Hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy is a method for accessing unconscious material, early memories, and psychological patterns that may not be readily available through talk therapy alone.

I work with individuals addressing relational patterns, attachment dynamics, developmental trauma, anxiety, and psychedelic integration, where hypnotherapy can support deeper engagement with material that shapes current experience.

Sessions are conducted online via Zoom and take place within a consistent weekly therapeutic frame.

What Is Hypnotherapy?

Hypnosis is a state of focused attention and reduced peripheral awareness that allows access to unconscious processes, memories, and psychological material. It is well-recognised as a mind-body intervention that dates from ancient times.

Hypnotherapy is a form of therapy that uses a combination of hypnosis and talk therapy to explore and resolve challenges and issues. Within therapy, hypnosis creates conditions for examining material that may be difficult to access through conscious reflection: early attachment experiences, implicit memories, and psychological structures formed outside awareness.

Types of Hypnotherapy

My work integrates multiple approaches to hypnotherapy, adapting the method based on what emerges in therapy:

Analytical Hypnotherapy

Analytical hypnotherapy is a depth-oriented approach that uses hypnosis to explore the developmental origins of current psychological difficulty. This method examines how early experiences, relational patterns, and unprocessed material continue to influence present experience despite conscious awareness. Sessions focus on uncovering connections between past experience and current patterns, allowing unconscious material to be examined and integrated within the broader therapeutic process.

Hypno-Psychotherapeutic Counselling

Hypno-psychotherapeutic counselling combines hypnotic methods with psychotherapeutic approaches to address complex psychological material. This integrative method works with unconscious processes, implicit memories, and patterns formed outside awareness. Working with a psychodynamic orientation, this approach is particularly suited to exploring developmental issues, attachment-based difficulties, and psychological concerns where early relational and emotional experience shapes current life.

Ericksonian Hypnotherapy

Ericksonian hypnotherapy, developed by psychiatrist Milton Erickson, uses indirect suggestion, metaphor, and language patterns to work with unconscious material. Rather than direct instruction, this approach allows the unconscious to generate its own solutions and reorganise patterns in ways that conscious effort alone may not achieve. It is effective for working with resistance, addressing material that is defended against, and engaging psychological processes that operate beneath awareness.

Suggestion Hypnotherapy

Suggestion hypnotherapy, also referred to as traditional hypnotherapy, uses focused hypnotic states to introduce specific suggestions that support behavioural or perceptual shifts. This method can address symptoms such as sleep difficulties, anxiety responses, or unwanted patterns where direct suggestion within a hypnotic state may facilitate change. Within my practice, it is often integrated with deeper exploratory work rather than used in isolation.

How Hypnotherapy Works in Practice

Hypnotherapy sessions are integrated into ongoing weekly therapy rather than offered as brief or standalone treatment. A typical session includes exploration of current concerns, a period of hypnosis (typically 20-35 minutes), and post-hypnotic discussion to process what emerged.

During hypnosis, you remain aware and in control. Hypnosis is not sleep, unconsciousness, or loss of agency: it is a focused state that allows access to material that may be difficult to reach through ordinary conversation. Research indicates that hypnotic responsiveness varies among individuals, but most people can access hypnotic states when they are willing to engage in the process.

Depth-oriented hypnotherapy is most effective within a consistent therapeutic frame where patterns can be addressed over time. Short-term hypnotherapy for isolated symptoms may provide temporary relief, but lasting change typically requires sustained engagement with underlying patterns.

Research and Evidence

Hypnotherapy demonstrates effectiveness across multiple psychological concerns when integrated into ongoing therapeutic work. This includes hypnotherapy’s effectiveness for anxiety and anxiety-related disorders, hypnosis for trauma processing, and other psychological concerns where unconscious material contributes to present difficulty. Research on hypnotherapy’s efficacy continues to grow, with evidence supporting its integration into psychotherapeutic treatment for complex psychological concerns.

What Hypnotherapy Addresses

Hypnotherapy within integrative therapy addresses:

• Developmental and relational trauma
  Accessing implicit memories and attachment-based material formed before conscious memory or language

• Attachment patterns
  Exploring early relational templates and how they operate in current relationships

• Anxiety and stress responses
  Working with unconscious triggers, somatic patterns, and early experiences that contribute to anxiety states

• Depression and low mood
  Examining underlying patterns, early loss, and psychological structures that maintain depressive states

• Anger
  Working with heightened emotional states rooted in unconscious material

• Sleep difficulties
  Addressing sleep anxiety, insomnia, nightmares, and patterns that interfere with rest

• Intimacy concerns
  Addressing sexual shame, trauma, and unconscious beliefs that affect intimacy and sexual expression

• Psychedelic integration
  Processing non-ordinary states of consciousness, complex or difficult experiences, and material that emerged during psychedelic sessions

These concerns are addressed within the context of ongoing therapy rather than through isolated hypnotherapy sessions.

Format

Hypnotherapy is offered as part of structured, ongoing individual therapy. Sessions are weekly and take place online via Zoom. Individual sessions are 50 or 80 minutes.

I work primarily on a medium- to long-term basis. Hypnotherapy for symptom relief alone may provide short-term benefit, but deeper work with underlying patterns requires sustained engagement over time.

This approach is suited to people who recognise that conscious understanding alone has not been sufficient and who are willing to engage with unconscious material, early experiences, and patterns that may be difficult or defended against.

Fees are outlined on the fees page.

What to Expect

Initial Consultation

Consultations are 20 minutes and explore whether hypnotherapy within integrative therapy is appropriate for your situation. This is not a therapeutic session, but an opportunity to discuss what you are seeking and how the work would be structured.

First Session

The first session is 80 minutes and includes intake questions, discussion of current concerns, and often an initial experience of hypnosis to assess hypnotic responsiveness and establish the therapeutic frame.

Ongoing Sessions

Ongoing sessions are 80 or 50 minutes and typically include discussion, a period of hypnosis, and post-hypnotic processing. Hypnosis is integrated into ongoing therapeutic work rather than used as an isolated technique, and the format adapts based on what emerges.

Contraindications and Safety

Hypnotherapy is not appropriate for individuals with epilepsy, narcolepsy, bipolar disorder, personality disorders, psychotic episodes, schizophrenia, or other severe psychiatric conditions, nor for those with a history of serious self-harm or suicide attempts.

Hypnosis is a natural state of focused attention and is not mind control, loss of consciousness, or surrender of agency. You remain aware and in control throughout. Research consistently demonstrates hypnosis is a safe therapeutic method when practised within appropriate clinical boundaries.

If you have questions about whether hypnotherapy is appropriate for your situation, this can be explored during the initial consultation.

Related Pages

• Individual Therapy — Overview of integrative therapy for individuals

• Psychedelic Integration Therapy — Hypnotherapy within psychedelic integration work

• Hypnotherapy for Attachment Patterns

• Hypnotherapy for Anxiety

• Hypnotherapy for Low Self-Confidence

• Hypnotherapy for Sleep Problems

• Hypnotherapy for Depression

Beginning Therapy

Initial consultations are 20 minutes by Zoom and phone to address whether hypnotherapy within integrative therapy is appropriate for your situation.

Contact me →

References

Elkins, G. (2021). Hypnotizability: Emerging Perspectives and Research. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 69(1), pp.1–6. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/00207144.2021.1836934

Elkins, G.R., Barabasz, A.F., Council, J.R. and Spiegel, D. (2015). Advancing Research and Practice: The Revised APA Division 30 Definition of Hypnosis. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 57(4), pp.378–385. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/00029157.2015.1011465

Geagea, D., Ogez, D., Kimble, R. and Tyack, Z. (2023). Redefining hypnosis: A narrative review of theories to move towards an integrative model. Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, pp.101826–101826. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctcp.2023.101826

Lynn, S.J. and Kirsch, I. (2006). Essentials of clinical hypnosis: An evidence-based approach. Washington: American Psychological Association. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/11365-000

Valentine, K.E., Milling, L.S., Clark, L.J. and Moriarty, C.L. (2019). The Efficacy of Hypnosis as a Treatment for Anxiety: A Meta-Analysis. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 67(3), pp.336–363. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/00207144.2019.1613863