Past Life Healing

bullet waves 12 mauve aa-img030Past life healing (regression) in Bristol

If you explore far enough, life contains strange and wonderful experiences. Past lives are among a whole range of experiences with meditators, shamans, and other inner explorers may encounter.  They are not just dream-like images, but real and vivid experiences in the inner world. The impact on everyday life can be dramatic and uplifting. As with experiences such as meeting angels, I don’t worry whether they are “real” or not or whether historical evidence can be found. The healing is real and that is all that counts.

True and pseudo past lives

True past lives are the realm of karma – choices and decisions we make which affect our destiny. It is the realm of harm which befalls us which we create ourselves, unlike childhood regression which is the realm of hurt done to innocence, which we are not responsible for.  Typically in therapy you only get to the stage of looking at how you create your reality y your choices after your have healed your childhood in this life. So true past lives are rarely the business of the beginning of therapy. For this reason I nowadays mostly do not seek them out at the beginning of therapy in the way that I used to.

I do regard some past life memories as “true past lives” – they have a clear, distinctive quality and are often spine-tingling to encounter. The feeling is “I did this, and I am paying the price.” These are often agonising matters of adult decision – for example, in a famine, deciding which child to feed and which to let die. It really doesn’t matter about historical reality, because it is indeed difficult to see how a child born today could receive an imprint from any source of such a strong emotional crisis. So no matter whether historical or not, something strange is going on. Others, while also profoundly healing, strike me as being family memories from the first months of life, before the brain is fully developed. While not “before birth,” they are in the realest sense, “before everything – before ‘I’ came into existence.” Others are generational memories which happened to grandparents or great-grandparents.

I don’t normally start by looking for past lives, but wait until they come up naturally. Otherwise, you risk getting one of two things:

  • A pseudo-past life, which is daily life events disguised in a historical skin. The healing achieved can be done more directly.
  • A true past life which doesn’t resolve. Inner child healing is about the pain we carry due to being hurt as innocent children. Past life healing is ultimately about the pain we carry as a result of our choices and responsible actions; in other words, our karma. Only at an advanced stage in a person’s development are they ready to say “This situation is my responsibility – I created the mess I’m in by my choices.” If you do an exercise which opens up past life experiences before the person is ready, they gain information on what went wrong, but they aren’t ready to re-choose their decisions. There is no value whatever in believing “I was Nefertiti in a past life.” The question is, how did the choices and actions you made in that life affect your everyday life now? And do you now have the maturity to re-live that situation differently?

That said, it is also true that often the first past life to come up contains innocent suffering and is not the one containing the karmic choices. It may take some time before the root past lives, where you can re-choose your destiny, emerge. Contrary to almost universal belief, there is commonly more than one of these. That doesn’t make sense, but there it is.

An exception to not starting with past lives is that sometimes a person will come into the room and carry a past life with them – the whole room fills with a certain vibe. One client comes to mind who as he spoke of unrelated matters, filled the whole room with a vivid impression of being a prisoner in solitary confinement. He was surprised when I suggested past life work as the starting point, but agreed, and we resolved many things rapidly.

If you are sceptical about past lives or spirit releasement, I offer a quotation from someone who we think of as a scientist, but who was also a great modern mystic, Albert Einstein. He’s referring to the time when radio waves were first discovered, and were laughed at as self-evidently ridiculous:

Do you remember how electrical currents and “unseen waves” [he means radio waves] were laughed at? Our knowledge about man is still in its infancy.
Albert Einstein

What my clients say

You are really, really a very kind person. Thank you for your effort and advice in helping me!

I was never convinced counselling would work. But your approach and your ability to use different methods to suit individual needs has truly changed me on a deep level.

The very first session I had with him was so helpful and powerful that I recommended him to two other people straightaway.

Andrew works gently and safely and I felt held in a safe space throughout the session.

I have made some major breakthroughs in sessions with you.

I was blown away by your insightful and transformative approach.

A different approach from other therapists I have seen before, so that I have finally solved my problem.

More happened in the first session I had with you than in 4 or 5 sessions with a counsellor.

[Your hypnosis] was remarkably effective and entirely different and tailor-made for my individual needs and experiences. Thank you!!!

Although counselling was new territory for me, it was invaluable and worth every penny.

Had a massive effect on my relationship. Learned loads of really good stuff – surpassed my expectations.

Andrew is one of the best therapists I have ever worked with. If you want to make a breakthrough with an issue in your life or relationship, I highly recommend…

I have made some incredible progress and I am now in an intimate and happy relationship thanks to your help.

Family Constellation Work

C bullet 10 light ochre swirls aa-img023_crIndividual Systemic / Family Constellation Work

Please note: Unlike most constellation therapists,  I do not contract in advance to do a one-off constellation, or any type of one-off session. Also, I can’t make a definite promise before starting therapy that we will use constellation work at all. Yes, I do constellations a lot, but you can’t predict in advance what is needed clearly enough to make a promise.

Did your parents divorce? If so, that’s possibly to this day the most important event in your life. Did your mother, before you were born, have an abortion or a late-term miscarriage? If she did, that also may be one of the most important events in your life. Did your father’s father risk death or kill the enemy face to face in WWII? That also may be one of the most important events in your life.

We live in an individualistic culture and most often think that our problems are our own, or at most we attribute our problems to our “bad” parents. That’s a shallow view. Family / Systemic Constellation is a relatively new form of family therapy. It places our lives and our problems where they belong, in the context of the wider family, or “system”.

Problems echo across generations. For example, if you are someone whose mother’s mother died in childbirth, then your mother is likely to have grown up with a buried sense of deep sadness and loss. And as a tiny baby being nursed by your mother, you are quite likely to have felt that deep and buried sadness and drawn it into yourself along with the love of life which mothers give to their babies. And you too may grow up with a vague, inexplicable sense of loss and depression. Your life extends beyond you to the whole family, and your grandmother’s tragic death is a real and present event in your own life.

As a another example, let’s suppose that a young woman falls deeply in love for the first time, but before she can marry, war intervenes and the man she loves does not return. The grief is too terrible and she can’t grieve properly for her loss. Still, life goes on, and a few years later she finds a new man and marries him, and she has a son. And as she nurses the tiny baby and feels how much she loves him, she just can’t help also remembering the first great love who she lost.

And because babies are very, very sensitive, a strange thing happens: a confusion sets in, and the baby grows up thinking on some unconscious level that he is the lover who died. In the language of family constellation we say the baby is “entangled” with the dead soldier. And it can happen that as that boy grows up, he wants to die, and as a young man may become depressed or suicidal. That may sound unlikely, but in fact it is a not uncommon dynamic in suicidal feelings.

Family Constellation therapy is one of the most profound and innovative of the new generation of therapies. It works directly with the cross-generational nature of life. While it is best known as a family therapy, the techniques can be used to gain insight into an enormous range of issues.

Along with related trauma healing work, constellation therapy also extends to extremely painful and difficult areas such as when torture victims and torturers have the possibility to meet one another, or other kinds of severe victim / perpetrator wrongdoing. This is pioneering healing work of the greatest importance, and Hellinger deserves great honour for creating it.

Workshop and individual Systemic Constellation work

There are two forms of Family (aka Systemic) Constellation work, workshop and individual.

In the individual session, which is the kind of constellation therapy which I sometimes do, the person exploring their family places markers of felt or paper on the floor of the room in the position where family members would be standing. Then the clients stands on the markers in turn, feeling what it is like in each position, and feeling how the markers might speak to each other or might move. (Or smaller markers can be placed on a tabletop, and the person exploring touches each one in turn.) Gradually, in small steps, the situation unwinds and soon the feelings found in each location, the things the markers say, and the positions they move to, step out of the realm of what is already known, and begin to be fresh and unexpected.

As people place the markers initially, they feel they are placing them spontaneously, with no particular rhyme or reason. Yet it soon become apparent that they have placed them in a way which reveals hidden family forces. It is as if we carry in our bodies a subtle source of information which we’re not aware of, different and deeper from what we access when we speak. I do such constellations with many clients and most often they are rich and revealing about the client’s issues, not uncommonly very surprising, and always helpful to move life forward.

In a workshop family constellation, instead of placing felt markers, the person exploring their family positions other workshop participants to stand as “representatives” where it feels right to have their mother, father, etc stand in the room. Then for a while the explorer sits next to the therapist and does little but watch. And a quite strange thing happens: in slow steps, the representatives begin to re-enact the dynamics of the family.

They may intuit events such as abortions or deaths which the explorer is aware of but has not mentioned, and they may at times intuit things that even the explorer is unaware of. These new events can’t always be verified, but sometimes they can, giving a strange and striking example of a level of deep and hidden connection between people. In any case, the expression is always experienced as relevant and emotionally real – neither clients nor participants feel that things are made up – and the healing which results is real.

In my own experience, when I’ve been the client exploring my family in a workshop constellation, I’ve several times had representatives say things, or use gestures familiar in my family, which they couldn’t possibly have known. It is truly strange. It is as if we are all linked on a wider level of the mind than we realise. In the Family Constellation field this is referred to as the “knowing field”. If it sounds strange, it is, yet it is also perfectly grounded and commonsense and I don’t know of anyone who has been a representative who doubts that it is real.

There are many different variations on Constellations work. The work was largely developed by the German therapist Bert Hellinger. While he is a creative genius in the field of therapy, there is much in his approach that I don’t feel sympathetic to – he had earlier in life been a priest and  his approach can be priest-like. I’m instead inspired by the work of another German therapist, Franz Ruppert. Ruppert places more emphasis on emotions and on the way that severe trauma, such as abuse, rape, tragically early death or infanticide can be transmitted across generations. He uses the term “trauma constellations”.

Strengths as a stand-alone psychotherapy: One of the deepest therapies for family-related emotions and family issues. This includes many situations commonly regarded as individual problems. Recognises that problems often do not “belong” to an individual, but in fact reflect events which may have happened to grandparents or great-grandparents. Understands the essential necessity of acceptance better than some therapies, yet also action-oriented. Profound vision of human life. The techniques can be used to gain insight to an enormous range of issues. Family/systemic constellation therapy contains a very rich treasure-house of profound insights about families and about life.  The individual version of the work is an exceptionally flexible  process. It invites creativity in ways to explore and resolve issues of every type, not just family issues. This work is is already developing in such a rich way that it’s better referred to as a class of therapies than just a therapy.

Weaknesses:

—– Family / systemic constellation comes in many different flavours. I’m very inspired by Franz Ruppert’s school which combines constellations, trauma, and  bonding theory. I have some criticisms of specific elements developed by Hellinger which some facilitators use.

  • Hellinger’s “Orders of Love” has deep insights about family life. But some facilitators apply these as a kind of rule, disconnected from the actual inner emotional state of the client in the moment the insight is offered. Such disconnected imposition of insights risks being useless, disrespectful, or harmful.
  • Indeed, some facilitators ask clients to do things like bowing to [the representatives in the constellation of] their parents. If the parents are wounded and abusive, this can amount to therapeutic abuse or re-traumatisation.
  • The workshop version of the process often involves the client sitting passively and watching as the constellation unfolds. He or she becomes an active part of the work only at the very end. This unfoldment involves the “representatives” picking up the hidden dynamic of the family. It is indeed a thing of mystery and wonder to watch and to be a part of. But is it actually useful for healing? In my experience, not necessarily.
    Deep wounds are represented by deep emotions which people block out of consciousness. They do this because those emotions were agonising, terrifying, overwhelming or forbidden for a small child to experience. These need not be negative emotions, it’s possible for joy and happiness and feeling safe and loved to be forced into unconsciousness.
    Healing these will not happen by being an onlooker. The person needs to feel profound love and safety to begin to allow the blocked-out feelings back into the body. Hellinger’s original style of therapy does not rely nearly enough on physically living the healing. It also does not relate it enough the the client’s here-and-now everyday life.
  • For the same reason, the client as onlooker, the constellation process can be disconnected from the moment-to-moment inner life of the client during the therapy session. Then, the client can easily fail to make the loving inner connection to themselves which brings healing.

A note on language. The Franz Ruppert constellation school use the language of “healing splits in the soul.” My language is different. I speak of feeling safe to re-experience life in the body, and connecting to the inner self. But I am talking about the same thing, healing splits in the soul.

—– In general Family Constellation needs to be integrated with a more pragmatic therapy to provide a complete package of everything which a person needs for change or healing.

Please note: Unlike most constellation therapists,  I do not contract in advance to do a one-off constellation, nor indeed do I contract in advance to do any given specific one of any of the various methods that I use.  I use many methods, and the discovery of which one is right in a particular moment can only be a discovery in the unpredictable truth of that moment.  Where and how  constellation work (or anything else) may fit into the process of evolution and healing cannot be predicted in advance.

What my clients say

You are really, really a very kind person. Thank you for your effort and advice in helping me!

I was never convinced counselling would work. But your approach and your ability to use different methods to suit individual needs has truly changed me on a deep level.

The very first session I had with him was so helpful and powerful that I recommended him to two other people straightaway.

Andrew works gently and safely and I felt held in a safe space throughout the session.

I have made some major breakthroughs in sessions with you.

I was blown away by your insightful and transformative approach.

A different approach from other therapists I have seen before, so that I have finally solved my problem.

More happened in the first session I had with you than in 4 or 5 sessions with a counsellor.

[Your hypnosis] was remarkably effective and entirely different and tailor-made for my individual needs and experiences. Thank you!!!

Although counselling was new territory for me, it was invaluable and worth every penny.

Had a massive effect on my relationship. Learned loads of really good stuff – surpassed my expectations.

Andrew is one of the best therapists I have ever worked with. If you want to make a breakthrough with an issue in your life or relationship, I highly recommend…

I have made some incredible progress and I am now in an intimate and happy relationship thanks to your help.

EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) and TFT (Thought Field Therapy)

B bullets 2 ornge stars on yellow aa-img026_crEFT (Emotional Freedom Technique)

(More coming soon on EFT.) EFT is a very good method which I like a lot, though I don’t use it all that often as I have other methods which cover the same ground. It helps people turn towards their experiences and get into their feelings, it helps them stand back from a situation and make choices, it helps feelings to unfold, and to explore underlying feelings in depth. But I regard it as mostly an excellent and easily-taught combination and systematising of existing elements, rather than something fundamentally new. As such, it is a genuine step forward. I know EFT afficionados won’t agree with me, but that’s how I see it. It is a form of meditation-by-numbers.

One really great aspect is that EFT understands the importance of two key things:

  1. Turning to face and experience your experiences. The fundamental truth of healing is that when you do this, in a neutral, accepting way, the painful experiences flow away and dissolve on their own – without EFT, without TFT, without anything. (See meditation).
  2. It understands how “meta experiences” get in the way. Meta experiences are attitudes at the back of your mind towards your main experiences. These range from the simple “boys don’t cry, girls don’t get angry” to feeling “I don’t want to be feeling this! (eg sad, angry, panicky)” to feeling “I don’t deserve anything better than to feel like this” and many more. Such attitudes really block the basic healing process. Few other therapies understand this. (These attitudes are what EFT terms “reversed polarities.”)
    For example, it seems so natural, if you are panicky, to think “I don’t want to be feeling this.” Yet this attitude can be what is keeping the panics happening. If you turn towards the experience and feel it acceptingly, it too will flow though and away.

What my clients say

You are really, really a very kind person. Thank you for your effort and advice in helping me!

I was never convinced counselling would work. But your approach and your ability to use different methods to suit individual needs has truly changed me on a deep level.

The very first session I had with him was so helpful and powerful that I recommended him to two other people straightaway.

Andrew works gently and safely and I felt held in a safe space throughout the session.

I have made some major breakthroughs in sessions with you.

I was blown away by your insightful and transformative approach.

A different approach from other therapists I have seen before, so that I have finally solved my problem.

More happened in the first session I had with you than in 4 or 5 sessions with a counsellor.

[Your hypnosis] was remarkably effective and entirely different and tailor-made for my individual needs and experiences. Thank you!!!

Although counselling was new territory for me, it was invaluable and worth every penny.

Had a massive effect on my relationship. Learned loads of really good stuff – surpassed my expectations.

Andrew is one of the best therapists I have ever worked with. If you want to make a breakthrough with an issue in your life or relationship, I highly recommend…

I have made some incredible progress and I am now in an intimate and happy relationship thanks to your help.

Life coaching

A bullets 7 green flowers on yellow aa-img027_crLife coaching

Life coaching is a vigorously action-oriented personal development tool aimed at achieving goals and accountability. It has a great overlap with the spirit of NLP and methods such as solution-oriented therapy. It is a parallel evolution with these, but in a workplace setting. It is not really a psychotherapy, but does overlap with therapies and, having a less intimidating image, is thought of an alternative by some people.

Advantages of life coaching

A typical life-coaching question might be “What’s the crucial thing you need to deal with here today? If you don’t resolve it, what will happen?” You might take a moment to answer that – it’s a good question. When the situation really is how to stay positive and to achieve goals, it’s a valuable tool. More than most therapies, understands the value of regular outside support to keep us going in the right direction, “accountable” in the American jargon. Has a coherent vision which is attractive as far as it goes (“you can achieve whatever you want if you go about it right”) but in my view doesn’t go far. Good at the end of other therapy, when the conflicts are cleared away.

Disadvantages of life coaching

At worst, a shallow Americanist vision of life – all change, change, change, action, action, action and no acceptance, let-go, relaxation, inner peace or transcendance. Weak when personal or family issues enter the workplace situation. You can obviously have hidden conflicts which cause you to fail to achieve goals. But the very drive to want to super-achieve those goals in the first place can in some cases arise to cope with painful childhood experiences. Coaching  doesn’t recognises the first kind of conflict enough, and the second kind not at all.

What my clients say

You are really, really a very kind person. Thank you for your effort and advice in helping me!

I was never convinced counselling would work. But your approach and your ability to use different methods to suit individual needs has truly changed me on a deep level.

The very first session I had with him was so helpful and powerful that I recommended him to two other people straightaway.

Andrew works gently and safely and I felt held in a safe space throughout the session.

I have made some major breakthroughs in sessions with you.

I was blown away by your insightful and transformative approach.

A different approach from other therapists I have seen before, so that I have finally solved my problem.

More happened in the first session I had with you than in 4 or 5 sessions with a counsellor.

[Your hypnosis] was remarkably effective and entirely different and tailor-made for my individual needs and experiences. Thank you!!!

Although counselling was new territory for me, it was invaluable and worth every penny.

Had a massive effect on my relationship. Learned loads of really good stuff – surpassed my expectations.

Andrew is one of the best therapists I have ever worked with. If you want to make a breakthrough with an issue in your life or relationship, I highly recommend…

I have made some incredible progress and I am now in an intimate and happy relationship thanks to your help.

Low self-confidence and poor self-esteem

A bullets 2 orange rings aa-img028_crHypnosis and psychotherapy for low self-esteem in Bristol

We live in a strange world. Many people function brilliantly as nurses, surgeons, plumbers, artists, mothers, fathers, teachers. Yet they lack self-confidence. In a secret place inside they feel terrible about themselves; weak, unattractive, vulnerable. They fear their achievements are fraudulent. Even with people they love, they hide their innermost selves out of crushing shame, a feeling that “if you only knew me, you could never, ever love me.”

If you are reading this page I assume you’ve made the first, key step. It’s one that so many people with low self-esteem never make. You’ve realised “It doesn’t have to be like this.” Indeed it does not. You can gain, or re-gain, your self-confidence and self-esteem. My combination of hypnosis, solution-oriented psychotherapy and other therapies has helped very many people to do so.

There are numerous websites offering hypnotherapy for low self-confidence in Bristol. Therapy research proves that a key factor is the relationship you have with the therapist. So you are very welcome to meet me, in Bristol, for a free half-hour initial meeting.

I want to advertise honestly and to offer “hope without hype.” Every week I see people making life-changing breakthroughs from longstanding low self-confidence after a handful of counselling sessions. And, other people take longer. A seed doesn’t take long to germinate,. But then each seed flowers in its own time. Some forms of counselling or are indeed more effective than others.  But no therapy can change the basic fact that some things happen quickly, some things take time.

But it is possible to step into self-esteem because deep inside you, that capable, attractive, confident you is there already. Nothing in us is ever destroyed by criticism, failure or lack of love either as children or as adults. It is only buried. I am skillful and intuitive in helping people to find that lost or forgotten feeling of “I’m great” or “I can do it” or “I’m lovable even if I…”

Don’t worry if it feels impossible for you to reverse low self-worth and feel self-confident. Of course it feels impossible – that’s exactly what I help you with.

I use four main treatment methods. Solution-oriented therapy, hypnosis, meditative awareness (“mindfuless”) and a wide variety of emotional healing therapies. They are described in the links in my Consumer Guide to Types of Psychotherapy.

Life can change and you can gain, or re-gain, your self-confidence and self-esteem. To make an appointment in Bristol for hypnotherapy and other treatments for self-confidence, or find out how I can help you, just give me a ring.  I’m happy to answer questions or arrange, in Bristol only, a free, no-obligation half-hour initial meeting. My combination of hypnosis and psychotherapy is warm, human, respectful, and very effective. Andrew White 0845-3510604 / 0117-955-0490.

  • A self-esteem test - How much do you like yourself? Take this test, the Rosenberg self-esteem scale, and find out.
  • A consumer’s guide to types of psychotherapy - Here's an overview of a good many of commonly known types of therapy, evaluated in the light of my own experience of what works and what supports love, life, laughter and learning.

What my clients say

You are really, really a very kind person. Thank you for your effort and advice in helping me!

I was never convinced counselling would work. But your approach and your ability to use different methods to suit individual needs has truly changed me on a deep level.

The very first session I had with him was so helpful and powerful that I recommended him to two other people straightaway.

Andrew works gently and safely and I felt held in a safe space throughout the session.

I have made some major breakthroughs in sessions with you.

I was blown away by your insightful and transformative approach.

A different approach from other therapists I have seen before, so that I have finally solved my problem.

More happened in the first session I had with you than in 4 or 5 sessions with a counsellor.

[Your hypnosis] was remarkably effective and entirely different and tailor-made for my individual needs and experiences. Thank you!!!

Although counselling was new territory for me, it was invaluable and worth every penny.

Had a massive effect on my relationship. Learned loads of really good stuff – surpassed my expectations.

Andrew is one of the best therapists I have ever worked with. If you want to make a breakthrough with an issue in your life or relationship, I highly recommend…

I have made some incredible progress and I am now in an intimate and happy relationship thanks to your help.

Solution-oriented therapy

B bullets 1 yellow stars on yellow aa-img026_crSolution-oriented therapy in Bristol

Solution-oriented brief therapy (SOBT) is a cousin to CBT (cognitive-behavioural therapy). It’s less famous, but is in my view it is more inspiring and more life-affirming than CBT. Perhaps as a result, it is proved by research to be as successful as CBT but in half the time.

I’m a huge fan of the solution-oriented brief therapy school. Their premise is simple: you already know how to solve your own problems. SOBT therapists may not even ask you what the problem is; they may never find out! They ask, if you made the first tiny step towards solving it, what would you do? If a miracle of the human heart occurred inside you and the problem vanished, what is the first step you would take? When you are at your best, what is different? – and in general just step right past the problem and focus on your innate ability to solve it.

This is a hugely refreshing change from a century of Western problem-oriented psychology. I make extensive use of SOBT, and totally share their view that people have inside them all that they need for happiness.  In a way I’d call my work ITOBO – “Inner treasures oriented brief therapy”. Even when I am not searching for “solutions” – specific everyday behaviours – I am searching for “inner treasures”, the joy, strength, beauty, acceptance, aliveness and inner peace which are in the essence of every person, however manifested.

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of being. Goethe

Strengths of solution-oriented therapy

Very action-oriented; amazing how much SOBT achieves with such simple tools (puts some therapies to shame); especially good in schools, families and other “system” settings; works very well with children; wonderfully respectful, optimistic and empowering philosophy which creates the success of the method; impressive range of application.  SOBT is unique in that it is popular both with difficult public-sector clients and as a high-level staff development tool in organisations.

Weaknesses of solution-focused therapy

Limited access to the unconscious mind; does not work with emotions; reduction in the therapist’s role is in my view excessive and dogmatic; willfully avoids giving the client new tools and information; does not always get to the emotional heart of the matter; wrongly assumes that no problems have hidden roots; in the end too simple for many issues much of the time. May well more support action-oriented strengths above relaxation-oriented ones such as letting go. Despite all of this, Solution-oriented Therapy is a unique beacon of effectiveness with an empowering vision which deserves the highest respect.

What my clients say

You are really, really a very kind person. Thank you for your effort and advice in helping me!

I was never convinced counselling would work. But your approach and your ability to use different methods to suit individual needs has truly changed me on a deep level.

The very first session I had with him was so helpful and powerful that I recommended him to two other people straightaway.

Andrew works gently and safely and I felt held in a safe space throughout the session.

I have made some major breakthroughs in sessions with you.

I was blown away by your insightful and transformative approach.

A different approach from other therapists I have seen before, so that I have finally solved my problem.

More happened in the first session I had with you than in 4 or 5 sessions with a counsellor.

[Your hypnosis] was remarkably effective and entirely different and tailor-made for my individual needs and experiences. Thank you!!!

Although counselling was new territory for me, it was invaluable and worth every penny.

Had a massive effect on my relationship. Learned loads of really good stuff – surpassed my expectations.

Andrew is one of the best therapists I have ever worked with. If you want to make a breakthrough with an issue in your life or relationship, I highly recommend…

I have made some incredible progress and I am now in an intimate and happy relationship thanks to your help.

Depression and negative thinking

A bullets 1 red rings aa-img028_crPsychotherapy and hypnotherapy in Bristol for depression and negative thinking

More than any other problem, depression and negative thinking sing you the song: “Nothing will ever do any good, nothing will ever get any better.” Happily, this is wrong. It is entirely possible to lift negative thinking and connect, or re-connect, with joy, energy and motivation. For psychological depression, research proves talking therapies, not anti-depressants, are the best way to help.

Depression may be a crushing despair, a feeling that life is cursed and that every hand of cards you’ve been dealt is a losing hand and always will be. Negative thinking may be a recurrent fear that you are not wanted as you are, a fear, maybe a terror, of revealing yourself to the world or to people you love for fear of being found not good enough. Painful though these experiences are, real and compelling though they seem, these feelings are in the end bad dreams. We can wake up from these nightmares, wake up and emerge into a daylight full of possibilities and potentialities for joy and love. I know that’s true – as a teenager, that was me!

There are numerous websites for psychotherapy in Bristol for depression. But therapy research shows that what counts is your relationship with the therapist, and you can’t know that from a website. So you are welcome to come for a free half-hour initial consultation to meet me and ask any questions. (Currently Bristol only.)

What treatment for depression works?

For many years there has been a heated debate between two schools of thought. Therapies such as psychodynamic psychotherapy think negative thinking comes from buried emotions and past events. CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) and related forms of counselling for depression think it comes from how to talk to yourself in the present and from not being active in life in the right way. It’s obvious to anyone not invested in a particular school that both are true, and I combine both type of approach flexibly according to what is useful for you.

I use solution oriented brief therapy, hypnosis, meditative awareness (“mindfulness”), and, if there are indeed buried emotional and subconscious issues, various forms of emotional healing.

I wish to advertise honestly and to offer hope without hype, inspiration based on realism. Every week I hear people sitting in my recliner telling me of significant breakthroughs they are making. At the same time, realism is that some changes happen slowly, some situations are very difficult, that’s just how life is.

But is it also realism that the voice that says “Nothing will ever do any good, nothing will ever get any better,” is almost always wrong. You can lift and overcome psychological depression even if long-standing and severe. You can recover your aliveness and enjoyment of life.

If you are looking for a hypnotist in Bristol or psychotherapy for depression in Bristol, give me a call today: 0845-3510604 / 0117-955-0490. I’m happy to answer questions or arrange, in Bristol only, a free, no-obligation half-hour initial meeting.

  • The symptoms of depression - What does depression feel like? The intensity of feeling depressed varies enormously. It may be just feeling low and tearful for a period when events don't go well, or it may be a most terrible darkness which descends, a
  • What helps with depression: (1) action - The voice of depression always says "nothing will work", and for a reason: action is the enemy which depression fears above all others. Depression is an inward state in which the person lives in their heads
  • Are you depressed? – two helpful tests - Take the two tests on this page and get a good idea if you are or not. My advice is simple, if you’re not one hundred percent happy and zestful about life and its challenges, do something about it!
  • Tablets or talking? - "Should I take anti-depressants or go to a therapist?" It's good to talk to your GP. But unless depression is severe, talking likely to be very effective; and sometimes, medication is definitely the right choice.
  • Understanding depression – 10 key facts - Recognising "I am depressed" is good news, npt bad. Depression isn't something you have to just put with. Situational and emotional depression is very possible to ovecome. Here are some key facts about depression.
  • The causes of psychological depression - Depression can be mild and intermittent, or it may be a terrible life-crushing darkness: "I just can't go on". It can be unipolar (always down), or manic-depression (wildly up and down.) It can be due to events such as winter (SAD) or giving birth (post-natal depression.)

What my clients say

You are really, really a very kind person. Thank you for your effort and advice in helping me!

I was never convinced counselling would work. But your approach and your ability to use different methods to suit individual needs has truly changed me on a deep level.

The very first session I had with him was so helpful and powerful that I recommended him to two other people straightaway.

Andrew works gently and safely and I felt held in a safe space throughout the session.

I have made some major breakthroughs in sessions with you.

I was blown away by your insightful and transformative approach.

A different approach from other therapists I have seen before, so that I have finally solved my problem.

More happened in the first session I had with you than in 4 or 5 sessions with a counsellor.

[Your hypnosis] was remarkably effective and entirely different and tailor-made for my individual needs and experiences. Thank you!!!

Although counselling was new territory for me, it was invaluable and worth every penny.

Had a massive effect on my relationship. Learned loads of really good stuff – surpassed my expectations.

Andrew is one of the best therapists I have ever worked with. If you want to make a breakthrough with an issue in your life or relationship, I highly recommend…

I have made some incredible progress and I am now in an intimate and happy relationship thanks to your help.