You wake up feeling on edge.

Nothing’s happened. No bad news. No obvious trigger.
And yet, your mind is racing, your chest feels tight, and you can’t quite relax.

It’s confusing – and often frustrating.

So you ask yourself:
“Why do I feel anxious for no reason?”

The truth is, anxiety rarely comes from nowhere. It just feels that way.

Is Anxiety Ever Really “For No Reason”?

Short answer: no.

Even when anxiety seems random, there’s usually something happening beneath the surface.

Most of our thoughts, reactions, and behaviours are driven by the subconscious mind – the part of us that stores past experiences, learned patterns, and emotional responses.

That means your anxiety isn’t random.
It’s a response… just not always to something obvious.

Common Hidden Causes of Anxiety

Stored Stress and Unresolved Experiences

Your mind keeps a record of past experiences – especially stressful or overwhelming ones.

Even if you’ve “moved on” consciously, your subconscious may still be holding onto those patterns, triggering anxiety in situations that feel similar.

An Overactive Threat Response

Your brain is wired to protect you.

Sometimes, it becomes a little too good at this.

What starts as a helpful survival mechanism can turn into a constant state of alertness – where your mind is scanning for danger, even when you’re safe.

Learned Behaviours

Anxiety can be learned over time.

If you grew up in an environment where stress, worry, or fear were common, your brain may have adopted those patterns as the “default” way to respond.

Mental Overload

Modern life doesn’t give your mind much of a break.

Work pressure, constant notifications, busy schedules – it all adds up.

Even if you’re not consciously stressed, your system may still be overwhelmed, and anxiety becomes the outlet.

Why Talking About It Isn’t Always Enough

Talking can help you understand your anxiety.

But understanding something doesn’t always stop it.

That’s because anxiety often isn’t driven by logical thinking – it’s driven by automatic, subconscious responses.

You can know you’re safe…
and still feel anxious.

This is where many people feel stuck.

How Hypnotherapy Helps Calm Anxiety at the Root

Hypnotherapy works differently.

Instead of trying to manage anxiety at the surface level, it focuses on the underlying patterns driving it.

By working with the subconscious mind, it helps to:

• Change automatic responses
• Reduce the intensity of triggers
• Create a sense of calm that feels natural – not forced

You don’t have to relive difficult experiences in detail.
And you don’t need years of therapy to see change.

For many people, it’s about helping the mind update the way it responds – so anxiety no longer feels like the default.

When Should You Seek Help?

It might be time to get support if:

• Anxiety feels constant or unpredictable
• You’re overthinking everything
• It’s affecting your sleep or daily life
• You’re avoiding situations you used to handle easily

You don’t have to wait until it gets worse.

You’re Not Broken, and You’re Not Alone

Feeling anxious “for no reason” can make you feel like something isn’t right.

But in reality, your mind is trying to protect you – it’s just doing it in a way that no longer serves you.

And the good news is that can change.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

If you’re tired of feeling this way and want to understand what’s really driving your anxiety, hypnotherapy can help you move forward – calmly and confidently.

Feel free to get in touch to learn more or ask any questions. There’s no pressure, just a conversation.

Finding help couldn’t be easier, just follow the directions on the map, our full address is:

197 Dane Road Sale M33 2NA

“I went to see Sally feeling insecure, weak and, really, I wasn’t in a good place. I was just faking it and wasn’t able to move on. Now I am not faking anything. I am in a much better place, ready to live fully again, without the fear.”

These are the words of a recent client, Louise, who came to me with PTSD. Her story follows below. 

Repsonses to trauma can differ

Trauma can be caused by events large or small, and even seemingly insignificant at the time. Our mind’s fight or flight response can be triggered by a single event, and kick in every time it’s reminded of that event, regardless of how firmly your logical mind tells you there’s nothing to worry about, much less react so strongly to.

Often, we carry a trauma that has repercussions our entire life, but would struggle to recognise what that trauma was, and even more to express it. Other times, we know exactly what caused the trauma and why we’re still carrying it with us.

Responses to trauma can vary dramatically from person to person, and no one individual is the same as the next. 

Louise, from Wilmslow, came to me when she realised trying to get her life fully back on track after breast cancer treatment was never going to happen if she didn’t address the trauma that was holding her back. Working together, we addressed not only the more immediate traumatic experience, but tracked back to an earlier event she’d held on to for years, in her subconscious, never really recognising the power it still held over her. 

Today, she’s lighter, brighter and moving on with positivity and renewed energy. Here’s her story.

Louise’s story: healing from trauma with hypnotherapy

In 2024 I was diagnosed with breast cancer and started on a long and arduous treatment protocol that included a lumpectomy and later a mastectomy. I approached the first surgery with positivity, after all this was something the surgeons did all the time and they were very relaxed about it, so I went in feeling fine. It wasn’t until I woke up that I realised it was a much bigger deal than I had expected. I was in a huge amount of pain and hadn’t realised how traumatised I was by it all until I started crying.

After the surgery the skin on my chest wall was super-sensitive; I couldn’t bear to touch it, so I didn’t. Even the touch of fabric against my skin was incredibly painful. My physio told me that if I didn’t address it, by repeated touch, it would become a much bigger problem, but I wanted to ignore it, so I did. This was sitting at the centre of my whole breast cancer experience and I was ignoring it.

It, of course, didn’t go away. My expectation of pain was so embedded that I couldn’t touch my skin, even though the actual pain wasn’t as bad as I anticipated. It was more in my head than it was physical. Because I couldn’t, wouldn’t, touch, or allow touch, my physio was unable to help me heal as I should have done and I ended up with a frozen shoulder – and more surgery.

I was stuck, both physically and mentally

I have always valued my mental health as much as my physical health and knew I needed to break the cycle of my traumatic response to something that was mostly in my head. A friend recommended I see Sally, explaining to me a little about how she works. I was intrigued. I have never known anybody before who had seen a hypnotherapist, but I gave her a call and after our chat felt that she could really help me.

At our first session we spent time discussing a lot of things around my life and my cancer experience. She understood not only the ‘touch equals pain’ issue, but could see how the trauma linked back to the lumpectomy, how it had been minimised by the surgeons and how because I was unprepared for the reality, this created, effectively, a PTSD response in me.

Creating Safety and Calm 

Once we had established where the touch-pain response stemmed from, she was able to use Brainworking Recursive Therapy to reform my memories around that whole experience. I can still remember it, but I am no longer scared; I can no longer feel the power of the memory of waking up in so much pain. When I realised this, I cried with relief. Now it’s actually really hard to remember how I for then and for so many months afterwards.

I immediately felt so much better and can now talk about the whole experience without getting upset. I am no longer stuck. I feel at last I can move forward with my life.

When talking with Sally I realised I was also stuck in the trauma of losing my lovely dad to MND, eight years ago. When it came to the end of his life, it all happened quite quickly and I wasn’t there. Every time I thought of him, that sharp grief and distress just came flooding back, overwhelming me.

Reframing the Emotional Impact

Sally explained that our subconscious has no understanding of time passing. It doesn’t know if the event happened eight years ago or yesterday. She gave me the tools to help me move forward out of this, with WSN – Warrior Settler Nomad. I love the idea of having a ‘team’ to help me out in any situation with confidence and strength. 

Now I’m not only physically stronger, but mentally and emotionally too.

My physio is very happy too – we have managed to get full mobility back in my shoulder!

Benefits Clients Often Experience With Hypnotherapy

Healing from trauma is deeply personal, but many clients report:

Greater emotional regulation. Feeling less reactive and more grounded in everyday life as stress responses calm down.

Reduced anxiety and intrusive thoughts. By updating subconscious associations, responses that once felt overwhelming become manageable.

Increased sense of safety and control. Clients often describe feeling more empowered and resilient, able to face life’s challenges without being pulled back into old trauma loops.

Are you ready to put your trauma behind you?

Trauma affects everyone differently. Hypnotherapy can be particularly helpful if you find that past distress still influences your behaviour, emotions, or sense of safety. If you’re unsure about what to expect or how it fits into your healing journey, a qualified trauma-informed hypnotherapist can discuss your goals and tailor the approach to your needs.

 Call me now for a free 20 minute telephone consultation, on 0161 374 0227, or complete the form here.

Finding help couldn’t be easier, just follow the directions on the map, our full address is:

197 Dane Road Sale M33 2NA

My Hours of Operation are:

• Monday to Friday 9am-7pm
• Saturday 9am-4pm

Are you worried about your vaping habit? Maybe it’s time to stop vaping, forever. You can, with hypnotherapy.

When vapes arrived on the market they seemed like the perfect solution to stopping smoking – no more harmful smoke drawn directly into the lungs, a pleasant fragrance and still the nicotine hit you’re used to. No need to go through the pain of nicotine withdrawal, but avoiding the bad breath, smelly clothes and risks of mouth, throat and lung cancer that accompany a cigarette smoking habit – or so we thought. 

It’s been proven, however, that vaping carries its own risks, and really quitting all forms of smoking or vaping is the only way to avoid them.

Risks and harms of vaping

Harmful chemicals: Vape liquids can contain chemicals that are also found in cigarette smoke, along with other substances. These include heavy metals like nickel, tin, and lead, as well as volatile organic compounds, and flavorings like diacetyl, which is linked to a serious lung disease. 

Addiction: Nicotine, found in most vapes, is highly addictive and can negatively affect mental health by causing stress, anxiety, and mood disorders. It can lead to long-lasting changes in your brain’s attention, memory, and cognition, especially for developing brains that continue to mature until around age 25. So if you catch your teen vaping, make it stop!

Lung damage: Vaping can lead to lung diseases such as bronchiolitis obliterans (popcorn lung), which causes scarring of the air sacs, and can cause short-term issues like coughing, shortness of breath, and irritation. There is also a risk of serious lung injury, though the specific triggers are still being studied. Personally, I’d prefer to not wait until the results are in on what those specific triggers are, the very words ‘serious lung injury’ are enough for me to know it’s something I don’t want in my life.

Heart and circulatory issues: Research suggests vaping can be bad for your heart and contribute to cardiovascular disease. 

It was all of the above that brought a recent client to me. Magdalena Szymczak had a powerful 1,500 puffs a day habit, and was growing increasingly anxious about the damage she was doing to her health – both seen and unseen.

Together, we brought Magdalena to a point where she not only no longer craves vapes, but has absolutely no interest in them – she doesn’t miss them at all.

How does hypnotherapy to stop vaping work?

In exactly the same way as hypnotherapy to stop smoking works.

Vaping, like smoking, is both an addiction and a habit, but one is more powerful than the other. You might think you’re addicted to the nicotine, but in fact the nicotine leaves your body within two weeks. The reason the cravings are so hard is because it has a half-life of around two hours – which means that it packs a strong punch but the levels in your blood stream halve within two hours, meaning you start craving your next ‘fix’ quite quickly. If you can get through the first three days, it’s not the nicotine that you crave, it’s the security of the habit.

The brain becomes dependent on the dopamine surge nicotine provides, and the act of smoking becomes deeply ingrained in daily routines and emotional responses. Emotions like stress, sadness, or even a moment of relaxation can trigger a craving for a cigarette or a vape, because the smoker has learned to associate smoking with those feelings. Let’s call it a reward cycle. The smoker’s brain gets a quick burst of pleasure when drawing on the vape or cigarette, but when that feeling fades, the withdrawal symptoms lead the person to smoke again, creating a false belief that smoking relieves stress. 

Smoking or vaping does not relieve stress. It’s a false notion that in fact creates a vicious circle of stress-vape-stress-vape, all the while getting increasingly anxious about the effect it’s having on your health.

Hypnotherapy to stop smoking is about changing habits and learning new ways to relax and feel calm

Your brain loves a habit. It feels safe doing something repetitive and practised. In times of stress, doing something well-practised is a safe choice to make, surely? Your brain, of course, doesn’t understand why this particular habit is a bad idea.

Stop smoking or vaping in just two sessions

It takes, on average, no more than two sessions with me before you will be able to stop vaping, or smoking, for good.

In our first session we take the time to go into the reasons why you want to quit vaping.  This is an intensely personal session, where we focus the brain on why YOU want to stop, followed by a gentle hypnotherapy session to plant the seeds of quitting. You then leave with some straightforward tasks to complete and a recording to listen to, before you come back one week later.

The second session is where the really influential work gets done.

In this session, I use hypnotherapy to lead you away from the bad habits by giving you the strength and self-belief you need to accomplish your goal, and working with you to find alternatives to the pattern of daily smoking or vaping, whether that be solo or social.

We also fully activate a disgust response to the very thought of smoking or vaping; anchoring in a feeling of nausea every time your mind flicks to the idea of lighting up or drawing on a vape. Feeling sick at the idea of it makes it SO much easier to give up, forever, as you actually don’t want to do it anymore. You are not relying on willpower alone; you are genuinely repulsed at the thought. This was a key aspect in my sessions with Magdalena, and you can see below how she feels now.

Magdalena says: “I have to say I couldn’t be more impressed or grateful for Sally’s help. I do not crave vaping at all and it feels as if I never smoked before the hypnosis. She guided me also to practise nice, calming techniques…to keep myself at peace and make me feel more positive.”

Take control of your vaping or smoking cravings, and how you feel about yourself, with hypnotherapy for stopping smoking. Call me now for a free 20 minute telephone consultation, on 0161 374 0227, or complete the form here.

Finding help couldn’t be easier, just follow the directions on the map, our full address is:

197 Dane Road Sale M33 2NA

My Hours of Operation are:

• Monday to Friday 9am-7pm
• Saturday 9am-4pm

Thinking about weight loss injections? Before you spend your money, think about hypnotherapy for weight loss.  Or perhaps you have tried weight loss injections and found it too hard to cope with. You don’t need to lose hope of losing weight – hypnotherapy to lose weight is wholly painless, doesn’t affect your body’s natural processes and actually works after just a few sessions, so no need to go through the challenge of injecting yourself week after week.

I have seen clients recently that not only have tried every diet plan on the market, but have also been privately prescribed weight loss injections and really struggled with them, giving up due to side effects, both physical and mental. They genuinely felt that they had reached the end of the road on their weight loss journey and had nowhere else to go – then they found me.

I am neither for or against weight loss injections (though wouldn’t consider them myself) but I do believe that if there is a safe, non-invasive alternative that really works, this is the way to go – and hypnotherapy for weight loss is that alternative.

How do weight loss injections work?

When you eat, your gut releases hormones that do things like instruct the pancreas to release insulin (which helps lower blood sugar), slow how fast your stomach empties (so you feel full for longer), and send signals to your brain about hunger/fullness.

Two of those hormones are GLP-1 (Glucagon-Like Peptide-1) and GIP (Glucose-Dependent Insulinotropic Polypeptide).

Medications like those available in the UK semaglutide (found in Wegovy), liraglutide (in Saxenda), and tirzepatide (in Mounjaro) act to initiate production of one or both of those natural hormones. They trick your body into doing more of what GLP-1 or GIP do.

What are the side effects of weight loss injections?

Any drug that mimics hormones in the body when those hormones are already being produced will, of course, trigger side effects. Unsurprisingly, common mild to moderate side-effects include gastrointestinal issues such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, constipation and stomach pain, tiredness or dizziness. More serious (and thankfully less frequent) risks include pancreatitis, gallbladder issues, hypoglycemia, and effects on contraception and HRT.

Finally, once your desired weight loss is achieved and you stop taking the injections you stop putting those extra hormones in your body and it reverts to the previous way of working – your physiological and psychological makeup hasn’t changed, it’s simply been overridden for a time. There is then, of course, the risk of rebound weight gain, as you haven’t addressed the habits and psychological issues that led to you gaining weight, and struggling to lose it, in the first place.

HYPNOTHERAPY FOR WEIGHT LOSS WORKS BECAUSE WE CHANGE YOUR MIND, NOT YOUR HORMONES

How does hypnotherapy for weight loss work?

The short answer is simple: I can help change the way your mind works, not the way your body works. Working together, we get to the root of poor eating habits and any psychological triggers that cause you to behave in ways you logically know to be damaging, but cannot overcome. Whether you comfort eat, have seemingly unbreakable habits or are simply stuck in a yoyo dieting rut, I can help change it.

How long does it take?

Most of my clients have between four and six sessions across two to three months, leaving you with the knowledge and the confidence you need to KNOW you will keep losing weight until you achieve your goals. Hypnotherapy for weight loss doesn’t work on a wish and a prayer, it’s not about hope or hormones, it’s about reworking your subconscious. It’s not even about willpower, it’s about changing your mindset so everything works naturally for you. 

Together we can resolve your diet and eating issues and discover the you who wants to change their life, permanently. After your therapy is complete, you will find a whole new you, ready and able to eat better, exercise more and live a more content way of life. We recode the old habits and intrusive thoughts and give you a whole new outlook on life.

No drugs. No hormones. No over-promising diets plans. Just you, becoming the person you want to be.

Take control of your eating habits, cravings and how you feel about yourself with hypnotherapy for weight loss. Call me now for a free 20 minute telephone consultation, on 0161 374 0227, or complete the form here.

Finding help couldn’t be easier, just follow the directions on the map, our full address is:

197 Dane Road Sale M33 2NA

My Hours of Operation are:

• Monday to Friday 9am-7pm
• Saturday 9am-4pm

Lose weight with hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy is often a last port of call for people seeking to lose weight, but it is actually incredibly powerful, and unlike dieting, can be a permanent fix.

All too often I receive a phone call when people have pretty uch given up and are feeling really low, beaten down and helpless in the face of their weight gain. They have usually tried many diets and ‘healthy eating’ programmes, and while the weight may initially just fall off, they just don’t seem to be able to maintain their ideal weight once the crash diet or programme is complete.

“I’ve come a long way, losing more than three stone already” (Neil, from Manchester)

Why? You have heard, I’m sure, the term ‘yo-yo dieting’, it’s a simple term for somebody who sets a weight goal, diets hard and achieves their desired weight but then soon regains the weight they lost, and often puts on even more. People talk all the time about acheving the right mindset and advertise diets that address the psychology of weight loss as well as the nutritional aspects, but unless you take time to truly understand why YOU live what you know to be an unhealthy lifestyle for your needs, and work to rewire your brain to change your thoughts and behaviours, losing weight and getting healthy could remain distant dreams.

I have noticed two key difference between men and women who come to me for hypnotherapy for weight loss:

1. Men tend to start off more sceptical than women, but once they start seeing results, become extremely enthusiastic participants in the protocol

2. Men tend to struggle with weight for reason of bad habits, rather than anything more complex, which actually makes it a less complicated issue to resolve. This isn’t the case every sigle time, of course, but most certainly more often than not. 

I’d like to share something a recent client, Neil, from Manchester, has to say following his recent hypnotherapy sessions with me.

“I had tried all the options. I had long struggled with weight coming off and going back on, but made no meaningful changes. I thought hypnotherapy was a bit ‘out there’, but nothing else was working.”

Neil isn’t unusual. I have often heard my profession being described as ‘out there’ , or even ‘a bit woo woo’, but if it’s woo woo that works, which it does, I am not going to worry.

Neil goes on: “Hypnotherapy is not something I had ever believed in, but I opened my mind and I am so happy I did. Sally’s 45-minute sessions felt like ten minutes.”

Beating bad habits with hypnotherapy

Let’s look at that statement. Those 45-minute sessions were indeed the hypnotherapy aspect of my work with Neil. After a detailed conversation looking at Neil’s lifestyle and eating habits, we were able to agree on the most damaging of his usual behaviours – his love of (he says unbeatbale addiction for) a daily lunchtime kebab – and I used hypnotherapy to help him break this habit. No longer does Neil crave a kebab, not at lunchtime, not at the end of a night out, not ever. Instead, we have replaced this bad habit with a good one – making a healthy choice instead. When under hypnosis, 45 minutes really does feels like just ten. 

Neil goes on to say: “Sally helped me break it all down – all my thoughts and feelings and beliefs around food and health and how I feel about myself – and then rebuilt it, correcting my subconscious responses to triggers and helping me take control.”

While habits such as Neil’s are quite easy to banish, it is the case that for many of my clients their attitude to food, diet and exercise is the result of a trauma or events that happened in their past, usually forgotten or buried deep in their subconscious, sometimes remembered with fear and dismay, or even anger. By working to ‘rewire’ their subconscious, I can then put plans in place to help make permanent changes in the way they feel about themselves – and their relationship with food.

To do this I use BrainWorking Recursive Therapy, or BWRT. This is a short-term therapy developed by Terrance Watts to quickly and permanently change the way your brain reacts to certain stimuli – from stressful situations (such as preparing to give a speech, or visiting a dentist) to non-stressful but unhealthy situations,, such as always having a kebab at the end of the night, or always smoking a cigarette when with certain friends. By changing the way your brain responds to these stimuli, we can change your behaviours – break the habit, reduce the anxiety, quash the phobia or change your whole attitude to food and exercise.

Get yourself ready to lose weight with hypnotherapy

Neil is well aware that hypnotherapy is not a magic wand, that he has to put work in to get the results he wants, but what he has now is a new way of looking at his life, a new way of thinking about himself and a new impetus to continue to make the changes he wants to make.

“The work I have done with Sally has really helped me understand the root cause of my issues, and change the way I deal with life’s problems,” he says. “It’s effective because it gets to the heart of me, and my needs. It’s not a crash diet, or random fitness routine. It’s real life changes with tools to help me for the rest of my life. I’ve come a long way, losing more than three stone already, but it’s the ongoing lifestyle change that I can now maintain that will really make the difference.

“Sally was lovely to work with. She made it easy for me to open up and delve into my personal issues, things I would never have acknowledged or addressed without her support.

“Yes, at first it felt like a big financial commitment, but the sessions have proven invaluable, and what she has taught me is priceless.”

If you’re feeling as if you have reached the end of your tether and are close to giving up on ever losing weight, and keeping it off, call me. Or better still – don’t wait for that moment, call me and make the changes you need to make right now.

Call me on 0161 374 0227 or, if you prefer, email me at  sally@mindsolutions.co.uk

Finding help couldn’t be easier, just follow the directions on the map, our full address is:

197 Dane Road Sale M33 2NA

My Hours of Operation are:

• Monday to Friday 9am-7pm
• Saturday 9am-4pm

Is it insomnia?

Do you think you may have insomnia? Have you been having trouble sleeping to the point where it is affecting your life? Insomnia is the medical term for struggling with sleep for long periods during the night, night after night.

What is insomnia?

Insomnia can take many forms, so if any of these descriptions below matches what you are experiencing, you have insomnia. You have insomnia if you regularly:

• find it hard to fall asleep
• wake up multiple times during the night
• lie awake for long periods at night
• wake up early and cannot go back to sleep
• still feel tired after waking up
• find it hard to nap during the day even though you’re tired
• feel tired and irritable during the day
• find it difficult to concentrate during the day because you’re tired

If any of the above seems familiar, you’re not alone – it’s believed that one in three adults in the UK suffer from a degree of insomnia at any one time. That’s 16 million people struggling with sleep every night of the year. Untreated and unresolved, insomnia can lead to an increased risk of developing chronic conditions such as obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke and, of course, it will impact your mental health.

Traditional insomnia treatments aren’t always effective

Sometimes insomnia can last just a short while, and can be easily tied to a short-term change in lifestyle or event happening in your life. Sometimes it can go on for a long time, and this is when you need to take steps to address it. Sleeping tablets are not a solution, as these simply mask the issue, they don’t address the root cause, and can have side-effects that are unhelpful.

If you have tried the NHS recommendations around cutting caffeine, instigating a ‘good’ bedtime routine, and increasing your outdoor exercise levels, then hypnotherapy for insomnia may be the solution for you.

Hypnotherapy works for insomnia

Treating insomnia with hypnotherapy is actually why I became a hypnotherapist.

After struggling with huge stresses both at work and at home I found myself almost at breaking point through lack of sleep. The suggestions made by my GP didn’t suit – tablets made me sluggish and made work harder –  so I turned to a hypnotherapist for help. The relief when it worked, and worked fast, was so overwhelming I knew I needed to change the course of my entire life and train as a hypnotherapist myself, so I could bring that sense of relief and release to others.

Hypnotherapy for insomnia is very much a collaborative process. I first spend time with you establishing the root causes of your trouble sleeping and the pattern this nighttime wakefulness follows. Often insomnia is caused by external forces affecting our stress levels, sometimes it’s actually become a habit, something your mind has established as a pattern, even once the initial cause and stress has been resolved.  Whatever the cause, hypnotherapy as a cure for insomnia can be immensely powerful and rapidly effective.

In our first session, we work to establish why and how sleeplessness is a nightly event. We then work to address your stresses, and help you achieve a feeling of deep and refreshing relaxation.

As you can imagine, insomnia soon becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, swiftly moving from “I hope I get a good night’s sleep tonight” to “I know I won’t get any sleep tonight.” In our next sessions I address this pattern of thoughts and negativity, and lead you back onto the path of positivity – and sleep.

So, can hypnotherapy ‘cure’ insomnia? Well, I am walking proof that it can, as are the many clients I have seen for treatment. This is because while insomnia is often a symptom of stress, it can quickly become ingrained as a habit even once the stress is relieved and, as we all know, habits can be broken, and for some people that can mean insomnia becomes a distant memory.

Don’t let a lack of sleep damage your life any longer. I can get you back on track to healthy sleep, give you an improved resilience for coping with stress and a happier, more relaxed way of being.

Finding help couldn’t be easier, just follow the directions on the map, our full address is:

197 Dane Road Sale M33 2NA

My Hours of Operation are:

• Monday to Friday 9am-7pm
• Saturday 9am-4pm

Are you thinking of giving up smoking? 

People give up smoking all the time. Sometimes the same people give it up many, many times. How many times have you given up smoking?

Just deciding you want to quit smoking can, for some, be enough. So why can’t everybody who wants to stop smoking just stop? If you want to stop smoking – why can’t you? It’s very easy to say “oh, well, it’s an addiction,” and leave it there, but people also beat addictions all the time – so why can’t you?

Well, it’s true to some extent that smoking is addictive – but did you know that it takes just three to five days for nicotine to have completely cleared your body? And once it’s gone, your body actually stops craving it. So why do so many smokers, having pushed through those often tough physical symptoms, go back to smoking again? I have met so many smokers who have managed to quit smoking for weeks, months and even years, only to fall back into the habit again. And this single word takes us right to the heart of the matter – habit.

Smoking is a habit even more than it’s an addiction. And your brain can hold on to the habit a lot longer than your body holds on to the addiction, unless you take steps to change that. Smoking is a habit, something you subconsciously hang on to even when your logical mind is telling you it’s time to stop. 

My Hypnotherapy to Stop Smoking treatment is a fast, powerful, personalised experience that really works. Forever.

I love working with clients who come to me to beat their smoking habit. We all know how bad smoking is for our bodies, but for those who want to stop smoking but just don’t seem to be able to crack it, it’s also often quite damaging from a mental health perspective, too. Being able to lift someone from feeling bad about their ‘lack of willpower’, or ‘weakness’ (and these are words my clients use, not me) into a place where they are in control and have cast aside this habit for good, makes me feel happy – and makes them feel great.

How can hypnotherapy help you stop smoking?

My treatment protocol is wholly personalised. It can take just two sessions, however, to change you from wanting to stop, to actually stopping.

In our first session we take the time to go into the reasons why you want to stop. These reasons vary greatly from person to person – no two clients are ever the same, and no two clients ever have the same set of reasons for wanting to stop smoking. Our first meeting is very much a ‘Preparing to Stop Smoking’ session, and we start with talking about why you want to stop smoking before a gentle hypnotherapy session to begin planting those seeds of quitting, and then sending you home with tasks to complete and a recording to listen to, before you come back to me one week later.

My Hypnotherapy to Stop Smoking programme also helps you prepare for the moment of quitting that lies ahead – physically, mentally and emotionally. Clients come to me not just full of hope, but full of fear, too. What if they fail, again? What if it doesn’t work? How will they face their family, their friends, if they can’t quit smoking, again? The work we do in session one, and you do by yourself in the following days, is immensely powerful. It’s not just talk, it’s action, too. By the time you see me again one week later, you’ll be more ready to stop smoking than you have ever felt before.

I think it helps if you look at your decision to quit in the same way an athlete prepares for a competition. The athlete doesn’t simply sit around talking about how they’re going to win, they train – every day. They take guided steps, with an experienced trainer, to prepare themselves mentally, physically and emotionally for the contest.

Hypnotherapy to stop smoking works in just two sessions

Our second session is the clincher. In this session, I will use hypnotherapy to guide you away from the smoking habit by giving you the strength and self-belief you need to accomplish your goal.

And trust me, by the time you leave your habit will be a thing of the past, your confidence levels will be precisely where you need them to be and you won’t ever look at a cigarette in the same way again, much less want to actually smoke one.

Do you want to stop smoking, one last time? 

Call me on 0161 374 0227 or, if you prefer, email me at  sally@mindsolutions.co.uk

Finding help couldn’t be easier, just follow the directions on the map, our full address is:

197 Dane Road Sale M33 2NA

My Hours of Operation are:

• Monday to Friday 9am-7pm
• Saturday 9am-4pm

Does your fear of flying affect your summer holiday plans?

A fear of flying can strike anybody at any time, and for most people it is manageable with some self-talk and a few distraction techniques. However, when a fear of flying turns into something that can prevent you from travelling, or from enjoying any aspect of your holiday as you stress about the flight home, it’s time to take action.

The official term for an extreme fear of flying is aerophobia. Yes, it’s an actual phobia, which takes it to a level beyond your control. Aerophobics don’t feel the same mild anxiety before a flight that many do, though this is how it might have started, before developing over time into something unmanageable. Aerophobics experience acute anxiety, which can be accompanied by breathlessness and the worrying beat of a racing heart, plus a strong desire to just get up and run. This is quite literally your fight or flight response kicking in, and is your body’s perfectly normal reaction to a terrifying situation. Unfortunately, your body is not in a genuinely terrifying situation, it is simply your brain going into overdrive and sending incorrect messages to your body.

You may have tried to take steps to reassure yourself by looking at the actual risks posed by flying. According to a Harvard University study, the odds your plane will crash are one in 1.2 million, and the odds of dying from being in a plane crash are one in 11 million. It’s often said that your risk of death in a car crash is far higher, which is statistically true: there are 68 million adults in the UK, in 2023, 1,624 people died in road traffic accidents  That is 0.0023% chance of dying in a car accident. In 2023 4.4bn (yes, that’s billion) people took a flight, and there were 327 fatalities, with only four of those not ‘on-board fatalities’, that is, people who die of sudden illness while on board a flight. I can’t do the maths on that, my calculator isn’t bg enough, but it means an almost infinitesimal chance, compared to road traffic accidents.

But phobias aren’t rational, and you can look at the numbers as much as you choose, and try to be logical about it all, but your phobia doesn’t stem from the logical, reasonable part of your brain. It stems from the prehistoric, self-defence, hyper-alert part of the brain we needed during times of a much higher chance of potential sudden death or injury to keep us safe.

So, how do we access this part of our brains to change our response to this feeling of threat? We need to use hypnotherapy.

Can hypnotherapy cure fear of flying?

Yes, it can.

The answer lies in delving deep with you to understand the root cause of your fear of flying. Once I understand this, the events that triggered it, or where you recall it first happening, I can create a bespoke hypnosis session for you as an individual.

We take as much time as you need to talk in detail about your experiences, about each occasion you have experienced the fear and your physical and emotional reaction to it. I need to understand how long you have struggled with your phobia, how it has impacted your life and how it makes you feel even when not in the grip of your phobic response. Those times you feel it when not in an airport, or boarding a plane.

Next, I will use an incredibly powerful tool known as BrainWorking Recursive Therapy, or BWRT. This is a very dynamic treatment that will help you rewire your brain’s usual pattern of subconscious responses, so rather than travel the current path of a fear response, it takes the more logical, calm approach you want. No more fight or flight – now your prehistoric response mechanism won’t kick in, but your ability to reason and use logic will.

How many treatments will it take to cure my fear of flying?

On average it takes no more than three sessions to cure you of your phobia. From those initial discussions to learning about ways to find calm in stressful situations, you will need to visit me just three times. Yhis might seem like a lot, a considerable investment of your time and money – but set this against the future joy of travel you can again experience – holidays with your family, trips with friends, even business flights – and it’s worth every moment and every penny.

Don’t let fear of flying spoil your life, Rediscover your freedom in just three weeks, with hypnotherapy for aerophobia.

Call me on 0161 374 0227, or email sally@mindsolutions.co.uk. It’s time to take back control.

Finding help couldn’t be easier, just follow the directions on the map, our full address is:

197 Dane Road Sale M33 2NA

My Hours of Operation are:

• Monday to Friday 9am-7pm
• Saturday 9am-4pm

Is anxiety normal?

It’s fair to say that some degree of anxiety, on occasion, is perfectly normal. There is, let’s face it, a lot to be anxious about at the moment, both in the wider world and closer to home – but why do some people suffer more anxiety than others? And can hypnotherapy treat anxiety?

Firstly, let’s dispel the myth that some people don’t get anxiety. Everybody worries. Everybody has something in their life that concerns them, that causes worry or stress. A certain degree of worry or concern is absolutely normal – it’s a rare man or woman who sails through life with never a care. While we may be very aware of what we are feeling and worrying about, we cannot really know what everybody else is feeling. Some people just don’t talk about it. Which is, as we are all coming to understand, not a healthy way of living.

It is, however, true that some people are more prone to intense worrying – are more emotionally sensitive and tend to react more strongly to events, real or imagined, distant or close to home – than others. This can often be traced back to some for of trauma in earlier life – perhaps as a child something happened that has resulted in heightened senstivity and a tendency to assume things will definitely go wrong. This happens because our brain chemistry can actually change after a traumatic experience, leaving us wired to avoid any similar situations at all costs – our inherent fight or flight response, which exists to alert us to real dangers, is enhanced to the point where it’s not actually helpful at all, sending danger signals when there is no real danger at all.

Does anxiety always start with a past trauma?

Even if you have not experienced any form of trauma in your past, some psychologists believe that there are those of us who are born predisposed to worry more than others. Studies that have tracked children from birth right through to adulthood have seemed to show that babies who have strong reactions to new situations tend to grow up to be more anxious as adults. Fascinatingly, although the babies being followed had different upbringings and different challenges in life, the study showed that those who were most reactive as babies had a higher propensity to worry more as adults than the less reactive babies. Unless your parents have really excellent memories, and watched your reactions and compared them to the reactions of other babies to the same stimuli, this one will be hard to prove for any individual, of course.

For others, increased levels of anxiety can be the result of a prolonged period of stress – this might be fears over work challenges, such as redundancy, a new and challenging manager or beingoverloaded with tasks, or long-term ill health, your own or a close family member, or even something as apparently every day as selling your home and moving house. Whatever is triggering that stress, our bodies respond in the same way, releasing a hormone called cortisol.

How does cortisol affect us?

The release of cortisol triggered by a single stressful event can actually be helpful, as it provides a boost of energy and focus. However, a long period of stress with the associated ongoing production of cortisol can be very unhelpful, as it can lead to a poorly regulated stress response that can result in the onset of ongoing general anxiety.

Perhaps you have spent the last few months worrying about your workload, and if you can cope. If it were a single project demand, with a fairly immediate deadline, you would most likely have a burst of stress, work out a solution and move on. Months of stress and uncertainty about whether you can cope, and worries about everything going wrong, and the associated overload of cortisol can result in a stress response to every single, even very little, worry that raises its head. Suddenly you’re dealing with general anxiety about absolutely everything, and no idea how to address it.

Can hypnotherapy help treat general anxiety?

In short, yes. Hypnotherapy can successfully treat general anxiety.

How? Well, just as every individual is different, as such every treatment solution is different. At the heart of it all, however, sits support in helping you take control of negative thoughts, helping you stop yourself from catastrophising and living with the constant need to plan for ‘WHEN something goes wrong’ to moving to a more relaxing approach of ‘crossing that bridge IF something goes wrong.’

As a qualified hypnotherapist, with years of success treating people with anxiety and stress, I will help you learn how to calm yourself when you start to feel overwhelmed, to find perspective and power and self-belief.

I use a mix of treatments, including BrainWorking Recursive Therapy, NLP and Tapping to give you control over your anxiety, whatever has triggered it. 

If you want to learn a little more, I offer a free 20 minute consultation where I can learn about you and what you’re living with, and let you know how I can help.

Call me on 0161 374 0227 or, if you prefer, email me at  sally@mindsolutions.co.uk

Finding help couldn’t be easier, just follow the directions on the map, our full address is:

197 Dane Road Sale M33 2NA

My Hours of Operation are:

• Monday to Friday 9am-7pm
• Saturday 9am-4pm

If you want to take control of your work meeting-related anxiety, and start being your best, capable self in the workplace, please call for a free consultation on 0161 374 0227.