Online Hypnotherapy: Will it Work for You?
Online Hypnotherapy: Effective and Accessible Across the UK
A few weeks ago now, I wrote an article for Psychology Today on the benefits of online therapy and how studies show that it is as effective as psychotherapy delivered face-to-face. Since that article went live, I’ve had several emails asking if this also applies to hypnotherapy. The short answer is: “yes.”
The Rise of Digital Hypnotherapy
During the pandemic, hypnotherapists had to switch their clinics to an entirely online model, whether clients liked it or not. Since then, like other therapy forms, some therapists have remained fully online, while others offer both face-to-face and web-based sessions.
Although official studies on digitally delivered hypnotherapy are limited (at least as far as I know), some research is promising. One study showed effectiveness in treating migraines, while another suggested it helps children with nocturnal enuresis, or bedwetting.
Anecdotally, a magazine editor wrote positively about her experience with online hypnotherapy, while another described the joys of a FaceTime Hypnotherapy session. Many successful hypnotherapy apps now allow you to benefit from suggestions via smartphone or tablet.
Also, I am listed with the Hypnotherapy Directory and they are firmly in favour of it.
My Experience Delivering Online Hypnotherapy
From my own experience, online hypnotherapy works just as well as in-person sessions. I’ve been delivering digital hypnotherapy for years, long before the Coronavirus pandemic forced the first UK lockdown in March 2020.
Early in my career, about 19 years ago, a client asked to continue sessions while traveling across Europe for work. I conducted sessions in hotel rooms, once by a large empty pool, and another time on a patio overlooking a glorious mountain. Back then it was Skype rather than Zoom, but the variety of backdrops did not hinder our work together.
Choosing Between Online and Face-to-Face Hypnotherapy
Ultimately, the choice between online or in-person hypnotherapy comes down to preference. Some clients opt for digital sessions due to convenience or other constraints, while others prefer seeing their therapist face-to-face.
Reasons to choose online hypnotherapy include convenience, flexible scheduling, work-life balance, access to therapists in London, Bristol, or nationwide, comfort at home, mobility issues, and more.
Benefits of Web-Based Hypnotherapy
Web-based hypnotherapy is effective for many issues, including stress (life, work, burnout syndrome), anxiety disorders, reactive depression, anger management, self-esteem challenges, weight control, and pain management.
Preparing for Your Online Session
If you are considering digital hypnotherapy, keep a few things in mind:
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Ensure your internet connection is stable so every hypnotic suggestion is delivered clearly.
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Choose a larger screen; laptops or tablets work best for optimal visibility.
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Sit in a comfortable chair to support deep relaxation.
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Keep a blanket nearby if you prefer warmth and coziness.
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Use high-quality speakers or headphones for precise audio.
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Select a safe, private, and secure environment to maintain confidentiality.
Also, consider the severity of the problem. For high-risk cases involving suicide or self-harm, one-to-one live therapy with a nearby therapist and a clear care plan is essential. Mild-to-moderate issues, however, are well suited to online hypnotherapy.
Online Hypnotherapy and REBT in London, Bristol, and Beyond
If you would like to see me for online hypnotherapy—or online rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT)—my contact details are at the bottom of this page.
Finally, REBT is an elegant form of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) that works well for stress management, anxiety, confidence issues, and more. It can be used alone or alongside hypnotherapy.
Everybody is Stressed, but What Can You do About it?
I’ve been a therapist now since 2004 and, for most of that time, when people asked me what I specialised in, I told them that anxiety disorders and work-related stress management were my forte but, on reflection, and for several years now, I would say that both life and work have made me a stress specialist.
That term still covers anxiety disorders and work-stress but, it also covers a whole lot more. Stress affects us all and we are becoming more stressed, not less so. In fact, research from the Chartered Institute of Development has found staff absences due to stress are at their highest levels in over a decade, with the pandemic, the high cost of living and other issues all being significant contributing factors, (click here). But what is stress?
According to the World Health Organisation, “stress can be defined as a state of worry or mental tension caused by a difficult situation.”
However, there are two types of stress: good stress (eustress) and bad stress (distress).
Eustress refers to the sort of challenge and pressure that you thrive under or rise to meet with excitement. It could be a work deadline, or a wedding, or a rollercoaster ride. Meanwhile, distress is what we often mean when we are talking about ‘stress.’ It can refer to seemingly insurmountable pressures in any context (life or work), pressures that you feel you can’t cope with, or are not dealing with as well as you’d like. But stress isn’t a diagnosis in and of itself. It’s an umbrella term for a variety of things including:
- Anxiety
- Reactive depression
- Anger-management
- Guilt
- Shame
- Procrastination
- Insomnia (often stress related)
- Skin conditions such as psoriasis (also often stress related)
- Irritable Bowel Syndrome, or IBS, (nearly always stress related)
You can turn to unhealthy coping strategies when you are stressed, such as alcohol, drugs (both prescription and recreational) and comforting eating. Stress can wear you down, it can affect you physically as well as mentally. You can become distracted, less productive, more forgetful, and more prone to illness (stress affects your immune system). Chronic work stress even has its own diagnosis: Burnout Syndrome. This is a purely occupational phenomenon not official recognised until 2019 and characterised by exhaustion, increased negativity (or cynicism) towards your job, and reduced professional efficacy.
Stress is such as small word for something with so many distressing ramifications.
Stress affects both your mind and your body. A little bit of it is good for you, but too much stress can easily overwhelm you. And we are living in a very stressful world; one that doesn’t seem to be interested in getting any easier. Stress quickly mounts up and it soon takes its toll.
Thankfully, there are things you can do to help mitigate your stress, such as yoga, meditation, taking regular breaks, and going for long walks. And, if those things aren’t enough then therapy and coaching can help.
I practice rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT) and clinical hypnotherapy, and both can help you mitigate your stress and build effective coping strategies in the face of it. With REBT and hypnotherapy the seemingly insurmountable obstacles in your daily live become something much easier to deal with.
So, if you think your stress is getting the better of you, feel free to book a call. I work face-to-face and online and can see anyone, anywhere (time zones permitting). And online therapy is just as effective as face-to-face, studies say so (click here).
Swearing at the Coronavirus Might Just Do You the Power of Good
Sometimes, you’ve just got to call a spade a spade and, sometimes, you’ve got to look at something that’s a bit shit and just say, “fuck it.” Believe me, it will help you, as swearing at things can be a very empowering and life-affirming thing to do.
Many studies have backed up the usefulness of swearing in a variety of settings. Swearing can help you cope with adversity, get on with people more quickly, cope with difficult and demanding situations and, even, bolster the persuasiveness of your arguments, speeches and conversations.
One such experiment, from researchers at Northern Illinois University, examined the effects of swearing on the persuasiveness of a speaker. Participants were invited to listen to three versions of a speech. One where the word ‘damn’ appeared at the beginning, one where it appeared at the end and one where it didn’t appear at all. The results showed that swearing at the beginning or the end of the speech significantly increased not only the persuasiveness of the speech but also the perceived intensity of the speaker. 1
Meanwhile, Professor Richard Stephens, over at Keele University in Newcastle, has tested swearing in a wide variety of ways over the years. He and his team have discovered that people who do swear can hold their hands in freezing cold water for longer than those who don’t swear and that, in a test of anaerobic strength, people who swore produced more power wattage and a stronger handgrip on a stationary exercise bike than those who did not.
Elsewhere, other studies have shown that people who swear, as long as swearing is part of their overall and otherwise extensive vocabulary, tend to be healthier, happier and a whole lot more honest too.
Swearing then, is not only good for your physical and mental health, but it is also a great way to gain control over your pain, your stress and your emotions.
There’s a lot going on at the moment; a lot of things are currently out of our control and it’s easy to feel powerless and lost. However, if you want to lift your spirits and feel more resilient in the face of the current adversity, don’t be afraid to drop the F-bomb.
It’s not for nothing my therapy book is called The Four Thoughts That F*ck You Up (and how to fix them). In fact, it when it comes to self-help books with swearwords in the title, it’s not alone.
We have The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson (as well as his follow-up, Everything Is F*cked) and The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F**k by Sarah Knight, as well as Healthy as F*ck (Oonagh Duncan), Wake the F#ck Up (Brett Moran) and, my favourite, Fuck Off (a mindfulness swearword colouring book for adults). Finally, there’s the daddy of them all, F**k It Therapy by John C Parkin (plus his two f*ck-related follow ups). In a similar, but also slightly different refrain, we have Get your Sh*t Together by Sarah Knight and (proving that even Knights of the Realm thing swearing is good for you) How to Fix Your Sh*t by Sháá Wasmund MBE.
Swearing crops up very frequently in my therapy room.
I once had a client who had an anger management issue and a very short fuse. “You must respect me,” he believed. “It’s intolerable to not be respected and people who don’t show respect me are arseholes.” This belief allowed him to kick off whenever he felt disrespected by anyone and, even, anything. He once ripped an IKEA cabinet to little bits and pieces just because ‘Thing A’ disrespected him by not fitting into ‘Groove B.’
The healthy alternative to all this was, “I like to be respected but I don’t have to be respected; I find it difficult to deal with when I’m not, but I know I can stand it; people who don’t respect me are not arseholes, they are worthwhile fallible human beings.”
With a little vim and vigour, his healthy beliefs became “I like to be respected but I don’t fucking have to be respected; I won’t like it when I’m not but it won’t fucking kill me and people who don’t aren’t fucking arseholes, they’re all-fucking-right really.” Eventually, over time, he whittled all this down to just, “fuck it.” And that was enough for him to gain control over his anger and keep calm, even when other people were being less than his ideal.
Profanity can be quite profound, you see; and this Coronavirus well, it can just fucking do one, can’t it?
1:Cory R. Scherer & Brad J. Sagarin (2006) Indecent influence: The positive effects of obscenity on persuasion, Social Influence, 1:2, 138-146, DOI: 10.1080/15534510600747597
How to Have a Happy New Year
Each year, a friend of mine, when wishing family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances a “Happy New Year,” almost always follows it up with the rather dour postface of “let’s hope it’s better than the last one.” Sometimes they even run through some of the lower points from their preceding 12 months.
It’s not surprising that they do that as most human beings have a tendency to focus on the negative. It’s biological and innate; it’s hardwired into us. It’s habitual. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be changed. It’s possible to build a habit of thinking more positively, even if you’re currently the most negative person you know.
Positive psychology contains a vast range of tools, exercises, tips and tricks to help you do just that. Whereas most forms of psychotherapy focus on mental illness, positive psychology firmly fixes its gaze on mental wellness. “What can be done to make you feel happier and more fulfilled in your day-to-day life?” it asks. “How can you learn to flourish?”
One of its many, many laboratory tested exercises (i.e., a bunch of researchers have made people undertake these things and then rated their mood and physiology in a variety of ways) is one specifically designed to help you reflect upon events in a more positive way. And it does so by getting you to review the day, or the week, or even the month.
On a bad day, something nice will have happened (but it’s usually the bad thing you focus on) and, on a rotten week, several good things will also have happened (but it’s usually the rotten things that you reflect upon). But, by ignoring the bad in favour of good, despite your natural inclination, by writing them down in a diary or notebook, you are slowly and steadily building that habit of thinking more positively.
But, what does this mean for the new year and your happiness? Well, why not review your whole year? News and current affairs (and pop music) shows do it all the time.
So, another positive psychology exercise builds on the above by asking you to get hold of a bell jar, or some such similar receptacle. And, for a sense of occasion it asks that you get it in time for New Year’s Day. Then, over the coming 12 months, whenever something nice happens, you write that event or situation down on a piece of paper and pop it into the bell jar.
Note by note, nice thing by nice thing, into the jar it goes. A compliment here, a bonus there; a trip on a sunny day, a night out with friends, you name it. Large or small, any and all events go in the jar. And then, on New Year’s Eve next year, you can gather around the jar with family and friends, or simply on your own if you enjoy being solitary and introspective, and then reflect on what a lovely year you’ve had.
“Happy New Year,” you’ll say. “I hope it’s as good as this one was.”
You’re not denying that bad things have happened; you’re just choosing to ignore them for once, in favour of the good.
Won’t that be nice?
Men, Mental Health, Barbershops and Talking
It’s good to talk, isn’t it? Male or female, young or old, it’s good to have someone to turn to in times of trouble, yes? And yet, despite the many inroads made in raising mental health issues, men still struggle with talking about their feelings, or reaching out if they’re in difficulty. Which is problematic to say the least. And, it needs to change, but how? Read more
Stop Saying Sorry (unless you mean it)
Going against what Elton John famously sang, sorry doesn’t seem to be the hardest word at all. In fact, it’s thrown around every day and everywhere with a wild and empty abandon. And that is a sad, sad situation. Read more
Stress: take back control
Earlier this month, I talked about stress and how, according to a massive survey last year, three out of every four Brits are feeling overwhelmed or unable to cope. I also mentioned that therapy could help you to regain control. And it can, only not always in the way that you think. But, what does that mean exactly? Read more
Brand New Bristol Based Therapist
Well, fairly new; well, sort of new. New-ish; okay, I moved here from London in January 2016 but, due to other work commitments, it’s taken me this long to sort a private practice out. However, I am a psychotherapist and I’ve been working as one since 2004. Read more