I attained my Diploma in Solution Focused Hypnotherapy (DSFH) with the highly acclaimed, gold standard, Clifton Practice of Hypnotherapy Training School in June 2022. I am a member of the Association for Solution Focused Hypnotherapy (AfSFH) and the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC), both of which require me to undertake ongoing training and supervision. I am currently seeing clients both in person in Corsham and online over ‘Google Meet’ video calls. Prior to qualifying as a hypnotherapist, I worked in a range of advisory jobs within the education and social sector, but the connecting theme has always been my passion to help people.
I currently live in Corsham with my husband and our 2 children. I grew up in rural Wiltshire on a dairy farm and I have always loved the countryside. Although I have travelled a lot around the world, my favourite spot will always be Roundway Hill and if ever need some perspective, then this is where I go. After my A-Levels I spent a few months teaching at a school in Uganda before going on to study American and Canadian Studies at Nottingham University where I spent a year in Vancouver. After graduating I moved to Bristol, not really knowing where life would take me, and this is when I met my husband.
When I first moved to Bristol I worked as a Youth Worker at a Pupil Referral Unit, before training to become an Advice Session Supervisor at the Citizens Advice Bureau. I then progressed on to the City of Bristol College where I worked as a Welfare Manager helping students with a large range of problems. Here I did a Counselling Skills course which I absolutely loved, and this is when I realised that my real passion was to become a therapist. But after the birth of my second child, I started to find my line of work a bit stressful and having been diagnosed with Generalised Anxiety Disorder myself, I decided perhaps I needed a change of career and I shied away from my desire to become a therapist.
So, after gravitating back to the countryside and moving to Corsham, I retrained in Human Resources, thinking this would still be rewarding but less stressful… Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case! After a couple of years, I still felt the urge to help people in a therapeutic environment and felt ready to follow my dreams. After talking to my wonderful friend Maddy, who is an experienced solution focused hypnotherapist, and doing further research, I realised that it’s possible to still help people whilst looking after my own mental health. I also realised that my own struggles with anxiety would help me to empathise with others and become a better therapist. Discovering that there are ways of helping people without dragging up all their problems from the past but focussing on the positive things in their life, was a revelation. The more I read up about it, the more excited I got, and it wasn’t long before I trained at the renowned Clifton Practice of Hypnotherapy Training School, and after a lot of real-life case studies, assignments and research, I qualified in June 2022.
It’s a great example of how there isn’t just one career for us – different jobs can be right for us at different times in our life and I don’t regret any of my previous jobs, which have enhanced my skills and helped me to become the hypnotherapist that I am today.
On a personal note, friends are a massive part of my life and there aren’t too many things in life which aren’t made better by coffee and cake with friends. I love being with my family, singing in my local community choir, playing the piano, cooking whilst listening to a podcast, doing Pilates (mainly online these days!) and walking in the countryside. I love meeting new people and pride myself on being able to form good rapport with people, which I believe is a major factor in the effectiveness of hypnotherapy. I look forward to meeting you and helping you to make positive, lasting changes.