James Middleton

I am a licenced Hypnotherapist of over 22 years and a qualified NLP Practitioner.

I see clients for stress related problems, anxiety, fears and phobias, depression, addictions and similar.

I use a range of techniques - including hypnosis, counselling, provocative therapy and Ericksonian task setting as well as goal setting.

Sessions last an hour to an hour and a half, and therapy is usually complete when the client no longer feels they need my help - usually after several sessions.

Through talking out problems, I help clients to come to terms with past experiences and remove blocks to their success and progress.

I assist my clients to overcome their limitations, gain confidence, release stress and tension, handle anger and resolve whatever fears and phobias they may have.

I work at assisting the client to gain full independance from myself, and to do this I set weekly homework tasks to learn self Hypnosis, visualization skills and how to release limiting beliefs.

In each session following homework practice, we review what worked, and what worked less well, and adjust new homework tasks as appropriate. I also teach new vizualisation or self hypnosis exercises should they be needed.

My favoured tools include using Ericksonian language patterns, story telling using therapeutic metaphor, and provocative therapy techniques - all of which help shake up old limiting beliefs and turn old negative thinking patterns into more positive, helpful and useful beliefs and ideas.

The reason I favour these tools is that in an elegant and graceful way, they tap into the unconscious processes to generate powerful change that is compelling and difficult for the client to resist.

Change which occurs at the unconscious level, with minimal conscious intervention is lasting and naturalistic. It is more difficult, but not impossible for the client to undo the good work that has occurred.

I normally see clients on a weekly basis, as I have found more frequent sessions to be unneccesary and ineffective.

I adopt an attitude of acceptance, empathy and compassion which helps the therapeutic process. Clients self refer, or local Doctors, psychiatrists and other therapists refer clients to me.

I prefer to address and solve one problem at a time, taking the most serious problem first, solving it, and moving on to the next. This helps the client to remain focused, and gain the benefits of change as soon as possible.