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What happened after we qualified with HypnoTC – Dylan & Chelsea

Dylan and chelsea

My name is Dylan Lovegrove and both my partner Chelsea and I completed the HypnoTC hypnotherapy training course, graduating in October 2017. Since then, we’ve been in practice seeing paying clients and it’s been a great experience, with lots of opportunity to learn and develop…

We launched our hypnotherapy company, ‘Freeing Minds Hypnotherapy’, with a self-designed logo and a mountain of enthusiasm! We were ready to go! Upon ‘opening our doors’, the first clients that we saw mostly seemed to be weight loss, which was something of a relief. Even though we learned how to effectively work with the majority of issues and goals that clients might present with, seeing a client with high level anxiety, complete with panic attacks and agoraphobia as a first client… Well, that would have been like jumping into the deep end of the pool after just having learned how to swim (though I’m sure we would have coped if that had happened).

Being gently introduced into the real-world of working with clients on ‘simpler’ issues like weight loss and smoking cessation, it quickly became apparent that clients who walk through the door asking for one thing normally have a list of bigger issues to first resolve! For example, with my first 4 clients who came for help with weight loss, I discovered they had some more complex emotional issues holding them back, that needed addressing first! This set me up to understand and respect exactly how to best help the client and to always prepare for the unexpected! It also made me thankful that when training with HypnoTC, we learned how to work with the client’s experience of their issue (and contributing factors), rather than assuming ‘all issues are the same’ and being limited to a generic ‘weight loss script’… It’s definitely a bit more complex than that!

As I continued to see (mainly) weight loss and smoking clients, Chelsea was beginning to deal with clients who suffered from anxiety issues. She has helped many people overcome anxiety, from simple anxiety cases through to fear of driving and even a couple of young girls with severe panic issues! Finding some great results from working with so many clients, Kate Beaven-marks (HypnoTC tutor) came up with the idea of Chelsea and I joining together to deliver ‘dual therapy’ for our clients (so 2 therapists to 1 client). After many conversations and ideas of how we could structure the dual therapy, we decided that because I favour a more direct/authoritarian approach, and Chelsea is more indirect and permissive, we felt this could work to our advantage, especially if we noticed the client favouring one of us more whilst delivering hypnotic suggestions!

joint hypnosis sleep man woman people cartoon

We set up our next session to incorporate the dual therapy process within the initial email, giving full information about myself and Chelsea as well as the proposed dual therapy session. Also, before the session began, we confirmed with the client that they felt comfortable with this new dual therapy approach, and gave them a choice between the two of us!

When the client entered our premises, we both had a pre-agreed plan on how the session should go, making sure we didn’t repeat things that had already been said, or talk over each other, plus both keeping a high level of professionalism and maintaining rapport with the client (anyone in a long-term relationship will appreciate how much effort can be needed for this part)! Our first client was for weight loss and she seemed to be introvert in character at first, but she began to relax more and more as the therapy session continued, after the consultation process we asked our client to sit down on the comfy couch and prepared for the induction…

Using a ‘progressive relaxation’ approach, Chelsea and I found an immediate natural flow that became even more apparent on the deepening technique (staircase). Chelsea directing the client down each step, whilst with each pause, I would suggest ‘going deeper’, ‘relaxing more and more’ and other similar deepening phrases! With this dual approach, we were able to allow one person to talk to the client, giving positive suggestions for change, whilst the other person was given a chance to gather their thoughts and add suggestions or techniques they felt could help at that particular time! This was one of the most positive beneficial advantages of doing dual therapy, allowing one of us to continue talking whilst the other had some thinking space, which you get less of during one to one sessions, especially when unexpected circumstance arise and you need to think on your feet!

Those are the pros of dual therapy, but what about the cons? Well biting your tongue to not jump into a flowing conversation, whilst your partner is explaining something to the client (especially if you feel he/she missed something) is probably at Number 1! 🙂 Apart from the ironing of tiny creases, such as pre-talk flow, who will say what, coming together with an agreeable treatment plan, and allowing patience to let each other speak. The pros definitely outweigh the cons of dual therapy!

Dylan and Chelsea joint hypnosis freeing minds hypnotherapy

Having been working together for 5 months whilst doing dual therapy, we have definitely discovered a deeper respect and understanding for one another and how we are each very different (but complimentary) therapists in our own rights. Now, as we are starting our second year as hypnotherapists, we feel the knowledge and skills we have learnt from HypnoTC and the experience gained from seeing the clients we have seen to date, as well as engaging with other students/graduates on the HypnoTC forum and getting ongoing supervision from our tutors when needed, has given us so much confidence and knowledge. The excitement of continuing this journey is far, far greater than when we both started our journey!

If you want to learn hypnotherapy and join a course that’s very information/practical intensive and where you’ll really have to put in the work to get your qualification, we highly recommend HypnoTC. They give you all the tools you’ll need to adequately help clients with many different issues.

Now it’s time to get back to the clients…

– written by Dylan Lovegrove – Hypnotherapist
www.freeingmindstherapy.com

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