When you don't know what to call it
"I don't even know where to start." I hear this sentence more with this concern than with almost any other. It comes from people who've long since noticed that something's wrong, and who still don't have the word you'd need to book an appointment with.
For the work itself, that's no obstacle. I don't make diagnoses, and I don't need one. What I need is a situation where it last happened.
Can everyone really be hypnotised?
Hypnotic trance isn't some mystical, out-of-body state. You already know it — from moments when you were absorbed in a book, driving with total focus, or simply daydreaming. How quickly and how deeply someone slips into it varies, roughly like falling asleep: for some it happens faster, for others it takes longer. But in principle, anyone willing to engage with it can go into trance.
How does hypnotherapy help with a diagnosed mental health condition?
For many psychological conditions, hypnotherapy offers an effective addition by working with unconscious emotional processing. We work hand in hand with existing diagnoses toward greater inner stability.
Maybe you know exactly what it is, though. Then here's the shorter route:
Depression is about the loops that keep a low mood in place. Anxiety is about an alarm reaction that fires too early. Burnout is about what's been driving you past your own limits. OCD is about the cycle of urge and brief relief. Eating disorders is about the job that food has taken on for you. And stress is about a switch that no longer flips back.
Why do different mental health symptoms often show up together?
Anxiety, low mood and sleep problems often share the same roots in the nervous system and the unconscious. In trance, we address that shared emotional foundation instead of just isolated symptoms.
In practice, they almost never show up alone anyway. Someone who sleeps badly gets more irritable, withdraws, ruminates more — and sleeps even worse as a result. Eventually a name gets put on the whole thing, but the movement underneath has stayed the same.
That's why it barely matters, for a first session, which word you bring with you. We start wherever it's costing you the most right now.
What does working "from the inside" mean for psychological distress?
Working from the inside means not just refining thoughts, but changing the deep emotional experiences and imprints in the unconscious. That's what creates real psychological relief.
Hypnosis can address whatever comes from inside and has an unconscious component. That's a very broad definition, and the unconscious actually has a say in almost everything: feelings, habits, reactions, right down to what you feel physically.
The limit lies elsewhere. A session doesn't change what comes from outside. Your living situation stays, your boss stays, the bill stays unpaid. What changes is what that triggers in you. And surprisingly often, the situation itself shifts afterward too — because with a calmer head, you negotiate differently and say no sooner.
How does hypnosis change the stance of the part running the symptom?
Symptoms are often protective attempts by an unconscious part trying to prevent overload. In hypnosis, we negotiate with that part and find healthier ways to create safety and wellbeing.
I work on the assumption that no part of you is against you. Withdrawal, controlling, rumination, reaching for whatever calms you down for a moment — these are attempts at protection that once made sense, and never found out the situation has changed.
In trance, we negotiate with that part instead of fighting it. That's the difference most people notice most clearly in the first session: suddenly, it's no longer about pulling yourself together.
What does "resource activation" actually do in trance?
In trance, we don't just dissolve what's blocking you — limiting beliefs, old messages from your upbringing, negative self-images — we also deliberately activate what's already there. I often say: "A big heart doesn't just have big feelings and empathy — it also has the strength and energy to change something." Sometimes that calls for an age regression back to where a pattern started; more often, working in the here and now is enough.
What do you need to bring for hypnotherapy to work?
What it takes is a willingness to engage with your own inner world and to actively take part in the change. Hypnosis isn't magic — it's a highly efficient, collaborative process.
No prior knowledge, no report, no preparation. It's enough to keep an hour free where nobody's going to knock, and to be willing to let yourself settle into a calm, focused state.
And the willingness that the answer might not be the one you expected. Here, that's more the rule than the exception.
