Written by Sarah Stanley

Have you ever felt anxious, fearful, lacking in confidence? Or low and depressed?

If you have, you will understand how difficult it is to think clearly or to feel positive about anything.

Here’s a message I received recently from a client who had an irrational fear of being alone at night:

“Was just having breakfast after a perfectly lovely night’s sleep by myself in my flat. I quite often think ‘thank you Sarah’ and thought I would actually say it to you a year on. I am picking up my new puppy on Friday. Soppy as anything and totally incapable of protecting me from anything, which is fine these days thanks to you.”

It’s always lovely to get these messages and it got me thinking about how Solution Focused Hypnotherapy enables people to make lasting, effective changes in their lives.

The Solution Focused Approach
When I first meet a client, they are often surprised and relieved when I tell them we don’t need to talk about the problems.

It doesn’t matter how you got here. We don’t need to analyse it. We find solutions. Solution Focused Hypnotherapy. We look for strengths and positive moments.

Above all we find your desire to change and to feel better.

Using Your Brain to Bring About Change
If you’ve worked with me or been to one of my talks, you will be familiar with my best tool – an explanation of how the brain works.

This is such an important part of the therapy. When you understand how the brain works, and how negative thought patterns are created, you have a real advantage.

This part of the therapy is a resource that I give to clients. They take it away with them, so they can tap back into it whenever life presents a challenge or an emotional difficulty.

Yes, You Can Change!
I firmly believe that each client who comes to see me has the ability to change and the necessary resources that they need to make that change. Solution Focused questions are used to direct the attention towards the present and the future, not to the past or problems.

This approach allows the client to begin a process of envisioning what their preferred future might look like. And then to create small steps towards achieving that outcome.

I remember a meeting I had during my training with my (exceptional!) tutor. The questions she asked allowed me to literally have that ‘light-bulb moment’. I was stuck. Between the challenge of my role as a mother and wife and attempting to set up a business. She asked me a simple question, “What difference would it make to you?” My response was easy, I want to go back to work and establish a working identity again.

Her focused approach allowed me to come up with the solution. I decided to arrange child care every Tuesday and started practising in the Carlton clinic here in Horley.

The icing on the cake
Hypnosis. to me, is the icing on the cake.

When we come up with goals and solutions, deep relaxation or trance is a very effective way of reinforcing that message to our subconscious.

We possess something rather remarkable called the Reticular Activating System. Our brain’s Reticular Activating System can bring about change when we know what we want, and when we are focused on the desired result.

This part of the brain is activated during hypnosis.

Many clients just love to experience that time of deep relaxation. Some continue to attend monthly or ad-hoc ‘top-up’ sessions.

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy is a multi-faceted approach. Each element is equally important in helping you to find your solution and to create your better future.

Sarah Stanley – Solution Focused Clinical Hypnotherapist
The Carlton Clinic
07850995869
www.sstanley.co.uk
facebook.com/sstanleyhypno/