Caroline has the unique ability to ‘know’ when someone is ready for change. Her natural perception, intelligence and strong kinesthetic awareness means Caroline ‘instinctively’ uses the ideal intervention, every time, to enable people to ‘see’ and deal with the underlying problem or root cause of a particular behaviour.
In my case Caroline noticed I exhibited a strong desire to please people, often at my own expense.
Caroline suggested a timeline style intervention and used a ‘hypnotherapy’ style questioning approach to help me discover where this belief of ‘HAVING to please others first’ had originated.
I remember clearly that ‘we’ went back through 2 or 3 generations and I discovered a ‘bizarre’ piece of information that, although made no logical sense at the time, gave me peace of mind and more importantly an understanding of the ‘root cause’.
Once Caroline had ‘bought’ me safely back ‘into the room’ I was amazed at ‘our’ discoveries. I seem to remember feeling peaceful and calm. The experience has now given my conscious and unconscious minds a chance to ‘rationalise’ and ‘move on’ thus ‘freeing’ me from the old strong desire to please! I am now ‘in my own power’ and my choice to please others is NEVER at my own expense.
The intervention, followed an emotional period following the breakup of a 13 year marriage in 2000.
Caroline’s ability to ‘maximise’ the opportunity for change was profound and I am deeply grateful to her on all levels.
If you have Caroline ‘in your life’ now, please know you are safe and ‘seen’; allow Caroline to heal the parts of you that are ready to change now.”
Lesley was facing fer fifth diagnosis of cancer. This time it was potentially terminal. She wanted to know if hypnotherapy could help her cancer.
These words have come directly from her.
“I have known Caroline in a professional capacity for 10 years. Caroline has a wonderful trait – integrity. In everything that she undertakes she approaches it with sincerity, professionalism, honesty, decency and truthfulness.
In 2012 I had a personal crisis related to my health. I was in deep despair and felt that I needed to help myself deal with my illness both physically and mentally.
I had had clinical hypnosis about 5 years ago – through someone I had researched on the internet – to give up chocolate. That worked and still does – so I believed that Caroline could help me to help myself.
I had around 6 sessions during 2012/13. My medical prognosis was not good and I was at an all time low mentally. Caroline helped me to manage this very difficult period in my life. Her skills enabled me to find the way forward and now all I can say that I have exceeded my medical prognosis and I am in good health, leading a full and active and very happy life.
I’m not one to gush – but I really could not have coped without Caroline’s input. She facilitated my medical outcome by working with me under hypnosis. I have an awful lot to thank her for and words just don’t seem to be enough.
If you are at a crossroads in your life – physically or mentally, you have the power within YOU to change. Caroline can help make that happen.”
If you are facing a medical challenge, hypnotherapy may help alongside traditional treatment. The mind is powerful and when you direct it, the results can be phenomenal. If you are curious, let’s chat.
Jude was referred to me by someone close to her and came with the request, “I want some of what she has found!” He friend had done some weight management work with me and at that point, lost over 3 stones.
Despite having seen the impact of hypnotherapy on a close friend’s weight loss, Jude, like many others, had concerns about it. “I was concerned that it wouldn’t work in that I wouldn’t be able to be hypnotised and that if it did, I wouldn’t get the results I wanted. I was also concerned about being out of control.”
This is a common feeling based on the TV and stage shows that use hypnosis but after talking her through the differences between stage entertainment and the therapeutic use of hypnosis she agreed to give it a go! “It was just like being really relaxed. You are still aware of everything and sometimes still wondering if you are actually hypnotised!”
Jude and I had a total of 7 sessions together. The results that she felt she had made included;
“Weight loss was slow but steady. I had no desire for or reliance on sweet, sugary foods and there was no more snacking between meals.”
Weight management through hypnotherapy is not all about abstaining from foods or constant calorie counting, it helps that part of your mind that controls eating to make better, more healthy decisions that also reflect what the body needs. However, there are often secondary benefits that come out of hypnotherapy:
“I now value the need to look after myself more and better protect myself from the slugs and arrows!” (Jude’s metaphor for the ‘stuff’ that life throws at us!)
Jude had a high convincer filter – a filter we all have but can be set at different levels and hers meant that she needed to see a good amount of evidence to trust that the changes were not just temporary.
Her final comment was: “The belief that it has changed my behaviour and that I will remain that way gets reinforced every day!”
It is very common that people come for help in one area of their lives but then experience benefits in other areas too. Bev came to me for help with weight management and along with success in that area, “I have more confidence, I have the ability to now take a step back from things that previously would have made me feel stressed and to feel in control of situations.”
This is one of the key benefits of hypnotherapy; you cannot only change an area of your life that you are not happy with, but you also learn a sense of relaxation and calmness that also makes other areas of life much better.
Bev had a total of 4 hypnotherapy sessions here in Salisbury spread across nearly 8 weeks. After the first therapeutic session she was amazed that she had had a chocolate bar in her bag for several days and not felt like eating it. After further sessions she had changed her eating habits considerably, was drinking less and exercising more.
Our eating behaviour often stems from lessons learned or experiences earlier in life that you would not naturally attribute to eating habits. For Bev this was also true: “The biggest surprise to me was the feelings and recollections that surfaced from when I was younger that contributed to my over eating. Things that I hadn’t even given a second thought to.”
And it is accessing the subconscious through hypnosis that allows these childhood patterns to be adapted to something appropriate to adulthood. Bev started to lose weight slowly after the first session and her weight loss has continued at a steady rate. The key difference between dieting and her new behaviour is that it was not a chore and the changes felt natural.
“I would like to say you again Caroline for everything you helped me with. The weight loss has slowed down a lot but I am in a new ‘stone zone’ , I will confess, I still pick up a size 18 in the shop forgetting that I am a 16 now!!!
It’s taking a little getting used to. On Monday I fly off to Corfu for a week and I have discovered some of my old holiday clothes fit me again as well as new ones I’ve had to buy, of course. Sounds silly, but I am looking forward to sitting in the plane seat and feeling comfortable.
I still feel as though I have a way to go until I will be happy with my weight but I am getting there and know I will be the size I want to be for my daughters wedding in a few months.”
Jo contacted me because she wanted to develop a healthy relationship with food and to lose weight. But she didn’t want to spend the rest of her life on a diet to have good weight management.
Whilst her own health was a high priority for her, her main motivator was to be a positive role model to her two beautiful young daughters. Jo really didn’t want to pass on her own food issues to them. She had developed what we refer to as ‘the black lab syndrome’ – if there is food around, it needs eating! Every day it felt she had a battle with food.
In therapy, it is important to have a goal to work towards. Jo’s goal was to lose 2 stone and to get into a specific dress that was in her wardrobe. We had 4 sessions spaced over approx. 10 weeks. Hypnotherapy for weight loss involves developing new habits and these take time. I challenged Jo after each session to do some ‘homework’- simple activities that create new behaviours. Her success was strongly influenced by her commitment to doing the activities suggested.
6 months after our first session, Jo reported that she had lost 42lbs and the weight was still reducing. Here is her story in her own words:
“I am now a healthier, more active person. I have become more in tune with my body’s needs and make simple daily choices that simply didn’t feel available to me before.
My daily routine was focused around food…notably, what I couldn’t eat battling what I wanted to eat and a destructive pattern of starving and stuffing.
I am now more contented, at peace with food and generally have a calmer, more confident attitude to life.Thoughts about food don’t dominate anymore. I trust that what I put in my mouth will not only be delicious but also exactly what my body is telling me I need. As Caroline said, my body is not a bin.
We can now have crisps, chocolate and snacks in the house without the nagging fear that I might quickly stuff them all in in a bid to get rid of them. I can take or leave them and feel no guilt if I simply fancy a piece of chocolate.
Food has taken on a new place in my life. I think more about what I would like to eat rather than what I can’t or shouldn’t eat. Menus and flavours are suddenly more interesting. I drink more fluids and have a lot more energy.
Before I visited Caroline my life was on a very unhealthy destructive path. I feel like this process has not just enhanced my life by losing weight and starting to enjoy food but it has made me healthier and given my body a new form of protection.”
The thing that I love about hypnotherapy when it comes to weight management is reflected in Jo’s words – it is not about being on an eternal diet but having a relationship with food that is positive. ‘Treats’ can still be a treat and enjoyed but food ceases to be a constant focus.
Phobias are something that many people ‘suffer in silence’ with. Sufferers are often to embarrassed to visit their GP about it, often going to extreme lengths to hide it from friends and colleagues. However, Lyn experienced an end to her phobia of lifts which she’d had for years. And it took about 90 minutes!
Phobias are usually created through one of two roots – trauma or learned. Lyn hadn’t been a massive fan of lifts but then suffered the trauma of being trapped in one for over an hour. Needless to say, from that point on, lifts were not an option!
Many people will avoid hypnotherapy because they misconstrue how it works. Here is how Lyn describes it:
“It was just a very relaxing and peaceful experience. I was aware of sounds around me at the time but they were not intrusive, your (Caroline’s) quiet and gentle voice was the only thing that I was really tuned in to. I was a bit worried about being put into a trance but it wasn’t anything like the hypnosis I had seen on TV shows: it was a really pleasant experience.”
Lyn had one therapeutic session only. She left the session and drove straight to the local department store that had a lift. Within an hour, I received a text to say she had ridden up and down in the lift on her own several times. I did wonder what the staff were thinking!
The mind is an incredible powerful resource. Due to Lyn’s traumatic experience, part of her mind had made the link between a risk to her personal safety and lifts. The primary role of the subconscious mind is survival and so the mind came up with a reasonable decision – to stay safe, stay out of lifts!
However, the subconscious can also be very myopic. It was unable to see that this focus on personal safety was actually harming her emotional security. It couldn’t see that she was missing out on lots of things that would bring her happiness.
And this is one of the roots of how hypnotherapy works. It introduces new information and evidence to the subconscious mind creating new mental associations. It’s a bit like changing the points on a train track – a simple flick of a switch and the train heads off in a different direction.
“I cannot thank you enough for your help, I just with that I had visited you a long time ago. It has been such a positive experience.”
Catherine contacted me in relation to high anxiety levels every time the phone rang. Over time this had escalated to feeling anxious at looking at emails and also answering the door.
This kind of escalation in anxiety is very common. Part of the role of the subconscious mind is to protect us. At a subconscious level, Catherine’s mind was linking all contacts from the outside world to something that had scared her.
Catherine was very open-minded to the concept of hypnosis but even she was surprised: “Being hypnotised felt no different to feeling very relaxed and comfortable, I retained a full awareness and felt in control throughout. If anything, it felt surprisingly normal and natural.”
The work with Catherine spanned 4 sessions. During these we identified key instances in her past that had led to this reaction being developed. There were a number of traumatic experiences relating to close family members, whereby she’d received the news via a phone call. Whilst there are many techniques that can desensitise such traumas, activity done under hypnosis is very effective. It is the connection between the events is at a subconscious level that needs to be addressed – the level we work at in hypnotherapy.
Catherine experienced an improvement during our work together. In the follow-up call 6 weeks after the last session, she confirmed that she had, “Experienced a significant improvement.”
Whilst we focus on a specific goal in the therapeutic work, the knowledge gained can often be used to affect other areas of life. Catherine already had a keen interest in areas such as meditation but she added,
“My understanding of why my body responds in the way it does is now greater. I also have a higher awareness of how to perceive things more accurately. I feel that I have a tool to develop my responses in a direction which benefits me and an increased awareness of how powerful my mind really is.”
Catherine’s closing words:
“I would like to thank you, Caroline, for your kindness and professionalism as well as your generosity with your time. I know that I feel better and that I do have the resources to overcome anxieties before they embed and become problematic. This couldn’t have been achieved on my own and this whole experience has been 100% positive.”
Katie runs a business and also competes in female physique and fitness competitions. She commits to a punishing fitness regime and also holds a place on a top committee in her field. However, when it comes to being in the limelight, her confidence leaves her. Having to speak at her committee meetings is terrifying and the anxiety she feels when competing means she does not reach her full potential. Her performance anxiety leads to huge frustration after every competition knowing she could have done better.
“I sought the help of Caroline Cavanagh because I was participating in a competition which meant taking to the stage of a large theatre. Feeling extremely nervous and self-conscious is typical in any setting where I am the centre of attention. I participated in this competition last year and did not want to feel the same negative feelings this year when I stepped off stage. The difference in my feelings between this year and last year was dramatic. In contrast to feeling disappointed and deflated I felt positive and happy and proud of my performance …. euphoric in fact! The hypnotherapy really did work for me,” said Katie.
The work we did together focused on previous instances of anxiety when being the centre of attention. This work was supported by using the technique of visualisation. The subconscious cannot tell the difference between reality and imagination. So by imaging her competition, her brain was literally ‘programmed’ into what to do and how to feel.
Visualisation is a technique now being used by many of the top sportsman as its efficacy is proven.
Katie had just two sessions to achieve this dramatic change in perspective and also practiced the visualisation technique herself.
Aside from her success, Katie also commented on how it felt to be hypnotised:
“I felt as if I was aware of what was happening at all times. I could recall the suggestions that were made to me after coming out of the hypnotic trance. When I awoke, I felt as if I’d been in a deep sleep and very, very relaxed. I also felt very positive.”
In my experience depression and anxiety often go hand in hand as one condition leads to the other. This was the case with Jennifer. She was feeling depressed because many elements of her life were not panning out the way she anticipated. This was leading to an anxiety about what her future would be; and the two led to a downward spiral.
In her mid thirties, she’d had a series of short-term relationships and desperately wanted to be a mother. She was in a work environment she didn’t enjoy and struggled with insomnia.
Sometimes the work I do with clients can be likened to them being onions – as you cut through a layer, you find another one below. Jennifer was very much like this. We discovered part of her challenge with forming lasting relationships came from very early childhood. Her father had abandoned her mother when Jennifer was very young but the memory had stayed with her. She then learned that she had been one of a twin who had unfortunately not made it into this world but Jennifer had sensed that loss even at those very early stages of life. These learnings allowed her to see things with a new perspective that changed this downward spiral of depression and led her to make new decisions in her life.
“Thank you so much for all your help and support. I feel I have come such a long way from who I was when you first met me. With your help I have been able to put my past into perspective and not let it control me anymore. I am so much happier now than I have been in a long time. My new job couldn’t be going any better and I feel this is the next chapter in my life. I don’t beat myself up as much and am more confident.”
When asked to if there was anything about hypnotherapy that surprised her, Jenny’s answer was, “How easy it was to be hypnotised and how quickly feelings surfaced that I didn’t realise were there.”
Jenny has now changed jobs, moved house and is also getting her finances back in order and looks to the future with a fantastic positivity. In her words:
“You have helped change my life for the better, thank you!”
If you feel I can help you too, please get in touch and let’s chat.
Paul lives a very stressful life and this, combined with shift work, affected his ability to relax and sleep. He sought a hypnotherapist in Salisbury without a specific goal in mind. However, he was interested in learning how to relax more as a way of increasing his stress management.
“My experience with hypnotherapy has been very positive, I was intrigued with what it may be able to do for me. I approached it with an open mind but I must say it was a far more beneficial experience than I could have imagined. At all times I was talked through and reassured by Caroline. It was a completely relaxing experience and after one session the issue I had been living with was substantially better.
On top of that I felt more relaxed in my everyday life too. I have and will recommend Caroline Cavanagh to friends and colleagues. In fact I have introduced a friend who also has had a great experience through her hypnotherapy practise in Salisbury.
Caroline’s work surroundings are very calming and she puts you at ease from the moment you get to your appointment.
I personally have had more than one session and had significant improvements each time.”