Inner Mind Therapy: Why I don't call it hypnotherapy any more, and why you don't have to tell me everything

I qualified as a hypnotherapist nearly 10 years ago, and I wouldn't still be doing it if I didn't love it, believe in it, and know it works! But the truth is, during those 10 years, lots has changed. The landscape of the 'wellbeing' industry, the type of mental health issues people have, and also me, as a person and a therapist. Since I began learning in this realm, I've read hundreds of books, articles, and papers. I've joined many, many groups and forums, and had thousands of conversations with other professionals. My list of courses and trainings is longer than my arm, and I've never stopped learning and developing and trialling methods to find exactly the right fit for me, and the clients I see.

I've realised that I don't like the 'easy fix' idea that some people have about traditional hypnotherapy. The message that whatever you are unhappy with, you can lie back and relax, and somebody with some type of power will magic it away for you. I'm not the person to come to if you are hoping to hand over the responsibility and hard work to the hypnotherapist to hypnotise you 'to do' something or 'not to' do something.

In addition, if you've heard the word "hypnotherapy" and pictured a stage show, a swinging watch, someone clucking like a chicken while a crowd laughs, you're not alone. It's an easy image to reach for, but it's nothing like what happens in my therapy room.

Through all my training, reading, discussion and practice, I've created my own way of working, based on 'content free' hypnotherapy.

Inner Mind Therapy is a content-free approach, which means that I'm simply here as a guide, and your own powerful imagination fills in the details. It works with your subconscious mind rather than your conscious thinking, guiding you toward your own answers rather than somebody else giving you their own ideas about how you should change. The name 'content free' may sound technical, but what it means in practice is simple, and for a lot of the women I work with, genuinely freeing: you don't have to tell me the details, and the answers and messages you need to hear come directly from your inner subconscious mind, not from me, or from a book I've read.

What "content-free" actually means

You'd be forgiven for assuming a session without content means a session without substance. It's the opposite. The specifics stay inside you, if that’s what you want. Reliving a difficult moment out loud, explaining the history, finding the words for something you're not ready to say, all of that can compound the difficulty rather than resolve it. With my method, you can avoid this altogether if you wish. I don't need to know what happened, who was involved, or why. I just need to know where you want to get to.

Instead of getting bogged down in the story, we work with your subconscious directly, through imagery and metaphor. I might guide you to an island, like the one I visit yearly where many of the beautiful photographs on my website are taken. An ancient, magical place where the deserted sandy beaches and winding country lanes hold a mysticism and ancient energy and wisdom of their own, Or maybe we’ll journey into a woodland, not unlike the ones near where I live, all moss and dappled light and the smell of damp earth, and let your subconscious choose its own path through it. Wherever we go, what you find in there is yours And that’s important. It’s not me, as the therapist, telling you what you need to release or let go of. It’s your own inner wisdom that is found in those wild spaces, and which helps to guide you to your own answers. I'm just the one holding the map, or the torch at the edge of the trees, so you can choose the right pathway for you to find your own way out.

Why this matters for privacy

This way of working can feel like a proper relief, especially if you've spent years in talking therapy going over the same history, or you've never told a soul the full story and have no intention of starting now. Nothing has to be relived out loud. Nothing has to be explained or justified. You keep your story exactly where it belongs, with you, while still doing the real work of changing something.

Your mind is a forest, and some of it just needs clearing

Think of your mind as a forest. The paths you walk every day, the to-do lists, the decisions, the conversation you're having with yourself right now, those are the well-trodden trails, clear and familiar.

Step off the path, though, and it gets wilder. That's where the old stuff sits, beliefs you picked up as a child, patterns you built to feel safe, fears that made sense once and don't anymore, tangled up like brambles nobody's cleared in years. This work goes in and gently clears a path through it.

What it actually feels like

This is a state of deep relaxation and focus, similar to that drifting feeling right before sleep, or the way you vanish into a good film and forget where you are. You hear everything. You remember everything. It's your own calm you're resting in, nobody else's, and of course, you are in complete control throughout the session, so you can open your eyes and ‘come to’ whenever you choose, but this is such a relaxing space you will probably not want to leave!

In that state, the usual "yes, but" voice in your head quietens right down. It becomes easier for your subconscious to find its own way to a block, and easier to let it go once it's been properly worked through, in whatever pictures and symbols make sense to you.

Why I don't hand you the answers

There's a temptation in this line of work to want to be the expert who fixes people. I get the appeal, but real change comes from somewhere else. You already know more than you think you do. My role is to walk beside you and hold the space, guiding rather than directing, so you find your own way back on the right path.

That matters most for the women I tend to sit with: the ones who've spent years holding everything together for everyone else, managing the house, the kids, the ageing parents, the job, the dog that needs walking, with barely a moment to ask themselves how they're actually doing. I see you, because I am you.

A small story

I remember a client coming out of a session, evidently trying to 'find' the issue she'd been working on. "I don't know how to explain it, but it’s just not there anymore." She'd never told me what "it" was. She never needed to, and yet we released it. That's the magic, and the part of this work I never get tired of.

Is this for you?

If you've read the books, tried the affirmations, done "all the right things," and something is still quietly stuck, this could be the missing piece, especially if the thought of explaining it all to yet another person makes your heart sink a little. The answer is already in you, tucked somewhere in your own woods, and you don't have to say a word of it out loud to find it.

If that's landed with you, I'd love to hear from you. Drop me a line and let's talk about what's calling you inward.