Q&A with Jenny, Hypnotherapist

What is your journey into hypnotherapy?

I first experienced hypnotherapy as an anxious 20-year-old and was fascinated by the process. I had always been drawn to languages and the power of words, but this was really the catalyst for a self-development and healing journey that has totally transformed the way that I think and process emotions.

It wasn’t until I had my children though that I decided on a dramatic change of career, and I retrained as a Clinical Hypnotherapist. It feels like all of the different strands of my interests and life experiences have now really come together, and I love my work as a hypnotherapist. It is always incredible to see my clients quickly
resolve issues that have been holding them back.

What are the benefits of hypnotherapy? When should we consider hypnotherapy?

Most of us lead busy lives, and our minds are also turbulent and full of internal chatter. Hypnotherapy focuses on quietening, or sometimes distracting, the conscious mind so that there is space to focus on change and explore new possibilities or solutions. Increasingly, I also use much shorter, rapid visualisation techniques that have emerged from the latest neuroscience and can transform entrenched patterns of thinking or behaviour in just one or two sessions.

Hypnotherapy can really help to resolve any mind-based problem, or symptom that has an emotional or psychological dimension. This includes stress or anger management, anxiety and phobias, insomnia, trauma or coping with loss. It can also help clients to overcome addictions, such as smoking, or to break unwanted habits like grinding your teeth in your sleep. I’m also increasingly working with clients that have physiological symptoms, such as IBS or Chronic Fatigue and helping them to reduce anxiety and transform their mindset.

What is your definition of wellbeing? And how would you reach it personally?

For me, wellbeing is all about cultivating flexibility and a sense of stability in the fast-paced and complicated world we live in. Flexibility means being open to change and uncertainty and, in practice, this means we need to develop an awareness of how our mind is working and to resolve any emotional ‘blockages’, triggers or habits that are keeping us hooked into old and rigid patterns.

In day-to-day life, I find it really helps to avoid repetitive routines, even standing at a different place on the train platform or choosing something different for lunch. I also try to spend time doing a creative or expressive hobby, like painting, whenever I can. I think we also need an innate sense of stability that can be nurtured by everyday rituals. For me, this usually means social gatherings of family or good friends, and Priya Parker has written a brilliant book on the ‘Art of Gathering’ about how to make these events more meaningful.

Therapy can also help to create or strengthen stability, and one of my clients described her revived sense of stability as feeling like she had been “re-potted” like a plant. Wherever we go and whatever happens, we can keep an inner sense of being rooted and
connected, even in a new pot!

How do you honour your sacredness?

My favourite ritual is a very simple one – making sure that I spend time walking in green spaces, and especially in forests. Even in London, there are so many forests and little patches of ancient woodland all around the city. This has recently become known as the trendy practice of “forest bathing”, but it reflects a growing appreciation of how tension, stress and worries seem to just drop away as you walk.