In this weekly diary entry, hypnotherapist Caroline Cavanagh reflects on a diverse set of client work from the past week, illustrating the breadth of hypnotherapy applications beyond anxiety. She describes treating a woman with acute spider and height phobias, highlighting rapid resolution of the height fear and a breakthrough confrontation with spiders. She then discusses two clients battling depression, introducing the therapeutic concept of "polarisation"—the idea that experiencing emotional opposites deepens appreciation of positive states—and showing how reframing toward future‑oriented focus helped one client move from suicidal ideation to renewed zest for life. Next, she works with a physically fit young man whose progress is stalled by binge‑eating episodes, using hypnosis to explore his relationship with food and emphasizing that therapy benefits people at any performance level. Finally, she helps a successful business owner who feels burnt out by realigning his work schedule with his core values of family and presence, demonstrating how values‑based hypnosis can reshape work‑life balance. Caroline concludes by explaining that session counts vary widely depending on the issue—ranging from three sessions for a phobia to six or seven for depression—and invites viewers to contact her for a consultation, positioning hypnotherapy as a flexible tool for personal growth.
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Hi there and welcome to the next edition of Diary of a Hypnotherapist. It's a practice I started over 6 months ago now with the intention of helping people understand a little bit more about what a hypnotherapist actually does because there's such weird and wonderful ideas about that. And also it's a great exercise for me to reflect on what's gone on in the week Because reflection gives us learning. What went wrong so that we can improve it next year? What went really well so that we can do more of it? And as many weeks are, last week was a really varied week. Even though I'm an anxiety specialist, a lot of the work that I do isn't directly related to anxiety but gives a whole range of different different people that come to work with me. I worked with a lovely lady who had— we'd worked on a very acute phobia. In fact, she had 2: spiders, the most important or most popular phobia that is in the Western world, and also a fear of heights. The height one had been resolved very, very quickly. She'd been on holiday, stood at the top of the tower, looked down, and not felt any fear whatsoever, which was brilliant. But there were still some little niggling things around those little 8-legged creatures that were running around. So, we were looking at some of these things that were still being triggers, and at the end of the session, she walked away saying, I'm gonna go home and go straight into my garage where I know there's loads of cobwebs and pull out a bag that I've been avoiding doing because I know there's gonna be a spider there, but I'm really excited to meet it now. Which was a lovely experience. I also worked with a lady who had been struggling with depression. We'd done 4 or 5 sessions so far, and she'd been really picking up, feeling much happier and buoyant, but she came in and clearly things had dipped. And she sat down in my chair and went, Caroline, am I ever going to be able to shake this and feel better? And the conversation that we had was about a concept called polarisation. We live in a polarised world. We know we're cold because we know what hot feels like. We know it's dark because we know what light feels like. Everything has its opposites. And so when it comes to emotions, we only know we're depressed because we know what joy feels like. But if we didn't have that contrast, Joy would cease to be joyful and would just be the norm. We need every now and again to experience the opposites so that we can appreciate the higher emotions. And when we talked through this, she started to recognize, actually, yes, I do feel happier much more of the time. And even though I've dipped, I haven't dipped as low as I normally would. And I'm not staying down there as long. And that's really important. As a hypnotherapist, I feel down sometimes, but rarely for very long because I've got the tools to pull me back out. But when I am at those low moments, I remind myself that by coming down here, when I get back up there, which I will, it's going to feel so much better. And I worked with another lady who had also been struggling with depression. Before Christmas, she was actually considering leaving this world, which would have been devastating. But now that looking forward, giving her the resources to not be dwelling in the past and all of the things she couldn't change, to now focusing on, on the future and all the things she She can change, and her zest for life now is just absolutely beautiful to see. I started work with a new client, a young man who was physically very fit, very healthy, but he was struggling to break through to the next level of fitness that he wanted to get to. He had particular issues around binge eating, and it wasn't uncommon for him to, to polish off a whole packet of biscuits in one sitting. And he said, Caroline, I understand about food, I eat a good diet, but I don't understand why I get these moments and just become an absolute cookie monster. And that was a really important thing that a lot of people don't realize. They always assume therapy is when you're, you're broken or you're in a really bad place, and it's absolutely not. I believe that whatever level we're at, there's always another floor that we can get to, always another gear we can go up to. And he was actually in a really high gear but wanted to get to the next one, and this just little niggle about his relationship with food was stopping him getting there. And my final client of last week, another gentleman who was very successful in 5 years, He'd gone from setting up a business as a one-man band to now employing over 50 people, business worth a fortune now. And he said, you know, I've got financial freedom for myself and probably for my children as well, but I hate work. I hate going in every day. I've got no joy in my, in my working life anymore. And that was obviously ripping into his personal life as well. And the work that we did, again under hypnosis, was really looking at his values. What's really important to him deep down? And the most important things to him were his family, spending more time with his wife, being more present with his children. And by recognizing that those were his most important values, it meant being in work at 9 o'clock was, well, why do I have to be? Yeah, I can go into work for those really important meetings that I as the business owner need to be there, But I don't need to be in at 9 o'clock every morning. I don't need to stay there until 5 o'clock every night. I've developed an infrastructure that works almost without me. And that gave him a really different, I guess, vision to look at what's important to him, because the things that we value are the things that we tend to adhere to more readily. Purpose. You've got a purpose. It puts everything else into perspective. One of the common questions I get asked a lot when people contact me is how many sessions. Answer because it is so varied. So with the phobia lady, we've had three sessions in total, and she's overcome both of her phobias. With one of the ladies who is struggling with depression, we've. I think it's 5 or 6 now, but I'm thinking 1 or 2 more will probably be enough for her to have the resources. She doesn't need me anymore. The other lady, she's had 6 or 7, and again, we're very much coming towards the end. So it is very varied. But if you want to know more about how hypnotherapy may be able to help you, how many sessions you may need to get to the gear that you want to get to, just give me a call. Let's have a chat, and I would love to have a conversation with you. But for now, I will say goodbye, and I look forward to recording the next video for you next week. Bye-bye for now.
