Welcome to the National Council For Hypnotherapy Podcast, where we dive into the fascinating world of hypnosis, lifting the lid on hypnotherapy, sharing insights and tips for change as we chat. So sit back, relax, and enjoy all the wonderful possibilities of hypnotherapy. My name is Tracey Grist, and I will be your host today. So, I'm here with Sarah Arris, who is a Quest Cognitive Hypnotherapist, and we're going to learn about her private practice. She's been in private practice since 2016, and specialises with anxiety and other things that connect to anxiety. So, Sarah, welcome. Hi. My first question will be, what made you choose to become a hypnotherapy practitioner?

Well, it it's it's a long story, but I I will try and keep it short because I've had hypnotherapy in my life forever, really, because my dad was a GP. Uh-huh. And then his first job was a GP. His boss was, obviously, a GP, but he used therapy in his practice. So my dad used it for for things like, pain management, relaxation, that sort of thing. So we grew up as children. We just thought it was completely normal that we knew how to do a body scan and to relax our muscles and all of that kind of thing. My mom was a nurse and she used it as well because, obviously, she learned it from my dad.

So it was always present. And then I got to a stage in my forties where I was really scared of something. So I was I really like skiing, and I've been skiing for a really long time. But I was getting to the stage when when it was really foggy. Yes. Sleep terrified. And I found myself one day on a chairlift really crying and just, like, tears and Oh. Stop.

And and I thought, this is ridiculous. I need to do something about this. So I had a friend who's working as a hypnotherapist. And so I said, can I come along and and have a chat with you? Yeah. And I went along to her, and I remember sitting there with my eyes closed after we'd had a bit of a chat, and she said, I'll just close your eyes. And all I I just remember her saying slowly, slowly down, down, down the mountain. I can still hear her voice. She was German.

So they heard her accent. And I and I remember thinking, what's going on here? I can I could open my eyes if I wanted to? This is this this isn't doing anything. Yeah. But then, of course, a few months later, I only had one session. And a few months later, when I went on holiday again

Yeah.

Out one morning, and it was snowy and foggy. And all I could say was in my head was down, down, down. Yeah. And I just remember laughing. I was skiing along, and it was snowing, and I was laughing. And I was thinking, I am so lucky. And I thought I have got to be able to do this for other people. Oh.

And that's what made me start searching for the right school.

Yeah. Lovely. Lovely. So you you trained with Quest. So what what is cognitive hypnotherapy, and how is that different from other hypnotherapy?

Yeah. So so cognitive hypnotherapy, Quest cognitive hypnotherapy is is really a framework. It allows the therapist to treat each client as a complete individual, to be able to listen to them, to work out what's going on for them, where their issue has come from. And it's very conversational in many ways. We use something called word weaving. So you we we do write recordings that we give to the the client, but I tend to give them so that they listen to them in between sessions. During sessions, it's quite integrative as a therapy. So we have lots of things in our toolbox that we can bring in to help each individual client.

But we we also use it in the session just chatting. So so you might not even realize that we're just dropping a little suggestion. So saying to someone, oh, well, that's really interesting, but, you know, as time goes on, you might find yourself beginning to notice that you feel a little bit more calm in situations like this. And so you've you've got lot you're approaching it from lots of different angles to help them begin to have a an overview of their life and a deeper understanding of of the choices that they have, really.