We have several hypnotherapists available who all have different specialist and favourite issues to treat but there are some common things to look for regardless of who you are considering working with.

Reviews - A great hypnotherapist who has been working for a number of years should have reviews from previous happy clients. This should be the first thing you check.

Qualifications - There are so many hypnosis related qualifications out there but the one considered the best all round qualifications is the HPD (Hypnotherapy Practitioner Diploma). If your hypnotherapist has this then they will have a good overall training.

Experience - Ask your hypnotherapist if they have worked with your condition before, how many times, what kind of results they have achieved and what they learned about treating your condistion through that previous experience.

This is kind of like asking “how long is a piece of string?” Different people (with the same issue) respond differently. A great hypnotherapist will want to see you as few times as possible and get you to your goal as fast as possible.

Stopping smoking is often a single 2 hour session. Phobias can often be addressed within a couple of sessions. Weight loss is often three or four sessions. These examples are more to give you an idea rather a specific quote. Talk to your hypnotherapist about your goals for a more specific answer.

The effects of hypnosis have the potential to last for the rest of your life. Some people experience the benefits of hypnotherapy for decades or years. Some people it can last weeks or months. A small number of people experience no change at all from hypnotherapy. It is not a guaranteed process unfortunately. Your hypnotherapist will do everything within their ability and skills to help you change though.

There are a wide variety of hypnotic approaches and as research increases and time passes some techniques are superseded or modified while some worked decades ago and still work well now. The two general approaches of hypnotherapy can be summarised as 1) Regressive, and 2) Solution Focused.

Regressive hypnotherapy is focused on the idea of going back to when a behaviour first started and using tools and techniques to change your perception of those moments to invoke the idea that the present can be changed as a result of the past changing. This then leads to the potential for thoughts about the future to change as well.

Solution focused hypnotherapy – as the name suggests – says you are the way you are because you keep doing what you keep doing. Changing how you feel now and how you think about the future is the main focus of solution focused hypnotherapy and does not delve into the dim and distant past.

Yes, to some extent, IF they want to…under normal circumstances. What I mean by this is that if you want to change something and you want to use hypnotherapy and you are happy with the hypnotherapist you have chosen and that hypnotherapist is skilled and experienced and has a proven track record then there is a great chance that you will respond to hypnosis. If you don’t want to be hypnotised and a hypnotherapist says “close your eyes, take a nice deep breath and let yourself drift down into a calm and focused frame of mind” then nothing will happen. Knowing that hypnosis is happening and consciously resisting it will usually result in nothing happening.

Sometimes. It depends on who you private health insurance is with and what level of cover you have. To be sure contact your private health care provider and check with them. If you are covered all that is needed in most cases is a receipt from your hypnotherapist and you will be able to claim some/all of the cost of therapy.

If you are looking for an alternative to hypnotherapy you may want to consider Counselling or maybe Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) could help.