Kate is a lady with a commanding presence and, when we meet, she has a reassuring and confident handshake.  I am, I confess, a little in awe.  Over coffee she starts to tell me about what she has done, and about her ambitions for her developing practice in Ely and here in Bury St Edmunds.

Kate used to be the Head of a school for children with special needs between the age of 2 and 19 before embarking on a new career in therapy, which is now in its 6^th year.  Her school fell victim to what she politely describes as a “change in profiling” undertaken by the education authorities in Cambridge.  I might have put it differently.  Training in psychotherapy and hypnotherapy  - Kate is at pains to emphasise that she practices both, and holds an Advanced Diploma in Hypnotherapy – is perhaps less structured than other specialities but nevertheless applies rigorous standards and closely-monitored continuing professional development.  Kate is a Member of the International Association of Evidence Based Psychotherapy, which caught my attention as a slave to medical evidence in my previous life.  All therapies need to demonstrate that they work, and this organisation seems to me to be the clearest indication that this applies to hypnotherapy. 

Having dealt with that, we turned to that which I expected to find really interesting.  Who does Kate see?  How do people find her?  And, most intriguingly of all, what conditions does she treat?

Kate sees clients of all ages. Children who have issues with bedwetting or school avoidance can benefit from therapy. Most clients present by word of mouth or through an internet search; a few are referred by other professionals.

There are people, desperately unfortunate people,  whose lives are restricted – quite severely, in many cases – by fears and phobias. It is difficult to understand how someone might be scared of clowns, for example, although at least one Bond movie portrays a clown as an instrument of extreme evil. Fear of birds I can better understand, and emetophobia – literally, fear of vomiting – is in fact a condition on the spectrum of phobias relating to control of one’ s environment. These are people who insist on eating only food they have prepared themselves. Rather limiting in the individual’s social life, one imagines.

I am introduced to Coué’s Law which I believe states that if conscious will is in conflict with the imagination it will lose. The application is to imagine that which you should do, rather than what you are afraid of doing. So, rather than say to yourself, “Don’t eat the sweets”, which you then eat and feel guilty about, you will learn to say, “Eat the salad”, instead, and avoid the inner conflict.

In treatment you will not be confronted by swinging pocket watches and amnesia. The process is one of deep relaxation with preservation of hearing and control. It addresses the primitive part of the brain, which is responsible for the preservation of self; quite reasonable when confronted by fire, for example, but not appropriate (but nevertheless present in some cases) when the fear of ladybirds makes the person run for their life.

Kate will see you for a free initial consultation, which typically takes 45 minutes, after which she will determine whether she can help, and the prospective client can decide whether to proceed with the therapy recommended.  Fees will be determined on an individual basis and will depend to some extent on the anticipated duration of therapy, and will be discussed at the end of the initial consultation.

You can contact Kate on: 07747186670
Her web page includes her qualifications and more contact details:
www.thehypnoclinic.co.uk
Kate sees clients at: