We work towards developing a working alliance from the very first interaction with the client, this could be on the phone, in person or by email. The initial consultation is where we can make a big impact, we can show that we understand and appreciate what may be going on in their minds by customising the workings of the brain presentation to suit the clients needs, which shows we have listened and understand.

Clients need to feel welcome, we always thank them for coming to see us, we can make our practice rooms comfortable and welcoming, a nice private space where they can feel free to discuss their issues. We smile, we show we are happy that they chose us to help them improve their lives.

We remain non judgemental at all times, we can ask why clients, feel or think in the way they do and show interest, but we never take the moral highroad and judge their views negatively. We have to show that we are playing for the same team, not against each other.

Even though solution focused Hypnotherapy follows the same format at most sessions, we also must ensure we have planned and organised ourselves to accept our clients, having everything we need close to hand. A file specifically for the client shows them that they are unique and that their therapy sessions are designed just for them, which shows we care.

We ensure we ask what the clients wants from the session and at the end of the session ask if there is anything we have missed, this adds value to the session and shows the client that we are working with them.

Having an interest in things other than therapy is important, we can make notes of hobbies the client is interested in, or things that have planned to give us something light to talk about to ensure the correct part of the brain is being used in the sessions. This also shows a genuine interest in the client’s life.

Humour is important, but only when the relationship is at a stage where this is appropriate, we should make therapy fun when we can.

We focus on the clients needs at all times, they are driving our sessions, we are just a temporary passenger that just happens to be sitting beside them on their journey.  A good working alliance takes time and shouldn’t be forced, it should be as natural as two people just getting to know each other with no pressure.

Rapport is an essential part of a healthy Client/Therapist relationship. It contributes to the client feeling safe, respected, understood and important and this helps them achieving their goals in therapy. Rapport refers to the caring and shared understanding of issues between a therapist and a client. It helps clients to feel we are on their team and not playing against them. Good rapport lets the client feel that their therapist "has their back" in a way that will allow them to find solutions to their challenges. Likewise, the therapist in a setting with good therapeutic rapport feels respected in a way that allows them to speak clearly and freely. The goal of developing a good rapport is to improve your chances for a successful outcome, along with developing mutual trust and respect.

The process of building rapport begins with the initial consultation and the workings of the brain presentation, where the therapist and client get to know each other, learn more about the issues the client is facing, and work on showing than what we can do to help. Inconsequential language, talking about what the clients like and showing interest helps build report as it shows we are interested in the client and not just about their challenges.

Our body language is important, mirroring in a verbal and nonverbal way, helps the client to feel we are similar to them which aids rapport. Checking understanding, giving feedback, smiling and being genuinely interested in their road to success, all helps.

We have a huge advantage if we have a good level of Rapport with the client, the client has a far higher chance of moving forward in a positive way with someone they like. The more we can develop this, the more influential the therapy will be on the client’s wellbeing.

We only get one chance to make a great first impression, from the moment we have our first interaction with our clients, we should show professionalism, confidence, positivity and warmth.

First contact may not be in person, it may be on the phone or via email. Its professional to answer the phone using the business name, “Good morning, thanks for calling Best Mind Therapy, how can I help you” is far better than a vague “hello” on the end of the phone, it shows we are a business and we are ready and waiting to help. Having a business number is a best practice, as there is no confusion as to why the phone ringing is actually ringing.

Any email correspondence needs to be clear and concise, miss spelt words and bad grammar are very off putting and the use of a spell check is vital, for most of us mere mortals. An @businessname.co.uk email address looks better than a generic @gmail.com one. Using email signatures is also good practice. Responding to emails quickly is also important and it shows we are giving the clients our fullest attention and take their situation seriously and it’s important to us.

Our practice rooms must also be appropriate for our profession. They should feel safe, comfortable and not be a distraction or a terrible mess. This is somewhere that we expect our clients to relax, so we should make them so. Comfortable chairs or couches with neatly folded blankets available, not in noisy areas (although this cannot always be avoided), not be too cold or too hot, clean, tidy and professional. They should be laid out in a relaxed way, with no desks or barriers between therapist and client, informal, relaxed, but maintaining professionalism.

Our websites are often the first contact that we have with our customers, making sure they are updated with new information, news, blogs regularly, displays we are serious about our profession. The theme of the site too should portray the practice, it should give hope, show empathy and be professional.

The way we dress is important, I prefer smart casual, but could be varied when dealing with particular clients, with older clients, they may like to see me wearing a tie and a jacket, the younger generations seem to favour open neck shirts. What we don’t want is for the client to actually remember what we are wearing, but to focus on themselves.

Our reputation is going to encourage clients to refer us to family and friends, we are going to need as much good press and positive comments as we can get. Leaving our existing clients with the view that we were professional, friendly, happy, kind, efficient, understanding and all the other positive attributes is vital, so we must be at our best at all times.

We only get one chance to make a good first impression, but we get far more opportunities to make bad ones!

Maintaining a professional appearance is not just about how we dress or if we have shaved or whether our hair is a mess. People can indeed look and dress how they like and some people look good no matter what they are wearing or what colour their hair is this week. But for the rest of us, maintaining a professionally casual look whilst at work is preferred. Smart casual, in my opinion, is an acceptable way to dress, a shirt, chinos and a jacket, gives the impression that we take care of ourselves and have a little pride. Ripped jeans, T-shirts, shorts and trainers, have no place in my the practice room. We should consider what we wear a uniform and get ready to work each morning looking professional and ready for the day.   

The way we act is also very important, we should ensure we behave in a way that complies with the codes of conduct of the societies that we are members of, for example the NCH and AfSFH. We treat every client with respect and at all times keep the client/therapist relationship at the upmost of professionalism. We commit to our code of practice to ensure that this is demonstrated. We must also be mindful to follow through with any promises made, avoiding promises that would never be fulfilled. We cannot falsely state cures, success rates or remedies that may not materialise, we can though give hope.    

Our working environments should be safe, appropriate, client focused and adequately comfortable to allow the clients to feel relaxed, whist promoting professionalism. We should maintain a high level of cleanliness and not work in a mess, if we can’t keep our work areas tidy, how can we be trusted to help our clients?

Our correspondences with our clients should be well written, spell checked and precise to ensure the client understands exactly what we are saying. Stationary, business cards, appointment cards, should give the right impression and not be tacky or advertising false hopes.

Our websites are often the first contact that we have with our customers, making sure they are updated with new information, news, blogs regularly, displays we are serious about our profession. The theme of the site too should portray the practice, it should give hope, show empathy and be professional.

Above all, how we treat our clients is of the upmost importance and makes a huge impression, we should treat them respectfully and professionally. They are our clients, not our mates!!

As solution Focused Hypnotherapists, we adhere to a format which remains, in the main, consistent throughout all the sessions that we have with our clients. Initially, after building rapport with inconsequential language, we gather information on the client using an information gathering form.

This then gives us an understanding of what the client would like us to help with and any other issues that they may experience. Armed with this, we present “How the Brain Works” making it relevant to the issues the client may be experiencing.

We draw out information on how we can help and what are the client’s goal or goals if therapy is successful. This is vital as we have a starting point and an instant miracle question/ scaling conversation when we see the client at the next session.

It is far too easy to assume that clients understand what we are saying, regular checks should be made to make sure that the language we are using is easy to understand and what we are saying is relevant. We should ask questions, for example “does that make sense” or “does that sound familiar to you” we should look out for body language, the client may nod, smile or show emotion at a particular section of the Initial consultation, they may even offer suggestions to the similarity to themselves during the presentation.

We must be fully aware of the client’s manner when they arrive at our practice. They may be extremely nervous, reserved, anxious or resistant to therapy. Our manner in return needs to be positive and we need to concentrate on building rapport, which will solidify the working relationship and build confidence in the client moving forward. The initial consultation is perfect for overcoming the initial barriers, as it is focused on the symptoms of the client and allows them to see what we can do and how positive we are in helping them.  We use verbal and non-verbal communication, we can mirror the client’s language and behaviours to allow them to feel we are just like them. The use of small talk to move away from problem talk will move the client from the fight or flight part of the brain, to the intellectual part, where they can make a rational decision of their future working relationship with the therapist. 

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In Solution Focused Therapy, we used scaling to measure how clients are feeling. 

By ensuring the scale is a positive one, we encourage use of the clients left pre-frontal cortex when discussing how we may go up a number or two in the scale.

In most circumstances, the scale is from 1-10, I choose not to use 0-10 as I believe starting at 1 already puts a very slight positive aspect to the scale. A client could be asked, if the scale was on Happiness, a simple question, for instance “on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the happiest you have ever been and 1 being the lowest you have ever been, where are you on the scale now?”

This then gives us the opportunity to measure how the clients see themselves at the start of therapy and monitor this over the next few sessions, using any positive shifts as discussion points. We also use the scaling score to drive our Miracle question, by asking questions such as “Let us imagine we have a magic wand and you can wave it and change anything you want to change and you wake up tomorrow morning definitely a 3 and perhaps a 4. What would be the first thing you would notice that is different?” This allows the client to visualise a positive shift in their progress and therefore helpful in finding solutions. Tiny steps forward are all it takes to make a difference and we need to keep an active ear and notice these positive little gems of information.

Clients generally take longer to move forward at the lower end of the scale as they are at the begging of their journey and may be in a negative frame of mind and maybe thinking positively is something they haven’t done in a long while. As progress is made, it becomes less difficult for clients to think positively and they often find coming up with solutions to move forward on the scale far easier.

Scaling can also be used to ascertain when therapy should stop, a 10 is a very difficult number to achieve, the client may feel like an 8 is good enough and aim to end their therapy when they achieve this.

Any aspect of behaviour can be “Scaled” but positive scales are more often used in Solution Focused Hypnotherapy.

There and many benefits to working online, it allows or clients to receive therapy in the comfort of their own homes, they haven’t got to drive to us and park and get dressed, they can wear what they want, sit where they want and have a therapist on the other side of the world. They save money in fuel and we can save money too, buy not renting a therapy room for the session. During the Covid Pandemic, it was the only way to receive therapy and many Hypnotherapists embraced this and now only work this way, some say it is equally effective as face-to-face therapy. Payments can be taken by sending payment links and accepting credit cards, making the process very easy.

Working online does pose some questions.

Are the conversations we have with our clients confidential? we have no control who else may be listening to our sessions, you would assume that it would be a family member or friend of the client that may overhear, but this is totally out of our control. We should advise the client to find a comfortable, private area to receive therapy, one where they will not be disturbed or potentially over heard, this allows the client to be in control of their environment with our recommendations.

How do we gain consent? Verbal isn’t good enough and we will not be recording the sessions, so we will still have to resort to sending consent forms to the client to complete prior to the session. Sending a signature link to sign a consent form is a possibility, or accepting an email stating the client agrees to hypnotherapy is another option.

Are our client’s “Tech Savvy”? will they be able to log on to sessions, do they have a good enough connection or broadband speed and what happens if the internet goes down? Is the session rescheduled at no cost, or lost? Allowing extra time for the first session is wise to allow for a little first time set up. We may have to instruct clients in the use of the online system the first time they use it. Agreeing in advance of what will be done if the line goes down is important as we do not want the client to feel that they have paid for a session ands lost it through no fault of their own.

What happens in an emergency? How could we deal with something that could be happening many miles away? What if the client doesn’t come out of trance and falls asleep? Rules would have to be in place as to whether the client would like to be woken up at the end of the session, if they do, we should ensure we have access to their phone numbers to give them a wake-up call. We need to know where they are and have the address and phone number, in case of an emergency.

Are we missing something? Can we gauge their expressions properly? Can we see their breathing pattern? Can we tell if they are in trance or not? the question is, do we actually need to?? We only rely on the client being in a light relaxed trance for Solution Focused Hypnotherapy, so this may not be such an issue for us. But of course, being aware of body language helps greatly and the more we can gauge how our client is behaving, the better it is for their session.

So, we have pros and cons to Online therapy, as long as we can confidently offer a beneficial service that adheres to the codes of conduct that we subscribe to, is in line with GDPR and we have emergency contact information, it would be wise to offer as an alternative to face to face sessions and gives the clients a free choice. If our clients are comfortable and happy, their therapy will start on the right foot.

In my experience, online therapy has produced very similar outcomes to face to face sessions, so whichever method the client is happy with, you can rest assured that it will provide them with what they need.

Hypnotherapy is a wonderful solution for reducing anxiety, fears, phobias and changing attitudes, it has a vast realm in which it is very successful, some of the conditions that can be treated are below,

• Alcohol addiction
• Anger management
• Anxiety
• Bruxism -Teeth grinding
• Chronic pain management
• Confidence/self-esteem issues
• Depression/low mood
• Drug Abuse
• Eating behaviours
• Exam/performance stress
• Fear and Phobias
• Gambling addiction
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
• Low motivation
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
• Panic attacks
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Public speaking
• Sexual issues
• Self-Harming
• Sleeping problems
• Sports performance
• Stop smoking/vaping
• Stress
• Substance addictions
• Unwanted habits
• Weight management
• Working with Children
• Working with Teens

All of the above have the potential to be treated without any other interventions from other practitioners, with the exception of IBS, (which medication can be prescribed), Drug abuse, (when the client may be on alternative prescribed drugs) and depression, (where the clients may be on prescribed anti-depressants).

We should always be mindful that we are not General Practitioners and cannot prescribe or recommend anything to do with medications. We can ask if a particular complaint has been diagnosed and mention that it may be helpful to get it checked at their GP to ensure that we can work safely and effectively with the client and compliment any medication that has been prescribed. If asked by a client, if they should seek a doctors opinion, we should ensure we support the clients decision to do so.

Many conditions are affected by stress, Psoriasis, IBS, heart disease, tension headaches even the common colds can be worse when we are feeling low and not producing the “happy” chemicals in our bodies to fight it off. Using Hypnotherapy, we can help to reduce stress levels and work alongside the treatment that the clients are already taking. Clients with terminal conditions or at the end of life can use Hypnotherapy to give them some relief and relaxation during their challenging times, allowing them to get temporary respite from their worries.