In this video, hypnotherapist Caroline Cavanagh explains what hypnotherapy entails by sharing a week’s worth of client work. She describes a range of cases: a 12‑year‑old girl plagued by night terrors, a cancer patient seeking a positive mindset, a woman anxious about an upcoming interview, a young man obsessed with thoughts of food, a mature gentleman unable to sit still due to an unconscious childhood trauma, and a mature lady terrified of being locked in a toilet cubicle. Cavanagh outlines how these symptoms stem from subconscious memories that trigger fight‑or‑flight responses, and how hypnosis quiets the conscious mind to access and re‑process those hidden memories. She emphasizes that the rational mind often knows the logical answer, but the irrational subconscious holds the trigger. By revisiting and “archiving” the traumatic memory under hypnosis, the client can regain control of their behavior. The video concludes with an invitation for viewers to reach out for help, normalising embarrassment around such issues and offering to address common fears like spiders.
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What does a hypnotherapist actually do? It's a question I get asked quite a lot, and it's why I started recording these videos, to give people a bit more of an insight in the sort of work that I do and how it helps people. And this week, like most weeks, has been hugely varied. I've worked with a 12-year-old young lady who was really struggling with terrors at night. Every little sound turned into her imagination as someone breaking into the house, and both her and her mum were going to be hurt. I had a client who has sadly had a cancer diagnosis, and he wanted support in not only dealing with the treatment but maintaining a positive mindset, because he was very aware of how the mind and the body are so closely related, and how one can very much help the process of healing. A lady who was about to have an interview, and she was getting really, really anxious about that, so wanted some help in being able to calm down and actually communicate at her best in that situation. And a young gentleman who was performing very well at the gym, But still was finding himself obsessed with thoughts of food all of the time. And helping him again change that obsession, which greatly is now a situation where he said, I hardly think of food at all. I just notice I'm hungry, decide what I'm going to eat, but in between, I'm not having that constant barrage of thoughts of food in my head all of the time. And then there's 2 other clients that have started working with me this week. where it's a little bit different, and that's one of the things I love about the work that I do. One of them was a gentleman, should we say a more mature gentleman, who said, I'm really, really embarrassed, this is really awkward, I can't sit still. He said, I'm like a kid constantly fidgeting. It impacts me at work because if I'm doing a talk, I'm constantly moving around, I can't just ground myself. If I'm sitting in a meeting, I have to get up and walk around at the back of the room. And the thing that triggered him actually getting some help was he was about to go to a wedding and he said, I can't actually sit or imagine being able to sit in that church for 40 minutes and I'm terrified because I don't want to show that friend of mine up. And the other person was again a mature lady who has a fear of being locked In a toilet cubicle. So, it makes it really difficult for her to go anywhere where she doesn't have another female friend that can come to the ladies' with her and stand outside the door, so she doesn't actually have to lock the door. So, hugely inhibiting for both that gentleman and the lady. And neither of them really understood why they had those fears. They were intelligent, rational people that goes, I know, even if the door does get stuck, I'm not in there on my own. Someone will get me out. Even if I can't sit still, it really doesn't matter, but it's just embarrassing. But the emotional impact it was having on both of them was extreme. And this is where hypnosis is so incredible, because logically neither of them knew the answer. Their logical, rational mind was going, well, I know all of these things, But the problem sits with the irrational, illogical mind, the rear part of the mind that we call the subconscious. And with both of them, that's where memories were sitting that they'd forgotten about but were still being triggered when the conscious mind perceived a threatening or a vulnerable situation. It looked in the database of memories and go, what do I know about this? Whoa, that's risky! And for the gentleman, he remembered memories of a young child being very strongly reprimanded for not being able to sit still, to the point of actual physical advi— physical violence. And for the lady, it was actually being shut in a wardrobe as a child. So, for both of them, those memories weren't consciously accessible, but under hypnosis, they are. And all hypnosis is, is changing the dominant part of the brain so that the conscious rational mind just quietens down a little bit so that we can work directly with the subconscious mind to understand what's locked in there that is being triggered to cause that fight-or-flight response. And for most of us, it's the flight, the avoidance. I love what I do and What is so empowering is that for people that have these acute fears or where behaviors are really holding them back from thriving in life, we can change things around really quickly. And so my message for today is, if you have something that is holding you back that you may be a little bit embarrassed to talk about, please don't be, because it's not embarrassing. It's just that there's something in the rear part of your mind that you perhaps don't remember that's being triggered. And together we can find out what that is, we can deal with it, and archive that memory so it no longer gets triggered, and this rational, logical mind can become in charge again, allowing you to behave in the way that you choose to. So, if you have that sort of situation or you know anyone that does, we're kind of coming into spider cyst season where all of those little critters are coming inside to get warm. So, if you have a fear of spiders, again, many people are scared because they know that rationally, logical— logically, a little spider in a kitchen in England can't hurt them, but it doesn't stop them running away screaming or avoiding going into rooms. Come and have a chat. I can tell you how this works, and we can solve that problem really quite easily. So, thank you very much for listening. I hope there's been something in this video that's helped you understand a little bit more about the work of a hypnotherapist. And even if you just want to understand a little bit more, let's have a chat. Contact me via the website, via phone, all of the myriad of ways that we can now communicate with each other, and I can share a little bit more. And let's see where we go from there. Bye-bye for now.
