anxiety. trauma. phobias. sleep. habits. things that keep coming back.
Clinical hypnotherapy and EMDR in Maidstone.
You're looking for hypnotherapy in Maidstone. Maybe you've tried talking it through, willpower, or breathing exercises and they helped you understand the issue without shifting it. What you're searching for is work at the level below conscious thought, where the pattern actually lives.
My approach combines clinical hypnotherapy with EMDR (eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing). Hypnotherapy reaches the subconscious where habits, fears and automatic reactions are stored. EMDR is the established method, recommended by the NHS and WHO for PTSD, for reprocessing the memories and experiences that locked those patterns in. Together they go deeper, and often faster, than traditional talking therapy alone.
- MSc Psychology
- MSc Communication, Behaviour & Credibility Analysis
- Diploma in Hypnotherapy (DHP)
- EMDR Practitioner
- Certified Hypnotherapist (CHyp)
- Master NLP Practitioner (MNLP)
- Member of the Complementary Medical Association (MCMA)
- Master Transformational Coach
- Published Author
- 25+ years in business & personal development
- Outskirts of Maidstone - Kent Practice
- London Clinic
- World Wide - Online or In Person
I've been where you are. That's not a line.
Before working with others, I had to do this work myself. For a long time I was good at the external picture. I had a career in photography, working with national magazines, then built and ran a marketing agency for over two decades. By most measures, it looked like things were going well. Underneath that, something else was running. Patterns I did not fully understand, reactions I could not always explain, a quiet but persistent sense that something was off despite the evidence to the contrary.
It took doing the work at a deep level to understand what was actually driving it. That experience changed the direction of everything. I spent years training across psychology, hypnotherapy, NLP, behavioural analysis and human communication, not to collect credentials, but because I wanted to understand precisely how these patterns form, how they hold, and how to shift them at the level they actually live.
I work with people from all walks of life. Some are dealing with anxiety, grief, or things they have been carrying for years. Others feel stuck or disconnected in ways they find difficult to articulate. What they share is not a type or a background. It is that something is not working, and they are ready to do something real about it.
That is also what I understand about change. It does not happen through theory. It happens through doing the work at the level where the pattern actually lives.
Sessions are private, direct, and built entirely around you. No worksheets. No therapy-speak. The work, and nothing else.
The issue is rarely what appears on the surface
Most people spend years trying to fix the wrong thing. They address the symptom while the pattern underneath keeps running, quietly shaping every decision, every relationship, every attempt to change.
Whatever brought you here, the work goes to the same place. Find the pattern. Change it at the level it lives. Everything else follows.
Talking about problems doesn't solve them.
Changing the patterns that create them does.
People come for many reasons. The root is usually the same.
Anxiety, phobias, sleep problems, addictive patterns, recurring reactions. They're usually downstream of something laid down earlier and stored below conscious thought. Talking about it can name it. Reaching the level it lives at and changing it there is different work, and it's what hypnotherapy and EMDR are built for.
Anxiety & Overwhelm
You wake up already behind. Your mind is three steps ahead of where you are, running through things that have not happened yet. The things that used to feel manageable now take everything you have. And no one around you sees it, because you have become very good at holding it together.
Confidence & Self-Worth
Other people see someone who has it together. You see someone waiting to be found out. The voice is not loud. It does not need to be. It sits underneath every decision, every opportunity, every room you walk into. And it has been there so long you have stopped noticing that it is not yours.
Purpose & Fulfilment
Everything looks right on paper. The career, the life, the things you have built. And still there is a feeling that none of it is quite yours. Not unhappy. Not in crisis. Something quieter than that. A slow sense that you have been running hard in a direction someone else set, and you never stopped to ask whether it was the right one.
Relationships & Connection
The people closest to you get a version. Not the real one. You want to connect, you want to be understood, and something keeps the distance in place. The same patterns show up across different people, different situations. You can see it happening and you still cannot stop it. And the loneliest part is that no one else knows.
Performance & Focus
You know what you are capable of. You have seen it. And right now there is a gap between that and what you are actually producing. You are not lazy. You are not lacking discipline. Something is pulling the handbrake every time you build momentum, and effort alone has not been enough to override it.
Habits & Behaviour
You know the pattern. You can see it clearly. You can explain to yourself exactly why you should stop. And then you do it again. The drinking, the eating, the avoidance, the anger. It is not a lack of understanding. It is not a lack of willpower. Something underneath keeps resetting the behaviour, no matter how many times you decide this time will be different.
- Generalised Anxiety
- Social Anxiety
- Panic Attacks
- Health Anxiety
- Performance Anxiety
- Burnout
- Chronic Stress
- Overthinking
- Sleep Problems
- Phobias & Fears
- Imposter Syndrome
- Self-Doubt
- Perfectionism
- Fear of Failure
- Low Self-Worth
- Public Speaking
- Fear of Judgement
- Body Image
- Shame & Guilt
- People Pleasing
- Communication Breakdown
- Trust Issues
- Loneliness & Isolation
- Family Conflict
- Grief & Loss
- Emotional Unavailability
- Anger & Resentment
- Codependency
- Parenting Pressure
- Life Transitions
- Alcohol & Substance Use
- Emotional Eating
- Compulsive Behaviours
- Avoidance Patterns
- Anger & Reactivity
- Negative Self-Talk
- Procrastination
- Risk-Taking
- Addictive Patterns
- Self-Sabotage
- Decision Paralysis
- Leadership Pressure
- Business Stress
- Inconsistent Output
- Exam & Test Nerves
- Career Transitions
- Creative Block
- Motivation & Drive
- Conflict at Work
- Work-Life Balance
- Depression & Low Mood
- Trauma & PTSD
- Emotional Numbness
- Lack of Meaning
- Midlife Questioning
- Bereavement
- Identity Crisis
- Overwhelm & Fatigue
- Worthlessness
- Disconnection
A different kind of process
The work is precise, not abstract. It's pattern-level intervention using two evidence-based approaches that target different levels: clinical hypnotherapy for what runs below conscious thought, EMDR for the memories and experiences that locked the pattern in.
Find what's actually driving it
Assessment isn't a questionnaire. It's working out, in conversation, what pattern sits underneath the thing you came in with. Often it isn't the thing you came in for.
Work below conscious thought
Hypnotherapy reaches the level where habits, fears and automatic reactions are stored. EMDR reprocesses the specific memories and experiences that locked the pattern in. We use one, the other, or both, depending on what's actually needed.
Real change, not coping
The aim isn't to manage the problem better. It's to remove the driver underneath it. When that lands, the reaction that used to be automatic stops being automatic.
EMDR in Maidstone. It changes where the memory lives.
You have told the story before. You understand it. You can explain exactly where it started and what it did to you. And none of that has changed how it feels. That gap, between knowing and feeling, is what EMDR was built for.
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing. The name is clumsy and the method sounds strange the first time you hear it. The evidence behind it is not. It is recommended for trauma by the World Health Organisation and by NICE, the body that sets clinical guidance in the UK.
A distressing experience does not get filed like an ordinary memory. It gets stored raw, with the fear still attached, and years later something small sets it off as if it were happening now. EMDR reopens that file and lets it be processed properly. The memory stays. The charge goes.
Why EMDR works when talking about it has not →What happens in a session
You bring to mind the memory still carrying a charge. While you hold it, you follow a left-right movement with your eyes, or a set of taps. You do this in short sets, and between each one you notice what has shifted.
You stay awake and in control throughout, and you do not have to describe what happened in detail. That surprises most people. It is usually the part they were dreading.
I do not use EMDR first. Before anything is reprocessed, the root has to be found. You cannot reprocess a memory you have not found.
Who it is for, and who it is not
It works best when there is something specific underneath. A single event. A run of similar ones. The accident, the assault, the birth that went wrong. Or the quieter kind that never gets called trauma: the humiliation in a classroom, the parent who was never satisfied, the loss nobody let you finish grieving.
It is the wrong tool when there is nothing specific to target. Part of my job is knowing the difference, and telling you honestly which one you are looking at.
More on trauma therapy in Kent →Where
EMDR is done in person, at my practice near Harrietsham, just outside Maidstone.
The work speaks for itself
Hypnotherapy in Maidstone. What people ask first.
Most people arrive never having had hypnotherapy. These are the things they want to know before they start.
Will I be asleep, or out of control?
No. You are awake, aware and in control throughout. Clinical hypnosis is a focused, relaxed state, closer to being absorbed in a book than being asleep. You hear everything, you remember it, and nothing happens that you have not agreed to.
Is this like stage hypnosis?
No. Stage hypnosis is entertainment, built on people who want to perform. Clinical hypnotherapy is quiet, private work on what runs below conscious thought. The fear that fires before you can think. The habit you cannot stop. The reaction you understand and still cannot change.
What does a session feel like?
Surprisingly ordinary. We talk first, so the work is aimed at the right thing. Then you settle into a focused state while I work with the pattern directly. Most people leave lighter than they expected.
Hypnotherapy or EMDR: which do I need?
You do not need to know. Hypnotherapy works with the automatic reaction and the habit. EMDR is for when the root is a specific memory that still hits your body as if it were happening now. Some things need one, some the other, some both in sequence. That is what the free 15-minute call is for.
How many sessions will I need?
Habits and single fears often shift in a handful of sessions. Patterns with a long history take longer. I will tell you which you are looking at after we have spoken, not before.
Can it help with habits like drinking or eating?
Often, yes, because the habit is usually doing a job. The drink that takes the edge off. The eating that puts the day down. Willpower fights the habit. Hypnotherapy works on what the habit is doing for you, which is why the change tends to hold.
Can hypnotherapy be done online?
Yes. Hypnotherapy works online, and I see people across the UK and abroad that way. EMDR is the exception. That is in person only, at my practice near Harrietsham, just outside Maidstone.
Start the conversation
A free 15-minute call. We use it to see whether hypnotherapy, EMDR, or both is the right fit for what you're working with. Some things respond fastest to hypnotherapy. Some need EMDR. Some need both, used in sequence. The call lets me hear what's going on so I can tell you honestly which approach would help, and whether I'm the right person.