Solution focused hypnotherapy
Low confidence is often less about what you can do and more about how you feel while doing it. Solution Focused Hypnotherapy works on that feeling, online with me from Doncaster.
Hypnotherapy for confidence can help you feel calmer and steadier in the moments that usually knock you, so you can speak up, say no or walk into the room as yourself. It doesn't hand you a new personality. It works on the stress response that takes over when confidence drops, and on the way you talk to yourself about it.
You probably already know where yours wobbles. Perhaps it is somewhere like these:
It can feel that way, but it behaves more like a state than a fixed trait. Think of someone who chats easily with friends and goes blank in a job interview: same person, same skills, different state. Solution Focused Hypnotherapy explains the difference through how the brain responds to pressure. When you feel calm, the reasoning part of your mind is in charge, and you can find your words, weigh things up and back yourself. When a situation feels threatening, an older, protective system takes over. It isn't interested in eloquence. It wants you out of there, so you freeze, over-prepare, agree to things you don't want, or avoid the situation altogether.
So the aim is not to become someone else. It is to stay calm enough, more of the time, for the confident version of you to show up.
Low confidence usually comes with a running commentary: why am I like this, what if I mess it up, everyone else finds this easy. Solution focused questions point the other way. Instead of why, they ask what: what would you be doing differently if you felt a little more sure of yourself? When have you handled something like this before, even slightly better than you expected? What would the people who know you notice first?
Those questions sound simple, but they move your attention from what is wrong to what already works, and that is where change tends to start. In the second half of each session, hypnosis gives you a deeply relaxed state to rehearse those changes in, and after your foundation session your personalised audio track lets you keep practising at home.
Each of these is a little different, so here is how the approach applies to them.
Nerves before speaking are normal and often useful. The problem is when they spill over into dread for days beforehand. Sessions can help you feel calmer about the event itself, and the audio track gives you something to listen to in the run-up.
It is easy to undersell yourself when it counts, however capable you are. Working on how you feel going in, rather than rehearsing more answers, is often the missing piece.
The line in this page's heading is about exactly this. The NHS's own advice on raising low self-esteem includes starting to say no, and notes that for the most part, saying no does not upset relationships. Feeling able to do it is the hard part, and that is what we work on.
Doing well and still waiting to be found out is not a diagnosis. It is a pattern of thinking rather than a fact about you. The forward-looking questions above are well suited to it, because they keep asking for evidence of what you have already done.
Shyness or social anxiety?
The NHS describes social anxiety as more than shyness: a lasting fear of social situations that affects daily life, work and relationships, with worry before, during and after. If that sounds like you, it is a good idea to see your GP, or self-refer to an NHS Talking Therapies service. Hypnotherapy can sit alongside that care, never in place of it.
Confidence tends to grow from small wins rather than one big leap. The NHS suggests setting yourself small challenges and being as kind to yourself as you would be to a friend in the same position. Solution Focused Hypnotherapy works in the same spirit. Each week we look at what went a little better, however small, and build on it.
When I wrote about my own route into this work, I said that whether you are struggling with anxiety, overthinking, low confidence, sleep or unwanted habits, or simply feel ready for a positive change, I'd love to help. Before retraining I spent over ten years in NHS radiography, and you can read the rest on my About page.
Sessions are by secure video call from Doncaster, so you can join from wherever you are in the UK. A session is one hour for £65, and five booked and paid together cost £260. If low confidence is tangled up with a low mood that won't lift, please talk to your GP as well: hypnotherapy is alongside medical care, not a replacement for it.
Start with the free 15 minute discovery call. Ask me to ring you, or call 07946 509002. To see how the method works first, read about Solution Focused Hypnotherapy.
It may help you feel calmer going in, but a week is short and I can't promise a result. If you have something coming up, get in touch soon so we can talk about what is realistic on the discovery call.
No. You stay entirely yourself, and you are aware and in control throughout every session. The aim is for you to feel more at ease being who you already are, not to turn you into someone louder.
Coaching usually focuses on skills and plans. Solution Focused Hypnotherapy focuses on what you want and on the stress response underneath, using hypnosis as well as conversation. They can work well side by side.
Yes. You can come with one event in mind or with a general feeling that has been around for years. Either is a fine place to start, and we shape the sessions around what you want from them.
They overlap. Confidence is often about particular situations, while self-esteem is about how you feel about yourself in general. Both are on my list, and the NHS notes that low self-esteem that lasts can feed into anxiety or low mood, so mention it to your GP if it has been weighing on you for a long time.
Leave your name and number and Jo will ring you for a free 15 minute discovery call. Nothing to pay, and no pressure to go any further.
Appointments are online only. Every session is by secure video call, from wherever you are comfortable.
Or ring Jo on 07946 509002