Hypnobirthing
Thank you very much for your work with me. I think it really helped me have a wonderful birth. Labour was initially quite slow after the hospital sent me home to relax I was able to listen to you and practice some hypnotherapy. When I returned to hospital a few hours later I was 8cm dilated and gave birth without an epidural on all fours. I was very calm and positive. The midwifes congratulated me and told me it was a beautiful birth.
General Anxiety
When I began hypnotherapy I had only a very hazy idea about what to expect. I sought help because I was experiencing a lot of general anxiety which became very intense in specific situations. But I was worried about feeling out of control while I was under hypnosis and also about whether the therapy would stir up thoughts and feelings that it would then be difficult to deal with.
At first I wasn’t convinced that the hypnoanalysis would actually help me at all – I just wanted a ‘quick fix’ for my problems. But the first few sessions began to bring up memories from the past that I could clearly link to the fears and anxieties I was experiencing now. Sometimes it wasn’t clear how or why things felt connected, but when I was remembering things under hypnosis I experienced sensations in my body similar to those I felt when I was afraid or anxious, so it felt as if a connection was definitely there, even if I couldn’t fully understand it. As the sessions went on, patterns began to emerge which really helped me to understand why I felt anxious or afraid in particular situations now.
One thing I really liked about the sessions was that even though bringing up memories from the past was often upsetting, after each session was over I would feel much better. I found myself crying at certain memories during hypnotherapy, but instead of leaving feeling upset, I would go away feeling somehow lighter and more free. I also liked the fact that I didn’t need to go on thinking about things between each session – I could just rely on my unconscious to do the work for me. This meant that the therapy felt relatively easy to manage. I was also amazed at how much ground we could cover in such a short space of time. I only had about eight sessions in total, but it felt as if we worked through things that might have taken months of more conventional counselling.
I would definitely recommend this sort of analysis to anyone with similar problems to mine.
Video: Juliet discusses the fast pace of modern life and the cost of it to wellbeing
High Anxiety
Hypnotherapy with Juliet has allowed me to escape from a very trapped state in which life had become very difficult even in basic practical terms and was certainly joyless. That state came over me during the course of perhaps a year. It may have been triggered in part by a delayed reaction to the breakdown of my marriage a few years before, followed by two years of particularly stressful overwork. I was in psychotherapy which was not apparently helping. Indeed, I became steadily more unhappy, frightened and unable to function normally. The most obvious symptoms were akin to OCD. At the peak of this state and these symptoms, I could no longer eat our or with friends and indeed found it very difficult feed myself properly even at home, such that I lost a lot of weight. I also became very isolated socially. Life seemed regularly to be presenting me with threatening situations which confirmed and strengthened the O.C.D.-like behaviour.
Juliet recognized that the psychotherapy was doing more harm than good, since it was encouraging me to think more critically but rather superficially about the problem in ways that increased the feelings of guilt and inadequacy, rather than allowing me to explore my emotional state and the background to it. Juliet encouraged me to let her help me.
The experience of hypnotherapy – with regular sessions over the course of a few months – was remarkable. It allowed me to recover a great deal of myself which had been overlaid by the state I had reached, recalling many of the strong emotions, memories and associations of childhood in a way that helped me accept myself as an adult and understand much better who I am and how I relate to others (incuding family). In addition, the relaxation process with which each session begins is a very useful tool which I can use when under stress. The therapy helped to the extent that within a short time I noticed a steady rise in my confidence about myself and the world. I have emerged well able once again to deal with life and – often to enjoy experiences and friendships: not always in the way I did before, but often in new ways which reflect a better contact with my emotions, needs and hopes and a more vivid and open engagement with life and other people. The hynotherapy worked better and faster than I would have believed possible and has set me on a hopeful path which I now look forward to walking.