whether I would expect your therapy to require a longer course of sessions than normal (eg for long term eating disorders).