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Welcome to "Hypnotherapy Reflections: From Training to Practice!" Join us as we dive into inspiring stories of individuals who chose to train with CPHT as solution-focused hypnotherapists and transformed their lives. Discover how their specialised training empowered them to become successful practitioners, profoundly impacting their clients and communities. Each episode features candid interviews, valuable insights, and practical tips from seasoned hypnotherapists who share their journey, challenges, and triumphs. Whether considering this rewarding career or seeking motivation to elevate your practice, "Hypnotherapy Reflections" offers the inspiration and knowledge you need. Subscribe now and embark on a journey of transformation and success in the world of solution-focused hypnotherapy!
Right. Hello, and welcome to this latest episode of hypnotherapy reflections from training to practice. Today, we have the lovely Nicole Child with us. Nicole qualified as a solution focused hypnotherapy at our school in Essex, and she's been supporting people for since she's qualified within a clinic and really making a difference to how people feel and those wider surroundings. So today, we're gonna explore her journey, the unique insights, both with the personal one she's got, and those gained from her training with CPhD and how the powerful impact of solution focused hypnotherapy, or how it's had impact on her and impact on her clients.
Gary Johannes:So get ready for an inspiring conversation highlighting the transformative power of hypnotherapy. So welcome, Nicole. Thank you for joining us for this little chat. Hello.
Nicole Child:Oh, thanks for having me.
Gary Johannes:Yeah. Let's introduce you first. So tell us all about who you are, you know, what your name is, where you practice, what name of your practice
Nicole Child:is. So I'm Nicole, as Gary said. I am based in Essex in Wissom, which is where I work with my clients face to face.
Gary Johannes:So
Nicole Child:in person, but I also work internationally online as well.
Gary Johannes:Wow. So you've got a a local business within with them sort of generics, geograph geography, I should say, and you've got a global business.
Nicole Child:Yes.
Gary Johannes:Yes. Fantastic. So wow. Look at that. So first question I have, and I'm lucky like anybody who's watched any of these videos, I have a group of questions.
Gary Johannes:They're all fairly similar. But I wanna know your story behind each one. So what motivated you to pursue training as a hypnotherapist?
Nicole Child:Well, I'd actually had some hypnotherapy in the past.
Gary Johannes:Okay.
Nicole Child:I was I was trying to work this out. It was about 12 years about 12 years ago.
Gary Johannes:Wow. So it's when I
Nicole Child:I was a teacher before. Wow. I've always been quite funny with blood.
Gary Johannes:Right.
Nicole Child:And I had quite a bad experience when I was back at school
Gary Johannes:when the
Nicole Child:that happened around blood. And it's always it's just kind of stuck with me. Yeah. And then when I was teaching, I you know, children are constantly
Gary Johannes:Yeah.
Nicole Child:Banging their noses, cutting themselves. And it got to the point where I felt that really out of control, which is not
Gary Johannes:too
Nicole Child:comfortable. And I knew I needed to get some help with it. So I'd gone to a hypnotherapist and yeah. But it was it was life changing. It just made such a difference.
Nicole Child:And then when things got a bit tricky, so during COVID
Gary Johannes:Mhmm.
Nicole Child:So many people struggled during that time. Yeah. But I so I was a not only was I a teacher, but I was a head of year. And having to manage my, you know, my staff, my team, parents, and their, and all the children, I really struggled because I saw so many people struggle.
Gary Johannes:I and I guess through the pandemic, in that teaching industry, now, you know, I'm too old to have my own children, but I've got grandchildren for my own children. And the the management of who should go to school, who shouldn't go to school, or how they go to school, if a teacher should or shouldn't. It must have been if you had a role of head teacher or head your head of year, things like that. That must have been a lot of work just to manage the without having the fears and the the the complications of the pandemic, What might happen to you? That must have been huge.
Nicole Child:Oh, so hard recon from, you know, had it having it drummed into us that we couldn't be online. We couldn't have any sort of online presence to all of a sudden. You're now going to be teaching online. And then having parents judge you.
Gary Johannes:Yeah.
Nicole Child:I was teaching in quite an affluent area, and parents were very involved with their children.
Gary Johannes:Yeah.
Nicole Child:So having to juggle that as well and just found, you know, not just my myself with everything that was going on, but then having to manage my team and and and trying to support them, but not necessarily knowing how.
Gary Johannes:Wow.
Nicole Child:There was this big unknown around it. And just found that I was I was really starting to struggle, really starting to struggle. I've always been that person that's always had the solution.
Gary Johannes:Yeah. Yeah.
Nicole Child:Wanted to help people. And all of a sudden, I realized there were things that I I couldn't do. And it got to the point where with all the pressures and everything else, when we then got back to normality, I then found that I just I was just really struggling. Mhmm. I couldn't get a doctor's appointment because there's no way that I would have been able to get time out, you know, in school.
Gary Johannes:Oh, wow. So it wasn't even that the doctors were busy. You were too busy to actually fit it as well.
Nicole Child:Yeah. Well, too busy, but also, they're I knew as well in the back of my mind that if I'd gone to the doctors, I would have been signed off.
Gary Johannes:Yeah. And you didn't want that?
Nicole Child:No. I thought that For me, I just didn't see I didn't see a solution out with with that. So
Gary Johannes:Yeah. Yeah.
Nicole Child:I didn't know what to do. And I thought, actually, no. I've had hypnotherapy before. Let's look into that again. Found a lady in my local area who managed to get me a weekend appointment.
Nicole Child:Mhmm. Had a couple of sessions with her. Now she's not solution focused.
Gary Johannes:Gotcha.
Nicole Child:She has a solution focused approach, but not specifically solution focused. And I had I had one session and came away and was like, oh my gosh. There's hope. But 4 sessions in, and I was like, right, actually, now I know. I've got a plan now.
Nicole Child:And we I was talking quite a bit with her around sort of changing, wanting to change careers. And she said to me, she was like, I think you'd be brilliant
Gary Johannes:Yeah.
Nicole Child:At, you know, doing some hypnotherapy. And I was like, oh, okay. And I thought it was really strange that somebody who was already in the field was suggesting that I do something. Because, you know,
Gary Johannes:quite a
Nicole Child:lot of people gatekeep and and they don't want to share with you Yeah. Their insights. And I thought, okay. I'll have a look into it. And I'd gone out on a night out with a friend and said, look.
Nicole Child:I can't teach anymore. I can't do this. And my friends have noticed this real difference in me. Right. I mean, I stopped socialising.
Nicole Child:I stopped going out so much. And the odd time that I did and we'd been out and, you know, it was a a late night. And and I it must have been about 1 o'clock in the morning. We got home and I started scrolling through Google thinking I'm gonna look to see if there's any hypnotherapy courses. Found a couple, bookmarked them, and then went to sleep thinking I'll probably borrow This will never happen.
Nicole Child:And the next morning, I woke up with this clarity and thought, no. I'm I'm going to investigate this a little bit more.
Gary Johannes:Yeah. And I guess now we'll we'll talk about it later, but I guess now you know what happened in the night.
Nicole Child:Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.
Gary Johannes:What what part of sleep actually actually clarified that for you? Yeah. I I mean, you you've answered loads of the questions all in one, but one of the things what I I have can't help noticing even now about you, you've just said you would withdraw when you went socializing. You've always been such a nice, friendly, engaging person. So to think that that even somebody who's so positive and outgoing was withdrawing, you could see where that was that pressure point was.
Gary Johannes:Because I can imagine if I came to see you as a therapist, it's an enjoyable scenario. We enjoy our clients, and you seem to be somebody who goes automatically makes people smile. So, you know, you're you're you're warm, you're friendly, and that comes over every time I see you.
Nicole Child:Oh, thank you. But I I mean, the thing is I think that I've I've always been very good at masking it. Yes. So although, you know, I was crumbling inside
Gary Johannes:Yeah.
Nicole Child:I still showed up every day. I still you know, because I had staff. I had a 132.
Gary Johannes:I think a lot of people feel that pressure and hold that space. So I'm so pleased you found it. So I was gonna ask you what did you do before you became a hypnotherapist, but obviously, very much into teaching, very much into helping people and educating people. Do you think that previous occupation has helped you now?
Nicole Child:Definitely. Definitely. I get to do the things that I love doing now that I used to like in teaching.
Gary Johannes:Right.
Nicole Child:Loved in teaching, which was the teach the actual teaching side of things. So, as you know, we we teach about the brain. I do. So I love I love doing that. I work with children and adults, so being able to tailor that to the specific client
Gary Johannes:Yeah.
Nicole Child:I you know, being and being creative around that was one of my favorite things. But it's also the the fact of you know, I went into teaching because I wanted to help people. I wanted to just help them feel empowered and, you know, feel positive. And teaching didn't become that, you know, towards the end. And, actually, I get to deal with that now, but on my own terms, which is Right.
Nicole Child:Love.
Gary Johannes:And you're in control of that. So one of the questions I was gonna ask is what inspired you to transition between what you did and into hypnotherapy, but some of that was a need. You needed to stop failing and having that pressure put on you. But why hypnotherapy? Just because you got helped, there's one element, but why hypnotherapy for you?
Gary Johannes:And why solution focused?
Nicole Child:I think for me I mean, one, like I say, I saw the results of it. I'm I'm somebody that I I can't do something if I don't believe in it. I feel like, you know, I'd I'd feel like such a hypocrite if I was teaching people stuff that I didn't do myself and I'd been So one, actually seeing the results that coming from it. I love the neuroscience behind all of it. I've always been very fascinated.
Nicole Child:I mean, I've got a psychology degree.
Gary Johannes:Right.
Nicole Child:Always been fascinated by how people tick and how people work. But it was, you know, it it's just such a what what what we teach is so simple. Mhmm. You know, that anybody can understand it. And I think that was the thing as well, you know, you know, when I first looked into it and it was like, oh, this actually does sound quite complicated.
Nicole Child:How do you teach this to people who are depressed or highly anxious? And, actually, when you get down to the the the crux of it Yeah. It's actually really simple.
Gary Johannes:I I I think one of the wonderful things, and I often say this to students, is that we take probably the most complex thing in the universe as a human brain, and we make it understandable for everybody. Because if we started talking purely around newer size, you know, the real depth of it, it would just lose all of us. So we've taken that and then, okay, how do we then translate this stupidly complex thing into something which everybody can relate to? And that's what we've done. We've taken 2,000,000 years of evolution and showed you it in 15 minutes.
Gary Johannes:It's amazing.
Nicole Child:The thing. I mean, I've worked with people who would consider themselves
Gary Johannes:you
Nicole Child:know, when I when I said to them, oh, I'll explain to you how the brain works. They're like, oh gosh. You know, who who really struggle with concepts to to get to understand that. And I've worked with, you know, I worked with a doctor who readily prescribes medication. And I you know?
Nicole Child:And I had to have a bit of a moment where I thought, oh gosh, he's gonna know more than I do. But for him to walk away and go, I've had 20 year you know, 20 years of practice, however many years of training, and he was like, but I didn't know half of this stuff.
Gary Johannes:Oh.
Nicole Child:It's incredible.
Gary Johannes:Yeah. We we we quite often, we get doctors of psychology. We get psychiatrists, GPs on our courses now. And, one hospital in Birmingham, we're on their 4th doctor of psychology who works within the hospital, and the hospital send them on because they need to their doctors to understand this, and they didn't know they didn't. So it is amazing how we can do that.
Gary Johannes:So I can see why that massively, it, you know, excites you. Yeah. Every time. So how did you discover and then make that decision between hypnotherapy, which you've had and you believed in, you knew it worked, but it wasn't solution focused as as per se. And you, after an hour, shall we say, well, let's say what condition he was in, you'd bookmarks some stuff.
Gary Johannes:But then you chose CPhD. What was the difference? What made you choose CPhD and and and solute pure solution focused hypnotherapy compared to all the others, and there's hundreds of options.
Nicole Child:There's so many options out there. I think for me, it was the fact that it was local as well because I couldn't do something where I would have to travel miles to get to. It worked around my schedule, so I didn't have to stop teaching. Mhmm.
Gary Johannes:There was
Nicole Child:no way I was going to be able to go part time or even ask for time off to go train. So that in itself was, like, oh, they're ticking some of those boxes. I loved the fact, like I said, it was solution focused. It was neuroscience rather than the woo woo stuff, which, you know, I I love and is I'm it's very interesting, but it wasn't the path that I wanted to take. And then I thought, you know what?
Nicole Child:I'm just gonna, book a call. Yeah. Sure. Day.
Gary Johannes:And I
Nicole Child:and it was you that I'd spoken to. Yeah. Very cool. And I but I loved that it was a very direct you know, it was this is how we do things. This is this is what would happen.
Nicole Child:You know? And and it was reassuring to know as well that there were other you you mentioned there were other teachers
Gary Johannes:Yes.
Nicole Child:On, you know, that are trained. And I thought, oh, okay. Because that's the thing I think as well, that when you're in that such a state, you do feel so quite isolated, and you feel like you're the only person.
Gary Johannes:Yeah. It's funny because I was talking to the graduate tutor. I was in Kent lecturing yesterday, and 2 of the students, teachers, in Nottingham. Oh, Africa. Every single course, we have teachers on it.
Gary Johannes:And and part of that is quite sad because they're leaving teaching to become hypnotherapist because they still wanna help people, but they're the thing they love to do is the smallest part of their job. But we get a lot of nurses. We got a lot of mental health nurses. There's a mental health nurse, who's on the side of not well, every course again. We get lots of people from you might call public sector who join up vocationally because they wanna help people, and they find it too difficult.
Gary Johannes:Not the job. They're actually not allowed not being allowed to do what they signed up for. And so we get some from police officers, nurses, teachers, all across that sector where it's more vocational, where they want to do it. They wanna help people. So we do get a lot of people from that sector.
Gary Johannes:And so I love the fact that all of those people are people people, and that's why they wanna do it. So they'd be very good at what we do. But they're not allowed to do what they do, and it's quite sad because they're amazing at their jobs. They're just not allowed to do their job so much, so they want to take control back. And as you said earlier, this gives you a choice of actually doing it the way you want to and when you want to.
Gary Johannes:So that's pretty cool.
Nicole Child:And I think the thing that that really cemented it for me was when I think I said to you, what can I do? Because I well, I think I spoke to you before the summer holidays. And I remember saying to you, what can I do to, like, swap up? Or can you recommend some books? Or and and I remember you just saying to me, just enjoy your summer.
Nicole Child:Yeah. Just just relax and enjoy your summer because, you know, you can start after the summer. And I I I'd never been in that position where someone had said to me, you know, just relax. Whereas every other course I've done, any training around, you know, teaching, it was always, you know, read up on this. You can do this.
Nicole Child:There's always preparation. And I thought, oh, actually, wow. That you know? And the fact as well that the course wasn't, a week just a week. I mean, I know it ran at weekends, but it wasn't a weekend course.
Nicole Child:It wasn't, you know, you do 12 hours, which you see quite a lot on a lots of courses. It was actually no it runs for nearly a year. So I thought honestly, that, you know, that's what I need because that's that's gonna cover quite a lot then.
Gary Johannes:Yeah. And I think the difference is is we don't teach people hypnotherapy. We teach people to be practitioners of hypnotherapy. So at the end of it, you're confident, you're competent, and you're capable of helping people who you really wanna help with total confidence, because we cover all of the aspects, what you might need to help you. And I think that's the difference.
Gary Johannes:I can teach anybody hypnosis in 10 hours of the course. Not gonna make them great hypnotherapists. It's not gonna make them great practitioners, and it's not gonna give them the confidence to do that. So that's really important to us because I want everybody who sits down on a course to be massively successful, whatever that means to them. So that's really important.
Gary Johannes:And we also have lots of you know, we do have lots of teachers, but we also have to have lots of different lecturers because not everybody's a grumpy old side like me. You would have had Claire. You would have had Dawn. You would have, you know, this weekend in Essex actually have been running this weekend. They've had Lee and Sarah.
Gary Johannes:So they they can see different types of ways you can lecture. You can be a practitioner. You don't have to all be like me. You know, you everybody's got their own way of doing things, their own personality. So we showed lots of voices when we're teaching, so you feel comfortable.
Gary Johannes:You don't have to do it in that very, very rigid way, what I might. So that's quite nice. So how do you because you love all the neuroscience you've said. How do you stay current with new developments? Because hypnotherapy doesn't change very quickly, but we do solution focus, which is very tied to newer science.
Gary Johannes:That changes on a daily basis. How do you stay up to date with what's going on in regard to hypnotherapy?
Nicole Child:Just before we just before we came on to this, I I booked a CBD.
Gary Johannes:Okay. Yeah.
Nicole Child:So I'm going to be doing the addiction CBD with Oh,
Gary Johannes:with Carmen. Yeah.
Nicole Child:Yeah. So so that's one thing. It's the fact that there are so many different CPDs and that they're so easy to access as well. It's just a case of fitting them around timetables. You know?
Nicole Child:I literally look through, and I'm like, I want to do that one, that one, that one, and that one. But I can't because I've got clients, and I haven't got time to do them all. So that's one way. Podcasts, supervision as well, which is a real big thing. And one of the things I've really noticed, I've got quite a few friends who are in the hypnotherapy field that didn't necessarily train with CPhD.
Nicole Child:Yeah. And that's one. And they'll ask me things, and I'll be like, I think that's something you need to run through with your supervisor. And then they'll be like, my who? And I'm like, oh my gosh.
Nicole Child:You don't have a supervisor. Who do you go to if you've got questions?
Gary Johannes:Yeah. And and the thing is, it's not ethical to not have a supervisor. And, really, you can't be fully legal, really. There you know, lots of insurance will think you have that if you don't tell them that's your choice, but we won't run like that.
Nicole Child:No. And that that plays a real big part. You know, I I do the group supervision, which I love. Because even if you don't have questions, you there's that you learn by osmosis. There'll be things that people your bank up.
Nicole Child:And then when that situation comes up, you're like, oh, I remember that being discussed.
Gary Johannes:Yeah. Yeah.
Nicole Child:That's brilliant. And also the I mean, the Facebook group, that's part of the supervision as well, knowing that you don't have to wait for a for a supervision session. You can just pop it on the group, and someone will come back and answer you.
Gary Johannes:Yeah. Yeah. So you I I I think the beauty of what you're talking about is the supervision there. You've got supervision where you've got qualified supervisors to support you right through, but you've also got huge peer supervision at the same time, so you can talk to other peers through that media, or you can talk to a supervisor. In fact, you get both, so you get the benefit of everything.
Gary Johannes:So that's really nice that we you you feel that you're always supported.
Nicole Child:That's not right.
Gary Johannes:So a big question then because you talked about how busy you are. How do you keep your work life balance?
Nicole Child:I make sure that I have time for me. So just like I schedule in clients, I make sure I I schedule time in for me. So whereas before, it would always be at the weekends, if there was time, or the holidays that I would have, I make sure that I do I do something for me every day. So whether that is going out and walking my dogs Yeah. You know, working out, even just sitting and reading.
Gary Johannes:Yeah. Yeah.
Nicole Child:Just something or going out. You know, I've done a lot of my, sort of, networking as part of what I do and just meeting lots of people who run little courses or, you know, who just say, oh, do you wanna meet up for for this? And so there's a lot of a lot of that as well. So pretty much, it's it's the what we talk about in sessions around the 3 p's.
Gary Johannes:Yeah. Yeah.
Nicole Child:Practice is not great. That, you know, is
Gary Johannes:You've gotta walk the walk, I guess. You you said earlier, you you'd feel really conflicted about doing something which you didn't know work for you. And if you're telling people that they've got to do this, and they should do this, and they you're you're bringing it into your own life, which is lovely to hear that. Yeah. No.
Gary Johannes:But you're you're actually walking your own walk. So that's really important. From your clients, have you got anything you can talk about which is sort of blowing your mind a little bit with the the success they've had or something, you know, where it just shocks you how impressive your clients have been because of interaction with solution focused hypnotherapy.
Nicole Child:Yeah. So I was thinking about this because because I've had so many clients who have made huge transformations. I work in a I've said to you, I work with quite young children as well, the difference that makes. But there's one client in particular that really stands out for me. And, she was not she's 90 she's 95 now.
Nicole Child:But when I worked with her, she was 90 4. And she came to me. It was heartbreaking. She was absolutely broken. Oh.
Nicole Child:She to the point that she said the only reason why I've turned up is because I actually have no reason to live anymore. So what have I got to lose?
Gary Johannes:Wow.
Nicole Child:She she's been on antidepressants for as long as she could remember. I mean, she joked and said, I think I was probably one of the first to be on antidepressants. I've I've felt so low for so long. And I you know, little bit of me was like, oh gosh. This is quite scary.
Gary Johannes:You think yes.
Nicole Child:But the difference, we did I mean, I explained and and she was very much like, I'm not very intelligent. You know, my husband did everything for me. You know, I just kinda plodded along. She lost her husband a few years back. And I went through the brain stuff with her, and she was like, oh my gosh.
Nicole Child:Like, wow. Took away, you know, took away the little bits that we did. And she came back the following session, and I noticed an an I mean, a a huge difference in her. But and we worked together for 10 sessions, and she is a completely different lady. And and it just made me think, actually, do you know what?
Nicole Child:If if somebody that old who has felt that way for so long can change, Anybody else can.
Gary Johannes:Yeah. I the brain is amazing. And, you know, we get to 95, and you think nothing else can affect us or put you know, nothing's and actually what we do and how we think does, I mean, that's amazing. You know, I've worked with lots of people who are in that sort of area, but nobody's old as that. But they do.
Gary Johannes:They're making credible jumps. But I don't do your clients ever get a little bit angry with you when they start getting better? Why has nobody ever told me this before? Because she's been on antidepressants for maybe 30 or 40 years. And, actually, 10 weeks of seeing you, and she's the best version of herself again.
Nicole Child:Yeah. I mean, she did say to me. She said, I to be honest, I wouldn't have been able to see you back then anyway because she probably wouldn't have been alive.
Gary Johannes:Yeah.
Nicole Child:But yeah. No. Exactly. Exactly that. And the amount of doctors she's been to, you know, she was working with a psychiatrist at some point.
Nicole Child:She was like, how how have we not And then it it comes back down to that. Well, why isn't this taught to everybody?
Gary Johannes:Yes. Yeah. And, well, as a school teacher, how do you feel about that?
Nicole Child:That it do you know what? It it it makes me cross, actually, because I do think that we are doing our children a disservice. In my last few months as as a teacher and when I was working with because I did a lot of pastoral care as well. I started to do a little bit of the I was saying I couldn't do the transfer or the hypnosis, especially because I had to keep what I was doing under wraps anyway.
Gary Johannes:Yeah.
Nicole Child:And I started to do a bit of the brain explanation, and, actually, this is the reason why your child's acting the way you are and why you do this. And even the parents were like, oh, wow. How do you know this stuff?
Gary Johannes:Yeah. Yeah.
Nicole Child:I can say to them, oh, I just I just kinda do.
Gary Johannes:Yeah. But
Nicole Child:and interestingly enough, later on, a lot of them did end up becoming clients and working with me.
Gary Johannes:Yeah. Like, it doesn't And and that's it. So you so working in that school, you said, you know, wasn't really something you could share openly and things like that. And, unfortunately, that does pop up now and again with some of our students. How do you handle skepticism?
Gary Johannes:I've not so much from clients, because I've made but from the public or actually from your your your then employers. How do you deal with those misconceptions?
Nicole Child:So it depends, really. There's a couple of levels. If they're skeptical but they're sort of a bit interested, I just do a mini brain explanation to them. Because, again, it's this whole, oh, actually, you're not going to get your pendulum out and
Gary Johannes:click your
Nicole Child:fingers and make me fart like a chicken. It's not that. And I and I always make the joke as well. If I could do that, my husband would be much better trained than he is. Yeah.
Nicole Child:And so and then so there's a little bit of light heartedness around it. But then when I do the sun like, the brain science, it's like, oh, actually, this this is based on science. And I'm like, yeah. So does
Gary Johannes:do you think that makes a difference that you have the skill? You talked about some of your friends who work in a similar field to you. Do you think it's different that you can actually talk about how the neuroscience affects how we feel and behave every day when you can go, well, I know how you're feeling, but this is why. Do you think that makes a difference?
Nicole Child:Definitely. And I think a lot of people like that approach because it's I don't know if it's because it's the science. There's the safety behind it.
Gary Johannes:Yeah.
Nicole Child:There's that. There's also, you know, with with I mean, I know science in this isn't necessarily always black and white, but it's it's there. It's there in front of, you know, research this stuff. And and, you know, when I when I talk about different bits of evidence and research, you can actually go research that. There are papers on that.
Gary Johannes:Yes.
Nicole Child:Which I think which really helps. But I also think from my point of view, it makes me stand as a as an expert.
Gary Johannes:Yes. Does it give you the confidence as an expert?
Nicole Child:Def yeah. Definitely. Yeah. Rather than just being, oh, well, I can't really explain why it happens. You you just feel the way that you do.
Nicole Child:I can say, well, actually, it's because you're in this bit of your brand Yeah. And all of that. So there is that side of things. But then, again, this links almost they they're not interested. They don't want to know.
Nicole Child:They just wanna nitpick. The way I see it is, well, then you don't really deserve an explanation. I don't need to explain myself to you.
Gary Johannes:And I
Nicole Child:kind of see it whereas before, I would very much be like, oh my gosh. They don't believe me. What do I need to do? How can I prove it? You know, it comes down to sort of the people pleasing type behaviors.
Gary Johannes:Yeah. Absolutely. It's like if you get a bigger, there's no point trying to explain them that racism or gun control or sexism. None of that is actually right. There's no point trying to explain it because they've already made that big decision and but they're, you know, they're not clever enough to see it more than one viewpoint.
Gary Johannes:So like you said, sometimes it's just not worth it. But the fact that you can, if somebody's got some intriguing, to help them explain it, understand it better, that must be so good for you.
Nicole Child:Definitely. And like I say to them, try just listen. Hear me out on the brain explanation, and then you can make the decision after that if it's for you. I would say more than, you know, 9 times out of 10 if if, you know, you get the odd person. They're like, no.
Nicole Child:How how how do I sign up? What what how can we work together?
Gary Johannes:Yeah. Oh, absolutely. So interesting. When you was training, you talked about how hard at the time teaching was feeling for you even though you really enjoyed it. You wouldn't ever let anybody down.
Gary Johannes:While you was going through your hypnotherapy training, was there any personal breakthroughs for you?
Nicole Child:Yeah. I think it was after the first first weekend we had.
Gary Johannes:Mhmm.
Nicole Child:I so something quite big happened at school where I I was basically asked to do something that went morally against what I believed in. Previous, you know, previously, I would have very much overthought it. I mean, I did overthink because it was a big thing, but I would've it would've very much been okay. What what have I done wrong? What can I do to make it right?
Gary Johannes:Yeah.
Nicole Child:And and I stood my ground with it and actually decided I'm I'm not going to teach anymore. My I'm I'm a planner. I would like things to be a certain way, so I'd had it in my mind that I would have trained till the end of the year, which would have coincided with the end of the school year. I would then leave and then set up my practice. Well, this was October.
Nicole Child:Yes. It was just before I had to I had to turn in my, I could hand in my notice, and I thought, actually, no. I'm worth more than this. I'm going to hand my notice in. And so I basically resigned.
Gary Johannes:So how did the hypnotherapy support that decision?
Nicole Child:It was I think for me, it was it was a confidence changer. It was actually no. The amount the stuff that I understood as well, you know, from just even that first weekend was, 1, why I was feeling the way that I did. Yeah. So it wasn't my rational brain that was being flooded with
Gary Johannes:all the emotions and the
Nicole Child:guilt and all of the guilt and all of the things that came into play
Gary Johannes:Yeah. That
Nicole Child:were leaking. And, actually, when I took it back and thought, actually, no, rationally, this is, you know, this is what I should be doing. And I had that confidence behind me as well, even just in that one weekend to go, no. This is going to work out. And even if the hypnotherapy hadn't worked out, I thought, well, I'm worth more than this.
Nicole Child:I can go get a job somewhere else. I had I had solutions as opposed to, oh, this would be a problem. What's going to you know, the negative impact
Gary Johannes:on Even after one weekend, you change your perspective on how you dealt and saw what your potentials were.
Nicole Child:Definitely. Yeah.
Gary Johannes:Wow. So during the course, what sort of support do you feel you've got from your trainers, CPHT, people like that? I mean, was there a system and even the peers in the room, your other like, you know, was it supportive? Did you feel that? Because you've done a lot of training.
Gary Johannes:You've done mass you've done degrees and all sorts. So you know what training's about.
Nicole Child:Oh, oh, definitely. There was always somebody around to speak to. So whether that was contacting lecturer, you know, that that somebody got back to you within the day. Mhmm. I have to say, I'm not back then, I wasn't one wasn't somebody who would actively reach out for help.
Nicole Child:But if there was something that I needed in terms of, like, a client that I was working with at the time
Gary Johannes:because
Nicole Child:that's the thing as well. We were working with people whilst we were training, which was a
Gary Johannes:Yes.
Nicole Child:So if something came up and I was like, oh, I don't know how to deal with this, I knew that somebody would be you know, one of the lecturers would be on the end of a line or an email. Which was brilliant. But also it was the peers that we were with. I mean, I'm still really good friends to this day with with I mean, with we're we're still got part of a WhatsApp group now that we had when we started when we were training.
Gary Johannes:Yeah. And
Nicole Child:I've also got the girls that I was sat with, and we've become really good friends through that.
Gary Johannes:Yeah.
Nicole Child:It was it was almost that we had that, you know, even if it was just a, oh, is anyone else a little bit nervous? Or is anyone else thinking this, or has a client like this? But then we also had that that, you know, that expert Yeah. As well when we needed it.
Gary Johannes:Yeah. Yeah. That's And and and and is that different from other training you've done then?
Nicole Child:Yes. So I've I've I mean, I I myself have I've trained teachers. So one of the roles that I did was I did a lot of teacher training. And as much as I would try and do everything I could for the person I was mentoring, they didn't necessarily get that. I know they didn't necessarily get that support from their lecturers when they were on the course.
Nicole Child:So, definitely, you know, there was always somebody that you could speak to.
Gary Johannes:Yeah. Oh, that's lovely. That's that's really good that you you felt like that while you was training because most of the people coming on course are of a changing career, so it's a big leap for them. Or the changing career, and they've been in a bit of a pickle themselves, so they need that extra support. So that's nice to hear that you felt that.
Gary Johannes:So what was what was any highlights from your training?
Nicole Child:Gosh. I would say probably the first the first, weekend we had where you, is it the first weekend? Even just I mean, we we did we were it was the layered approach, I think. The fact that you started off with the relaxation
Gary Johannes:Yeah. With
Nicole Child:and you and you worked with people from
Gary Johannes:from
Nicole Child:the customer.
Gary Johannes:How how important was that? Were you actually when that first weekend is like, right. You now got to go and see people today. Yeah. Well It's scary.
Gary Johannes:In your family. How much difference did that make to you by the end of the course?
Nicole Child:Oh my gosh. It was, yeah, it was brilliant. The fact that it was layered. And although it was scary, it did push us out of our comfort zone, but not to the point where we felt like we were thrown in the deep end. So it was that that approach to it, which I know from speaking to people who have done other courses, you know, even quite popular courses, who have who have done 6 months of training and still haven't worked with anybody, which is incredible.
Nicole Child:So Yeah. We already you know, we're working with people. So we were already building up those connections Yeah. Which was fab. I think for me though, it was the brain explanation when it was yourself that went through how our brain works.
Nicole Child:And I remember sitting there. And like like I said, I I did a psychology degree, and I thought I've read all the self, you know, self help books. I was like, why has nobody taught us any of this before?
Gary Johannes:That's the that's the frustration and anger I'm talking about you get from clients. It's like, I know I wow. Nobody's told me.
Nicole Child:Yeah. And then when you got the little the Michelin, not the
Gary Johannes:the machine.
Nicole Child:Yeah. That would yeah.
Gary Johannes:The brain scanner. So as far as I know, we're the only people who use it. And I actually did I did I have it in person when I came to train you? So I put one of your colleagues
Nicole Child:Yeah. In
Gary Johannes:the brain scanner, and they didn't know it was coming, and we looked at their brain live on screen.
Nicole Child:It was yeah. That was amazing.
Gary Johannes:Yeah. That changed did that change anything for you?
Nicole Child:Yeah. I mean, I think as well, I'd come to it being like, yeah. It will be solution focused. There will be some neuroscience, but there will also be some woo woo stuff in there. But, actually, when you came out with that, and I was like, no.
Nicole Child:We we're actually seeing how this person's brain is you know, how it's showing up and and, yeah, that was amazing.
Gary Johannes:Yeah. And and and I think it's the first time. I remember when I first saw it because it wasn't part of the training when I trained. But when I first saw it, it's like, well, I knew all this stuff, but I had to take someone's word for it because it was now I can actually see if I say this word, that happens in the brain. If I say that word, this happens in their brain.
Gary Johannes:Oh my god. And look what's happening in their brain while they're going in full trance. We've physically saw exactly what was happening in someone's brain when we were doing what we did. It was amazing.
Nicole Child:Yeah.
Gary Johannes:And I'm just so pleased that it just blows your socks off a little bit,
Nicole Child:doesn't it? Definitely.
Gary Johannes:So what did you find most or what do you find most rewarding about your work as a solution focused hypnotherapist?
Nicole Child:I think probably the generic answer that lots of people say, well, it you know, we're helping people. We're helping people turn their lives around. That's the crux of it. But I also love the fact that I, you know, on a selfish level, I gained so much myself from it as well. Yeah.
Nicole Child:And, actually, I am still gaining so much. Every time I work with a client, I take a little bit away where I'm like, oh my gosh. That's so amazing they've been able to do
Gary Johannes:that. Yeah. Yeah.
Nicole Child:And for me, it's knowing that no matter how somebody how however they turn up, and I've had some people turn up in absolute states. Yeah. I know that when they leave my room, they're going to feel a little bit better that, you know, some of them huge like, there's a huge difference in them just even from that initial consultation. Yeah. Absolutely.
Nicole Child:They don't leave feeling sad, depressed. They've got hope. And I've had that actually through converse just even conversations with people over the phone. They're like, I'm so excited. You know?
Nicole Child:I I I know that there's some hope there now.
Gary Johannes:It's interesting because I think that's probably all of our favorite. When we see someone and go from being in a light pickle in a horrible place, and they leave us after 8, 10 weeks, and they're, like, skipping out the room almost. But an interesting thing, and I've not asked this, I don't think, for anybody else I've interviewed like this. We get a lot of people who have either been counselors or doing counseling as a service, or they've had counseling. And there's 2 things.
Gary Johannes:You've got the people who've had counseling who've said it was helpful, but it was really difficult. And then we got the people who are providing counseling going, it's exhausting. I, you know, I get I have to hold so much negativity of space for my clients. I I find it really difficult at times or hard work or tiring. How do you feel when you've had a day full of clients?
Nicole Child:Other than being relaxed, like, as in sleepy tired because I've I've been doing the tramps with them, I I feel good because I know that I haven't had to carry that weight and the things, you know, that that in traditional therapies you would bring up and talk about. And that's the thing. I've never I've never had counselling or therapy in that sense might other than hypnotherapy, before. So I you know, for me, the sort of having to carry all of that and then feeling like I would be responsible for it as well because I again, I'm that type of person that wants to be able to offer solutions and move them away from that. If all we talked about was the problem, it would be really draining.
Nicole Child:We'd be, you know, we need to go around in circles as we know. And actually, it's knowing that actually, you know, someone someone's gone away and they've got a little bit of a plan.
Gary Johannes:But how are you?
Nicole Child:Oh, gosh. I'm yeah. I feel good. I'm I feel really good. And the fact that I know that I've made a difference and that they're it's that feeling, isn't it?
Nicole Child:It's not thinking, gosh. I'm really worried about them when they go because they've left and I've had to kick them out because they're in a state, and I've got my next client. Yeah. It's uplifting other than you know, it depends on certain days. When I have sort of 6 or 7 clients, by the end of it, I'm like, I'm gonna
Gary Johannes:You're you're physically tired because you've worked hard, but you're not emotionally tired. No. So when you was working in the school, and you was probably working 8 hours 80 hours a week, but, you know, most teachers seem to be working that sort of with all the marking and all that. If you we said, you have got to see clients from day 1. Did those clients leave you even more tired because you've done a date a hard day at work?
Gary Johannes:Or were they did they leave you a little bit more energized? They've taken you from exhausted, but waking you up a little bit to help. Because that's what I get feedback from a lot of students.
Nicole Child:Yeah. Well, that's the thing. I had to put my clients around my already busy schedule when I was teaching. And and, you know, I was crashing out at half 8 every night when I was teaching, unless I had to stay up for, you know, if I was doing training or anything like that. And so I had you know, and it was it was hard to start with thinking I've got to fit somebody in in my evening when I should be marking or planning and doing other bits.
Nicole Child:But, like, I'd come away from that and be like, actually, do you know what? I don't feel like I need to go to bed and sleep all the stresses of the day.
Gary Johannes:Yeah. Yeah.
Nicole Child:Like, there there was that little bit of a an energized moment. I mean, it didn't last for very long back then because Well,
Gary Johannes:because you were doing a lot of work, but you don't feel, you you know and it's hard to explain. But we you actually feel better after you. So if I know I've had a really challenging time for, like, whatever what life's thrown at me, I'll have more clients because I feel better. So the more clients I have, it's like receiving a client for helping them helps me. I don't know if you find that.
Gary Johannes:So that's fantastic. So what advice would you give somebody who's considering a career in hypnotherapy, whether that's part time or full time, but they're looking at, I think I might wanna try as a hypnotherapist. Just like you did when you sat there going, I gotta do something different. What advice would you give to someone?
Nicole Child:I would well, the simple advice would be do it. I would say the practical advice would be do your research because, like, you know, there's so many different forms of hypnotherapy out there. Do your research. I would say reach out to people as well. So people that are, you know, like, training providers like yourself or, you know, even practitioners as well.
Nicole Child:Because they'll you get an idea of how things are and and and how things work. But, yeah, I would say definitely reach out and do your research around it.
Gary Johannes:What's the main thing they need to look for when they're doing their research for you?
Nicole Child:For me, credibility, which is really hard. But look at things like reviews, like the reach, you know, reach out to people who are actually practicing. Because that's the thing I noticed with CBHD was we were it was quite easy to pinpoint practitioners. There was the local directory, and you could actually see the, you know, people that are trained. You know, and even, like, myself, my on my website, it says it has CPhD on there.
Nicole Child:Yeah. You'll get an idea of whether whether something's legit.
Gary Johannes:Yes.
Nicole Child:Speak to somebody.
Gary Johannes:Yeah. And I think one of the things that I get asked a lot of, have you got any accreditations? And what I know is you can't get genuinely accredited. Like, we get externally accredited by NCEFE, which you might know of because you're a teacher, which is a proper exam board. So if you want to qualify with us, we you qualify at level 4 diploma, which is goes for NCFE.
Gary Johannes:That means we're at the highest level. But a lot of people go, oh, we do this training, and we give you this certificate and that. And it's not actually, where do you get that accredited? And I think that for us makes us feel very happy. So, yeah, thank you for that.
Gary Johannes:So I sent you all the questions, except I didn't send this one. Okay. So I've got a surprise question.
Nicole Child:Well, premise your brain's going now.
Gary Johannes:Yeah. So if you could have a hypnotherapy session or sessions to help someone with any historical figure, who would it be and why?
Nicole Child:I do love a crime drama, so I am thinking like a serial killer, but I don't think hypnotherapy would probably help them anyway.
Gary Johannes:Probably.
Nicole Child:Psychopath. No. I'm gonna say Amy Winehouse.
Gary Johannes:Wow.
Nicole Child:Because, I mean, recently watched her documentary, but also
Gary Johannes:Brilliant film.
Nicole Child:She she I mean, she was very troubled with Yeah. All sorts of addiction, depression, anxiety, all of that. And, yeah, I think that I think she would have been really benefited from some some of that stuff.
Gary Johannes:You would love to be in the whole corner.
Nicole Child:Yeah. Definitely.
Gary Johannes:Yeah. Wow. That's a huge one. That's that's really good. Excellent.
Gary Johannes:So I think to wind this up, you better tell us how, because you've been massively engaging as always. How we can find you if we wanna talk to you more, if we wanna use you, We'll just wanna chat with you. How do we find you?
Nicole Child:Yeah. So, I mean, most people find me from my website, and that's, n c hypnotherapy.
Gary Johannes:So n c?
Nicole Child:N, November, Charlie Yeah. Hypnotherapy, dotco.uk. Mhmm. But I'm also on, I don't use Facebook as much, but mostly on Instagram. The same, n c hypnotherapy.
Nicole Child:But, you know, if anyone's got questions or just wanna chat hypnotherapy or even brain stuff, I love that kind of thing.
Gary Johannes:Yeah. Yeah. That neuroeducation is so important, isn't it?
Nicole Child:Definitely. Definitely. So fascinating as well.
Gary Johannes:Excellent. So thank you for today. We'll put this on the YouTube channel so everybody can watch it, maybe podcast it. So thank you, and, have a fantastic week.
Nicole Child:Thank you. You too.