Hypnotherapy By Blue Amber Counselling & Psychotherapy

My Journey into Hypnotherapy 

I have been a fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue sufferer for over 17 years, but I wasn’t formally diagnosed until 2011.  During this time both my mental and physical health was profoundly affected.  Finding a way through has been a tough and long journey.

 

After years of pain, not being able to sleep and crippling fatigue I was finally referred to a pain and fatigue management clinic and here I found ‘MINDFULNESS’ At first I thought it was ‘wishy washy’ and came home disappointed and threw away my CD they had given me to use between sessions.  As I listened, I thought ‘How on earth will someone talking in a soft voice make me feel better?’  On a few more visits to the pain clinic and talking to others I realised they were all benefiting from this ‘Mindfulness Stuff’, So I came home and decided to find my own.  I took to YouTube and soon I found stuff that I could relate to.  Well, what can I say! Mindfulness changed my life and all I had to do is sit back listen, breathe and relax.  Within a few days my sleep had improved (I had been an insomniac for over 10 years), then my pain levels lessened, and my fatigue levels had improved.  To me this was a ‘MAGIC CURE’  

 

I’ve been working as a counsellor/psychotherapist for over 10 years, and I now realise the benefits that mindfulness can offer, with the ability to help reduce not just pain but other areas of our lives too, such as anxiety and many other mental health issues.  

 

As children we often daydream, yet we don’t know by doing so we are in the present moment, we are relaxed and despite the sounds around us we are totally in our own world.  Can you remember as a child having these moments where you were daydreaming and then the voice of your mother, father or caregiver sounding really faint in the background, then coming to with them saying “are you listening to me”? I know I did, and those moments soon pass as we get older, and life becomes busy and filled with life events.  To me these moments are like mindfulness, and this takes us back to maybe a time when we didn’t have a care in the world!

 

So why Hypnotherapy you might ask? 

After years of offering mindfulness through the work that I do and the groups I have facilitated I felt that I wanted to offer something more, so in November 2019 I came across the ‘Somerset School of Hypnotherapy.’  They were offering a course to learn hypnotherapy (they also offer many other fantastic things), and this is where it all took off.  What a wonderful experience it was like mindfulness taken to another level, with so many avenues to be able to help others, especially in my counselling practice.  The whole experience sent my head into an excited frenzy.  It was from here that I knew with I could offer my clients another spoke in their wheel of life, a way of managing life so it felt like that relaxed day dreamy child, to be able to let go for a bit, to see life from a different lens.

 

I started to offer my clients hypnotherapy relaxation therapy as part of their sessions, it was found to be well received and eventually everyone wanted to experience it.  Sadly, in March 2020 we went into lockdown with Covid-19, and everything had to be put on hold!

 

With life still uncertain but desperately trying to get back to a new normal I feel like I would like to commence ‘Hypnotherapy” again.  So once again my journey begins, and I hope to offer a service that will help others like it has helped me.

 

Lizzy Oakley

Counselling Psychotherapist and Hypnotherapist