I am one of the first hypnotherapists in the UK to be granted membership to The Complimentary & Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC).
Now living in Devon, my professional background is in the Public Service from which I have now retired. During the last 7 years of my career I found myself in teaching and managing teachers and trainers. It was during this time that I went back to school myself and studied for a teaching qualification and achieved a Certificate in Education. Whilst involved in teaching and training adults I came across Neuro – Linguistic Programming (NLP). Science Digest described NLP as “the most important synthesis of knowledge about human communication to emerge since the sixties”. I quickly learnt what a powerful tool for change NLP is. My interest in the subject led me to hypnotherapy, in which NLP has its roots. I have studied both NLP and Hypnotherapy. I am a qualified NLP Practitioner and a qualified Clinical Hypnotherapist with a diploma in clinical hypnotherapy.
Hypnotherapy & The Unconscious Mind.
We have both a conscious and an unconscious mind, yet if you were to lift an imaginary lid on the human brain that is all you will find, a brain. You cannot see or touch the mind whether conscious or unconscious. So what is the difference between the two? Well the conscious mind does all the immediate stuff that needs your attention, like reading this and operating your computer keyboard or mouse. Your conscious mind hears the phone ring or the knock at the door. The unconscious mind deals with everything else. It is the engine room of your mind running everything behind the scenes. Your brain processes about 2,000,000 pieces of information every second. If you were to consciously be aware of all this information it would be too much and you would overload or shutdown just like when a fuse blows in the house. So your conscious brain deals with about 7 pieces of information (plus or minus 2) at a time, the rest goes into the unconscious. So would you like to prove this to yourself? Well why were you not aware of the feeling in your feet or your socks or shoes against your toes until just now? because your unconscious mind had decided your conscious mind did not need that information (remember 7 plus or minus 2 bits of information for your conscious mind at any one time). You may now want to be aware of your breathing; and how deep or how shallow it is. Now be aware of the feeling of your clothes against your skin. With all of these sensations the information is dealt with by the unconscious mind. The unconscious mind also gives meaning to the things it processes for you. It is here in the unconscious that many issues that people wish to resolve in their life lay. Eating disorders, phobias, addictions, self esteem and a whole bunch more are locked in the unconscious. When the issues in the unconscious mind are changed then the conscious mind can easily follow suit. Let’s take another example like weight loss. Your conscious mind wants to lose weight, so that should be so very easy but we all know that’s not the case but why? Because our behaviour is driven by our unconscious minds and when the two are out of balance with each other then the conscious mind’s desire will never happen. However when the issues underlying being overweight are dealt with at an unconscious level then the conscious mind can achieve its goal because it is supported fully by the unconscious mind.
am a passionate cook and food lover and a keen motorcyclist. I have just moved to Devon and have two great kids, a son and a daughter, too many cats and a terrier.
Like many people I am on my own journey and mine is one of healing myself and wanting to help others. I had a very serious motorcycle accident in September 2009 which has left me with a broken femur. My healing journey has led me to Cranio-Sacral therapy and a far greater understanding of trauma and its affect on us as beings.
I believe that we are far more complex beings than most of us will ever realise and that we have an innate ability to heal ourselves both physically and mentally. Sometimes we just ned to be shown the way.
As well as my own practice I am also the visiting hypnotherapist to the Elizabeth Cummings Clinic, Gravesend. See the link below.
http://www.orchardweb.co.uk/ecc