Living with Persistent Pain

Living with ongoing pain wears you down in ways most people don't see. It's not just the physical discomfort - it's the exhaustion, frustration, anxiety about when the next flareup will hit, and the limitations on what you can do. Chronic pain affects your mood, your relationships, your work, and your ability to enjoy life.

Whether you're dealing with back pain, fibromyalgia, migraines, arthritis, IBS, or another condition involving persistent pain, you've probably tried numerous treatments with varying degrees of success. Solution Focused Hypnotherapy offers a different approach - one that works with your mind's natural ability to influence pain perception.

Understanding Pain and the Brain

Pain is a complex experience that involves both the body and the brain. While we often think of pain as purely physical, research shows that our brain plays a crucial role in how we perceive and experience pain. Factors like stress, anxiety, focus, and past experiences all influence pain intensity.

This doesn't mean your pain isn't real - it absolutely is. But it does mean that by working with your mind, we can influence how your brain processes pain signals. This is where hypnotherapy becomes powerful.

The Stress Pain Connection

There's a well established link between stress and pain. When your stress bucket is full, pain feels worse. Stress causes muscle tension, increases inflammation, and makes your nervous system more sensitive to pain signals. It's a vicious cycle - pain causes stress, and stress amplifies pain.

By reducing your stress levels, we can break this cycle and turn down the volume on pain.

How Solution Focused Hypnotherapy Helps with Pain Management

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy approaches pain management through several mechanisms:

What the Research Shows

Hypnotherapy for pain management is well-researched and supported by scientific evidence. Studies show that hypnotherapy can:

• Reduce pain intensity and frequency
• Decrease reliance on pain medication
• Improve quality of life for people with chronic pain
• Help with specific conditions like IBS, migraines, and fibromyalgia
• Reduce pain-related anxiety and improve mood

What to Expect from Your Sessions

Each session begins with a discussion about what's been going well and the positive steps you're taking. We'll explore your goals - not just "less pain" but what you want to do when pain is more manageable. What would you like your life to look like?

Then comes the hypnotherapy component. You'll be deeply relaxed but fully aware and in control. During this time, we work with your subconscious mind to promote relaxation, reduce pain perception, and build positive associations with comfort and wellbeing.

You'll also receive a relaxation recording to use at home, which helps reinforce the work we do in sessions and provides relief between appointments.

Conditions That May Benefit

Important to Note

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy works alongside medical treatment, not instead of it. It's important to continue working with your doctor or medical team while using hypnotherapy as a complementary approach. Many clients find they can reduce medication over time (with medical guidance), but this should always be done in consultation with healthcare providers.

Reclaim Your Life from Pain

You don't have to let pain control your life. While we may not eliminate pain entirely, Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can help you turn down the volume, manage flareups more effectively, and focus on living rather than just surviving.

If you're ready to explore a different approach to pain management - one that works with your mind's natural abilities - I'm here to help. Book a free discovery call today, and let's discuss how Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can support you.

Rehabilitation after an amputation isn't only about prosthetics, mobility training or physical recovery. It's an emotional, psychological and neurological journey too. Rehab after amputation can be daunting, often leaving people feeling a mix of determination and exhaustion. They're adapting to a new reality while trying to stay strong for everyone around them. They want to rebuild confidence, manage pain, handle overwhelm and feel like themselves again.

Rehabilitation units, prosthetics teams and MDTs do extraordinary work - but the mind needs support as much as the body. That's where Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can make a real difference.

Understanding the Emotional Weight of Amputation

Amputation reshapes more than mobility. It touches identity, independence, relationships, daily routines and how safe someone feels in their own body.

None of this is a sign of weakness. It's the natural response to a huge life change.

But when the mind is overwhelmed, physical rehabilitation becomes harder. Energy drains. Pain increases. Confidence drops. The nervous system stays stuck in a state of high alert.

That's exactly where hypnotherapy helps settle things.

Why the Mind Plays Such a Big Role in Rehab

Rehabilitation takes sustained focus, motivation and emotional resilience. But the nervous system after an amputation is often overactive - responding to pain, trauma, change or uncertainty.

This can create a cycle of:

• Higher pain levels
• Reduced sleep
• Increased tension
• Emotional overload
• Less engagement in rehabilitation
• Slower progress

Supporting the brain and nervous system can make the entire rehab process smoother.

How Solution Focused Hypnotherapy Supports Amputee Recovery

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy doesn't replace physiotherapy or prosthetic training. It enhances them. It helps create the internal environment needed for the body to adapt, learn and regain strength.

Here's what tends to shift.

Supporting Identity and Adjustment

Rehab isn't only about mobility or strength. It's also about rebuilding your sense of self.

Solution focused work helps people:

• Reconnect with identity beyond the injury
• Adjust to changes in independence
• Handle fear around balance or re-injury
• Rebuild routines
• Manage social and relationship changes
• Set goals that feel motivating and realistic
• Build acceptance without losing ambition

It's about helping life open up again.

What Progress Often Feels Like

Clients usually notice:

My Experience Supporting Amputee Rehabilitation

As a Registered General Nurse (RGN) with experience in rehabilitation settings, I understand both the physical and psychological demands of amputee recovery. I've worked alongside prosthetics teams, physiotherapists, and occupational therapists, and I know how crucial psychological support is for successful rehabilitation outcomes.

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy integrates seamlessly with your existing rehabilitation programme, providing the emotional and neurological support that complements physical therapy and prosthetic training.

Online or Face to Face Support

Sessions are available in person in Hastings, in rehabilitation facilities or online across the UK and internationally. Many amputees prefer online sessions, especially early in rehab when travel is difficult or tiring.

Sessions can be scheduled around your rehabilitation timetable, ensuring hypnotherapy supports rather than interrupts your recovery journey.

If You Want Support Alongside Your Physical Rehabilitation

You don't have to navigate the emotional and neurological challenges alone. When your nervous system settles, everything else - strength, mobility, confidence and resilience - becomes easier.

Whether you're in the early stages of rehabilitation or further along in your recovery, whether you're managing phantom pain or just need support with the emotional load, Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can help.

If you'd like to explore how hypnotherapy could support your amputee rehabilitation, I offer a free discovery call. We can discuss where you are in your recovery, what challenges you're facing, and how this work might help.

Understanding PTSD

Living with PTSD can feel like carrying a storm inside your body long after the danger has passed. Your mind knows you're safe now, but your nervous system behaves as though the threat is still present. Flashbacks, nightmares, hypervigilance, avoidance - these symptoms aren't weaknesses or character flaws. They're your brain's way of trying to protect you from what it perceives as ongoing danger.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can develop after experiencing or witnessing traumatic events - combat, assault, accidents, abuse, natural disasters, or other overwhelming experiences. The trauma gets 'stuck' in your nervous system, and your body remains in a heightened state of alert. Solution Focused Hypnotherapy offers a gentle, effective approach to helping your nervous system settle and recover.

Common PTSD Symptoms

How Trauma Affects the Brain

When you experience trauma, your brain's alarm system - the amygdala - becomes overactive. It's like a smoke detector that's become too sensitive, going off even when there's no fire. Meanwhile, the rational part of your brain (the prefrontal cortex) struggles to override these alarm signals.

Your stress bucket becomes chronically full, keeping your nervous system in fight-or-flight mode. This is exhausting and makes it difficult to feel safe, calm, or present in your life.

How Solution Focused Hypnotherapy Helps with PTSD

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy takes a gentle, non-intrusive approach to PTSD recovery. Importantly, we don't ask you to relive or describe your traumatic experiences in detail. Instead, we work to:

What Makes This Approach Different

Unlike some trauma therapies that require you to revisit painful memories in detail, Solution Focused Hypnotherapy takes a gentler approach. We acknowledge that something difficult happened, but we don't need to excavate every detail. Instead, we focus on moving forward and building resilience.

This forward focused approach can be particularly helpful if you find it too distressing to discuss the trauma itself, or if you've tried other therapies that felt overwhelming.

What to Expect from Sessions

Sessions are conducted in a calm, safe environment. We'll start by discussing what's been going well and the positive steps you're taking. We'll talk about your goals for the future - what you want life to look like as you recover.

Then comes the hypnotherapy - a deeply relaxing experience where you remain fully aware and in control. During this time, we work with your subconscious mind to promote calm, safety, and positive change.

You'll also receive a relaxation recording to use at home between sessions, helping to reinforce the positive work and provide ongoing support.

Progress You Might Notice

Working Alongside Other Support

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can work effectively alongside other PTSD treatments, including medication, trauma focused therapies, or support groups. Many clients use it to complement their existing care, finding that it enhances their overall recovery.

Always continue working with your GP or mental health team, and let them know you're adding hypnotherapy to your support network.

You Don't Have to Stay Stuck

PTSD can feel overwhelming and permanent, but recovery is possible. Your nervous system can learn to settle. You can reclaim your life from trauma's grip. While the past can't be changed, your future doesn't have to be defined by what happened.

If you're ready to take steps toward recovery in a gentle, supportive way, I'm here to help. Book a free discovery call today, and let's discuss how Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can support your healing journey.

Understanding Low Self Esteem

Low self esteem has a quiet way of creeping into everything. It shapes how you speak to yourself, how you show up in relationships, the opportunities you pursue (or don't), and ultimately, the life you allow yourself to have. You might feel like you're not good enough, undeserving of success or happiness, or that everyone else has figured out something you haven't.

This negative self-perception often develops over time through criticism, difficult experiences, comparisons with others, or messages absorbed in childhood. Whatever the cause, low self esteem becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy - you expect less of yourself, so you achieve less, which reinforces the belief that you're not capable. Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can help break this cycle and build genuine, lasting self esteem.

Signs of Low Self Esteem

The Impact of Low Self Esteem

When self esteem is low, it affects every area of life:

• Relationships: You might settle for less than you deserve or struggle to believe someone truly values you
• Career: You don't apply for promotions, ask for raises, or put yourself forward
• Personal growth: You avoid trying new things for fear of failure or embarrassment
• Mental health: Low self esteem often accompanies anxiety and depression
• Life satisfaction: You feel unfulfilled, as if life is happening to you rather than for you

How Self Esteem Develops (and Can Change)

Self esteem is learned, not fixed. It develops through experiences, relationships, and the messages you've internalised over time. The good news is that because it's learned, it can be re-learned. Your brain is neuroplastic - capable of forming new patterns and beliefs at any age.

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy helps you rewire these old, unhelpful patterns and build new, supportive ones.

How Solution Focused Hypnotherapy Builds Self Esteem

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy approaches self esteem from multiple angles:

What to Expect from Sessions

Sessions begin with a solution focused discussion where we explore what's been going well in your life. This might feel strange at first if you're used to focusing on problems, but it's crucial for building self esteem. We train your brain to notice the positive.

We'll discuss your goals - not just 'feel better about myself' but specific, tangible outcomes. What will you be doing differently when your self esteem improves? How will you show up in relationships, work, or daily life?

Then comes the hypnotherapy. In this deeply relaxed state, we work with your subconscious mind to build self-belief, confidence, and self-acceptance. You remain fully aware and in control throughout.

Changes You Might Notice

Building Lasting Self Esteem

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy doesn't create artificial confidence or pump you up with affirmations that don't stick. Instead, it helps you recognise your genuine worth and abilities. The self esteem you build is real, stable, and lasting because it comes from within.

You'll learn to:

• Treat yourself with the same compassion you show others
• Recognise your strengths and value them
• Accept imperfection as part of being human
• Trust your judgment and decisions
• Believe you deserve good things

You Deserve Better

If you've spent years believing you're not good enough, it might be hard to imagine feeling differently. But self esteem can change. You can develop a kinder relationship with yourself, recognise your worth, and live with confidence.

You don't have to spend the rest of your life held back by low self esteem. You deserve to like yourself, to pursue opportunities without fear, and to show up fully in your life.

If you're ready to build genuine, lasting self esteem, I'm here to help. Book a free discovery call today, and let's discuss how Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can help you develop a steadier, kinder sense of self.

Understanding Tourette's Syndrome

Tourette's is widely misunderstood. Most people think only of tics - sudden, repetitive movements or sounds - but the lived reality is far more complex. Beyond the visible tics, there's the exhaustion from trying to suppress them, the anxiety about when they'll happen, the social challenges, and often co-occurring conditions like anxiety, OCD, or ADHD.

If you have Tourette's, you know the constant tension. You're managing tics, navigating other people's reactions, dealing with fatigue, and often coping with heightened stress and anxiety. While Solution Focused Hypnotherapy doesn't cure Tourette's, it can provide valuable support in managing the condition and improving quality of life.

Life with Tourette's

The Stress-Tic Connection

There's a well established connection between stress and tic severity. When your stress bucket is full, tics typically become more frequent and intense. Anxiety, fatigue, excitement, or any form of stress can trigger or worsen tics. This creates a difficult cycle - tics cause stress, and stress worsens tics.

Breaking this cycle is where Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can make a significant difference.

How Solution Focused Hypnotherapy Can Help

While hypnotherapy doesn't eliminate Tourette's, it can provide meaningful support by addressing the factors that influence tic severity and overall wellbeing:

What the Research Shows

While research specifically on hypnotherapy for Tourette's is limited, studies suggest that relaxation based approaches can help reduce tic severity, particularly when stress and anxiety are contributing factors. Hypnotherapy has also shown effectiveness for the co-occurring conditions commonly seen with Tourette's - anxiety, OCD, and sleep problems.

Many clients report that while their tics may not disappear completely, they become more manageable, less frequent, or less distressing when their overall stress and anxiety levels decrease.

What to Expect from Sessions

Sessions are adapted to your individual needs. We'll discuss what's been going well and explore the positive changes you'd like to see. We focus on solutions - better sleep, reduced anxiety, improved confidence - rather than dwelling on problems.

The hypnotherapy component provides deep relaxation, which many clients find immediately beneficial. In this calm state, we work with your subconscious mind to promote relaxation, reduce anxiety, and build resilience.

You'll also receive a relaxation recording to use at home between sessions, providing ongoing support and reinforcing the calming effects.

Working Alongside Medical Care

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy works alongside - not instead of - your medical treatment for Tourette's. If you're taking medication or receiving other therapies, hypnotherapy can complement these approaches. Always continue working with your neurologist or specialist team.

Many clients find that hypnotherapy fills a gap in their care by addressing the psychological and stress-related aspects of living with Tourette's that medication alone doesn't fully resolve.

Who Can Benefit

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can help both children and adults with Tourette's. For younger clients, sessions are adapted to be age-appropriate and engaging. Parents often notice improvements not just in tic frequency but in overall mood, sleep, and confidence.

It can be particularly helpful if:

• Stress makes your tics worse
• You experience significant anxiety about your tics
• You have co-occurring anxiety, OCD, or sleep problems
• Social anxiety around tics affects your life
• You're looking for non-medication approaches to support wellbeing

Living Better with Tourette's

Tourette's is part of who you are, but it doesn't have to control your life. While we can't eliminate tics, we can work together to reduce the stress, anxiety, and secondary challenges that make living with Tourette's harder than it needs to be.

If you're looking for support in managing Tourette's - whether for yourself or a family member - I'm here to help. Book a free discovery call today, and let's discuss how Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can support your wellbeing.

Why Employee Wellbeing Matters

Most workplaces now recognise that wellbeing isn't a luxury - it's essential for a productive, engaged workforce. Staff who feel supported think more clearly, manage pressure more effectively, take fewer sick days, and stay with their employer longer. Yet many organisations struggle to provide mental health support that's both effective and accessible.

This is where Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs) come in. When Solution Focused Hypnotherapy is included as part of an EAP, organisations gain a powerful, evidence based tool for supporting employee mental health and performance.

What is an Employee Assistance Programme?

An EAP is a workplace benefit that provides confidential support for employees dealing with personal or work-related challenges. Traditional EAPs often include counselling services, but they're expanding to include complementary therapies like hypnotherapy that address wellbeing from different angles.

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy fits naturally within an EAP framework because it's:

• Time-efficient: Results often seen in 6-12 sessions
• Evidence based: Grounded in neuroscience and proven effective
• Solution-focused: Forward-focused rather than problem-focused
• Practical: Provides tools employees can use immediately
• Flexible delivery: Available face-to-face or online

Common Workplace Challenges Solution Focused Hypnotherapy Addresses

Benefits for Organisations

When Solution Focused Hypnotherapy is part of your EAP, your organisation benefits from:

Benefits for Employees

Employees accessing Solution Focused Hypnotherapy through their EAP experience:

How It Works in Practice

Integrating Solution Focused Hypnotherapy into your EAP is straightforward:

Why Solution Focused Hypnotherapy Stands Out

While traditional counselling has its place in EAPs, Solution Focused Hypnotherapy offers unique advantages:

• Faster results: Employees typically need fewer sessions than with traditional talking therapy
• Forward focused: Concentrates on solutions and preferred futures rather than dwelling on problems
• Neuroscience-based: Uses understanding of how the brain works to create lasting change
• Practical tools: Employees learn techniques they can apply immediately
• Wide application: Effective for stress, anxiety, sleep, confidence, and performance issues

Investing in Your Team's Wellbeing

Supporting employee mental health isn't just the right thing to do - it's smart business. Organisations that prioritise wellbeing see better performance, higher retention, and stronger cultures. Solution Focused Hypnotherapy offers an effective, evidence based addition to your Employee Assistance Programme.

If your organisation is looking to enhance its EAP offering or you're considering adding hypnotherapy services to support your workforce, I'd be happy to discuss how we can work together. Whether it's a corporate contract, employee referrals, or wellbeing workshops, there are flexible ways to integrate this support into your organisation.

The Journey of Spinal Injury Recovery

Recovering from a spinal injury is an intense journey. Yes, there's the physical rehabilitation - physiotherapy, occupational therapy, pain management, equipment, posture work, mobility training - but there's also the emotional weight that often goes unseen. People navigating spinal injury rehab carry a mix of determination, frustration, grief, hope and fear, sometimes all in the same day.

What becomes clear very quickly is that rehabilitation isn't only a physical process. The mind and nervous system play a huge part in motivation, mood, pain levels, confidence and long term recovery. That's where Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can become a powerful support alongside the wider rehab team.

This blog looks at how spinal injury affects the whole person and how hypnotherapy helps people build strength, steadiness and emotional resilience while they rebuild their lives.

Understanding the Emotional Impact of Spinal Injury

Spinal injuries don't just change mobility. They change identity, daily routines, independence, and the relationship someone has with their own body.

None of these are signs of failing. They are natural responses to a life changing event.

But when the mind becomes overwhelmed, physical progress can stall. Motivation drops. Pain can feel worse. Sleep becomes fragmented. Confidence shrinks. And the nervous system stays stuck in stress mode.

That's where hypnotherapy helps reset things from the inside out.

Why the Nervous System Matters in Spinal Injury Rehab

Spinal injuries place the body under enormous strain - not just physically, but neurologically. The nervous system becomes hyper alert. Pain becomes amplified. Muscles stay tense. The body tires more quickly.

This can create a cycle of:

• Higher pain
• Disrupted sleep
• Emotional overwhelm
• Reduced engagement in rehab
• Slower progress
• Frustration or burnout

Breaking that cycle isn't just about working harder. It's about working with the brain, not against it.

How Solution Focused Hypnotherapy Supports Spinal Injury Recovery

This approach doesn't replace physiotherapy or medical treatment. It enhances them by helping the mind settle into a place where learning, healing and adaptation become easier.

Here's what typically shifts during sessions:

Supporting Identity, Adjustment and Independence

Spinal injury rehabilitation is as much about adaptation as it is about recovery.

Solution focused work can help with:

• Acceptance without losing ambition
• Adjusting to changes in independence
• Rebuilding daily routines
• Managing fear of falling or re-injury
• Handling social or relationship changes
• Reconnecting with personal goals
• Navigating setbacks with more resilience

It helps people keep moving forward, even on the difficult days.

What Clients Often Notice

My Experience Supporting Spinal Injury Rehabilitation

As a Registered General Nurse (RGN) with experience in rehabilitation settings, I understand the medical complexities of spinal injury recovery. I've worked alongside physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and medical teams, and I know how crucial the psychological component is to successful rehabilitation outcomes.

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy integrates seamlessly with your existing rehabilitation programme, providing the emotional and neurological support that complements physical therapy.

Online or Face to Face Support

I offer hypnotherapy and coaching both face to face in Hastings or at Rehabilitation Facilities, and online across the UK and internationally. Many spinal injury clients prefer online work, especially early in rehab when travel is challenging.

Sessions can be scheduled around your rehabilitation timetable, and the online format means you can access support from the comfort of your own space.

If You Want Support Alongside Your Spinal Injury Rehabilitation

You don't have to manage the emotional and neurological load alone. When your nervous system settles, everything else - strength, mobility, motivation, resilience - becomes easier.

Whether you're early in your recovery or months down the line, whether you're facing a plateau or just need support managing the mental load, Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can help.

If you'd like to explore how hypnotherapy could support your spinal injury rehabilitation, I offer a free discovery call. We can discuss where you are in your recovery, what challenges you're facing, and how this work might help.