From Creative Director to Hypnotherapist: My Journey of Transformation

This blog is written by Melissa de Lusignan, one of our amazing Professional Hypnotherapy Diploma graduates (June 2025).

On the last day of the training, students are asked to talk about their journey through the course. It is a wonderful time, hearing about how they have discovered things about themselves, how they have overcome challenges, and how they have grown, not just as hypnotherapists but also as individuals. With her journey presentation, Melissa creatively incorporated a multitude of techniques from the course. I wonder how many you can notice as you read her story.

At HypnoTC we are passionate about helping people to become the best hypnotherapist they can be, whether that involves great initial training or awesome upskill/ refresher training. To find out more about training with HypnoTC (which includes the use of rapid hypnotherapy), and becoming a professional hypnotherapist, click the button below.

Find out more about our Professional Hypnotherapy Diploma course

It’s never too late to be what you might have been

On the final day of our Professional Diploma Course, with the exams behind us, each of us took a few minutes to reflect on the past 10 months. There was laughter. There were unexpected tears. But most of all, there was a deep sense of connection. We all agreed our cohort was special—bound together by the support we’d given one another (and, I suspect, will continue to give).
So why was it so moving?

Although we’d got to know each other well, there were parts of our stories we hadn’t yet shared. In fact, for some of us, those stories had only just begun to emerge from the mist. That final weekend gave us the space to make sense of them—for ourselves, as much as each other.

Throughout the course, we’d explored the power of metaphor to illuminate the human experience. And as I began to reflect on my own journey, I noticed those metaphors start to weave into something new. A story. My story…

One day, last May, I found myself standing in a beautiful garden. Everything about this place was exactly right for me. But as I looked around this garden, I became aware of an area that was overgrown, unloved and sorely in need of attention. As I began to explore my emotions, I sensed a feeling of imbalance deep in the control room of my mind. My boundary, which was once strong and had always held firm, had weakened, allowing too many things that should stay on the outside to move inside. And things that should have stayed inside, to wander outside.

It was as if I was standing at the top of a mountain, gazing down into a breathtaking valley below—a place I had yearned to be for some time. I looked down at my feet, deep in the snow and reached down to pick up a handful–feeling its powdery texture in my hands, reminding me of my weakened resilience in this moment.

Just then, I noticed someone in the distance—a wise person—who greeted me with love, warmth and encouragement. Without speaking, he handed me an envelope and somehow, I knew in that moment, just what to do.

I put the envelope in my pocket and then, with renewed focus, I began compacting the snow into a firm snowball. As I stood at the edge of the mountain, I watched with amazement as the snowball rolled down the mountain, gathering in pace and size, smashing through all the barriers that had been holding me back.

As I made my way down the now clear track, into the valley, I found myself on an unfamiliar path. Before long, the path turned into a beautiful winding stone staircase, and at the top of the staircase was a door.

And on that door was a sign “HYPNOTC: Welcome to your Favourite Place of Lacrimation.” (If you know, you know…)

Much like my garden, this room felt perfect for me, radiating warmth, positive energy, and bursting with potential.

In the corner stood a bookshelf with my name on it. On the right: books full of skills and qualities I had forgotten I possessed. On the left: ten empty, coloured ring binders and matching notebooks, each labelled from Weekend 1 to Weekend 10.

Each month, Kate and Ross began to fill each these ring binders with incredible information, new skills and wonderous knowledge–like how to make someone cluck like a chicken. It was amazing!

The homework was extensive, and the Hypnotherapy Practitioner Diploma (HPD) loomed large. Part of me yearned to dive right in, while another part wanted to lounge on the sofa and binge-watch TV. Just as the lazy side was about to gain the upper hand, more wise figures appeared in my life, offering encouragement and friendship. Slowly but surely, the binders filled. My confidence grew. And the HPD started to feel… possible.

And with Kate’s advice echoing in my ears, I practiced my hypnotic voice, my FULL awakening as well as my direct and indirect suggestions. And whenever I said the word NOWwww, all unnecessary tension would leave my body (and any body within 10ft of me).

Over time, whenever I visited CROM (which is just off junction 10 of the M1 if you’re wondereing)—I noticed a shift in how I was feeling. My confidence had been turned right up and my anxieties dialled right down. Which, Ross reminded me, was what knobs were for.

And then, one day, I realised that the fluffy white cloud that had been mysteriously following me around since last July had darkened over time, absorbing my problems, and the cause of those problems, without me even having to think about it.

Then I saw it—a shimmer of light breaking through. The rays of sun grew stronger, dissolving the cloud. And when it was gone, the sky was a clear, brilliant blue. I could feel the warmth on my skin, dissolving blocks I hadn’t even realised were still there and filling me up with an incredible energy.

In that moment, I reached into my pocket. I pulled out the envelope the wise figure had given me all those months ago.

I opened it.
Inside was a single, beautiful card.

It read: “It’s never too late to be what you might have been.”

Melissa de Lusignan
HypnoTC Graduate June 2025

Illustration and card by lizzie@driftwooddesigns.co.uk

Our hypnotherapy course

If you would like to help others make positive enhancements to their lives and become a professional hypnotherapist,  we recommend you check our awesome Professional Hypnotherapy Diploma course.

Finally, if you would like to find out more about the awesome Professional Hypnotherapy Diploma that HypnoTC , do please visit our Diploma page and have a browse through the information about our world-class, award-winning training.

Find out more about our Hypnotherapy Diploma course

  Dr Kate Beaven-Marks
(HypnoTC Director)