Everyone I work with is different, and my processes are determined by your goals and needs.

I always start with an initial 15-minute consultation. This helps us both determine whether we want to proceed and if we are a good fit.

If we decide to go ahead, I will share some forms online you can complete so I can get to know you and what you want out of therapy. If you want to integrate this with your coaching, I may ask your coach to complete some forms or to speak with them.

Once we know what your goals are, I will suggest a package that best suits these. These are usually six to eight sessions, but this is flexible and depends on the goals. We can also time the sessions around coaching or events, including performances or competitions.

Sessions include all the elements you want to work on, side-by-side. Some of each session will include pain management, some will be focused on sports performance, and we can also look at other goals. These may include anxiety, stress around hospital visits or other events, eating habits and more.

Towards the end of our time together, we will start to space the sessions out a little. This gives you time to implement changes and really find out what’s working. Our last sessions will focus on transferring skills learned to other areas of your life and planning for what to do in challenging circumstances where pain or any other issue is likely to recur.

There’s also the option for a follow-up session 3 months later to check in or “top up”, or before competitions or events.

Hypnosis is a state of heightened suggestibility. We respond to suggestions all the time, often without thinking about it. Hypnotherapy is about choosing to enter a state of heightened suggestibility to respond to positive suggestions we choose.

Hypnosis works with your nervous system to help you feel positive, calm and focused. Entering hypnosis is as easy as daydreaming, if you can daydream or relax your mind in any other normal way then you can enter hypnosis.

Hypnosis is a cognitive state, not a feeling. It may feel different for different people, at different times and depending on the focus of the hypnotherapy. It may feel like relaxation, absorption in the imagination, intense focus on one idea, or many other things.

Hypnosis isn’t like sleep, because you need to consciously accept the suggestions being used in hypnosis, and you can’t do this if you’re in a sleep-like state. You may feel very relaxed, but you should be mentally awake the whole time.

The word "hypnosis" comes from the Greek word for "sleep" (Hypnos), but it is an abbreviation for "neuro-hypnotism", meaning specifically "sleep of the nervous system." When your nervous system quietens down, you enter a state of heightened suggestibility associated with hypnosis. 

You cannot be hypnotised against your will, and when in hypnosis you will only respond to suggestions you want to respond to. Hypnosis is a temporary state of mind you choose to enter and can choose to leave at any time.

n a word, yes. Hypnosis has been found in many studies to be an effective, especially when paired with CBT, mindfulness and relaxation therapies.

The British Medical Journal (BMJ) published a 'Clinical Review' of hypnosis and relaxation therapies and found that:

• “Hypnosis and relaxation techniques can reduce anxiety particularly that related to stressful situations”
• “They are also effective for panic disorders and insomnia, particularly when integrated into a package of cognitive therapy,”
• “A systematic review has found that hypnosis enhances the effects of cognitive behavioural therapy for conditions such as phobia, obesity, and anxiety.”
• “Randomised controlled trials support the use of various relaxation techniques for treating both acute and chronic pain,”
• Randomised trials have shown hypnosis to be of value in asthma and irritable bowel syndrome,”
• “There is strong evidence from randomised trials of the effectiveness of hypnosis and relaxation for cancer related anxiety, pain, nausea, and vomiting, particularly in children.”

(Vickers & Zollman, 1999)

Hypnosis has been scientifically proven as a treatment for many medical and psychological conditions such as:

• Anxiety
• Panic disorders
• Insomnia
• Phobia
• Obesity
• Both acute and chronic pain
• Asthma 
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Cancer related anxiety, pain, nausea, and vomiting, particularly in children.
• Improving sporting performance 
• Creativity 
• Confidence and self-efficacy
• Improving focus and attention

Being at the top of your game in any sport is not only about physical competence and skill, but also about mindset. This could be reducing anxiety and stress, improving confidence, focus and attention, and self-efficacy or the belief that you can do it.

Hypnotherapy works on mindset, through suggestions that improve self-efficacy and confidence and imagery that builds a positive mindset. Once you can let go of limiting beliefs, you can focus on performance.

Hypnosis has been shown to reduce anxieties (Li & Li, 2022) and improve performance (Miró, et al., 2025) and confidence (Li & Li, 2022).

Working on an area of sports performance where an athlete is struggling with technique, imagery in hypnosis can help athletes to practice the improved technique in hypnosis so they can replicate this in real life. One study found that just 10 minutes of hypnosis improved throwing accuracy in tennis – an effect that lasted 1 week (Jalene & Wulf, 2014). Imagine what six sessions could do!

One literature review found sports hypnosis to be effective for ball games, including basketball, golf, soccer, cricket, and badminton; archery, weightlifting and shooting sports (Li & Li, 2022). Meanwhile, a study focusing on the use of hypnosis for downhill Mountain bike athletes found hypnosis reduced anxiety, improved self-confidence, regulated nervous system activity, and participants reported feeling safer, under less pressure, more confident and positive in the race after the hypnosis intervention (Hoffmann, et al., 2024).

Pain is created in the brain as a response to real or perceived stimulus that causes fear. It’s our body’s way of telling us we are not safe and to get us to do something about that. Because pain is created in the brain, hypnosis, mindfulness and somatics are effective for reducing pain.

This is true whether the pain is because of tissue damage (nociceptive pain), nervous system damage (neuropathic pain) or is nociplastic/chronic pain (see the next FAQ below).

Because pain is created in the brain, we can use hypnosis when in pain to change the perception of pain. This might involve accepting the pain, changing the sensation, changing the location, turning the pain down or even making it disappear completely. MRIs have shown that just being in hypnosis reduces the activity of the salience network – part of the brain that is vigilant to threats.

When we start to learn that we can control our own pain like this, we become the ones in charge. Paired with mindfulness and relaxation, hypnosis is effective in reducing the experience of pain.

Meanwhile, when we use hypnosis and CBT together, we can make lifestyle changes that improve the way we live in pain. Often, people living in pain for a long time start to plan their lives around the risk of being in pain – Hypno-CBT can free you from this.

One literature review found that hypnosis can help with managing cancer pain, low-back pain, arthritis pain, sickle-cell disease, temporomandibular joint (TMJ) pain, fibromyalgia, disability-related pain, and chronic pain. The treatments in the studies included other aspects such as CBT, education around how pain works, relaxation and teaching self-hypnosis (Elkins, et al., 2007).

Specifically for athletes, hypnosis has can improve injury recovery (Miró, et al., 2025).

All pain is created in the brain. Pain is a response to neurons firing and telling us we are in danger. Much of the time, this is in response to tissue damage – physically hurting ourselves, such as breaking a bone or damaging a muscle.

There is tissue damage and nociceptors fire and tell our brain that something is wrong, and the brain creates a sensation of pain to tell us something is wrong.

However, these same nociceptors can fire without the presence of tissue damage. Often, when someone has chronic pain, there is no tissue damage. The sensation of pain is created as a fear response to something else. This often happens to people taking on too much, to perfectionists and to people pushing themselves to burnout – people whose nervous systems are in threat mode. It also happens to neurodivergent people more than neurotypical people, because (among other things) a neurodivergent nervous system can be more sensitive to pain and other threats, and end up hyper-vigilant because of this.

We call pain that is created in the nociceptors nociplastic because it doesn’t have an external cause. The other two types of pain are nociceptive pain – pain created when the nociceptors perceive actual damage – and neuropathic pain – pain created from damage within the nervous system.

However, many people (including the NHS) call nociplastic pain chronic pain. This is because it is better understood, but it creates a confusion. Chronic just means ongoing for a long time. Chronic pain can, however, have a cause. Someone living with a life-long disability may have chronic pain due to this disability, but it is not nociplastic if it has a cause.

On my website, I use the phrase “nociplastic/chronic pain” so that people understand what I mean.

Because all pain is created in the brain, hypnotherapy is effective for all three types of pain. When it is nociplastic pain, hypnotherapy can help the pain disappear completely and for good. When it is nociceptive or neuropathic, hypnotherapy can help reduce pain sensation in the moment and help with lifestyle changes that facilitate a life with less pain.

Yes! I specialise in athletes who experience pain, but I will work with anyone whose goals are achievable through hypnotherapy. Book a free consultation to see whether I can help – if not, I may be able to refer you to someone else.