In this episode of her video diary, hypnotherapist Caroline Cavanagh shares a reflective overview of the past week’s clinical work, emphasizing how subconscious beliefs drive anxiety, chronic pain, and phobic avoidance. She begins by outlining her practice philosophy: encouraging clients to review past experiences to regain a sense of control over anxiety. She then describes two adult clients with long‑term pain—one post‑car‑accident with neck, headache, and gastric issues, the other an equestrian who fell 18 years ago. Both had exhausted conventional and alternative treatments and held a subconscious belief that they needed to remain in pain to validate the effectiveness of plant‑based medicine. Through hypnotherapy, Caroline identified and rewired this belief, using a metaphor of a 4‑year‑old brain mis‑adding 2 + 2 = 22, and helped them accept that being pain‑free proves the treatment works, leading to reported relaxation and progress. The second focus is on two teenage clients suffering from emetophobia‑related school avoidance. Their fear of vomiting manifested as tummy discomfort, which they interpreted as imminent sickness, prompting them to stay home. Hypnotherapy revealed that the discomfort was actually hunger, and by reframing the subconscious narrative they began attending school regularly. Caroline highlights the power of accessing the subconscious under hypnosis to correct faulty mental “calculations,” noting positive client feedback and behavioral changes. She concludes with optimism for the upcoming week and a wish for a wonderful weekend.
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Hi there and welcome to the next edition of Diary of a Hypnotherapist, and this is my practice what you preach philosophy because I ask a lot of my clients to reflect back on things that have happened in the past so that you can repeat the good things and change the things that didn't work, because one of the biggest triggers of anxiety is feeling out of control. So when you can look at the past and inform the future, that is taking back some control. And if it also helps some people understand that hypnotherapy isn't all about clucking like chickens on a stage or swinging watches, that's just a bonus. And in the week just gone past, there's kind of 2 themes that I've recognized in my reflections. The first one is I had 2 clients start with me who had very similar issues that they wanted to resolve, and that was significant pain. Now, pain obviously can be caused by physical issues, and there's definitely physical ingredients in the cause of their pain, but also there is often an emotional factor as well. And whilst the NHS, if I can say it, is phenomenal, they tend to work on only the physical side of things and neglect this other side of the coin. So this is where my work can come into play and actually expedite that healing process. And of these 2 individuals, one of them had had a car accident that had led to neck problems, headaches, but also gastric problems as well. And the other person had had a fall off a horse. They were an equestrian, and that fall was over 18 years ago, and they'd been in pain ever since. And the common theme to both of these individuals is they had tried so many things, from plant-based medicine to energy healing to chiropractors, osteopaths, They'd ticked pretty much every box that there is and had both experienced a short-term improvement, at which point they went, yes, it's working! And then after a few weeks, it didn't again, and they'd be back to square one. And understandably, they had both got to a point where they just went, Caroline, we're done. What else is there? And it's something that I hear quite common actually, is, you're my last resort. Which can be a little bit scary because it places a lot of pressure, but I have such faith in what I do. And with both of those individuals, we are making progress because the work starts to look at what is the underlying subconscious belief. And just to go down the path of one of those individuals, there was a part of them that really believed in plant-based healing, but their subconscious was saying, if you're not in pain, you can't prove it's working, because if you're out of pain, then how can you say it's worked? Which is a little bit, uh, kind of twisted, but the subconscious is like a 4-year-old, and very often it can add 2 and 2 together and come up with 22. And when you go in and you start realigning and make that belief 2 and 2 does make 4, 4 is a very different output to 22. And that's the work that we've been doing. And with this individual starting to work with that subconscious belief that I need to be in pain to prove that plant medicine works, and seeing how that really is futile, changing it to, by being out of pain and continuing to take the plant-based medicines, I prove it works, which allows me to help others, which was her ultimate goal. The power of the mind is phenomenal, and this is what often just continues to excite me about the work. That sort of thing wouldn't have been identified through physical medicine and often through talking through things consciously with friends, with counsellors, but when you look at the subconscious, this is the sort of thing that starts to come out. And she's already been sending me some pictures of saying, I am so relaxed. So that is wonderful and powerful. The other group of people that I've been working with more in, in the last week are teenagers, and about 50% of my clients now are within that teenage age bracket. And the common pattern there are 2 individuals who are falling out of education for the fear of being sick. Now, emetophobia, the fear of sickness, is quite a common phobia, but But that's often related to being around vomit or vomiting yourself, and it's related to the fear of then getting ill. But with these 2 young ladies, they were both related to feeling some pain in their tummy and thinking they're going to be sick. So the best thing to do is to stay at home so that if they are sick, they feel safe. Again, a subconscious level kind of solution. And the work then at, again, the subconscious level, which is what we access under hypnosis, it's bringing in a new level of understanding, taking the blinkers off and saying, actually, what is the reality? Neither of them had ever actually been sick at school. They had seen others being sick and recognized that actually it wasn't an issue. They were cared for. It wasn't embarrassing. In fact, people were genuinely very empathetic. And most importantly, often because they weren't eating through fear of being sick, the fear— the feeling in their tummy was actually hunger. And for both of those young ladies, one of them that I heard from her mum recently, she has been in school every day since her last therapy session, which is the first time that's happened in months. The power of the subconscious mind is phenomenal. I'm not a magician by any shape or form, but But what I do allow people is to access that subconscious level and see things in a way that you can't consciously. And where that 4-year-old part of the brain has made the maths a little bit wrong, we can correct it and very different paths tend to then be followed. So that's my reflection. I'm really looking forward to the week ahead. Lots going on, but I will reflect back on that this time next week and look forward to sharing that with you then. Until then, I wish you a wonderful weekend. Bye-bye for now.
